Love is an inner energy that flows naturally when the heart is open, but people block it by holding onto past pain and resisting reality. The external world does...
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Tami Simon’s in-depth audio podcast interviews with leading spiritual teachers and luminaries. Listen in as they explore their latest challenges and breakthroughs - the leading edge of their work.
Join the New York Times bestselling author of The Untethered Soul, The Surrender Experiment, and Living Untethered for this free series of curated teaching sessions, recorded at his Temple of the Universe yoga and meditation center.
Love is an inner energy that flows naturally when the heart is open, but people block it by holding onto past pain and resisting reality. The external world does not cause the absence of love—our internal reactions and stored past experiences do. By letting go, relaxing through discomfort, and accepting reality as it is, one can live in a continuous state of openness and unconditional love.
Something is shifting in the world—and the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island have seen it coming for generations.
This week, Tami Simon speaks with Jasper Young Bear—wisdom keeper, storyteller, founder of the Medicine Lodge Confederacy, and member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation—about the sacred oral teachings he was entrusted to carry, and why he has chosen this urgent moment to share them with the world. Jasper is the featured teacher in a new medicine film and four-part audio series, The Creation Story, available to watch and listen to for free at thecreationstory.co.
Join Tami and Jasper to explore:
The Seventh Generation prophecy—and why we are living inside its fulfillment right now
The Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor, and what the reunification of North and South means for the human family
Why the greatest preparation for coming change is spiritual and emotional—not physical
The sacred laws woven into Indigenous creation stories, and what whole-to-part perception makes possible
The importance of forgiving the unforgivable—and how it opens the frequency of true freedom
Ceremony as living technology: sweat lodges, sacred instruments, and star knowledge as tools of consciousness
Why Jasper believes love—not systems, not ideology—is ultimately what will heal the human family
This interview is unlike most. Tami listens more than she asks. And what Jasper Young Bear offers is truly a transmission: a vision of where we are, where we’re headed, and what each of us can do to become a worthy ancestor for the generations yet to come.
Watch and listen to The Creation Story for free at thecreationstory.co.
This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.
Spiritual growth is not about rising higher but about releasing the inner attachments and conditioning that hold you down. Your suffering comes from resisting reality and clinging to preferences formed by past experiences. By accepting life as it unfolds and letting go of inner resistance, you access natural peace, clarity, and eventually transcend the ego entirely.
Dr. James Hollis is a Jungian analyst, a former executive director of the Jung Society of Washington, DC, and a professor of Jungian studies for Saybrook University of San Francisco/Houston. He is the author of 16 books including Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life, Living an Examined Life, and, most recently, Living Between Worlds. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Hollis about his latest work and the increasing sense of importance for many people around living more meaningful lives. They also discuss how to find resilience during difficult times, how our souls let us know when we’re not on the right path, the difference between “meaning” and “purpose,” and more.
How well do you know your nervous system? Deb Dana is a clinician and consultant specializing in complex trauma, and is the coordinator of the Kinsey Institute Traumatic Stress Research Consortium. Her work at the Kinsey Institute is focused on using the lens of Polyvagal Theory to understand and resolve the impact of trauma, and create approaches that honor the role of the autonomic nervous system. With Sounds True, Deb has created a new audio program called Befriending Your Nervous System: Looking Through the Lens of Polyvagal Theory. In this podcast, Deb offers an introduction to the human nervous system, how Polyvagal Theory informs our understanding of the nervous system, how to manage the state known as “dysregulation,” and more.
Sarah Blondin is an author and spiritual teacher whose guided meditations have been enjoyed by thousands of people around the globe. She is also the founder, writer, videographer, and creator of the podcast Live Awake. In this week’s podcast, Tami Simon and Sarah discuss her new book, Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love. Their conversation explores the profound shift from living “above the neck” to fully inhabiting our hearts, how we can transmute suffering and discomfort with the energy of our hearts, connecting to our inherent wisdom and compassion, and much more.
