Sounds True: Insights at the Edge

Susan Sands, PhD, is a clinical psychologist known for her trailblazing work in female development and body-based disorders. She incorporates Buddhist thought and meditation into her work with patients. A former journalist, she publishes and presents widely on the topic of eating disorders and body image, and she is a core faculty member at the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California in San Francisco.  In this podcast, Sounds True founder Tami Simon speaks with Susan Sands about her new book, The Inside Story, illuminating the surprising benefits that come with growing older and deepening our capacity to perceive our inner world more intimately. Tami and Susan discuss how interoceptive awareness is critical to our happiness as we age; body sense versus body image; the connection between having a high level of interoceptive awareness and having access to personal agency; how spiritual practices like meditation, mindfulness, and yoga help us cultivate interoceptive awareness; countering negative thoughts about our aging bodies by using "ageism disruptors"; developing a stable body image in our day to day lives; experiencing the pleasure of the inner body as we age; the positivity bias, and how it increases over time; the surprising beneficial physiological effects of aging; "mixed emotions" and the wisdom that comes with being older; the happiness curve, and how we can work to rewrite negative ageist narratives; addressing age inequality in today's society; and more.

19 Apr 20221h 4min

Sarah Durham Wilson is a women’s rites of passage leader and author who previously worked as an arts and music writer for Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Interview magazines. Her offerings are rooted in archetypal mother work and resurrecting the rite of passage from maiden to mother. Sarah has taught courses and led retreats for thousands of women over the past decade. With Sounds True, she is the author of the book Maiden to Mother: Unlocking Our Archetypal Journey into the Mature Feminine. In this podcast, Sounds True’s founder, Tami Simon, speaks with Sarah Durham Wilson about the book and how it helps us to reclaim our power and free ourselves from internalized patriarchal values. They discuss insights into the nature of the mature feminine; developing your “inner mothering” power; the “triple mother wounds” facing women today and other impacts of being unmothered; rituals and ceremonies to accelerate and deepen the journey from maiden to mother; the archetype of the Death Mother; the archetype of the Priestess; the symbol of the crown; finding your path of power instead of “hiding your witch”; your “mother river,” and how it keeps you on track on your evolutionary journey; why “we make it through the underworld by surrendering; we never make it by fighting it or denying it”; the archetype of the Crone or Wise Woman; taking responsibility and being at the front lines of your life; and more.

12 Apr 202259min

Shannon Kaiser is the bestselling author of five books on the psychology of happiness and fulfillment, including The Self-Love Experiment, Adventures for Your Soul, and Joy Seeker. As a life coach, international speaker, and retreat leader, she helps people align with their true selves so they can live their highest potential. In this podcast, Sounds True founder Tami Simon speaks with Shannon about her new book, Return to You, and how we can embrace every part of ourselves and realize "an unshakable inner peace." They also discuss the spiritual lesson that "if you don't go within you go without," identifying your particular intuitive style and tapping your innate wisdom, working with anxiety and shifting from fear to love, the practice of "alchemizing fear" so as not to bypass it, ways to amplify our sense of love and connection, why in order to really know something you must know its opposite, personal expansion and reclaiming your power, how to "turn your resistance into assistance," cultivating an "activation mindset" to sustain calm, and much more.

5 Apr 202253min

Lissa Rankin, MD, is a New York Times bestselling author of multiple books including Mind Over Medicine, a physician, speaker, founder of the Whole Health Medicine Institute and the nonprofit Heal At Last, and mystic. Lissa has starred in two national public television specials, her TEDx Talks have been viewed over 4 million times, and she leads workshops both online and at retreat centers like Esalen, 1440 Multiversity, Omega, and Kripalu. In this podcast, Dr. Rankin speaks with Sounds True founder, Tami Simon, about her new book, Sacred Medicine: A Doctor's Quest to Unravel the Mysteries of Healing. Their conversation explores: the placebo effect and the mega-placebo effect; the scientific method and some assumptions we should question; the relationship between trauma, the nervous system, and healing; connectivity and co-regulation; developmental trauma, or what Mark Epstein calls "the trauma of everyday life"; the concept of spiritual bypassing; chronic inflammation as a root cause of many diseases; the paradoxes of healing; our four "intelligences"—mental, somatic, intuitive, and emotional—and what to do when they "disagree"; Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy and working with the polarized parts within ourselves; healing the collective; and more.

