Heart Haven Meditations

This guided visualization invites you to rest in a peaceful garden deep in your heart. In this tranquil protected place, you may call upon an inner wisdom figure to offer you insight or simply be present with you in the beauty and stillness. Rest, relax, and drink deeply from your own innermost wisdom. Music by Christopher Lloyd Clarke. Support the show Host: Tess Callahan Substack : Writers at th...

Drawing from Adyashanti, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and Ira Progoff, this technique for decision-making and inquiry embraces Einstein's premise that no problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it. Here you will identify a question you've been carrying and drop into the depths of your inner well. When the analytical mind exhausts itself, the deep waters of intuition ca...

Life asks a lot of mothers. This short practice is meant to support you at your weariest and most demanding moments. It can be practiced on the meditation pillow or in the midst of the day. By offering yourself compassion, you gradually shift from reactivity to responsiveness as you meet each new parental challenge. Quoting Thich Nhat Hanh, this meditation encourages you to tend to your own flame...

This gentle relaxation practice supports your sense of wholeness and helps you taste the fullness at the core of your being. When you are in touch with your true essence, you no longer reach for that which can never fill you. Your soul is vast, radiant, and lacks nothing. Give up bottomless cravings and let yourself taste the splendor at the core of your being. Once you see the fullness within, yo...

 This meditation supports your sense of wholeness and helps you taste the fullness at the core of your being. When you drink from your inner well, you no longer reach for that which can never fill you. Look within for what you seek. Your soul is deep and radiant. The more you taste the fullness at the core of your being, the less you crave what can never satisfy. Relax and enjoy. Music by Christop...

Meditation helps you to center and ground yourself so that you can respond to challenges in your life and in the world with wise action. Based on the Tibetan Buddhist practice of Tonglen as taught by Pema Chödrön, this meditation guides you in channeling the healing energy of your heart to those suffering in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.  Music by Christopher Lloyd Clarke. Support the show H...

Based on a practice taught by Swami Jnaneshvara Bharati , this simple ascending breath meditation relaxes your mind and body for deep restorative sleep. Relax and enjoy.  Music by Christopher Lloyd Clarke.  Support the show Host: Tess Callahan Substack : Writers at the Well Interview Podcast : Writers at the Well Meditations on Insight Timer Meditations on YouTube Tess's novels: https://tessc...

Relax into the mysterious words of Albert Einstein, the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi & the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart, as well as Adyashanti and Jesus Christ. Simply listen and see what their insights evoke in you. The Buddhist notion of the universe as illusory is often misunderstood. Quantum physics tells us the physical world exists simultaneously as particle and wave. Matter and energ...

Our brains are wired to be  Teflon for the good and Velcro for the bad, says psychologist Dr. Rick Hanson , which can lead us into sinkholes of depression and anxiety. But you can rewire that programming by cultivating sympathetic joy for others and savoring your own happy moments. This meditation, inspired by THE ATTENTION REVOLUTION by Alan Wallace , trains your mind to be limber to change and y...

This guided visualization invites you to experience the presence of your deceased loved one, to drink deep their love, and express whatever you wish to express to them. Grief carves out our hearts, making them bigger vessels for love. May this meditation fill your heart with balm and offer you solace. Music: Christopher Lloyd Clarke. Support the show Host: Tess Callahan Substack : Writers at the W...

This compassion practice offers support to help reorient you at times when you feel your life is not as you wanted or you are not as you hoped. When we can cut through our projections and negative self-talk to be radically present to our hearts, we are more able to take wise and constructive action to respond to the moment at hand. This practice is indirectly inspired by one of my meditation teach...

Take a few minutes to drop deeply into your life as if you were visiting yourself from a higher perspective. This guided visualization invites you to see yourself within the wider context of the living, breathing planet. It encourages you to sense your connection to the landscape, to other human beings, and to the scared heart that connects us all. This meditation is indirectly inspired by one of...

It's our reflex to contract around pain, physical or emotional, but when the contraction persists it hampers healing. Beauty has the opposite effect. When you allow it in, it opens your mind and expands your heart. This simple technique invites you to breathe in beauty, marinate it in your heartspace, and exhale it out to whatever part of you feels contracted or in pain. May this meditation s...

