Showing Up For Each Other | Tami Simon & Tara Brach on the Intersection of Spirituality & Therapy
What is the role of spirituality in mental therapy? And what roles do therapy and mental health play in spiritual growth? What's the overlap, where are they distinct, and how can both work together to help us face the challenges of this world? In this special episode honoring World Mental Health Day in October, Tami Simon and Tara Brach sit down for a wonderfully open-hearted discussion at the intersection of spirituality and mental health. As a clinical psychologist and renowned meditation teacher, Tara Brach brings forward what it takes to truly meet someone in pain, the spontaneous nature of loving awareness, and the power of imagining connection. And together, Tami and Tara delve into how we handle overwhelm, the importance of integrating spirituality into daily life, and working through grief with a psycho-spiritual approach. In essence, how we show up for each other. Whether that's spiritual, psychological, emotional, or an interweaving of all those aspects of support. **This episode was originally featured on the Insights at the Edge podcast with host, Tami Simon.
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Meditation: Collecting and Quieting the Mind (17:02 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 mind can settle and allow for a relaxed, wakeful presence.
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Meditation: The Sacred Pause — Clearing to remember Heartspace (6:56 min)
In just a few minutes, this practice guides us to pause, deepen attention and reconnect with the spaciousness, presence and of caring of our awakening heart.
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Spiritual Audacity: The Lion's Roar of the Heart
When we remember our deep belonging to this world, a fierce and tender courage begins to move through us. In this talk, we'll explore "spiritual audacity" as a sacred, embodied boldness—the lion's roar of the awakened heart. Through personal and collective lenses, we'll reflect on what it means to live true to our essence: grounded in love, guided by truth, and called to serve the freedom and healing of all beings.
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Part 2: Healing Depression with Meditation
Most people get depressed at times, and many suffer greatly from bouts of major depression. At the heart of the suffering is the experience of severed belonging—of being imprisoned in the pain of separation, unworthiness, unlovability and hopelessness. These two talks explore several meditation practices that reconnect us with our natural aliveness, openheartedness and awareness. They empower us to develop our inner resources, energize us to awaken, free us from rumination and remind us that we are not our depressive thoughts and feelings. The growing realization of the loving awareness that is our home heals the very roots of depression. In this talk, we'll look at: - how depression and anxiety mirror our collective disconnection, and how mindful awareness can begin to heal both body and spirit. - how ungrieved loss turns into depression, and how opening to sorrow with compassion reconnects us to love and aliveness. - the "logjam" of depression, showing how small mindful shifts can restore flow, energy, and a sense of possibility. - how reconnecting with our heart's deep intention awakens hope and invites a renewed capacity for presence and joy. - how meditation helps us move from ruminating thoughts to embodied presence, revealing the awareness that frees us.
Tara Brach, Ph.D is an internationally known meditation teacher and author of bestselling Radical Acceptance and True Refuge. Tara shares a weekly guided meditation and talk that blend Western psychology and Eastern spiritual practices. The podcast addresses the value of mindfulness meditation and self-compassion in relieving emotional suffering, serving spiritual awakening and bringing healing to our world.
USA