Sounds True: Producer's Pick

We know how valuable exercise can be for enhancing our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being. Yet we tend to think of it as something that must be strenuous, involving heavy weights or formidable physical challenges. But Dr. Andrew Weil shows us evidence that walking—an activity so simple that many of us take it for granted—may actually be the single best exercise for our health and vitality. When selecting this audio clip from the program Walking: The Ultimate Exercise for Optimum Health, Sounds True producer Matt Licata was impressed by Dr. Weil’s ability to simplify and demystify exercise. “As an avid walker myself,” says Matt, “I love the way that Dr. Weil lays out an inspiring vision for the power of walking to create a true shift in our life experience.”

One of the hallmarks of living an awakened life, as echoed throughout the world wisdom traditions, is being able to discern between “thinking” and “awareness.” Sounds True producer Matt Licata has heard many teachers who can speak clearly about awakening in a conceptual way, but believes that Eckhart Tolle has a unique gift for leading us directly into the experience of presence. “Just listening to Eckhart triggers the subtle shift of noticing the spaces between our thoughts, where pure awareness exists,” says Matt. In this Producer’s Pick from Eckhart’s audio program Entering the Now, Matt encourages you to “Sit back, listen to both Eckhart’s words and the spaces between them, and allow yourself to fall gently into a place of radical stillness.”

David Whyte has a rare gift for expressing the wisdom of a spiritual teacher with a poet's mastery of language. When Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute recorded David's audio program, What to Remember When Waking he found that "David's voice is so compelling and his words so beautiful that at first you may not realize that he is asking hard questions and sharing hard-won insights." In this Producer's Pick, David Whyte explores the "courageous step" that is often so difficult for us to make on our own journey, and gently reveals the way we unknowingly sabotage ourselves instead of turning towards life's challenges.

When Sounds True producer Randy Roark recorded Dr. Martin Rossman’s Fall Asleep, Stay Asleep, he knew that he would be hearing three of Dr. Rossman’s clinically proven guided visualization exercises to help listeners get a good night’s rest. Just as important, however, were some simple guidelines that Dr. Rossman outlined for good “sleep hygiene.” As Randy observes, “Millions of people have trouble getting a good night’s rest. I was impressed by how these basic steps could help you get to sleep more quickly, stay asleep longer, get back to sleep if you wake up in the middle of the night, and wake up refreshed.”

When Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute began recording Cynthia Hutchison’s Healing Touch Meditations, he admits that he only had a vague idea of how Healing Touch differed from Reiki and other touch-based modalities. Yet after hearing Cynthia’s direct and heartfelt explanations of Healing Touch, he began to understand what has made this system so special and so widely embraced in the mainstream medical community. In this week’s excerpt, Cynthia brings her down-to-earth clarity to address the mystery of how human beings incarnate in this physical reality through what she calls the “vibrational step-down process.”

When Sounds True’s editorial director Nancy Smith recorded Gangaji’s audio course The Greatest Discovery, she experienced the feeling that many of Gangaji’s students report—that Gangaji seems to look directly into our hearts and minds, gently revealing unexamined thoughts and behaviors that are holding us back on the spiritual journey. As Nancy puts it, “She has a special gift for allowing you to see your true potential and recognize that it is within your reach at this very moment.” In this selection, Gangaji shows us how we can turn our pain and dissatisfaction into our greatest allies for growth and transformation.

Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute admits that he felt some trepidation when he went into the studio to record the audio learning course Taoist Sexual Secrets. "The outline had some unusual stuff. What did circulation of qi have to do with being multi-orgasmic? And what in God's name was 'testicular breathing'?" Fortunately, he needn't have worried—because the teachers on the program were Dr. Rachel Abrams and Lee Holden. "They were colleagues and friends," Mitchell says, "and their natural banter set the perfect tone for a program about transforming lovemaking into a spiritual practice." This week's excerpt shows how Lee and Rachel demystify Taoist terminology and offer practical, unique guidance.

Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute edited The Realization Process, Dr. Judith Blackstone’s six-hour audio training course on her original method for embodied spiritual awakening. At the heart of this work is what Dr. Blackstone calls “fundamental consciousness”—a primary dimension of being that is the basis of both our individual sense of self and the transcendence of our separateness. In this Producer’s Pick, Dr. Blackstone describes the primary attributes of this awakened state.