Lance Allred is a former NBA player (who was the first legally deaf player in the league), public speaker, and author. With Sounds True, he has published The New Alpha Male: How to Win the Game When the Rules Are Changing. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Lance about the experiences he had in professional sports that led him to reevaluate what it means to be a man in contemporary society. Lance explains how his upbringing in a rural, polygamous commune informed his original ideas about masculinity, highlighting the subconscious assumptions about money and power that affect American men’s self-worth. Tami and Lance also discuss the roles of emotional vulnerability and surrender in the lives of modern men. Finally, they talk about the principle of perseverance and the increasingly urgent need for all cultures to reexamine their assumptions and core values.(63 minutes)
Micah Mortali is the director of the Kripalu School, a certified yoga teacher, and a longtime wilderness guide. With Sounds True, he has published Rewilding: Meditations, Practices, and Skills for Awakening in Nature. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Micah about humanity’s growing disconnection from the earth and how “rewilding” can help slow that trend. They talk about rewilding both as individuals and as part of whole ecosystems. Micah also shares the story of an intense, revelatory trail encounter with a bear and comments on the “species loneliness” of urban environments. Mulling the sense of grief they have for humankind’s effects on the environment, Tami and Micah consider how modern people can grapple with being in exile from the natural world. Finally, they discuss the barriers many have to reentering nature, as well as ways to initiate your own rewilding experience no matter where you are.(64 minutes)
Christian Conte, PhD, is a mental health specialist and leading authority on anger management. With Sounds True, Christian has published Walking Through Anger: A New Design for Confronting Conflict in an Emotionally Charged World. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon talks with Christian about his Yield Theory of emotional management, focusing on the process of “listen, validate, explore options.” Christian explains the events that led to his interest in anger management, as well as the origins of Yield Theory. He emphasizes the importance of meeting others where they are, giving them the opportunity to drain anger’s charge from their limbic system. Christian and Tami discuss why it’s necessary to cultivate humility and how Yield Theory might be applied to our currently divisive culture. Finally, they speak on “the cartoon world” that angry responses often create, as well as the importance of watching what we add to our minds.(63 minutes)
Love is an inner energy that flows naturally when the heart is open, but people block it by holding onto past pain and resisting reality. The external world does not cause the absence of love—our internal reactions and stored past experiences do. By letting go, relaxing through discomfort, and accepting reality as it is, one can live in a continuous state of openness and unconditional love.
Spiritual growth is not about rising higher but about releasing the inner attachments and conditioning that hold you down. Your suffering comes from resisting reality and clinging to preferences formed by past experiences. By accepting life as it unfolds and letting go of inner resistance, you access natural peace, clarity, and eventually transcend the ego entirely.
Reality can be defined as that which has already happened; after all, no one can make it not have happened. Suffering comes from resisting reality rather than accepting it. But acceptance does not mean passively allowing harmful situations to continue; it means letting go of the inner resistance and stored emotional reactions to what has happened, and then acting from a place of clarity. By consistently accepting and processing experiences instead of suppressing them, one releases inner blockages and returns to a natural state of peace, love, and clarity.
Suffering is not caused by external events but by our resistance to reality and our inability to handle what has already happened. Acceptance means acknowledging reality and our internal reactions to it, not through suppression, but through allowing stored emotional energy to release. Through this process, one becomes peaceful, free from ego-driven preferences, and capable of living in harmony with life as it unfolds.
The personal mind creates suffering by taking everything personally and forming preferences about how life should be. In truth, life’s events are the outcomes of vast chains of cause and effect stretching through time and space. Suffering arises when we deny the reality of these causes and resist the events that are unfolding before us, as well as those that have unfolded in the past. Spiritual liberation comes from learning to align with reality as it is and then working to raise it as it passes before us.
The key to opening the heart is learning not to close it. The heart is very sensitive, and it closes due to stored past impressions that create a sense of fear and the need for self-protection. Thus, people seek external conditions for the heart to feel safe enough to open. But as conditions change, the tendency to close is still there. The true path to living with an open heart is learning not to close, by handling life’s experiences without resistance. Through awareness and practice, one can release stored impressions and live in a naturally open, loving state.
