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Liberatory Technology: Ancient Wisdom Meets Future Inn...

Amy Burtaine
Michelle Cassandra Johnson — June 23, 2026

Technology continues to shape how people connect, learn, and experience daily life. While innovation brings real opportunity, it can also create distraction, exhaustion, and disconnection from what matters most. Liberatory technology offers a more mindful path by bringing together ancient wisdom, conscious innovation, and human-centered design.

At Sounds True, we have spent decades sharing transformational teachings from spiritual teachers, contemplatives, and visionaries through podcasts, digital courses, and learning experiences that cultivate awareness, compassion, and inner growth.

Here, we discuss liberatory technology, contemplative tech, wisdom technology, and the role conscious innovation can play in shaping a more humane digital future.

Key Takeaways:

Technology That Centers the Human: Liberatory technology encourages digital systems that honor emotional well-being, mindfulness, and ethical responsibility, placing people at the heart of every innovation.
Old Wisdom, New Digital World: Contemplative practices and spiritual teachings can help shape healthier relationships with technology, attention, and daily life in a connected age.
Conscious Innovation, Collective Healing: Wisdom technology and contemplative tech open pathways toward more compassionate, connected, and heart-led digital cultures.

Liberatory Technology and the Search for Future Liberation

Technology has become woven into nearly every aspect of human life, shaping communication, attention, learning, creativity, and even spiritual practice, yet many people sense an increasing imbalance beneath constant connectivity.

Digital systems designed for convenience can also create exhaustion, fragmentation, and emotional distance. Liberatory technology emerges from the desire to create a different relationship with innovation, one rooted in awareness rather than endless consumption.

Future liberation does not require rejecting technology or romanticizing the past. Rather, it asks deeper questions about intention and impact. Does innovation honor human flourishing? Does it deepen compassion, clarity, and connection? Ancient contemplative traditions remind us that external progress alone cannot create fulfillment.

Wisdom must evolve alongside technological advancement. As conversations around artificial intelligence, immersive media, and digital culture continue expanding, liberatory technology offers a framework grounded in ethical reflection and human dignity.

Ancient Wisdom Traditions in the Age of Conscious Innovation

Modern innovation often moves at extraordinary speed. New platforms, tools, and systems appear constantly, shaping culture in ways that can feel both inspiring and overwhelming. Conscious innovation introduces a more reflective approach, encouraging people to examine not only what technology can do but also how it influences human consciousness and emotional life.

The Wisdom of Slowing Down

Ancient contemplative traditions have long emphasized stillness, silence, and mindful awareness. These teachings offer valuable guidance in a culture driven by constant stimulation. Attention is fragmented by notifications, algorithms, and endless streams of information. Many people struggle to remain present with themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. That fragmentation is often the natural result of systems designed to pull attention away rather than return it to what is real.

Practices such as meditation, mindful breathing, and reflective listening create space for clarity and emotional grounding. They help restore balance within environments designed to compete for attention. Conscious innovation recognizes that healthier technology begins with a healthier relationship to awareness itself.

Why Ancient Teachings Still Resonate

Spiritual traditions across cultures remind us that compassion, humility, and interconnection are essential parts of human growth. These values remain deeply relevant in conversations about digital ethics and technological development. Innovation without wisdom can amplify division, anxiety, and emotional disconnection.

Ancient teachings also encourage responsibility. Every action creates consequences that ripple outward into communities and future generations. Applying this perspective to technology changes the conversation from efficiency alone to deeper questions of care and accountability. Conscious innovation becomes as much a human and spiritual pursuit as a technical one.

How Contemplative Tech Can Restore Human Connection

Contemplative tech reflects a growing desire for digital experiences that support awareness instead of constant distraction. Rather than maximizing engagement at any cost, contemplative technologies are designed to encourage reflection, emotional balance, and intentional interaction.

Creating Space for Reflection

Many online spaces reward speed and reactivity. Contemplative tech introduces pauses that help people respond more consciously. Some digital tools encourage mindful breathing before stressful conversations or create moments of silence before users publish emotional responses online. These simple shifts can reduce impulsive communication and foster greater self-awareness.

Reflection also builds emotional resilience. Nowadays, constant digital stimulation can leave people mentally scattered and emotionally depleted, but technologies designed with mindfulness in mind encourage healthier rhythms of attention and rest. For example, The Power of Awareness, led by Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield, goes deep into present-moment awareness and offers tools that translate into how we navigate digital life.

Rebuilding Meaningful Community

Digital culture often creates pressure to perform rather than connect authentically. Contemplative tech encourages environments where curiosity, vulnerability, and thoughtful dialogue are valued. Online meditation gatherings, learning communities, and intentional discussion spaces demonstrate that technology can still foster genuine human connection when designed with care.

Human beings long to feel seen and heard. Technologies that prioritize empathy and presence help restore trust within digital spaces. They remind people that connection is not measured by the number of interactions, but by the depth and sincerity of those interactions.

Wisdom Technology and the Evolution of Digital Culture

Wisdom technology represents a shift away from innovation focused solely on productivity and consumption. It recognizes that intelligence without wisdom cannot address humanity’s deeper challenges. As digital culture evolves, many people are seeking tools and practices that support emotional health, discernment, and conscious living.

Moving Beyond Information Saturation

Access to information has expanded dramatically, yet many people feel increasingly overwhelmed. Constant exposure to news, media, and online content can create mental fatigue and emotional numbness. Wisdom technology encourages intentional engagement rather than endless accumulation.

Practices such as mindful media consumption and regular digital pauses help create healthier boundaries with technology. These rhythms support focus, creativity, and emotional clarity. They also remind people that wisdom grows through reflection and lived experience, not simply through consuming more information.

Inviting Ethics Into Innovation

Technology reflects the priorities of the culture that created it. When profit and growth become the only measures of success, human well-being often suffers. Wisdom technology encourages developers, educators, and leaders to consider the emotional and social effects of the systems they build. This is not a small ask. It requires a willingness to place people above performance metrics.

Ethical innovation values transparency, accessibility, and respect for human attention. It also recognizes the broader impact of technological systems on communities and the environment. A healthier digital culture emerges when innovation is guided by compassion and responsibility alongside technical achievement.

