Tami Simon speaks with Harville Hendrix, a therapist and educator with over three decades of experience working with couples and singles seeking intimate partners. The cofounder of the Institute for Imago Relationship therapy with his wife Helen, Dr. Hendrix has authored and coauthored a number of influential books on relationship psychology including Getting the Love You Want and Keeping the Love You Find, as well as the six-CD Sounds True audio learning course, Finding and Keeping Love. In this episode, Tami speaks with Harville about a biological explanation for the notion that opposites attract, what it might mean to recognize “otherness” in relationship, and the value of creating a relationship that is without judgment, or “living with zero negativity.” (57 minutes)
Adyashanti speaks with Tami Simon about his understanding of the story of Jesus. Adyashanti is an American-born teacher trained in the Zen tradition who teaches today about the process of spiritual awakening. With Sounds True, his latest project is a book and audio program called Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic. In this episode, Adya examines the deep mythic underpinnings of the story of Jesus and how it can serve as a map of awakening. He also talks about Jesus as a revolutionary figure, how the metaphor of the crucifixion helped him process his own experience with intense physical pain, and the redemptive power of love to restore us to our natural state. (79 minutes)
Chandresh Bhardwaj is a globally acclaimed speaker, the founder of the Break the Norms movement, and the lineage-holder of a family of Indian gurus that dates back seven generations. With Sounds True, he has published the book Break the Norms: Questioning Everything You Think You Know About God and Truth, Life and Death, Love and Sex. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Chandresh about the legacy of his family’s teachings and what he needed to break away from in order to make his own way in the world. They talk about the paramount importance of knowing the right questions to ask, and how a question can powerfully shape one’s spiritual path. Tami and Chandresh also speak on his conception of death and its implications. Finally, Chandresh shares the story of the difficult steps he had to take in his own journey when his inner path contradicted society’s expectations. (64 minutes)
Throughout the years, we at Sounds True have developed a guiding philosophy that we call “multiple bottom lines.” Our dedication to this principle is embodied in our Mission Statement:
The mission of Sounds True is to find teachers and artists who serve as a gateway to spiritual awakening and to produce, publish, and distribute their work with beauty, intelligence, and integrity. We treat our authors, vendors, and partners in the same way we would want to be treated. We work flexibly and efficiently together to create a cooperative, loving environment that honors respectful authenticity and individual growth. We maintain a healthy level of profitability so that we are an independent and sustainable employee-owned organization.
The three essential bottom lines for Sounds True are the integrity of our purpose, the well-being of our people, and the maintaining of healthy profits. All three of these priorities are important in the decisions we make as a company. It is our conviction that each of these bottom lines must be healthy for the company to prosper as a whole.
In this short video, Sounds True’s founder, Tami Simon, explains our commitment to “multiple bottom lines”:
Discover the wisdom and practical lessons Clea Shearer gained on her cancer journey. This episode offers hope, humor, and supportive insights for anyone facing a serious physical illness or any of life’s other monumental challenges.
Clea Shearer discusses her new book, Cancer Is Complicated. With host Tami Simon, the author, entrepreneur, and co-founder of The Home Edit shares her journey through a stage two breast cancer diagnosis, the emotional and physical complexities of treatment, and the surprising gifts that emerged along the way. Learn how Clea’s experience reshaped her perspectives on life purpose and helping others, and how to support yourself or someone you love in navigating physical illness or other serious challenges.
Note: This interview originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
My constant reminder to myself all winter is to not push too hard. The essence of the season reminds me that I don’t have to document every aha moment that happens in these cold, quiet months. I don’t have to share every discovery or turn every insight into a poem. In the winter, I’m much more inclined to commune with the Divine and let those conversations remain private. This is the influence of winter, the way it teaches me to shift from an overly productive participant’s pace into a person with a battery that needs to plug in and recharge gradually in order to rise up refreshed for the act of creation.
Rest isn’t easy for us, and we have to be intentional about it. How will you ensure that rest is a central part of your winter schedule? A lot can be accomplished in these sleepy months of contemplation, but if you position rest as the central focus of your routine, you’ll emerge from this season with more endurance for the working days ahead of you.
What does an ideal period of rest look like for you?
Unwinding looks different for everyone, and you’ll need to spend some time making a list of ways you can actualize rest in your daily winter life.
Maybe once a week you wake up and immediately take a hot bath. Maybe you watch a movie in the middle of the day. Maybe you get under your electric blanket and read a book for an hour after lunch. Resting usually requires doing (or not doing) something that will break your routine of constant output. How can you convince yourself to pause and be leisurely?
You’ll have to choose activities that will force you to slow down. You’ll have to remind yourself that resting will expand your creative practice in the long run, even if it seems like the opposite is happening in the moment. Experiment with what works best for you.
Prompts from the Planet
What do plants and other animals do in the winter?
They go dormant. Seeds wait, inactive in the dark soil or stored away, safe and dry.
They harden, keep warm, and get slow. Some stop growing. Others sleep and dream.
Below ground, everything works anew, protective and focused on survival.
The plant world pauses its creation and changes its approach, waiting for the sun to return.
Remember, we are part of the same cycle.
Remember to ask yourself: What is the natural world up to right now? How does it include me?
This is an adapted excerpt from A Year in Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression by Jacqueline Suskin.
Jacqueline Suskin has composed over forty thousand poems with her ongoing improvisational writing project, Poem Store. She is the author of six books, including Help in the Dark Season. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Atlantic, and Yes! magazine. She lives in Northern California. For more, see jacquelinesuskin.com.
