Month: April 2014

The Meditation Experience – a free online course

Have you been curious about meditation and how it helps to reduce stress and anxiety? Or how it might help you to relax, sleep better, or improve your relationships? Or how it has been shown to stimulate healing of mind and body, and bring about profound new levels of joy, peace, and well-being?

Though you may have often heard of the many benefits of meditation, perhaps you’ve not had the time or resources to learn more and to actually start a meditation practice of your own. Or even if you’ve dabbled a bit in meditation, perhaps you did not have the support to continue or to find a meditation practice suitable for you and your unique approach to life?

If any of this sounds familiar, we’d like to welcome you to The Meditation Experiencea free, eight-part online course designed for those new to meditation, as well as for those with some experience who are looking to deepen their practice or learn about other kinds of meditation. The goal of our course is to help you start meditating right away and to teach you a variety of meditation practices, so that you may experience for yourself the profound benefits of meditation in your daily life.

In addition to written material, questions for reflection, and weekly homework, each session of our course will include one or more guided meditations on audio or video, allowing the course material to come alive in your own personal experience.

*Access The Meditation Experience, a free online course, here*

The Meditation Experience was created to help you learn to meditate right now, and you can join the many millions around the planet whose lives have been radically transformed through learning the inner art of meditation.

The practice of meditation has been used for thousands of years by people in all cultures and of all religions (or no religious inclination at all) to reduce stress, to bring about relaxation, and to experience expanded states of consciousness and well-being. You need not have any background in spirituality, prayer, or religion to benefit from the practice of meditation, nor take on any new beliefs or ideologies. Meditation is a scientifically proven technique that can be applied by anyone, regardless of their religious or spiritual affiliations. Begin your own exploration of this revered art today, with The Meditation Experience.

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Why attend the Wake Up Festival? – Shiva Rea responds…

We’re beginning our preparations for the Wake Up Festival, our five-day gathering of transformation, to be held this August in the glorious Rocky Mountains, and are looking forward to reconnecting and celebrating with our friends around the world.

For those of you still on the fence – or if this is the first you’re hearing about it – take a listen to Shiva Rea, as to why she thinks you might want to attend…

Learn more about the Wake Up Festival here.

Compassion for the Self-Critic – with Kristin Neff, PhD

As part of The Self-Acceptance Project, Tami spoke with Dr. Kristin Neff, pioneering researcher in the area of self-compassion, from the University of Texas-Austin. Kristin is the author of the Sounds True audio learning series, “Self-Compassion Step by Step: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself,” a six-hour course on transforming self-criticism into genuine compassion.

Enjoy this video dialogue with Kristin and Tami, which opened the Self-Acceptance Project, a free, multi-week video series featuring psychotherapists, authors, neuroscientists, and spiritual teachers, exploring the importance of bringing kindness and compassion to ourselves in service of others.

The Freedom to Love – with Pema Chödrön

How can we use whatever comes into our lives as a way of opening to love? Do you want to love and connect with others more deeply, but need a little help?

With The Freedom to Love, a six-part online video course, Pema Chödrön invites you to start wherever you are—with any challenges, frustrations, or fears you may be facing—and use them as the launching pad to awaken the natural and boundless capacity of your heart.

The Freedom to Love will engage you with written teachings, video and audio sessions, weekly self-reflection practices, deep meditation, plus two revealing sessions recorded with Pema Chödrön answering questions from a live audience.

If you’ve ever had the opportunity of attending a dharma talk with her, then you know that Pema’s Q&A discussions often reveal her most unexpected, entertaining, and memorable insights.

Here you are invited to come as you are—calm, confused, or just in need of a heartfulness tune-up—to begin unfolding your natural and joyful qualities of compassion, self-acceptance, connection, and unconditional love.

Beyond Body Image – with Sil & Eliza Reynolds

Concerns about body image and physical appearance weigh heavily in the consciousness of our culture and, left unexamined, have a way of generating a tremendous amount of suffering for young women (as well as humans of all ages and genders). Enjoy this short video from mother-daughter team Sil & Eliza Reynolds as they speak about the discoveries they’ve made and the healing they’ve experienced in this area.

Sil & Eliza are the authors of the inspirational book Mothering and Daughtering: Keeping Your Bond Strong Through the Teen Years.

 

A gift of pure rest

No matter how things are unfolding for you at this time, you can receive the secret transmission of the stars, the sun, and the moon: everything here is path, nothing is out of place, and no mistake has been made.

Though it may appear otherwise, you are not broken and are not in need of fixing. Your heart is being polished, your body is being washed clean, and waves of wholeness and integration are re-ordering your world.

Let go of the weary path of needing to change, to transform, to heal, to awaken, to be more spiritual, to be a better person, to accept everything, and to hold it all together. For just one moment, give yourself the gift of pure rest.

As you sink into the core of what you are, open to the breath as it moves in and out of your lungs. Allow your entire being to be infused with your commitment to self-kindness and to no longer abandon the wisdom-field of your immediate embodied experience, exactly as it is.

As things settle inside and around you, you may start to sense the movement of another substance within you, passing in and out of your heart. But, friend, this is no ordinary air. It is love. Come to end one world and to begin another. Please stay close.

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