Our Conscious Business Summit brings together leaders doing exactly this work, showing what it looks like to build organizations grounded in both wisdom and integrity.

Conscious Innovation as a Path Toward Collective Healing

Let’s explore how conscious innovation recognizes that technology influences emotional health, relationships, and social connection.

Technology Built Around Empathy: Conscious innovation builds technologies that strengthen empathy and genuine dialogue, creating space for real human exchange rather than surface-level interaction. When people feel heard and respected online, they are more likely to bring their full, honest selves to those conversations.
Learning That Sparks Real Transformation: Educational tools can be designed to nurture curiosity, emotional intelligence, and reflection, moving learning beyond information transfer into genuine transformation. This is the kind of learning we have always believed in at Sounds True.
Wisdom for Every Community: Accessibility matters deeply, so contemplative resources can reach diverse communities regardless of location, income, or background. Wisdom should not be reserved for those with the most resources.
Work That Restores, Not Drains: Healthier work environments that honor rest and emotional balance are possible when organizations choose people over relentless productivity. Real creativity flows from spaces that replenish rather than drain. Our The Great Transformation online course addresses exactly this kind of collective shift, guiding participants through the inner and outer changes reshaping our world.
Honest Spaces for Deeper Growth: Digital spaces where honesty and considered communication are prioritized over outrage and division can become places of real healing and growth. The conversations taking root in those spaces become the building blocks of a more compassionate culture.
A Path Back to Yourself: Practices that help people navigate stress, uncertainty, and information overload with greater resilience are increasingly essential in modern life.

Future Liberation Through Ethical and Heart-Led Technology

Future liberation depends on the values guiding innovation. Ethical and heart-led technology recognizes that every digital system influences the emotional and spiritual fabric of society. Technologies created without care can increase anxiety, comparison, and disconnection. Technologies developed with awareness can nurture healing, creativity, and community.

Heart-led innovation begins by recognizing human vulnerability. People are not machines designed for constant productivity and stimulation. They need reflection, rest, connection, and meaning. Ethical technology honors those needs rather than exploiting them.

That shift, from exploitation to care, may be the most courageous act of innovation we can pursue. Our Embracing the Unknown online course offers a grounded companion for exactly this terrain, helping people move through uncertainty with courage and an open heart. When innovation is guided by compassion and integrity, technology becomes more capable of nurturing human flourishing rather than undermining it.

The Role of Contemplative Tech in Shaping Human Awareness

Contemplative tech reminds us that attention is one of the most valuable human resources. The quality of attention influences emotional health, relationships, creativity, and spiritual growth. In environments built around distraction, technologies that encourage awareness become increasingly essential.

Contemplative tech also challenges assumptions about progress. Faster systems and greater efficiency do not automatically create wiser societies. Human awareness must grow alongside technological capability. Otherwise, innovation can outpace the emotional maturity needed to use it responsibly. Speed is not the same as depth, and efficiency is not the same as wisdom.

As contemplative practices become more integrated into digital spaces, technology gains the potential to nurture deeper forms of learning, healing, and self-understanding.

Final Thoughts

Liberatory technology invites a more conscious relationship with innovation, one grounded in compassion, presence, and ethical awareness. As digital culture continues evolving, ancient wisdom traditions offer valuable guidance for creating technology that nurtures human connection rather than fragmentation.

Through contemplative tech, conscious innovation, and wisdom technology, the future of innovation can become more heart-led, reflective, and deeply aligned with collective well-being. We believe the most transformative technology is the kind that brings people closer to themselves and to each other, and that has always been at the heart of what we do.

Frequently Asked Questions About Liberatory Technology

What is liberatory technology?

Liberatory technology refers to digital tools and systems designed to support human freedom, awareness, connection, and collective well-being instead of manipulation or dependence.

How does liberatory technology differ from traditional technology?

Traditional technology often prioritizes efficiency and engagement, while liberatory technology focuses on ethical impact, emotional health, and mindful human interaction.

Can technology support spiritual growth?

Yes. Technology can provide access to meditation practices, spiritual teachings, reflective communities, and educational resources that encourage personal growth and self-awareness.

Why is contemplative tech becoming more important?

Many people experience digital fatigue and emotional overwhelm. Contemplative tech helps create healthier digital habits through mindfulness, reflection, and intentional communication.

Is liberatory technology only related to meditation apps?

No. Liberatory technology can include educational platforms, ethical social networks, mindful communication tools, wellness technologies, and community-centered digital spaces.

How can people practice mindful technology use at home?

Simple habits such as limiting notifications, creating device-free spaces, taking digital breaks, and practicing intentional media consumption can support mindful technology use.

What role does emotional intelligence play in innovation?

Emotional intelligence helps creators design technologies that respect human needs, encourage empathy, and support healthier relationships within digital environments.

Why are ancient wisdom traditions relevant to future technology?

Ancient teachings emphasize awareness, compassion, and interconnectedness, offering valuable guidance for creating technology that supports humanity instead of overwhelming it.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant, and intuitive healer. She is the author of six books, including Skill in Action and Finding Refuge. Amy Burtaine is a leadership coach and racial equity trainer. With Robin DiAngelo, she is the coauthor of The Facilitator’s Guide for White Affinity Groups. For more, visit https://www.michellecjohnson.com/wisdom-of-the-hive.

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Tara Brach: Choosing to Love in Perilous Times

Tara Brach — June 23, 2026

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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 psychologist, and bestselling author of Radical Acceptance and Trusting the Gold—about her new inner workbook with Sounds True, The Courageous Heart: Choosing to Love in Perilous Times. At a moment when so many people feel pulled between despair and action, Tara offers a grounded path through both.

Join Tami and Tara to explore:

How to stay spiritually engaged—without burning out or spiritually bypassing the reality of suffering
The bodhisattva path as a living practice: what it means to be an “awakening being” in ordinary, everyday life
Why grief is often covered over by anger—and how moving through grief unlocks the capacity for love and action
The RAIN practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture) for working with armoring, fear, and excruciating pain in the heart
The shift from head space to heart space—and a brief guided meditation to experience it directly
How aspiration becomes the fuel for the spiritual path—and why Tara “sandwiches” her day with it
The practice of seeing basic goodness in others—including stories of Father Gregory Boyle and John Lewis that illuminate how this changes everything
What to do when you feel alone, disconnected, and uncertain where to start

Whether you’re overwhelmed by current events or searching for a more engaged and openhearted way to meet this moment, Tara Brach offers both the courage and the practical tools to begin.

