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.
Inner suffering is not caused by what happens, but by our preferences about what should or shouldn’t have happened—the gap between reality and what we want it to be. Our entire preference system is built from the sum of our learned experiences, which compared to all else going on, is statistically insignificant. But we worship what we have experienced as “truth,” to be defended and fought for. When we stop fighting, we come to understand that everyone is driven by their own conditioned experiences and inner pain—so we stop judging and start asking, “How can I help?” We act from a place of clarity and compassion, not to get our way, but to raise the energy of whatever passes in front of us.
Reality is simply the unfolding of countless causes across time, and our problems arise when we resist what is, rather than accept it. Our minds become disturbed due to personalization, judgment, and the suppression of experiences we can’t handle, which results in inner energy blockages (samskaras).
Spiritual liberation means learning to handle reality exactly as it is, letting go of suppression and control, and allowing the natural energy of life to flow through us without obstruction. This leaves us in a state of clarity from which we can make decisions that are in harmony with life, rather than fighting with it.
What does it take to truly bet on yourself—to trust your own resilience, wisdom, and worthiness even when life falls apart?
Tami Simon speaks with Andrea Owen, a global keynote speaker, professional certified life coach, and author whose books have sold more than 300,000 copies, including the popular How to Stop Feeling Like Sh*t. Andrea’s new audio immersion workshop with Sounds True—Live Like You Give a Damn: 25 Bold Moves to Get Honest, Face the Hard Stuff, and Show Up for Yourself—offers fierce compassion and practical wisdom for anyone ready to stop abandoning themselves and start living with authenticity and confidence.
In this conversation, Tami and Andrea explore:
What roller derby taught Andrea about falling down and getting back up—and why you have to actually take action to build confidence
The concept of “big prize energy” and what it means to turn up the volume on your authentic self
How to recognize patterns of self-abandonment and reclaim your inner authority
Why action creates confidence, not the other way around—and what it means to “rush the net”
Learning to trust your body’s wisdom and your own resilience, especially during heartbreak
The importance of parenting yourself and accepting that life will hand you “sh*t sandwiches”
How detachment in relationships differs from disconnection, and why it’s essential for wholeness
Andrea brings refreshing honesty, humor, and decades of coaching experience to questions about confidence, relationships, and personal transformation. If you’re ready to stop waiting for permission and start trusting yourself, this conversation offers both inspiration and practical tools for showing up fully in your own life.
Listen now and discover what becomes possible when you live like you give a damn.
Go deeper with Andrea’s new audio immersion workshop from Sounds True, Live Like You Give a Damn: 25 Bold Moves to Get Honest, Face the Hard Stuff, and Show Up for Yourself. With wisdom, humor, and honesty, Andrea offers stories, concrete steps and practical exercises to remind you that it’s every person’s birthright to live a fulfilling life. Learn more at https://www.soundstrue.com/products/live-like-you-give-a-damn
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 https://www.join.soundstrue.com
Russ Hudson is one of the world’s foremost teachers and developers of the Enneagram personality typology system, having coauthored (with Don Richard Riso) five bestselling books on the subject. With Sounds True, Russ has created an 11-CD audio-learning program called The Enneagram: Nine Gateways to Presence. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with Russ about the original purpose of the Enneagram, how our personality types are linked to a deeper level of awareness, and how we can use the Enneagram system to continually discover that we are much more than we may habitually think. They also discuss accessing the gifts of our personality types while avoiding the associated pitfalls or “fixations” of any given type, an overview of each of the nine types, Russ’ guidance in determining your own type, and much more.
There is a material world we can touch with our hands and see with our eyes. And as Lorna Byrne assures us, there is also a spiritual world that is just as real—one that most of us have forgotten how to see. How might your life change if you were to reclaim your own “spiritual sight”? What would happen if you lived with a direct knowing of yourself as both a physical and a spiritual being?
In this podcast, join Tami Simon for a fascinating conversation with the bestselling author of Angels in My Hair: The True Story of a Modern-Day Irish Mystic, as Tami and Lorna talk about realizing your connection to your own soul—and embracing the “intertwining” of your human and divine aspects; the universal question, What happens when we die?; guardian angels; self-love and accepting yourself as you are; working with fear and doubt; learning not just to look but to see; the cost of denying the existence of the spiritual realm; the gift of life; ceasing judgment and freeing the love within us; prayer, asking for help, and taking action; our childlike, innocent nature; seeing through the eyes of your soul; questions, answers, and all that is beyond comprehension; envisioning a positive future; and more.
