600 Podcasts and Counting...
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Most Recent
Light Watkins: Putting Your Heart-Voice into Action
What is spiritual minimalism? How do we “declutter” ourselves so we can hear and take action on the voice of our hearts? In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with meditation teacher and author Light Watkins about his new book, Travel Light, and his “inside-out” approach to pushing past your limits to find and fulfill your purpose.
Tune in for a lively conversation that offers encouragement, inspiration, and practical insight, as Tami and Light discuss meditation as a tool to create space and hear the calling of your heart; taking action on your “why”; curiosity and trust; the heart as our personal GPS; leaving our comfort zones to begin our Hero’s Journey; the universe as your personal trainer; the “scary yes” and recognizing the feeling tone of the heart; the subtle disguises of the ego; the practice of split-testing your inner voices; rewiring your personality for greater alignment with your values; authenticity and service to others; doing less to accomplish more (really!); creating adventure instead of drama; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
A.H. Almaas: Love in Its Boundless Dimension
We come into this world with a basic trust in the goodness of life. And our trials, tribulations, and traumas cover up that trust, or shatter it completely. In this discussion of his new book, Nondual Love, Tami Simon speaks with author and teacher A.H. Almaas about spiritual self-inquiry and the path toward reclaiming our sense of the boundless benevolence of the universe.
Take a deep, relaxing breath in a quiet, comfortable place and dive in to this inspiring, expansive conversation exploring: the Diamond Approach to spiritual realization; inner work as the quest to understand the content of consciousness; how truth is a continuum; the nature of experience and knowing; satchitananda; the Buddhist concept of selflessness; universal love and Sufism’s “ocean with no shores”; permanent realization; the ego and the inner Jabba the Hutt; “living daylight” and the overcoming of fear; how full embodiment frees us from our “diamond issues”; relaxation as the first step in experiencing nondual reality; asking yourself, “what’s in the way?”; and more.
To learn more about the Diamond Approach, visit https://www.diamondapproach.org/
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
Andrew Holecek: Reverse Meditation
Your mindfulness practice worked! You calmed your mind and felt the deep, inner bliss that meditation brings. But, asks Andrew Holecek, what do you do with these beatific states when your world is falling apart? Where’s your meditation practice then?
In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Holecek about his new book, Reverse Meditation, and how we can move toward a more complete spirituality that welcomes all of our experience. Illuminating the four steps of reverse meditation and much more, their conversation explores: how pain and hardship can accelerate the spiritual journey; why mindfulness “sedates but doesn’t liberate”; the cultivation of “industrial-strength” meditation; repairing an adverse relationship to unwanted experiences; the practice of open awareness; bringing the unconscious into the light of consciousness; investigating our personal “super-contractors” such as anger, fear, or anxiety; shifting from reactivity to responsiveness; the OBEY acronym of reverse meditation: observe, be, examine, yoke; three attitudes for practice: kindness, patience, and curiosity; establishing the right view; the anti-complaint meditation; and productive thinking.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
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Mary O’Malley: What’s in the Way Is the Way
Mary O’Malley is an author, counselor, and acknowledged leader in the field of spiritual awakening. With Sounds True, Mary has published What’s in the Way Is the Way: A Practical Guide for Waking Up to Life. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon and Mary discuss the eight “spells” that keep us feeling separate from life—as well as the remedies that bring us more fully into the energetic flow of existence. They speak on the need for curiosity and the role it plays in uniting our attention with our present-moment experience. Finally, Mary explains her understanding of the awakening process and the skills one can cultivate to come into a robust and joyous alignment with life itself. (60 minutes)
Tami’s Takeaway
One of the worst feelings for me is helplessness. Mary teaches that “life is destined to bring up what is bound up.” This podcast brought up for me how I push away feelings of helplessness. According to Mary, “what’s in the way is the way,” and we can become what she calls “tightness detectives” to see how we clamp down in certain situations and resist what we don’t want to feel. When instead we meet our feelings with curiosity and spaciousness, we discover the free flow of aliveness and the absolute trustworthiness in every experience.
Gladys McGarey: Activating Our Life Force with Love
At the ripe young age of 102, physician, author, and great-great-grandmother Dr. Gladys McGarey maintains an active consulting practice and in 2023 published her most recent book, The Well-Lived Life. Widely considered the mother of holistic medicine, Dr. Gladys is a cofounder of the American Holistic Medical Association who for more than 60 years has influenced the way we view health, healing, and self-care.
In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Gladys about her remarkable life—including where she finds “the juice” that fuels her ongoing accomplishments—sharing invaluable insights into keeping life alive as we grow older; offering our light to those who need it; the art of contacting the physician within the patient; coming back to health through “the trickle around the dam”; trusting your inner knowing; how everything in life is a teacher; love as the essence of healing; overcoming fear; the choice to be glad; the five Ls—life, love, laughter, labor, and listening—and how they intersect; reincarnation and karma; Dr. Gladys’s vision of “a village for living medicine”; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
Building Belonging: Being an Ambassador to the Earth
john a. powell is the director of the Othering & Belonging Institute and a professor of law, African American studies, and ethnic studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He previously directed the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University, and the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota. He is also the author of Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with john about how to create a culture of deep belonging. They discuss what it takes to become “belonging activists,” a process that begins with empathetic and compassionate listening. john also explores the large and small ways othering occurs in our society. Finally, Tami and john talk about the spiritual lessons we can learn from suffering.