Listen now and choose to love. →

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.

Enter for a chance to win the Monthly Magic Subscription Journey. It includes 12 months of tea, a loose leaf starter kit, monthly virtual classes, and free shipping worth $673. Learn more at ClubMagicHour.com/TRUE (no purchase required). Get 20% off your first order of Magic Hour tea at ClubMagicHour.com with the code TRUE.

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Gangaji On The Diamond In Your Pocket: Discovering Wha...

Amy Burtaine
Michelle Cassandra Johnson — June 23, 2026

Most of us have spent years believing that peace, freedom, and wholeness are things we have to work toward. We follow the practices, read the books, sit with the teachers, and still carry a quiet suspicion that we have not quite arrived. Gangaji’s work gently turns that assumption on its head. What if what you are looking for has been with you all along, like a diamond sitting in your pocket that you never thought to check?

At Sounds True, we have spent over four decades publishing and sharing the voices of the world’s most trusted spiritual teachers, bringing clarity and depth to the questions that matter most.

In this piece, we’ll examine Gangaji’s core teachings on meeting difficult emotions, the ongoing nature of spiritual awakening, and the central message at the heart of The Diamond in Your Pocket, that the wholeness you have been searching for has never been out of reach.

Key Takeaways:

Emotions as Doorways: Gangaji teaches that difficult emotions like anger, jealousy, and despair are not problems to fix but openings to a deeper recognition of what remains untouched at the core of every experience.
Awakening as a Lifelong Unfolding: A genuine shift in awareness is real and life-changing, but Gangaji’s own story shows that life continues to invite deeper honesty, and no level of spiritual experience exempts anyone from that call.
Wholeness Is Not Achieved, It Is Recognized: The central message of her work is that the truth, love, and freedom people spend their lives searching for have always been present, waiting beneath the stories the mind tells about who we are and what we lack.

What Gangaji Teaches About Meeting Difficult Emotions

Few subjects in spiritual life are as misunderstood as the role of difficult emotions on the path to awakening. Gangaji, an American-born teacher and author of The Diamond in Your Pocket, has spent decades guiding people toward a more honest relationship with what arises inside them. Here are three teachings that shift how we relate to our inner world:

Feeling The Emotion Fully Before Moving Through It

Gangaji is clear that meeting an emotion does not mean bypassing it. When her own marriage was shaken by betrayal, she let herself feel the raw anger completely, without softening it. She describes anger as a powerful but surface-level emotion. Only by spending it honestly could she access what lay beneath. Suppression, she teaches, is not the same as freedom. Research confirms this: individuals who habitually suppress emotions experience less positive affect, worse relationships, and reduced well-being compared to those who engage in acceptance-oriented approaches to emotional experience (PLOS ONE, 2019). The Whatever Arises, Love That Online Course offers a structured path for practicing exactly this quality of unconditional meeting.

Choosing To Open Rather Than To Dramatize

Once the initial wave of emotion passes, Gangaji points to a moment of genuine choice. Rather than continuing the internal story of wrongdoing, she found she could stop the familiar dialogue and open up to the deeper pain underneath. Self inquiry, in her experience, is not an intellectual exercise but an act of radical willingness to feel what is actually present. The APA defines introspection as the examination of one’s own mental and emotional processes, the same inward turning that Gangaji points to as the essential movement of genuine self-inquiry.

Discovering Wholeness At The Core Of The Wound

Perhaps the most quietly radical part of her teaching is this: inside the deepest hurt, something remains untouched. Gangaji found that even in despair, love remained, coexisting with pain as silent awareness. The Power of Awareness offers further teaching on how to meet and rest in that ever-present quality directly.

The Endless Nature Of Spiritual Awakening: There Is No Finish Line

Many people approach spiritual practice with the quiet hope that one day, the work will be complete. Gangaji’s own journey offers a far more honest and ultimately more freeing picture of what awakening actually looks like over a lifetime. Here are three key insights she shared on this theme:

A Fundamental Shift Is Real, But It Is Not The End

Gangaji does not dismiss the reality of awakening as a turning point. Meeting Papaji was the most fundamental shift in her life. And yet, what followed was not a permanent arrival but a continuing unfoldment. She has never found the end of realization, and she no longer expects to. The course Realization Unfolds explores this living dimension of spiritual recognition in depth.

Life Keeps Presenting What Has Not Yet Been Met

Even after years of teaching and deep spiritual experience, Gangaji found that certain areas of her life had not yet been brought into the light. Awakening does not exempt anyone from the places still waiting to be seen. Research on contemplative practice confirms that ongoing engagement with inner experience can transform the mental, emotional, and social dimensions of life, unfolding over time rather than arriving at a single fixed point (Frontiers in Education, 2021). Vigilance, as her teacher reminded her, is necessary until the last breath.

The Diamond In Your Pocket Has Always Been There

What makes this view of awakening genuinely hopeful rather than exhausting is Gangaji’s insistence that nothing is ever truly lost or missing. The wholeness, the truth, the love she discovered in the middle of her worst moments was not something she built or earned. The Presence Online Course supports exactly this kind of direct recognition. Through non-dual awakening, she recognized it was already free, already whole, simply waiting to be seen.

Final Thoughts

Gangaji’s conversation with Tami Simon is a generous and grounded reminder that the spiritual path is not about becoming someone new. It is about recognizing what has always been present beneath the noise of thought, emotion, and story. Whether you are sitting with a difficult feeling, questioning your relationship with a long-held identity, or simply wondering if the searching will ever feel like enough, her teachings offer something steadying: you are not broken, and there is nothing missing from you that needs to be found elsewhere.

The invitation in The Diamond in Your Pocket is one we can return to again and again. Gangaji’s own life, with all of its heartbreak, humiliation, and hard-won clarity, shows us that awakening is not a destination reserved for the few. It is a living, breathing practice of meeting what is here, right now, and trusting that at the core of it all, something whole remains.

Frequently Asked Questions About Gangaji On The Diamond In Your Pocket

Who is Gangaji, and what tradition does she come from?

