Sounds True: Producer's Pick

Adyashanti is a prolific and respected spiritual teacher whose work began in Zen Buddhism but has expanded beyond any set tradition or ideology. His teachings emphasize that any and all people can achieve enlightenment regardless of their specific spiritual path. In his newest audio program, Healing the Core Wound of Unworthiness, Adya explains how modern […]

Cyndi Dale—one of the world’s leading experts in energy healing—has made an astonishing discovery in her private practice: up to 80 percent of the complaints that people come into the office with are not really their own, but are issues they have absorbed from those around them. She’s found that we unconsciously internalize many issues […]

In Roger Housden’s new audio program, Keeping the Faith Without a Religion, the bestselling author and poet considers how one can embrace the totality of life outside the structure of organized religious practice. In this selection chosen by Sounds True producer Randy Roark, Housden extols the importance of ceasing the incessant rush of our lives and accepting the joy of inactivity—if only for a little while. Roark commented on his pick: “The best part of this excerpt is that for people like me who become anxious just doing nothing, Roger gives us an assignment!” With Housden’s gentle guidance, you too can overcome the fear of a lazy afternoon.

Many traditional meditation practices involve the repetition of a specific set of techniques. While these techniques have great merit, Adyashanti suggests a different approach to meditation. In this Producer’s Pick selected by Matt Licata, Adyashanti welcomes us to experience a type of meditation that frees us from any technique and opens us to the expansive experience of what he describes as “the natural state.”

“Lisa Wimberger is a living example of what is possible using the tools of modern science for self-directed brain change,” says Sounds True producer Randy Roark. “She embodies what I call becoming ‘Human 2.0.’” As Lisa explains in this selection from the audio course Neurosculpting: A Step-by-Step Program to Change Your Brain and Transform Your Life, she began using the tools of positive neuroplasticity for more than just a self-improvement project. Suffering from a rare neurological disorder, the tools she presents in this program were literally a means for her to try to stay alive. What she learned on her own personal journey became a system of practices that have a tremendous track record for to enacting positive brain change. “I firmly believe that if we took charge of our lives and brains the way Lisa has,” says Randy, “we all have the potential to become our own form of Human 2.0.”

Most pregnancy experts focus on what’s going on in a mother’s body—yet Catherine Shainberg knows that a mother’s thoughts, dreams, and imagination can have the greatest impact on the experience of childbirth. Catherine’s DreamBirth® work uses the power of guided imagery to help mothers access the body’s vast creative intelligence to enhance the complete journey of childbirth. In this selection chosen by Sounds True producer Mitchell Clute from the audio program DreamBirth: Imagery for Conception, Pregnancy, Labor, and Bonding, Catherine explains how the DreamBirth process works, and how the body can respond almost instantaneously to the power of Image.

Subtle healing systems from many traditions speak of energy centers in our bodies, often called the chakras. Many of us in the West have become familiar with the idea of chakras as important for our health, yet we may not be aware of the wide variety of benefits we can gain from working with our chakra system. In her audio course Advanced Chakra Wisdom, intuitive healer Cyndi Dale teaches practices that go beyond enhancing our health, working with the chakras to reveal our hidden gifts, access past lives, accelerate our spiritual growth, and much more. In this selection, chosen by Sounds True producer Randy Roark, Cyndi gives an overview of the many benefits we can realize through the “stars inside our bodies.”

When Sounds True producer Stephen Lessard recorded the new audio program Dream Yoga: The Tibetan Path of Awakening Through Lucid Dreaming, he was struck by how relevant this seemingly esoteric practice is to everyday life. As Stephen says, “I was amazed at Andrew Holecek’s ability to build on the practice of lucid dreaming with techniques from Tibetan dream yoga. In this selection, Andrew begins by building on his description of Illusory Form, which is the starting point and the daytime practice of dream yoga. From here—and this is what excited me in the recording—he gets at the core of this entire program is about, and how it relates to any spiritual practice. I’ll allow you to listen to find out for yourself!”

We think of places of power as being sacred sites, cathedrals, or areas of great natural beauty—yet your greatest power spot is a place you inhabit all the time. Michael Bernard Beckwith calls this “your body temple,” and teaches that part of what we all must do to express our true purpose in life is to honor this vessel that carries us through life. As Sounds True producer Nancy Smith says, “Michael’s passion for conscious embodiment inspires us to appreciate and care for the precious body we inhabit.” In this selection from the audio program Your Place of Power: Life Visioning Practices for Honoring the Body Temple, he illuminates the reason why we have been given the gift of incarnating in physical form.

In her new audio program The Art of Empathy, Karla McLaren brings to light research that compels us to seek a much deeper understanding of what emotions are, why they arise, and the purpose they are trying to serve. Sounds True producer Stephen Lessard selected this week’s Producer’s Pick because it reflects Karla’s way of dealing with emotions without any stigma of “good” or “bad” feelings, allowing us to approach our emotions with wisdom and an understanding of the action we are being called to take. “Most of all,” says Stephen, “I hope this selection gives you a sense of Karla’s warmth, her humor, and the beautiful open-heartedness she brings to her teaching.”

Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy is a a powerful psychological tool for finding freedom from chronic emotional issues such as depression and anxiety and creating internal harmony where the aspects of your psyche are working together for your well-being. In this selection from Dr. Jay Earley’s audio program Self-Therapy, he introduces listeners to the basic concepts of IFS including the two main categories of our sub-personalities—our “exiles” and our “protectors.”

Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, author of Buddha’s Brain, has spent over a decade studying how we can consciously harness our brain’s natural malleability, or “neuroplasticity,” to deepen our experience of happiness and joy. In this selection from his audio program Self-Directed Brain Change, Dr. Hanson discusses some of the techniques he has used personally and has taught to thousands of people to help us tap into the life-changing power hidden in seemingly ordinary moments. With these methods, we can consciously work with the positive experiences in our lives to create neural structures that support and sustain our overall well-being.

The Satipatthana Sutta is the Buddha’s practice-oriented teaching on the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. On the audio program Mindfulness: Six Guided Practices for Awakening, master teacher Joseph Goldstein offers six guided meditations based on this profound teaching of the Buddha. In this excerpt selected by Sounds True producer Randy Roark, Joseph illuminates the importance of these meditations, and explains how easy and effortless it is to follow them on what the Buddha called “the direct path to liberation.”

According to Caroline Myss, we are in an age of spiritual awakening—and many of us feel a deep longing for spiritual intimacy, to share the journey of our awakening with kindred spirits. These are our soulmates, and in The Soulmate Contract: The Power of Partnership in Your Spiritual Life, Caroline Myss and Andrew Harvey introduce us to the variety of spiritual companions who are always with us—lovers, friends, teachers, spirit guides, animals, and nature itself will guide us if we only learn how to listen to them. In this excerpt, selected by Sounds True producer Randy Roark, Caroline Myss explores the meaning of this universal longing for companionship on the spiritual journey.

By following both his scientific curiosity and his heart, Dr. Daniel Siegel began to question one of the most fundamental assumptions about human psychology and even biology: that we are an individual, separate self. Dr. Siegel discovered that our concept of “I” turns out to be more accurately a “we”—encompassing not only our own senses, brain, and awareness, but also—surprisingly enough—the world itself, including everyone around us that we interact with and merge with in every moment of our lives. In this excerpt from the audio course The Neurobiology of “We,” selected by Sounds True producer Randy Roark, Dr. Siegel explores some of the key observations that have caused us to alter the essential definition of who we are.