Happy for No Reason – Part 1 : Opening to Happiness
These two talks explore the two different kinds of happiness, the blocks to happiness, and the ways that mindful presence and intentional gladdening the heart (positive neuroplasticity) can open us to our full potential for true happiness.
Morning Question and Response on Retreat (16:46 min)
Morning Question and Response from Retreat – Tara responds to questions on deepening our meditation practice, working with desire, and the RAIN practice (from the 2016 IMCW spring residential retreat). Free download of Tara’s 10 min meditation: “Mindful...
Conscious Prayer – Finding Refuge in Loving Awareness
Prayer is a communing with our enlarged being. This talk examines less conscious forms of prayer, and how we can evolve the power of our prayers by opening into the depth of our longing, and reaching toward our true belonging. (given at the 2016 IMCW Spring Retreat)...
Question and Response from Retreat (12:10 min)
Question and Response from Retreat ~ After morning meditation, Tara responds to questions on deepening our meditation practice, working with unpleasant and pleasant thoughts, and forgiveness from the IMCW 2016 Spring Residential Retreat. photo: Susan Whitcomb –...
Meditation: Basic Body Scan and Breath Awareness (12:18 min)
Meditation: Basic Body and Breath Scan – (2016-05-07) – from the first morning of the IMCW 2016 Spring weeklong retreat, Tara offers a short introductory meditation with a body scan, bringing focus to the breath, sounds, then resting in awareness....
Meditation: Collecting and Quieting the Mind (18 min.)
Our conditioned mind is filled with distractions, including worry-thoughts that continually create anxiety in the body. This meditation guides us in relaxing the body, and then establishing the breath as a home base. By gathering and collecting the attention, the...
The RAIN of Forgiveness
The capacity to release the armoring of hatred and blame is intrinsic to our evolving consciousness. This talk explores the process of authentic forgiveness, and how we can use the mindfulness-based tool of RAIN to heal and free our hearts. • More Resources on...
Meditation: Listening to and Feeling the Moment (16:29 min)
This meditation awakens a relaxed open presence through the body. We then widen attention to include sounds, and then relax back and fully inhabit the awareness that is listening to and feeling the changing flow of life.
Listening with an Awake Heart
True listening both nurtures and expresses evolving consciousness. This talk explores our ego-based conditioning to have an agenda or defendedness that prevents deep listening, and the strategies that evolve our capacity to listen fully to ourselves and others. When...
Meditation: Spacious, Clear Awareness (28:05 min.)
This meditation begins with a breath that calms and collects the attention, and then a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, clear awareness.
Meditation: Spacious, Clear Awareness (23 min)
This meditation begins with a breath that calms and collects the attention, and then a body scan that enables us to awaken our senses. Finally, we relax open fully to include the changing flow of sounds and sensations, in a spacious, clear awareness.
Love is Always Loving You
This talk draws on Christian mystic Henri Nouwen’s book Return of the Prodigal Son. We explore the primary ways we leave home – leave presence, connection, beingness – and the pathways of deep attention and love that enable our return. The emphasis is on...
Releasing Self-Blame – Pathways to a Forgiving Heart
When we are stuck in blaming, disliking or hating ourselves, we are unable to love our world. This talk explores what underlies our addiction to self-blame and the teachings and practices that loosen aversive self-judgment and help us cultivate a forgiving...