Gangaji is an American-born spiritual teacher in the lineage of Sri Ramana Maharshi, transmitted to her by her guru, Papaji, in India in 1990.

What does the title “The Diamond in Your Pocket” mean?

It refers to the truth of who you already are, a wholeness that has always been present but goes unrecognized because we keep looking for it outside ourselves.

Is this book suitable for someone new to spiritual teachings?

Yes, Gangaji’s approach is direct and accessible, making it a meaningful entry point for anyone curious about the nature of awareness and identity.

How does Gangaji’s teaching differ from traditional meditation instruction?

Rather than building a practice over time, she invites an immediate stopping and recognition of what is already present beneath mental activity.

What role did Papaji play in Gangaji’s awakening?

Papaji was the living teacher whose single instruction to “stop” became the pivotal turning point that reoriented Gangaji’s entire understanding of herself.

Does Gangaji believe emotions need to be transcended on the spiritual path?

She teaches that emotions do not need to be eliminated or transformed, only met with openness, and without the layered story the mind adds to them.

How does her teaching address the relationship between personal suffering and spiritual growth?

Gangaji sees personal suffering not as an obstacle to awakening but as one of its most honest and humbling invitations.

What does Gangaji mean when she says awakening is endless?

She means that while a fundamental shift in recognition is real, life continues to surface deeper layers that call for the same openness and honesty.

Has Gangaji written other books besides “The Diamond in Your Pocket?”

Yes, she is also the author of You Are That, another exploration of self-recognition and the nature of true freedom.

Where can someone experience Gangaji’s teachings beyond the book?

Her teachings are available through retreats, satsangs, her weekly podcast, and audio and video programs published through Sounds True.

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Person practicing deep heart meditation in peaceful stillness

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The Deep Heart: How to Access Your Portal to Presence

Amy Burtaine
Michelle Cassandra Johnson — June 22, 2026

Many people spend years searching for a deeper sense of peace, clarity, and connection. Even with meditation or spiritual practice, the mind can remain busy and restless. Deep heart meditation offers a gentler approach through heart awareness and embodied presence. Rather than trying to force stillness, this practice invites us to slow down, listen inwardly, and reconnect with the quiet wisdom already within us. Through the multidimensional heart, moments of openness and presence can begin to emerge naturally in everyday life.

At Sounds True, we have spent four decades sharing transformational teachings from respected spiritual teachers, contemplatives, and wisdom leaders. Through audio courses, digital programs, and learning experiences, we walk alongside people seeking greater mindfulness, emotional healing, and authentic spiritual growth. The teachings of John Prendergast and his reflections on the multidimensional heart align closely with our commitment to grounded, heart-centered wisdom.

Together, we’ll look at how deep heart meditation, heart awareness, and the portal to presence can open a more connected and compassionate way of living.

Key Takeaways:

Your Heart Already Knows: Deep heart meditation fosters a more compassionate relationship with thoughts, emotions, and embodied presence.
A Heart Beyond Emotion: John Prendergast describes the multidimensional heart as a space of intuition, openness, stillness, and connection.
Presence Lives Within You: Simple moments of listening, breathing, and receptivity can open the portal to presence in everyday life.

The Deep Heart: What John Prendergast’s Work Reveals About Your Heart Center

Much of what we explore draws from John Prendergast’s body of work, and his book The Deep Heart offers one of the most compassionate maps of the heart’s inner landscape. At its center is a simple but profound idea: the heart is not merely a seat of emotion. He describes the deep heart as a subtle center of emotional and energetic sensitivity, relational intimacy, profound inner knowing, and unconditional love. This is the territory that deep heart meditation is designed to help us access.

What makes Prendergast’s teaching so grounded is how it holds both sides of the heart’s reality. The heart is where kindness, gratitude, and appreciation land most deeply in us. Most people guard this place far more carefully than they realize, even as the longing to open it remains just as strong. That tension between protection and opening is something many of us carry quietly for years, and the practices of heart awareness offer a compassionate way to work with it.

This heart-centered lineage runs through many of the teachings we carry at Sounds True. Tara Brach’s work on radical compassion asks us to meet fear, grief, and pain with an open heart rather than turning away from them. Pema Chödrön’s teachings on unconditional friendliness toward oneself echo the same essential invitation to stop guarding and start softening.

Looking to dive deeper into your heart? Our Presence Online Course is one structured way to continue that return, offering guided teachings that help bring these principles into the fabric of daily living.

The Wisdom of the Multidimensional Heart

Prendergast’s teaching bridges contemplative insight with emotional authenticity. His approach to the multidimensional heart offers a grounded way of experiencing presence directly through the body, emotions, and awareness itself.

The multidimensional heart is more than emotion alone. John Prendergast describes it as a spacious awareness that holds both vulnerability and clarity. Deep heart meditation helps people reconnect with this quieter inner wisdom beyond the analytical mind. As attention settles into the heart, the body often softens, breathing deepens, and thoughts lose their grip. Through heart awareness, experience can unfold with greater openness and ease.

The mind often looks for certainty and control, while the heart responds through openness and direct experience. During stress or uncertainty, heart awareness encourages compassionate listening instead of immediate reaction. In deep heart meditation, presence grows through allowing. The multidimensional heart creates space for emotions like grief, joy, fear, and tenderness without needing to judge or explain them.

How Heart Awareness Opens the Portal to Presence

Heart awareness begins with a willingness to slow down and listen more deeply. Presence often becomes accessible in the moments when we stop trying to escape ourselves or reshape experience into something more comfortable.

Presence Grows Through Receptive Attention

The portal to presence often opens through receptive awareness rather than effort. John Prendergast describes this as a relaxed and open quality of attention that allows stillness to arise naturally. Deep heart meditation helps people recognize that presence already exists beneath mental noise and tension. Simple experiences like breathing quietly, sensing the body, or listening without judgment can deepen heart awareness and create more space for reflection.

The Body as a Living Expression of Heart Awareness

The body plays a central role in deep heart meditation. Emotional protection and mental tension are often carried physically through the chest, shoulders, throat, and abdomen. Heart awareness invites us to meet these sensations gently rather than pushing past them. As the body softens, people experience a greater sense of groundedness and intimacy with life.