Anxiety can sap our life energy and thwart our dreams, but by stepping back to observe it, it can become a portal to awakening. Dissolving anxiety enables us to respond to life's challenges with greater insight, clarity, and calm. Inspired by the teaching of Byron Katie, this meditation invites you to see through the veil of your projections to experience the love that permeates every moment...

Travel the years of your life from birth to present one breath at a time, bringing compassion to each year, remembered or not, and experiencing the whole movement of your life. People who have near-death experiences often report seeing their lives flash before their eyes, offering clarity that redirects their future. There's no need to wait. Try the recording and then practice on your own if...

Inspired by Adyashanti 's audiobook Guided Meditations , this practice teaches you to disable "autopilot" and enable true agency in your life. Moment to moment throughout your day, the choice to love is always present. You only need to recognize it. Relax and enjoy this soothing meditation.   Music: Christopher Lloyd Clarke.  Support the show Host: Tess Callahan Substack : Writers a...

Inspired by Adyashanti's audiobook Guided Meditations , this is a 5-minute talk followed by a 15-minute meditation that teaches you to work skillfully with difficult emotions. When you sit down to be with yourself in meditation, it’s inevitable that a range of feelings will arise.  As your consciousness goes deeper into your own being, you begin to touch upon the more difficult parts of your...

Eckhart Tolle uses the terms “Little Me” and "Deep I" to distinguish the part of you that runs around on the surface of life from the timeless presence at the core of your being. This guided visualization leads you down a hallway of sheer silken rainbow veils that gently peel away the outer trappings of life and lead you to the doorway of your "Deep I." Drop your labels and ste...

By taking a few extra seconds to stay with a positive experience, you help turn a passing mental state into lasting neural structure, says neuroscientist Rick Hanson . Our brains are Teflon for the good and Velcro for the bad, but we have the power to change that wiring. This simple practice created by Dr. Hanson strengthens your resilience, heals past wounds, and resets your system for joy and we...

When things fall apart, Tibetan Buddhist teacher Pema Chödrön teaches us how to find stability. This meditation, based on one offered in her audiobook "Pure Meditation," helps you to stabilize your mind while fostering a friendly attitude toward yourself. We use breath, posture, and mindful awareness to infuse strength and stability into life's most challenging moments. I highly rec...

“Active Imagination" is a technique designed by Carl Jung to access subconscious wisdom.  Jung recorded his waking visions induced by active imagination in his extraordinary illustrated journal, The Red Book . His meditative technique was recreated by MJ Dorian on his podcast Creative Codex . For deeper instruction, read " Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Grow...

Take a few moments to unhook from past and future, from ideas of who you are, even from your name, your gender, your age, and bask in your pure essence. Be the living field of awareness that drinks in the moment at hand. Taste the immense inner quiet that always resides within you, the love that you are. This meditation is partially inspired by Adyashanti and Eckhart Tolle . It concludes with a me...

Leave your busy life in the valley below and take refuge beside a high mountain lake where your heart can blossom in stillness and quiet. With each exhalation, invite your mind to settle like silt in the lake, and with each inhalation invite your heart to rise up and bloom. Let the fragrance of your refuge drift down to sweeten the landscape below and your own everyday life. Inspired in part by Ja...

This meditation invites you to gently and non-judgmentally connect with your inner and outer landscapes, your physical, mental, and emotional environments, to notice what you have been carrying. It includes a gentle body scan and a tender awareness of your heartspace. It is an invitation to remember who you are. The meditation ends with a short expression of goodwill toward all beings. Music by Ch...

See through the veil of your worries, the momentary weather of your life, to glimpse your deeper essence. Drawing on the teachings of Adyashanti, the Dalai Lama, and Loch Kelly, this meditation invites you to experience your life, not as a problem to solve, but as a wonder to unfold. It opens with a brief intro quoting Adyashanti. The meditation begins at 2:20 and concludes with a metta prayer ins...