This guided meditation offers a pathway to quieting our mind and calming anxiety. We begin with long deep breathing, and with the breath, engage the image of a smile and relax through the body. Then we practice resting in relaxed awareness, allowing waves of thoughts, feelings and sensations to come and go.

Questions are précised: 01:17 Q1 You mentioned during meditation to start with breathing out. I noticed in my own practice that I don't fully breathe out. In fact breathing out intentionally is more exhausting. How can I be more balanced? 12:27 Q2 I have a mental pattern with deep roots, obsessing over details like the entomology of words that arises when I get panicked or upset. This seems to give me some respite from the panic. Can you offer any advice? 19:02 Q3 I feel both sense of fatigue and desire for connection. I'm confused about how to be with this desire because my mind tells me I should go out and connect with other people. But this isn't the point of meditation is it? How can I understand this tension between internal and external needs in this case? 25:03 Q4 In the last retreat I would wake up not knowing who I am and dream about somebody stabbing my heart. These feelings returned when I went back to domestic duties. In my dreams I am lost. How can I move past this black hole? 30:02 Q5 For me it's very difficult to be mindful every minute every second of my daily life. I do my best. It's easier on retreat or in a monastery. Can you comment? 36:17 Q6 The state of becoming entails grasping and craving then suffering. How can one abide in non becoming?

Bringing mindfulness to thoughts and emotions (Note: the first five minutes of the meditation with instructions for settling into the body sitting and breathing, were not recorded)

A guided meditation on 'breathing through the limbs and torso". This practice can help to disentangle energy blocks in the body and bring about great physical well being and body awareness.

After an intro - a guided meditation, breathing in the metta that is being generated in the world, and letting go on the out-breath.

How to Meditate--The 4 Practices Rooted in Tradition and Confirmed by Neuroscience. In this talk, Tina gives concise overview instructions and guidance on how to begin meditating, suitable for beginners and experienced meditators alike. She talks about general guidelines that apply to every type of meditation. Then she gives an overview of the 4 practice categories being studied in neuroscience, which are also reflected in the Buddhist tradion. Then she gives instructions on how to practice each type of meditation, with a short period of practice. To go directly to those sections, please see the following time markers: -Heart Practices--Bodhicitta and the Bramaviharas (lovingkindness, compassion, joy/gratitude, and equanimity): 15:45 -Focused Attention--Samatha (concentration and serenity), Anapanasati (mindfulness of breathing): 31:03 -Open Monitoring--Vipassana (insight meditation): 39:26 -Self-Transcending--Dzogchen (Rigpa): 49:37

The pathway to experiencing full aliveness and openheartedness is by awakening awareness throughout the body. This meditation begins by establishing a rhythmic inflow and outflow of the breath, in order to calm and collect the mind. Then continuing with the conscious breathing, we are guided through the body – bringing attention to sensations and space. This attention becomes a very vibrant living presence, and we end by experiencing that living presence as a natural openheartedness that includes all of life.

This meditation begins with a period of relaxing and collecting our attention with intentional long, deep breathing. We then deepen embodied presence, and widen to the awareness that includes sounds, sensations, feelings, breath, and all experience. When the mind drifts from this open, awake awareness, we gently return, re-relaxing and resting in an easeful, alert presence. Recorded at Tara’s Wednesday night class, the meditation ends with a sense of melting into community – relaxed and alert.