29 Mars 20221h 9min

Sharon Salzberg, a student of Buddhism since 1971, has been leading meditation retreats worldwide since 1974. Influenced by her more than 25 years of study with Burmese, Indian, and Tibetan teachers, she teaches intensive awareness practice (vipassana or insight meditation) and the profound cultivation of lovingkindness and compassion (the Brahma Viharas). She is a cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society and the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, both in Massachusetts. She is the author of books including The Kindness Handbook, Lovingkindness, A Heart as Wide as the World, and, most recently, Real Change. She has also authored several Sounds True audio programs including Insight Meditation (with Joseph Goldstein), Room to Breathe, and Lovingkindness Meditation. In this podcast, Sharon Salzberg joins Sounds True’s founder, Tami Simon, to discuss her recent book, Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World—and how you can begin to bring the core of your being into your work, your community, and your life. Sharon and Tami also discuss how contemplative practices can open the heart, agency and reclaiming your power to effect change, the empowering symbol of the Statue of Liberty, transforming anger into courage, determining the next step you can take when you’re uncertain, patience, faith as the act of giving over your heart, generosity and how you end up with more through giving, moving from grief to resilience, suffering and the First Noble Truth, the role of joy on the path, living by the truth of interconnection, caring to know as the first step in making a difference, and a sneak preview of Sharon’s forthcoming book, Real Life.

22 Mars 20221h 3min

Adyashanti is a widely beloved, American-born spiritual teacher whose practice is rooted in Zen Buddhism but has expanded beyond any one path or perspective. He has created many books and audio programs through Sounds True, including Resurrecting Jesus, Emptiness Dancing, and Healing the Core Wound of Unworthiness. In this episode of Insights of the Edge—which previously appeared as part of the provocative interview series Waking Up: What Does It Really Mean?—Tami Simon and Adyashanti inquire deeply into what exactly constitutes “awakening.” Adya describes his own experiences of awakening, vividly comparing and contrasting his felt sensation of each of these life-changing experiences. Tami and Adya also discuss whether awakening is a sudden or gradual process, and what one can and cannot expect from these moments of profound epiphany. Finally, Adya shares his pith instructions on how to encourage such a spiritual awakening.

15 Mars 202258min

Lynne Twist is a global activist, author, and teacher who has devoted her life to sustainability and economic integrity. An original staff member of The Hunger Project, she is author of The Soul of Money and president and founder of the Soul of Money Institute. She is also the author of the Sounds True audio learning program Unleashing the Soul of Money. In this podcast, Lynne joins Sounds True’s founder, Tami Simon, to discuss the challenges and opportunities now facing humanity—and the invitation to each one of us to make a difference as we embrace this critical time in our evolution at the beginning of a new millennium.  Lynne and Tami also talk about our unique place in time and the emerging new approach to business; the Pachamama Alliance and the prophecy of “The Eagle and the Condor”; tapping the wisdom of “grandmother energy”; Buckminster Fuller and creating a world that works for everyone; the invitation to each one of us to “take an evolutionary leap and dream big now”; environmental regeneration and redefining humanity; reclaiming our home in the ecological world, and creating economies that respect nature; giving up the scramble and becoming totally present in the moments of our life; purpose, choices, and trusting our feelings; bravery, humility, and surrender on the path; and more

8 Mars 20221h 3min

Mara Bishop is a shamanic practitioner, intuitive consultant, teacher, author, and artist. In private practice, she uses her Personal Evolution Counseling™ method to provide an integrated approach to spiritual healing, personal growth, and emotional well-being. She is the author of the books Shamanism for Every Day: 365 Journeys and Inner Divinity: Crafting Your Life with Sacred Intelligence, and, with Sounds True, she is the author of the audio learning program Shining Bright Without Burning Out: Spiritual Tools for Creating Healthy Energetic Boundaries in an Overconnected World.  In this podcast, Mara speaks with Sounds True’s founder, Tami Simon, about how in today’s world we can learn to value our sensitivity instead of feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. Mara and Tami also discuss shamanism as a path of direct revelation, accessing non-ordinary consciousness for insight and healing, the three phases of creating healthy energetic boundaries, the difference between “just plain stress” and burnout, discovering your energy personality archetypes, understanding your energy ecosystems and how they interact, working on yourself and bringing light to the shadow aspects of your personality, the difference between compassion and empathy, energetic cleansing methods, the paradox of “one and all one,” Mara’s concept of “powering on” to amplify and shine our inner light, how our world has become “overconnected” and how to avoid the burnout this can create, the shamanic practitioner as someone who can “see through the eyes of the heart,” and more.

1 Mars 20221h 4min