The multidimensional heart goes beyond abstract idea or distant mystical state, revealing itself directly through the breath, the posture, and the quiet signals the body sends moment to moment. Sitting quietly, sensing the chest area, or simply noticing tension without judgment can begin opening the portal to presence in real and lasting ways. Those drawn to the relationship between the body and healing may find our Body as Healer program a natural companion to this practice.

Deep Heart Meditation and the Practice of Heart Awareness

Deep heart meditation encourages a different relationship with spiritual practice. Rather than emphasizing performance or attainment, it honors sincerity, openness, and inner listening.

Releasing the Pressure to Perform Spiritually

Many people unknowingly bring habits of striving into meditation. There can be pressure to remain peaceful, emotionally balanced, or spiritually insightful at all times. John Prendergast reminds us that genuine presence does not emerge from trying to appear awakened. Presence grows through authenticity.

Heart awareness allows us to meet ourselves without constantly evaluating our progress. Difficult emotions, distraction, uncertainty, and vulnerability are welcomed into awareness rather than rejected. This creates a more compassionate foundation for meditation and personal growth.

Deep heart meditation also softens the tendency to divide experience into spiritual and nonspiritual moments. Presence becomes something available during ordinary life — during a walk in the park, a quiet cup of tea, or an honest conversation.

Allowing Silence to Deepen Naturally

Silence within heart awareness carries warmth, spaciousness, and connection. In meditation, silence can become a place where emotional holding begins to loosen and deeper insight quietly emerges.

Some moments of practice may feel peaceful, while others may reveal discomfort or unresolved emotion. The multidimensional heart allows space for all of it. Rather than forcing silence or suppressing thoughts, deep heart meditation encourages patient presence with whatever arises.

Many people notice that this relationship with silence extends into daily life. The portal to presence begins appearing in simple moments that once felt unnoticed or rushed. For those looking for a structured path into this kind of stillness, our Insight Meditation program offers an approachable and grounded foundation to begin.

Exploring the Multidimensional Heart Through Deep Heart Meditation

The multidimensional heart can be supported through simple practices woven into everyday life. These moments of awareness help strengthen our connection to presence in practical and meaningful ways.

Pause and take several slow breaths before responding during emotional conversations.
Place gentle attention on the heart area for a few moments each morning.
Notice physical tension in the chest, shoulders, or jaw without trying to change it immediately.
Spend quiet time in nature while sensing the body and breath together.
Listen to another person fully before preparing a response.
Allow difficult emotions to move through awareness without immediate judgment or analysis.
Reflect on moments of gratitude, tenderness, or connection before going to sleep.

While these practices may appear simple, they help cultivate a more direct relationship with heart awareness. Deep heart meditation becomes less confined to formal practice and more integrated into the rhythm of daily living. Those drawn to deepening their relationship with the energetic and spiritual dimensions of the body may find The Subtle Body Online Training Program a rich and grounded place to continue.

Final Thoughts

Deep heart meditation invites us into a quieter and more compassionate relationship with ourselves. Through heart awareness, the portal to presence becomes something we can return to in ordinary moments of daily life. John Prendergast’s teaching on the multidimensional heart reminds us that presence is not distant or reserved for special experiences. Presence is available through openness, embodied awareness, and the willingness to listen deeply to what is already here.

At Sounds True, this is the work we have been devoted to for four decades. Our online courses and in-depth programs bring together the teachings of respected spiritual voices, from Tara Brach to Pema Chödrön, to help you build a practice that is grounded, personal, and lasting. The portal to presence does not require a perfect meditation cushion or a quiet mountain retreat.

Through our programs, we walk with you into the heart of ordinary life, where the deepest transformation tends to happen.

Frequently Asked Questions About Deep Heart Meditation

What is deep heart meditation?

Deep heart meditation is a contemplative practice that focuses on awareness through the heart rather than through mental concentration alone. It encourages openness, emotional honesty, and embodied presence.

How does deep heart meditation differ from traditional meditation?

Many traditional meditation approaches emphasize focus or observation of thoughts. Deep heart meditation places greater attention on heart awareness, emotional receptivity, and connection with the body.

Who is John Prendergast?

John Prendergast is a spiritual teacher, psychotherapist, and author known for his teachings on presence, nonduality, and the multidimensional heart.

What does the phrase “portal to presence” mean?

The portal to presence refers to moments when awareness becomes more open, grounded, and connected to immediate experience instead of being consumed by mental distraction.

Can beginners practice deep heart meditation?

Yes. Deep heart meditation is approachable for beginners because it focuses on simple awareness, listening, breathing, and emotional openness rather than strict techniques.

What is the multidimensional heart?

The multidimensional heart refers to the deeper dimensions of awareness connected to intuition, compassion, stillness, embodiment, and spiritual insight.

How can heart awareness improve relationships?

Heart awareness can support deeper listening, emotional presence, and more compassionate communication by reducing reactive patterns and encouraging openness.

Is deep heart meditation connected to any religion?

Deep heart meditation may draw inspiration from contemplative traditions, but it can be practiced by people of any spiritual background or personal belief system.

How long should someone practice heart awareness each day?

Even a few quiet minutes each day can help strengthen heart awareness. Consistency and sincerity are often more important than long meditation sessions.

Can deep heart meditation help with emotional stress?

Many people find that deep heart meditation helps create space around emotional stress by encouraging grounded awareness, self-compassion, and embodied presence.

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Michael Singer on the Personal Mind: Why You Can’...

Amy Burtaine
Michelle Cassandra Johnson — June 22, 2026

Have you ever noticed how difficult it can be to stop thinking? The mind constantly replays conversations, worries about the future, and reacts to situations long after they have passed. Michael Singer’s teachings on the personal mind offer a different approach. Rather than trying to control every thought, he invites you to observe the mind with awareness and allow thoughts to move through without becoming emotionally consumed by them.

This shift can create more clarity, presence, and inner peace. That same idea sits at the core of what Singer explores in his podcast series Untethered Soul at Work, where he brings these principles into the everyday texture of professional life, workplace dynamics, and human relationships, showing that the same inner freedom available in meditation is available in the middle of a stressful afternoon.

Here at Sounds True, we have spent four decades sharing transformational teachings from respected spiritual teachers, authors, and wisdom keepers whose work deepens mindfulness, self-awareness, and emotional healing. Here, we look at Michael Singer’s teachings on the personal mind, observing thoughts, and why lasting freedom goes beyond thinking alone.

