Love is the power podcast

Wanting what you want is no easy feat in a society that orients towards being practical and responsible. It’s as if the realm of imagination and creativity is sanctioned to childhood and even there, stands on shaky ground. Yet, it only takes a contemplation of the birthing process or a glance up at the night sky to see that this reality is far from realistic. When we take a step back and release o...

If you’ve ever had an aha! moment while doing ‘The Work’ then you know just how transformative this practice can be. But what happens when the questions aren’t working and you find yourself more jumbled up than you were when you started? This week’s episode is a heartfelt demonstration of how to meet those tender moments by allowing ourselves to be exactly as we are. Self-allowance is one of the m...

Byron Katie’s hallmark phrase, ‘Loving what is’ can come off as an exceptionally radical invitation. Especially, when in the midst of a challenging or undesirable moment. If you’re like most adult beings on this planet, you’ve received a lifetime of conditioning to ‘resist what is’ as a path to peace, joy, and happiness. So how could it possibly be that welcoming and allowing are actual, practical...

Could it be there is one ever-present, awake, awareness that sees everything? Perhaps, the reason we’re always imagining ourselves being watched by others is because intuitively we know that everything about us is seen. Notice how you perceive the nature of this ever-present awareness in your life. If you are like many participants in this week’s group meditation, the one awareness is likened to a...

It’s amazing how many stories put us into prevention-mode rather than ‘yes-to-life’ mode. We can get more oriented towards making sure ‘bad’ things don’t happen to us than actually showing up to enjoy our lives. Even when we start to see clearly that believed stories are the true source of our suffering; it can still feel completely radical to consider living without them. This week’s episode brin...

*** This audio is for the adventurous listener. Coming in hot from Costa Rica.  What happens when a value isn’t formed from freedom? It becomes a chore, a demand, a requirement. Even if we resonate with the ethical code or spiritual teaching behind a value - without freedom, it will never be experienced as one’s own embodied truth. Most of us have become experts at memorizing and imitating the ‘ri...

Are other people’s actions the cause of our hurt? Or is it possible that our thinking is the root cause of all suffering? Whether it be receiving confronting feedback from a friend or watching a romantic partner run off into the sunset with someone else; this week’s episode demonstrates how inquiry can support us to live through any experience with an open heart of gratitude. When we get clear abo...

Through inquiry we notice that there is a striking difference between what we hold on to a thought ‘for’ and what the thought actually ‘gives’ us. Once we see this discrepancy, we can decide what we’re actually interested in experiencing and drop the stories that aren’t supporting us with that interest. Sometimes simply seeing how we show up to life when we’re believing a thought can be all it tak...

If you had the choice to be unconditionally happy or to try and make Life happen the way you want it to go - which would you choose? We are taught to expect that happiness comes from getting what we want. But is that actually how it works? Could it be that we are the happiness we seek? And that who and what we are is good under any circumstance? This week’s episode is a popcorn style investigation...

Many of us walk around with a persistent story and compulsion that we have to ‘do something.’ But is it actually true? What happens when you open up to the possibility that your job is done once you’ve noticed your experience? Could it be that simple? Could it be that noticing anything and everything is enough? Tom proposes that another name for noticing is ‘waking up’ and that that-which-notices...

Tom often describes Reality as ‘utter allowance’ - yet that is not how many of us would describe our day-to-day experience. Imagine standing in front of a mirror completely exposed. In reality, all of you is welcome. Are you aware of what it is that you have a hard time allowing to be? When following the path of inquiry, we often discover decisions made long ago and strategies implemented to keep...

Notice how in our actual experience nothing is separate. There are no borders and there are no boundaries. There is no outer world and inner world. There is only one, ever present, uninterrupted, impenetrable experiencing. The mind is always looking for an edge, a distinction, a justification to declare what is allowed and not allowed. What is right and what is wrong. What needs to happen, what ne...