Sounds True publisher Tami Simon is our producer for Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés' audio series on The Dangerous Old Woman archetype. In this week's Producer's Pick, we hear the story of "The Silverbeards," from The Joyous Body, the fourth volume in this landmark collection. Here, Dr. Estés describes a visit to an underground hot spring, and how this visit impressed upon her what she calls "the numinosity of the body"—and in particular the beauty of the female body as we age.

For the past 40 years, neuropsychologist Dr. Rick Hanson has investigated this essential question: How can we be truly, deeply happy, regardless of the circumstances of our lives? For the first time in history, we can track the effects of specific behaviors on brain activity and demonstrate how meditation and mindfulness practices can change the structure and activity in our brain in positive ways. In his audio program The Enlightened Brain, Dr. Hanson teaches us how we can lay the foundations for lasting happiness by learning new ways to use our brains. In this Producer's Pick, Dr. Hanson explains that by knowing with increasing clarity and specificity something about what's going on in the brain when someone is in a positive or wholesome state of mind, then we can use the power of the mind alone to stimulate the neural substrates underlying those wholesome states of mind, and thereby strengthen them.

Every producer at Sounds True has their dream projects. For Mitchell Clute, one such recording was Just Being Here: Rumi and Human Friendship. "Even before I worked at Sounds True, I loved Coleman Barks' translations and his deep-voiced, big-hearted delivery of Rumi's ecstatic poetry." When paired with the spacious music of virtuoso cellist David Darling, Coleman's readings of Rumi's poetry unfolded in new and extraordinary ways. "In truth," says Mitchell, "I could choose any track from this program as an example of how beautifully Coleman and David's partnership works. But this one, called 'Raggedness,' sticks with me as one of my favorites."

In addition to being the founder of Sounds True, Tami Simon also produces a number of our audio programs. One of the programs that stood out to Tami was Pema Chödrön's Unconditional Confidence: Instructions for Meeting Any Experience with Trust and Courage. As Tami says, "When it comes to delivering heart instructions on how to work with what feels unworkable, perhaps no one hits the bulls-eye with as much warmth and accessibility as Pema Chödrön." This week's excerpt comes from Tami's interview with Pema included on Unconditional Confidence, in which Pema talks about how we can puncture and aerate any difficult experience with spaciousness.

A producer at Sounds True records hundreds of hours of audio with spiritual teachers and modern luminaries every year, and they are often asked which practices stand out as being the most useful in their own lives. For producer Randy Roark, one technique always tops the list: Radical Forgiveness. After working with Colin Tipping, the author of Radical Forgiveness, Randy says that he now understands anger in a new way. "Now that I know the proper tools, when I first begin feeling frustrated or angry, I can change the experience into a positive one for me and others in a healthy way." In this excerpt, Colin Tipping describes the method of Radical Forgiveness and what makes it different from the way we normally think of forgiveness.

"I have a simple religion," says Harijiwan Khalsa. "To be happier today than I was yesterday." This simple statement struck Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute as particularly profound coming from a renowned teacher of kundalini yoga. "What I remember best about Harijiwan," says Mitchell, "was the approachable, down-to-earth way he presented his teachings, which could easily have seemed arcane." In this excerpt from Harijiwan Khalsa's audio program Kundalini Meditation: Guided Practices to Activate the Energy of Awakening, you can get a taste of how Harijiwan's teachings are intended to help every listener achieve a sense of boundless joy and freedom.

"Angeles Arrien has the mind of a scholar and the heart of a friend." This was Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute's reaction when he recorded Angeles' audio program Gratitude: The Essential Practice for Happiness and Fulfillment. As both a cultural anthropologist and a spiritual teacher, Angeles has a gift for seeing how diverse global traditions all share certain common threads of wisdom. As Mitchell says, "Angeles weaves examples from many times and cultures to illuminate her core concepts. It is this skillful ability that gives her work such a unique impact." In this week's excerpt, Angeles explores gratitude and its relationship with grace, the giving of gifts, solace, and peace.