Key Takeaways:

Your Mind Shapes Your Reality: The personal mind builds emotional habits through past experiences, quietly shaping how you react, relate, and move through daily life. These patterns often run beneath the surface until something in the present moment triggers a familiar response.
Watch Thoughts Without Reacting: Michael Singer’s approach to observing thoughts invites you to step back from mental noise and witness your inner experience with curiosity rather than being swept away by each reaction.
Let Go, Find Inner Peace: Releasing attachment to mental narratives creates more presence, clarity, and emotional balance. The shift happens through loosening each thought’s grip rather than trying to force the mind into silence.

Understanding the Michael Singer Mind and the Personal Mind

Michael Singer teaches that suffering often begins with identification with the personal mind. The mind constantly reacts, interprets, and replays experiences, making it difficult to stay present. Shaped by past experiences and emotional conditioning, these mental patterns influence how you respond to life. Rather than forcing the mind into silence, Singer encourages observing thoughts with awareness. Freedom begins when you realize you are not your thoughts, and that realization creates more space for presence, compassion, and inner peace.

Singer’s program Living from a Place of Surrender goes deeper into this exact practice, guiding you through the steady, grounded work of releasing the personal mind and learning to live from openness rather than reactivity. For anyone who resonates with the ideas in this post, that program is where Singer’s teachings come alive in a structured, guided way.

Why the Personal Mind Keeps You Stuck in Mental Patterns

The personal mind tends to repeat familiar reactions because it seeks comfort in what it already knows. Even painful emotional patterns can feel safer than uncertainty. Singer explains that many people spend years reinforcing mental habits without realizing how deeply those habits shape their experience of life.

Emotional Conditioning Shapes Perception

Experiences from the past often remain active beneath the surface of daily life. Unresolved emotions can influence reactions long after the original event has passed. A difficult relationship, childhood criticism, or a painful disappointment may continue affecting the way you respond to present situations.

The personal mind stores these impressions and uses them to interpret reality. Rather than meeting each moment openly, the mind immediately compares it to previous experiences, creating automatic emotional reactions that feel deeply personal and difficult to control. A simple comment at work, for example, can land as sharp criticism simply because the mind is filtering it through an older wound that has nothing to do with what just happened.

Singer teaches that awareness allows you to witness these patterns without becoming consumed by them. Observing reactions calmly can loosen the grip of emotional conditioning.

The Search for Control Creates Inner Tension

The personal mind constantly searches for certainty. This part of us tries to predict outcomes, avoid discomfort, and hold on to control over external circumstances. Yet this mental effort often produces greater anxiety rather than peace.

Singer explains that the mind believes safety comes from controlling life. In reality, lasting peace develops through openness and acceptance. The more tightly we cling to fears, preferences, and expectations, the more tension we create within ourselves. Times of change and uncertainty make this all the more familiar, with the mind working overtime to find solid ground that simply does not exist yet.

Letting go does not mean becoming passive or disconnected. The practice means learning to remain present even when life feels uncertain. Through this approach, you begin experiencing greater emotional freedom.

Michael Singer Podcast Insights on Observing Thoughts

Many listeners connect deeply with the Michael Singer podcast because his teachings are practical, compassionate, and easy to apply in everyday life. He speaks about awareness in a grounded way that helps you recognize the habits of the mind without shame or self-criticism.

Observing Thoughts Without Resistance

Singer often reminds listeners that thoughts are not the true source of suffering. Difficulty begins when you fully identify with every thought that arises. A fearful thought becomes overwhelming when it is immediately believed and emotionally reinforced.

Observing thoughts creates a different experience. Rather than reacting automatically, you learn to witness mental activity with curiosity and awareness. Fear, anger, or worry may still arise, but those feelings no longer define the entire inner experience. Over time, you may find that the thought which once sent your heart racing starts to feel less like a verdict and more like a passing cloud.

This practice is not about suppressing emotions or pretending difficult feelings do not exist. Singer encourages you to allow thoughts and emotions to move naturally without becoming trapped inside them.

Awareness Exists Beneath Mental Activity

One of the central themes in Singer’s teachings is that awareness remains present beneath the constant movement of the mind. Thoughts change continuously, yet awareness itself stays steady.

Many people spend their lives focused entirely on mental noise without recognizing the deeper stillness underneath it. Through meditation, self-inquiry, and mindful observation, you can begin reconnecting with that quieter inner presence. Our Meditation Summit brings together world-class teachers for exactly this kind of practice, with guided approaches that make stillness feel less like a destination and more like something you can return to throughout the day.

Singer explains that freedom grows naturally as awareness deepens. The goal is not mental perfection. The goal is learning how to remain present without allowing every thought to control attention and emotional energy.

The Untethered Soul: Mind and the Practice of Inner Awareness

The untethered soul mind reflects a way of living with greater openness and less attachment to mental patterns. Singer teaches that awareness expands when you stop resisting your inner experience and allow life to unfold naturally.

Inner Awareness Shifts Your Relationship to Emotion

Many people instinctively avoid uncomfortable emotions. They distract themselves, suppress feelings, or create mental stories to escape discomfort. Singer encourages a gentler and more honest approach.

Inner awareness involves allowing emotions to arise without immediately trying to fix or control them. Sadness, fear, frustration, and uncertainty become experiences that can move through awareness rather than permanent states of identity. You might notice, for instance, that when you stop fighting a wave of anxiety and simply observe it, the feeling often begins to soften. Resistance is what feeds it, and releasing that resistance is what allows it to move through.

Presence Matters More Than Mental Perfection

Singer consistently teaches that spiritual growth is not about achieving a flawless state of mind. Thoughts continue to arise because thinking is part of being human. The deeper practice involves learning not to cling to every mental movement.

The untethered soul mind develops gradually through awareness and openness. Over time, you often notice more calm, patience, and emotional resilience in everyday life. Inner peace becomes less dependent on controlling external situations and more connected to the ability to remain present. Our program Realization Unfolds walks alongside you as awareness deepens, with teachings that help the inner life become a place of refuge rather than resistance.

