Tara Brach

Meditation: Being Here (2019-05-01) - This practice sets the atmosphere of loving presence with a smile-down and waking up all the senses. We relax into open awareness, receptive to the breath or whatever waves of experience are calling for attention. The invitation is to rest in Hereness, fully awake in presence. The meditation ends with a short offering of blessings. Your support enables us to c...

Equanimity: A Heart That is Ready for Anything (a favorite from the 2014 archives) - Equanimity is the quality of presence that is open, balanced and non-reactive. As this talk explores, when equanimity is lacking, we become easily lost in trance, identified as a defended and controlling egoic self. When present, the solidity and constriction of egoic self dissolves, and our heart is free to respo...

Meditation: Awakening Our Energy Body - This meditation scans the body and directly invites the awakening of key energy centers (chakras) in our body. We then rest in the openhearted awareness that includes this ever changing creative flow of aliveness (a special meditation from the archives). Your support enables us to continue to offer these talks and meditations freely. If you value them, I hop...

Part 1 - Forgiveness: Releasing Ourselves and Others from Aversive Blame (2019-04-17) - Rumi invites us to find the barriers we've erected against love, and a universal one is blame. These three talks are an invitation to relax those barriers, and to open our hearts to our inner life and to all beings. Part I focuses on chronic self-judgment; Part II on the places of deep self-condemnation, and Pa...

Meditation: Sea of Loving Presence (2019-04-17) - In this meditation we begin with the image and felt sense of a smile to arouse an atmosphere of care, and allow that caring presence to fill our body and the entire field of awareness. We then open to the changing experience of breath, sensations, feelings sound and thoughts. By resting in a wakeful and open heartspace, we can include all the passi...

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 2 (2019-04-10) - It's natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies - such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending - have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our li...

Meditation: Letting Life Be (2019-04-10) - This meditation establishes an atmosphere of loving kindness with the "smile"; relaxes and awakens through the body; and guides us into a spacious presence. We then rest in that presence, letting go of any controlling, and simply allow life to be as it is. It's in "letting be" that we come home to the luminosity and tenderness of natural awareness. We clo...

Beyond the Controlling Self - Part 1 (2019-04-03) - It's natural that we do what we can to ward off danger and further ourselves. While our control strategies - such as aggression, judging, planning, seeking approval, pretending - have a developmental role, they are not a recipe for happiness, intimacy and freedom. An essential part of our evolution is to recognize when we are over-managing our li...

Meditation: Letting Go into Living Presence (2019-04-03) - This guided meditation starts with a scan that invites relaxing and awakening through the body. We then allow life - sounds, sensations, aliveness - to live through us, resting in open presence. When there is tightening, holding or confinement in thoughts, we recognize and re-open, letting go into the presence that is always here.  Your su...

The Four Remembrances (2019-03-27) - When we attune to the reality of impermanence and death, we remember what most matters to us. But in daily life we can lose precious swaths of time in a reactive trance, on our way somewhere else, and lost in problem solving, judgment and worry. This talk reflects on four remembrances or practices - Pausing, Yes to life, Turning toward love, and Resting in awar...

Meditation: Saying Yes to Reality (2019-03-27) - Our suffering comes from tensing and resisting the life that's here. This meditation guides us to relax and awaken our body and senses, and resting in presence, allow life to be as it is. As our "Yes" to the changing flow becomes full, we discover the freedom of awake awareness itself. Join Tara's email list: http://eepurl.com/6YfI - get a free down...

Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred – Part 2 - This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life's surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our sen...

Meditation: Being Here (with OMs) (2019-03-20) - We miss many moments of this precious life drifting in a virtual thought world. This meditation helps us collect and calm ourselves with the breath; relax through our bodies; and then include the changing dance of  sounds, sensations and feeling in open awareness. Our practice is to recognize the quality of Hereness, and when we drift, return again...

Embodied Presence: Portal to the Sacred - Part 1 (2019-03-13) - This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life's surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms an...

Meditation: Entering Heartspace with the "Smile-Down" - The practice of visualizing and feeling a smile spreading through the body helps us access the natural tenderness and openness of our being. This meditation guides us in the smile-down, and then invites a full opening and resting in openhearted presence. We close by bringing that awake heart to an area of difficulty in our life.

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart – Part 2 (2019-03-06) - This series of talks offers guidance in transforming conflict into a portal for awakening your understanding, flexibility and compassion. We look at how to heal our own unmet needs and not be dependent on others changing; and how to engage with another person when both are dedicated to mindful communication. We also extend our explorati...

Meditation: Relaxing with Life (2019-03-05) - This meditation includes a mindful body scan and guidance in relaxing with the changing waves of experience. When we say "Yes" to the moment, we open to the sea of awareness that can include, with care, whatever arises.  Free download of Tara's 10 min meditation: "Mindful Breathing: Finding Calm and Ease" when you join her email list .

Navigating Conflict with a Wise Heart - Part 1 (2019-02-27) - This series of talks offers guidance in transforming conflict into a portal for awakening your understanding, flexibility and compassion. We look at how to heal our own unmet needs and not be dependent on others changing; and how to engage with another person when both are dedicated to mindful communication. We also extend our explorati...

Meditation: Resting in the Sea of Presence (2019-02-27) - This mindful body scan leads us into a practice of relaxing back into awareness, and recognizing the changing waves of sensations, sounds and feelings in the foreground. As we let go into the sea of presence, we discover an increasing sense of wholeness and peace. The meditation ends with a brief lovingkindness prayer. Free download of Tara...

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (18 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day,...

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (12 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day,...

Meditation: Reducing Anxiety and Getting to Sleep (6 min.) - Many of us struggle with anxiety, and spend hours in bed wishing we could turn off our mind and get to sleep. This podcasted series of 3 guided meditations - 6, 12, and 18 minutes long - can help in quieting your mind, relaxing your body, and bringing peace to your heart. Each will support you in either calming yourself during the day, o...

The Sacred Art of Listening - Just as presence is the heart of meditation, so deep listening is at the center of all conscious, loving relationships. This talk explores how our wants and fears block listening, ways we can deepen our capacity for listening, and the healing that unfolds when we truly feel heard by another (a special talk from the archives). Your support enables us to continue to off...

Meditation: Listening to Life - The attitude of meditation is one of engaged listening – a relaxed, receptive yet intimate attention. This meditation explores how we can listen to sounds, listen to and feel sensations, and then relax back into the ocean of awareness that includes and perceives the changing waves. In this relaxing back, we realize the peace and freedom of inhabiting our wholeness a...

Spiritual Reparenting (a favorite from the archives) - When we are not sufficiently nurtured in childhood, we are inclined toward anxiety, depression, addiction and other forms of suffering. In a deep way, we do not feel at home with others. We are disconnected from our own body, heart and spirit. This talk explores how meditation offers "spiritual reparenting" as we learn to bring interest, under...