The natural state of the mind is like calm, still water, teaches Michael Singer. The practice of spiritual surrender—to “relax and release” our resistance to whatever arises in our experience—is the pathway to enjoying serenity of mind no matter what the universe throws your way. In this podcast, Michael Singer uses the analogy of an aquatic bird maintaining its balance on rough water to illustrate what to do and what not to do if we want to stay poised and upright when life gets turbulent.
According to Michael Singer, the only one stopping you from experiencing the heights of divine ecstasy and freedom is you. In this podcast, he describes the real work of the spiritual path as the process of removing our inner blockages and self-made obstacles in order to uncover the natural states of bliss and spiritual liberation that are our birthright. He also discusses discovering “witness consciousness,” the cause of karma, the art of relaxing and releasing resistance to our experience, and more.
Have you ever pushed a thought aside or stuffed an emotion away deep inside? Most of us have! Michael Singer teaches that this is an act of will stemming from a simple intention: to feel better. In this podcast, he discusses the incredible power of our human will and how we use it, (for better or worse) in this deep exploration of intention and the pathway to self-realization and spiritual freedom.
The world’s great wisdom traditions all speak on the value of surrender. In this episode, Michael discusses what it takes to grow beyond spiritual resistance.
The time that we have between our births and our deaths is a great gift. What we do with this time and how we give our lives meaning is the subject of this podcast with Michael Singer. Here, Singer discusses hard yet empowering truths about the fleeting nature of our lives, the inherent flaw in our most common strategies for feeling “okay inside,” why spirituality is never about getting what you want or avoiding what you don’t want, and much more.
How do you know when you’re actually walking the path or when you’re just strengthening your ego? Here, Michael considers the gateways to and pitfalls of spiritual work.
What do you truly want? Wealth? Recognition? A perfect relationship? At our core, reflects Michael Singer, what we really want is to be happy: to dwell in a place of joy, love, and freedom from fear. In this episode, he shows how our thoughts and emotions lead us astray with solutions and goals… and how to experience the deeper, complete part of our being that transcends both external events and the misguided perceptions and tendencies of the mind.
Human consciousness is often distracted by lower vibrations like fear and insecurity, which prevent us from experiencing higher energies such as love and joy. Spiritual growth is a constant process of learning to handle reality’s vibrations without being pulled down. By mastering how we react to reality, we can experience higher states of being and, ultimately, serve others through love and compassion.
We misperceive life and spirituality by fixating on tiny fleeting experiences and projecting personal meaning onto them. We build our entire self-concept and emotional world out of a narrow slice of reality that we selectively store in the mind—what we liked, disliked, feared, or attached to—while ignoring the vastness of the universe unfolding all around us. True spiritual growth lies in learning to accept, honor, and handle reality as it is, with openness and reverence. By releasing our fixation on our own mind, we can awaken into joy, love, and freedom, becoming examples of great light that can uplift the world through our presence.
Meditation alone cannot bring lasting peace into this world. This is because we return from meditation to the same deeply seated, unresolved disturbances we’ve been storing in the mind. True liberation comes by relaxing through and releasing these disturbances rather than struggling with them on a daily basis. As we purify the mind, divine energy (Shakti) rises naturally, lifting our consciousness into our true nature—oneness with all of creation.
We don’t realize how tightly confined we are to our personal mind—its thoughts, beliefs, preferences, past experiences, and suppressed emotions. This represents such a tiny subset of reality compared to the vastness of what actually exists. Spirituality is about transcending that limited frame of reference and opening up to a world that is not filtered through our ego. Every moment is part of a vast cosmic unfolding, and the key to joy and spiritual freedom lies in expanding awareness beyond oneself.
We create tremendous suffering by shrinking our world to the narrow confines of our personal preferences. They have the effect of locking us in a house of our own building wherein we don’t realize there is a whole universe outside that house. Through sincere inner work, we can expand our awareness beyond the limits of ourselves into a world of peace, clarity, and selfless giving.