Let’s propose that believing our stressful thinking mirrors the results of putting our hand in a flame. When we do it - it burns, when we believe something untrue- it hurts. Now just because fire can burn us doesn’t mean we’ve stopped using it altogether. It is an incredibly helpful tool. We just acknowledge its potential for destruction and stop engaging with it in ways that can hurt us. What if...

‘The Work’ is an incredible tool that can be utilized anytime we feel resistance to Life. The four questions and the turnarounds can be just as effective for focusing on a small moment of tension in our day-to-day life as they can be with a long standing pattern that has been with us since childhood. How? Because every step of ‘The Work’ requires awareness. If you are interested in looking within...

So often we ask, ‘why am I here?’ from a place of frustration. But notice what happens when we genuinely contemplate this question. Could it be that there is nothing required of you? Nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no one to be? This week Tom leads a guided meditation into the possibility that there is absolutely nothing required of you to be here. Who are you and what is your presence like with...

The nature of the universe is utter allowance for everything and everyone. How can that be? Haven’t we proven we should not be free. Haven’t we demonstrated that we (as a human race) need some serious control measures put in place? And yet, reality keeps chugging along saying, “Nope, everyone is free and everyone is allowed to be as they are.” Could it be that Life knows something we don’t? Could...

Notice what happens to your freedom and joy when you believe you need to be superior to others. Are you actually getting what you imagined being ‘better than’ would bring you? This week’s episode explores the price we pay when we make managing our image more important than the experience of the beingness that we are. Follow along using your own prized labels and discover who you are without the st...

As children, we intuit the limitlessness of the universe and meet each phenomenon with humility and wonder. Our minds are open to all possibilities, not yet hardened by the “knowing” that comes with growing up. Luckily, it only takes a few moments to disrupt the arrogance of the ‘I-know’ mind and this week’s episode provides ample opportunities to do so. Through inquiry we examine whether or not ‘...

Do you know for sure that the movement of people coming and going from your life means something about you? What about your movement in and out of other people’s worlds? Although the mind loves to explain why these things happen the way they do, when we engage in self-inquiry we start to see how very little there is that we can know for sure about why things are the way they are. This week’s episo...

Who are you when you believe you need to prove yourself through your accomplishments? What happens to your world when you look to the past and believe that you wanted to achieve more than you did? These are some of the simple and powerful questions explored in this week’s episode as we examine the stressful and relentless story of ‘achievement.’ Follow along for a powerful popcorn-style inquiry an...

In this week’s episode, a participant works her stories around being single and the idea that a partnership is her ticket to a happy, fulfilled life. Most of us have something that we’ve decided, once obtained, will be the source of our happiness too. Money, fame, success, partnership etc. Whatever the object of your desire, follow along as we explore the true source of the pain of not getting wha...

Are you putting your life on hold believing you need to know why something happened the way it did? Notice how in reality you don’t actually need to know why anyone shows up the way they do or why anything happens the way it happens, in order to do all of the things that provide you with a deeply satisfying life. Do you need an explanation about why you’re alive in order to just sit here? No. What...

The only presence that you actually know through experience is - your own. It is the only thing that doesn’t come and go unlike all perceptions which have a beginning and an end. Notice how the qualities of this presence are welcoming, allowing, and as Tom puts it: “a 100% yes to everything that appears.” So what happens when we shift our focus away from the objects, people, and situations that ev...

We often imagine how good it will feel when something changes and miss how it actually feels to want something to be different than it is. Everything we hold onto, we hold onto for a good reason because we think it’s going to help. But the more you can be aware of the actual effect of holding onto wanting something to be different, the easier it becomes to let go. It’s like, “Oh! I’m holding onto...

Sometimes life can feel like too much. And maybe it is - just not for the reasons our mind holds onto. What if the experience we call ‘too much’ is actually what happens when the belief that we need things to go a certain way, bumps up against the truth of the the way things are? That makes sense! It’s absolutely ‘too much’ to believe we need control of our life’s agenda, when reality is constantl...