Observing Thoughts Without Letting the Mind Take Control

Michael Singer’s teachings on observing thoughts open a practical path toward inner freedom. Rather than becoming trapped inside mental reactions, you can learn to witness thoughts with greater clarity and balance.

Distance Creates Freedom: Observing thoughts helps create space between awareness and emotional reactivity, giving you room to respond rather than simply react.
Old Fears Still Surface: The mind often repeats familiar fears and judgments that no longer serve the present moment. Recognizing a thought as a pattern rather than a fact is one of the most freeing shifts you can make.
Resistance Slows the Process: Awareness grows stronger when you stop fighting every uncomfortable emotion or thought. Allowing what arises without judgment is often the gentler, more grounded path, and Singer returns to this point again and again across his work.
Practice Builds the Foundation: Meditation and stillness practices can strengthen self-awareness and emotional clarity. Even a few minutes of quiet observation each day can shift your relationship with the mind in ways that accumulate gradually.
Attachment Amplifies Thoughts: Thoughts lose much of their power when witnessed without immediate attachment. The moment you stop treating every mental event as urgent or defining, its hold on you begins to loosen.
Presence Replaces Reactivity: Presence allows you to respond to life more consciously rather than reacting on autopilot. The change happens in everyday moments, right where the mind tries to take the wheel.
Awareness Builds Over Time: Emotional freedom develops gradually through consistent self-observation. Small moments of presence, practiced daily, become the foundation of a quieter and more grounded life, one where the noise of the mind is no longer running the show.

Personal Mind Liberation Through Letting Go of Inner Narratives

Personal mind liberation begins with recognizing how strongly the mind clings to identity and inner stories. The mind repeats narratives about success, failure, and self-worth until they feel permanent.

Singer teaches that freedom becomes possible when you stop treating every thought as absolute truth. Thoughts and emotions may still arise, but they no longer need to define who you are. Through awareness and self-observation, you can let thoughts pass naturally, creating more space for compassion, presence, and emotional balance.

For those ready to walk this path further, The Freedom Collection brings together a curated body of teachings that echo Singer’s core invitation and can carry you deeper into that process of inner liberation.

How the Untethered Soul Mind Opens the Door to Lasting Peace

The untethered soul mind points toward a calmer and more spacious way of living. Michael Singer teaches that lasting peace grows from staying present and open within life itself, rather than from trying to control every situation or emotion.

As awareness deepens, difficult moments often feel more manageable, bringing more patience, clarity, and compassion into daily experience. His teachings continue to resonate because they trace a grounded path toward inner freedom through observing the mind without becoming trapped inside every thought.

Singer’s Path: Freedom That Lives Beyond the Thinking Mind

Michael Singer teaches that true freedom lives beyond constant mental activity. While the mind helps with daily tasks and decision-making, suffering often begins when you fully identify with your thoughts.

Singer invites you to remain grounded in awareness rather than mental struggle, allowing relationships, creativity, and personal growth to unfold with greater presence and ease. His teachings resonate because they invite openness, compassion, and a deeper connection to the present moment.

Final Thoughts

Singer’s teachings remind us that freedom does not come from controlling every thought or emotion. That freedom comes from learning how to witness the mind without becoming trapped inside its constant activity. As awareness deepens, the personal mind begins to lose its grip, creating more space for presence, openness, and peace.

Through observing thoughts with compassion and honesty, it becomes possible to experience life with greater clarity and inner freedom. That is the invitation at the heart of everything we do at Sounds True. Waking up to who you really are, beneath the noise of the mind, is the kind of living wisdom we have always existed to share.

Frequently Asked Questions About Michael Singer’s Mind and Personal Freedom

What does Michael Singer mean by the “voice inside your head”?

Michael Singer describes the inner voice as the mind’s constant stream of commentary, judgment, and interpretation. He teaches that awareness exists separately from that mental chatter.

Why do people become attached to their thoughts?

People often identify with thoughts because they believe those thoughts define who they are. Emotional experiences and personal history can strengthen that attachment over time.

Can observing thoughts improve emotional health?

Yes. Observing thoughts calmly can reduce emotional reactivity and help people respond to situations with greater awareness instead of automatic reactions.

What is the difference between awareness and thinking?

Thinking involves mental activity such as analyzing, judging, or remembering. Awareness is the deeper presence that notices those thoughts without becoming trapped inside them.

Can spiritual growth happen without controlling the mind?

Singer teaches that spiritual growth comes through observation and openness rather than forcing the mind into complete silence or control.

Why do repetitive thoughts feel so powerful?

Repetitive thoughts gain strength through emotional attachment and attention. The more people identify with them, the more dominant they can appear.

How can someone begin practicing inner awareness?

Simple practices like mindful breathing, meditation, and noticing thoughts without reacting immediately can help develop greater awareness over time.

What makes Michael Singer’s teachings resonate with so many people?

His teachings are accessible, compassionate, and grounded in direct experience. Many people connect with the practical way he explains awareness and emotional freedom.

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A person sitting with clasped hands reflecting on trauma and healing

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Bessel van der Kolk: Why The Body Keeps The Score And ...

Amy Burtaine
Michelle Cassandra Johnson — June 22, 2026

Trauma has a quiet way of staying in the body long after the mind has tried to move on. It shows up in the tension we carry, the way we flinch, the exhaustion that has no clear cause. For many people, the connection between past pain and present physical experience goes unnamed for years, and that silence can make healing feel out of reach.

At Sounds True, we have spent over four decades bringing the world’s most trusted teachers and researchers directly to the people who need them most. With a library of more than 3,000 transformational titles and a weekly podcast reaching listeners around the globe, we are honored to share the work of voices like Bessel van der Kolk.

In this piece, we’ll discuss why the body keeps the score, how trauma lives in the nervous system, and what genuine healing can look like.

Key Takeaways:

Trauma’s Physical Imprint: Trauma is encoded in the nervous system and body, meaning healing requires more than just understanding what happened on a cognitive level.
Beyond the Talking Cure: Body-based practices such as EMDR, yoga, and movement have proven far more effective for many trauma survivors than traditional talk therapy alone.
Healing Is Possible: Bessel van der Kolk’s decades of research affirm that with the right conditions and support, the human body and mind hold a genuine capacity for recovery and renewal.

