Tami Simon speaks with Snatam Kaur, one of the most recognized voices in the world of devotional chant. Snatam is an American artist who was raised in the kundalini yoga tradition and schooled in kirtan meditation and Gurmukhi, the Sanskrit-based language of Sikh scriptures in northern India. She is the lead singer for the Celebrate Peace tours and has released eight records. In this episode, Tami Simon speaks with Snatam about her bottom line in terms of daily meditation practice, what has been her go-to mantra in life, and how motherhood keeps her ego in check. She also shares three excerpts from The Essential Snatam Kaur, her Sounds True compilation of her favorite sacred chants for healing. (76 minutes)
Tami Simon speaks with Gregg Braden. For over 20 years, Gregg has been a leading authority on ancient prophecies, sacred sites, and lost spiritual practices. He’s the author of the books Fractal Time: The Secret of 2012 and a New World Age; Awakening to Zero Point; Walking Between the Worlds; and The Isaiah Effect. Gregg Braden will also be hosting a three-part online event series called Exploring Fractal Time: Choice Point 2012 beginning November 3, 2010. Gregg discusses the cycles of time, the energy that’s at the center of the Milky Way, and what we can learn from ancient cultures about what he calls “choosing with our hearts.” (55 minutes)
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…
When you are in the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, you are in the presence of compassion itself. But how many of us will have the opportunity to personally experience the man known as The Ocean of Wisdom?
Now, Living Wisdom gives you the chance to immerse yourself in the grace of His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, and to receive the transformative power of his teachings in your own home.
Friends, we’re excited to release The One of Us, a new audio learning program with Adyashanti and Mukti on living from the heart of illumined relationship.
To be spiritually awake is to deeply feel your connection with the whole of life. The One of Us is an exploration of this sacred connection as it expresses through two human partners. In their first full-length audio-learning program, Adyashanti and Mukti present six sessions to help each of us—whether preparing for or currently in a relationship—to realize and honor this connection, to protect it, and to begin to move, speak, and act in alignment with the love that lives all of us.
A Relationship Based in Truth and Supported by Love
What if a successful relationship was not about getting needs met but allowing each other the freedom to be who you are? What if the sole agenda of a partnership were to offer the greatest expression of love in that moment? Drawing from their own marriage and their years of teaching, Adyashanti and Mukti share what they consider to be the foundational attitudes and skills for a relationship “based in truth and supported by love.” Together they discuss the shift from our conditioned, “me-centered” paradigm to a radically new way of relating not only to each other but to the entirety of our experience.
“Recognizing our connectedness of spirit—and becoming a living expression of that connectedness—that’s what The One of Us is all about,” explain Adyashanti and Mukti. Join them in these inspirational sessions to begin to bring forth the fullness of light and love that your partnership is waiting to unfold.
What message are you giving to yourself when you wait until you’re in crisis before you begin caring for yourself? I used to be deeply entrenched in this pattern. I’d care for myself just enough so that I could be productive again and then get back to work until my next care emergency. I’d crash from striving and producing without a thought to my needs and then stop just long enough to treat myself just kindly enough to nurse myself back to health so that I could resume my breakneck speed.
Those days were exhilarating because even in my burnout I felt so purposeful, high on how good I was at pushing my needs aside to tackle whatever needed tackling. Exceptionally good in a crisis, I felt born for running myself into the ground and then picking up the pieces just enough to get back to work. Even as this pattern started to break down for me, I could feel my ego attachment to it. I was good at getting things done. I was good at helping others. I was good at putting everyone else’s needs ahead of my own. I was good. I was good. I was good.
The tricky thing about this pattern is that needs will get met one way or another. They don’t just vanish or disappear when you ignore them. They become rowdier and rowdier, nipping at your heels as you try to outrun them. Your body is infinitely wise and makes more noise as your ache for care compounds itself. When you ignore your needs long enough, you will be forced to prioritize yourself by circumstance, illness, or burnout, bringing you abruptly to the crisis point of having to slow down.
But even in the face of that, attending to the need for sustenance can sometimes still feel impossible if you are exhausted from a lifetime of holding it all together. While the need for sustenance might seem to come before rest, [in my book Needy] I ordered these chapters deliberately [“Rest” coming before “Sustenance”] because having the energy to start asking big questions about what you need requires energy too. You’re crumbling beneath the weight of your conditioned expectations for yourself and others, and you judge yourself for not being about to do it all without a thought for the energetic capacity necessary to prioritize joy, pleasure, or satiety.
You might think, Well if it’s right, it should feel good or it should be easy. But tending to your needs can be almost boring, and having the capacity to investigate the larger picture of what you are hungry for requires energy. It requires stamina and self-awareness to develop a healthy relationship with yourself after being in a dysfunctional relationship—one that’s chaotic, intense, familiar, thrilling, and compelling even when you know there is no way it will all work out in the long run. After a dramatic relationship like that, a relationship in which you are respectful of each other, loyal, trustworthy, and committed to each other can feel boring—but that kind of steadfast love heals and rebuilds a steady foundation of trust. The same is true for your relationship with yourself.
Self-love so often isn’t a flash-in-the-pan, Instagram-worthy, wait-until-the-moment is-perfect-and-the-stars-align kind of love.
It’s about showing up for yourself each and every day and doing what needs to be done. Maybe that’s resting. Maybe that’s calling your lawyer. Maybe that’s dealing with the window that is leaking and the moldy floorboards. Taking care of yourself is showing up for your relationship with yourself each day, asking what needs to be done and doing that to the best of your abilities.
It can be mundane, but as you begin making these shifts for your own sustenance, you might find yourself softening into a rhythm and routine of caring for yourself this way.
There is a deliciousness in knowing you will be there when you need yourself. There is a sense of safety in the self-trust you build each time you choose not to abandon yourself. This work can be messy but also joyful, silly, sexy, creative, and playful. You might find yourself enjoying the celebration of infusing pleasure and sovereignty where there was none before.
And with time, you might realize that the purpose of your life is not to be good, productive, or approved by others. The purpose of your life is for YOU to live it. For you to take up space in your own thoughts and actions. For you to tend to your needs, devoting yourself to your own wholeness each and every day. For you to contribute to the world in the way that only you can. For you to love and be loved. For you to play. For your utter enjoyment and wholehearted pleasure. The purpose of your life is not to be nice and polite. It is for living—messily, humanly, in whatever way you feel is good and right for you.
Mara Glatzel, MSW, (she/her) is an intuitive coach, writer, and podcast host. She is a needy human who helps other needy humans stop abandoning themselves and start reclaiming their humanity through embracing their needs and honoring their natural energy cycles. Her superpower is saying what you need to hear when you need to hear it, and she is here to help you believe in yourself as much as she believes in you. Find out more at maraglatzel.com.
