What if the bravest thing you can do right now is refusing to close your heart? This week, Tami Simon speaks with Tara Brach—beloved meditation teacher, clinical...
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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
Dr. Elaine Aron is a clinical depth psychologist and the author of the seminal 1997 book The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You. With Sounds True, she has published the new audio learning program The Highly Sensitive Person’s Complete Learning Program: Essential Insights and Tools for Navigating Your Work, Relationships, and Life. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Tami Simon speaks with Dr. Aron about what it means to be a highly sensitive person and recent research into the phenomenon. They consider whether the trait is genetic or adaptive, as well as the various ways sensitive behaviors manifest in day-to-day life. They also discuss how best to approach romantic relationships with highly sensitive people and the possible social advantages of sensitivity. Finally, Dr. Aron shares the connection between extreme sensitivity and intuition, as well as attitudes necessary for embracing the entirety of your unique, sensitive self.(50 minutes)
A good poem, says David Whyte, is revelatory; it takes hold of us and surprises us with new understanding. David Whyte is the bestselling author of ten books of poetry, three works of prose, and the celebrated Sounds True audio program What to Remember When Waking.
In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with David about his writing career, his creative approach to leadership, and the conversation with life to which we are all constantly invited. Tami and David discuss the willingness to have courageous conversations; the generativity of “a well-felt sadness”; reframing regret; the seven steps of invitational leadership; “robust vulnerability” and choosing the path we really care about; anguish, anxiety, and being OK with the unknown; letting go; “apprenticing ourselves to our own disappearance”; 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.
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)
Consciousness is the foundation of all meaning, because without awareness, nothing has significance. People mistakenly identify with their ego, which is simply a collection of thoughts and self-concepts they are aware of. This false identification leads to tremendous suffering. True spiritual enlightenment comes from recognizing that the self is not the ego but the pure awareness behind it.
Life is a spiritual journey where every experience serves as an opportunity for growth and evolution. The core of human suffering stems from attachment to the ego and resistance to the natural flow of life. By recognizing that we are not our egos but are instead the divine consciousness that is aware of the ego, we can transcend suffering and embrace inner peace. The ultimate purpose of life is spiritual liberation, achieved by letting go of resistance, aligning with reality, and embracing love and compassion in all circumstances.
The mind, like the ocean, can be calm or disturbed, but the same consciousness is observing both states. Rather than trying to fix or overreact to a disturbed mind, one can learn to step back and observe the disturbance without feeding it. Ultimately, ceasing to thrash around in the disturbed mind allows the mental energies to settle down naturally. This process of letting go of the impulse to struggle leads to greater inner peace and spiritual growth over time.
There are two fundamental truths that can help free you from the bondage of the ego. The first is your relationship to the vastness of the universe, and the other is how short your time is on this tiny planet. By acknowledging these truths, you can free yourself from the burden of personal preferences, opinions, and the mind’s fixation on past experiences. Embracing these deep truths leads you to a greater sense of perspective and a life of freedom that comes from releasing ego and harmonizing with Reality.
In this talk, Michael explains that the mind need not be an obstacle to spiritual growth but can actually be a great tool when used properly. This involves realizing you are not your thoughts, any of your thoughts—rather, you are the awareness observing them. By remaining centered in this awareness, free from the pull of personal thoughts and emotions, one can experience great states of natural joy, love, and divinity.
The mind can act as either a prison or a liberator, depending on how we use it. By holding on to uncomfortable past experiences, we trap ourselves in suffering. Expanding our thoughts beyond ourselves allows us to break free of the prison of mind. Through this process, we canliberate our consciousness, experience peace, and ultimately achieve enlightenment.
Spiritual growth is not about reaching for higher states; it’s about releasing the ego that keeps pulling you down. The mind and heart are conditioned by past experiences, and reacting to them creates endless suffering. By observing and letting go instead of resisting or controlling, you naturally rise into peace and alignment with something greater.
Have you noticed that you live with a personal mind that is shaped by your past experiences? In that mind, you develop a self-concept of how life should be. This ego-mind leads to tremendous suffering and distorted views of truth. True spirituality involves recognizing that you are not your thoughts or experiences, but the consciousness that observes them. By ceasing to identify with your ego and facing reality without resistance, you can awaken to a deeper truth and experience lasting peace and fulfillment.
Mind is a very high vibration energy field that receives impressions from the outside world and renders them as inner experiences. In the state of pure mind, thoughts and emotions arise as impressions that pass right through. But when consciousness resists these impressions, they accumulate and form the personal mind, creating ego, preferences, and suffering. By contrast, the impersonal mind operates free of personal bias, enabling clear thinking, creativity, science, and inspiration. Spiritual growth involves letting go of the personal mind and living from a higher state of clarity, love, and surrender while still engaging in life.
Spiritual liberation is not about attaining extraordinary experiences; it is about releasing the internal blockages that keep us from a permanent state of well-being. The cause of suffering is not life—it is our belief that life must be what we want in order for us to be okay. We can learn to let go of this constant sense of lacking by releasing the stored blockages from our past. When this purification takes place, we become open, peaceful, and capable of living with unconditional joy regardless of circumstances.
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.
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.
The belief that your inner state is fundamentally not okay, and you must spend most of your life struggling to be okay, is the cause of great suffering. Eventually, you will come to realize that it is only because you stored unresolved past experiences inside your heart and mind that you don’t feel a natural flow of great joy within. These stored blockages get triggered repeatedly, creating mental and emotional turmoil. Real spiritual growth comes through recognizing this pattern and learning to release these inner blockages rather than resisting or suppressing them.
The true meaning of Mother’s Day is to celebrate the idea of unconditional love—a love that does not judge or withhold. Most humans misunderstand this because the mind judges everything, creating inner resistance and leading to closure of the heart. Spiritual growth is the process of learning how to stop judging by understanding the root of judgment: past experiences stored in the personal mind that we couldn’t handle. By consistently relaxing through these blockages, instead of resisting their release, they will dissolve naturally, allowing the spiritual energy to rise. This culminates in the realization that God is love, and our own consciousness is that same ocean of love.
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.
Spiritual growth begins not by seeking higher states, but by fully recognizing how we built the ego out of thoughts from our past and are now identified with it. Our resultant preferences and suppressed past experiences make us suffer and constrict our awareness to ourselves. True liberation comes not by spiritualizing the ego, but by relaxing behind it and allowing reality to pass through while remaining centered in our true nature as consciousness.
Nonduality is not an abstract philosophy but a practical spiritual path rooted in everyday life. The Universe is one unified system, but we can’t see it that way because we need certain parts to be certain ways. This is because we don’t feel whole within ourselves, so we differentiate the outside based on what we think will make us feel better or worse. Once we feel whole and at peace inside, everything is free to be as it is—one nondual reality.
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.