Note: This episode 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.
Jess and Joanna explore the third phase of the spiral: Seeing with New Eyes. In this part of the spiral, the fog of our pain begins to lift off, and what comes in its place is a feeling of greater connection and belonging. Jess and Joanna talk about Deep Time, a way of understanding ourselves as a part of a long lineage of human and planetary history, and how our imaginations are an essential tool for “plugging back in” to the great web of life we’re a part of.
In this episode:
Discovering ways to truly feel our interconnection with all life, and how that profound reconnection transforms us
Deep Time—slowing down and discovering a broader sense of ourselves in the world
“Plugging in” to our part in the web of life to fuel our own work for the Great Turning
We recommend starting a podcast club with friends or family to do these practices together. Links and assets to help prompt reflection and build community can be found with every episode on WeAreTheGreatTurning.com.
The mind is a high-vibration energy field out of which thoughts and perceptions are created. Unfortunately, people often mistakenly identify with their thoughts and past experiences, instead of the consciousness that is aware of them. Simply observing the mind without attachment helps release emotional and mental constraints and leads to spiritual awakening. True liberation involves using the mind as a tool rather than being controlled by it.
Spirituality involves recognizing that we are the conscious awareness observing our thoughts, emotions, and experiences, not the experiences themselves. This awareness is part of an infinite, divine force that permeates all of creation. Self-realization involves learning to let go of attachments to past experiences and the ego-driven need for control, which distorts our perception of who we truly are. By embracing and handling each moment as it unfolds, we reconnect with our true, infinite nature, enabling us to live joyfully and serve others selflessly.
There is a profound relationship between beliefs, faith, and direct spiritual experience. Beliefs are constructs of the human mind and are not truths; they can change. Genuine spiritual understanding comes from direct experience rather than intellectual belief. Experiencing the relationship between energy and consciousness serves to bridge the gap between modern physics and ancient spiritual teachings. Exploring this involves letting go of the ego, staying open, and directly experiencing the inner energy flow that leads to profound self-realization.
Spiritual growth involves recognizing and releasing the ego, which is a construct of accumulated experiences and unresolved emotions. True liberation comes from allowing life’s events and emotions to flow through without resistance, enabling one to reconnect with pure, universal consciousness. By shedding the ego and embracing this state, individuals can experience a profound sense of unity and peace.
The stages of spiritual growth involve moving from attachment to past experiences and preferences to a more open state of appreciation and acceptance. Initially, attachment to past pains and desires creates a self-concept, or “ego,” which drives much of one’s feelings and actions. True spiritual growth requires accepting and serving reality as it unfolds. This gradually leads to a profound sense of unity with the divine, beyond personal suffering and ego.
If our consciousness dwells inside, why do external circumstances have such a strong effect on our inner well-being? It is attachment to past experiences that creates a mental filter that distorts reality as it comes in. By releasing stored emotions and judgments, we can access a natural state of joy and peace, regardless of external events. The path to self-realization involves continuous self-awareness and letting go of attachments, ultimately leading to a life of authenticity, freedom, and bliss.
Deep spirituality is not about techniques, beliefs, or outer practices. It is about recognizing that you are already pure consciousness—whole, infinite, and one with the universe. But your awareness is constantly distracted by the outside world and your thoughts and emotions. You are unlimited, but what you are looking at is limited to the tiny sum of your past experiences—forming your false concept of self. Liberation comes by ceasing to identify with what you are looking at and identifying with who you really are—this is Self-realization.
The mind’s noise is not the real issue—it is simply the surface ripples created by the fears suppressed in the heart. Your spiritual path is to relax, let go, and repeatedly dive inward past the mind into the heart, where the buried fears can finally be released. This ultimately leads to the constant upward flow of Shakti merging you into unconditional love and liberation.
[UPDATED EPISODE] Please note, this episode was originally released with a teaching from another recording. If you would like to ensure you’ve heard “E145: From Personal Preference to Universal Harmony,” please delete any existing downloads of this episode and re-download. We apologize for any inconvenience.