Why The Body Holds What The Mind Tries To Forget

Trauma has a way of staying with us long after the event itself has passed. In his conversation on our Insights at the Edge podcast, Bessel van der Kolk shares decades of clinical research that point to a profound truth: the mind may try to move on, but the body keeps the score. Here is what that really means:

Trauma Lives Below The Level Of Thought

Most people assume that healing means making sense of what happened, but Bessel van der Kolk reminds us that the trauma brain does not process painful experiences the way ordinary memories do. Trauma gets encoded in the nervous system, showing up as physical sensations, reactivity, and a body that stays on high alert long after the danger is gone. Research confirms that during traumatic events, hippocampal encoding is suppressed while the amygdala intensifies its capture of sensory and emotional content, leaving trauma stored as implicit body-held fragments rather than coherent narrative memory (ISTSS, 2025). Our Healing Trauma Online Course offers structured guidance for working through exactly this.

The Body Responds Before The Mind Catches Up

One of the most grounding insights from Bessel van der Kolk’s work is that the body reacts to trauma faster than conscious thought ever could. Heart rate, muscle tension, and breathing patterns all shift automatically, which is why people often feel overwhelmed or frozen without fully understanding why. Trauma and the Embodied Brain explores these neurological underpinnings in depth. The body is responding to a threat it has not forgotten.

Survival Patterns Can Become Stuck

When the nervous system gets locked into survival mode, everyday situations can feel dangerous even when they are not. This is how unresolved trauma body healing becomes so necessary, as the body has essentially learned to protect itself in ways that now interfere with connection, rest, and feeling safe in the present moment.

How Healing Actually Happens: Moving Beyond Talk Therapy

For a long time, the dominant belief in mental health care was that talking through trauma was enough to heal it. Bessel van der Kolk’s research gently but firmly challenges that assumption, pointing us toward approaches that work with the whole person, not just the thinking mind. Here is what the path forward can look like:

The Limits Of Talking It Out

Language is a powerful tool, but it has its limits when it comes to trauma. Bessel van der Kolk explains that because trauma is stored below conscious awareness, talk therapy alone often cannot reach the places where the pain actually lives. Healing requires working with the body directly, not just narrating what happened. The Trauma Skills Program provides a practical framework for exactly that kind of work.

Somatic Trauma Therapy Opens New Doors

Body-based approaches like EMDR, yoga, psychodrama, and interoception practices have shown remarkable results in Bessel van der Kolk’s clinical work. EMDR has been recognized by the World Health Organization as a first-choice treatment for PTSD, and is rated strongly recommended by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies for children, adolescents, and adults (Frontiers in Psychology, 2019). These methods help people safely re-enter the felt experience of the body, releasing what has been held there rather than simply talking around it. Twenty-four randomized controlled trials have demonstrated the positive effects of EMDR specifically in treating both psychological and somatic symptoms stemming from traumatic experiences (The Permanente Journal, 2014). The body, it turns out, has its own language for healing.

Movement, Rhythm, And Collective Joy Matter

Some of the most compelling insights from Bessel van der Kolk involve the healing power of music, movement, and shared human experience. Practices that invite rhythm, play, and a sense of belonging help regulate the nervous system in ways that no amount of analysis can replicate. Healing, at its heart, is about feeling alive and connected again. Body as Healer offers further guidance on cultivating that aliveness through embodied practice.

Final Thoughts

Bessel van der Kolk’s work carries something rare in the world of trauma research: genuine hope. His decades of clinical experience have not left him hardened or discouraged. If anything, he remains optimistic about the human capacity to heal, grow, and reclaim a life that feels full and present. Trauma is not a life sentence. With the right support, the right practices, and the willingness to listen to what the body is asking for, real change becomes possible.

What makes his teachings so enduring is how deeply they honor the whole person. Healing is not about erasing the past or pretending the pain did not matter. It is about becoming fluid, alive, and grounded in the present. Whether you are just beginning to understand your own story or well along your healing path, the wisdom of Bessel van der Kolk reminds us that the body, given the right conditions, knows how to find its way home.

Frequently Asked Questions About Why The Body Keeps The Score

What is the central argument of Bessel van der Kolk’s work?

Trauma is not just a psychological experience but a physical one that reshapes the brain and body at a fundamental level.

How long has Bessel van der Kolk been researching trauma?

He has been studying and treating traumatic stress since the 1970s, making his career span over five decades of research.

Is The Body Keeps the Score only relevant to people with severe trauma?

The book and its teachings apply broadly, including to anyone carrying unresolved stress, childhood wounds, or chronic emotional pain.

Can trauma affect physical health, not just mental health?

Yes, unresolved trauma can manifest as chronic pain, autoimmune issues, sleep disorders, and other physical symptoms throughout the body.

What populations did Bessel van der Kolk originally study?

His early research focused on Vietnam veterans, though his findings have since been applied to survivors of childhood abuse, domestic violence, and other traumas.

Does Bessel van der Kolk believe full recovery from trauma is possible?

Yes, he holds an optimistic view that with the right approaches and support, people can genuinely reclaim a sense of safety and wholeness.

What role does the nervous system play in trauma?

The nervous system acts as the body’s alarm system, and trauma can leave it stuck in a state of chronic activation even in safe environments.

Are there trauma healing approaches that do not require reliving painful memories?

Yes, many body-based and experiential methods work without requiring a person to verbally recount or re-experience their traumatic events in detail.

Has Bessel van der Kolk’s work influenced how therapists are trained today?

His research has reshaped trauma-informed care globally, influencing training programs, clinical models, and treatment standards across the mental health field.

Can healing from trauma happen at a community or societal level?

Bessel van der Kolk believes collective healing is possible and that shared human experiences, such as rhythm, movement, and belonging, play a meaningful role in recovery.

Sources:

Brewin, C. R. (2025). Key concepts, methods, findings, and questions about traumatic memories. PMC/ISTSS Annual Meeting Proceedings. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12551622/
Capezzani, L., Ostacoli, L., & Fernandez, I. (2019). Present and future of EMDR in clinical psychology and psychotherapy. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, Article 2185. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6776929/
Shapiro, F. (2014). The role of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy in medicine: Addressing the psychological and physical symptoms stemming from adverse life experiences. The Permanente Journal, 18(1), 71–77. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3951033/