True spirituality is not about getting what you want or fixing the outside world, but learning to be okay inside by letting go of preferences, stored pain, and inner resistance. Reality unfolds through universal causes, not personal desires, and suffering comes from pitting yourself against what is. Enlightenment comes from witnessing your inner experiences without suppression, honoring all emotions, and living in harmony with, and selflessly serving, whatever life presents to you.
The ego is a construct of learned experiences that defines your personal identity, desires, and fears. Trying to transform the ego into something it is not creates a tremendous struggle that could last a lifetime. Instead, by cultivating “witness consciousness,” you can observe the ego without attachment, leading to clarity and compassion toward yourself and others. As judgment fades, seeing others not as their egos but as the divine consciousness behind the ego leads to living in the world with respect, love, and humility while aligning with your deeper spiritual purpose.
You are not your thoughts, emotions, or experiences—you are the conscious awareness behind them. Identifying with these inner phenomena creates a disturbed inner world that you mistakenly try to fix with the outside world. Spiritual growth involves changing your relationship with your mind and emotions by releasing their past stored blockages and rediscovering the stillness, clarity, and joy of your true nature.
Resistance is the inner act of opposing what is, and it is the root cause of all suffering. Whether you are resisting emotions, thoughts, or life events, it is this opposition—not the events themselves—that causes disturbance. Spiritual freedom comes through a deep state of nonresistance: allowing reality to pass through you without blocking it. Once you reach this state, you are truly ready to interact with life instead of reacting to it.
Modern physics has shown us that all form, including our bodies, is simply vibrations in an underlying omnipresent field, the quantum field. Through deep meditation, ancient yogis also found an underlying omnipresent field, consciousness. Could these fields end up being the same? The key to exploring this for yourself is to realize that you are not your thoughts, emotions, or experiences—you are the consciousness observing them. To remain seated in this state of awareness, you must learn not to be distracted by these objects of consciousness. Spiritual evolution is not about becoming something; it’s about ceasing to identify with what you are not.
There is great spiritual depth behind the phrase “Let It Be.” It presents the wisdom that resisting reality leads to psychological suffering. By understanding how perception is filtered through the mind and influenced by past experiences, we learn that true freedom lies in allowing experiences to pass through us without clinging or pushing away. Spiritual growth involves learning to relax in the face of discomfort and reclaiming the awareness behind it all—the consciousness that is always present, whole, and free.
What we consider the “self” is just a construct of experiences and thoughts we’ve accumulated and identified with, forming the ego or self-concept. True spiritual growth begins by detaching from this mental construct and discovering the witness consciousness within. The great yogis achieved this by going inward, letting go of distractions, and recognizing the source of consciousness itself. They discovered that pure consciousness is actually the same force that creates and sustains the universe, called “Chit Shakti” or conscious energy. By learning to release past mental impressions, one can awaken to their true divine nature, the conscious energy that is the basis of all creation and existence.
Liberation comes not through meditation alone but by ceasing to be distracted by the personal mind. Distractions have their root in resisted past experiences that form the basis for your preferences and desires. They end up causing great suffering and pull consciousness away from its natural, divine seat. The key to spiritual freedom lies in allowing reality to unfold without resistance and practicing letting go on a daily basis. This practice helps dissolve the ego and reveals the true self—a permanent state of peace, love, and service to others.
Spiritual liberation comes not from striving to attain joy or love, but from letting go of the inner anchor—your preferences, stored traumas, and self-concepts. The “fall from the garden” refers to the moment consciousness focused more on what it was conscious of than on consciousness itself. The path to awakening is learning to stop being distracted by thoughts and emotions, relax into the present moment, and experience life as it unfolds—allowing you to be fully present and free.
For more information, go to michaelsingerpodcast.com.
The root of suffering lies in our stored impressions and unresolved emotional experiences from the past. These form the personal mind and are the foundation of our self-concept. Spiritual growth is about learning to relax through the discomfort of cleansing, rather than having to control life to match our preferences. Liberation happens by becoming a “letting go machine,” which, over time, allows us to align with our natural state—eternal, conscious, blissful being.
