Tara Brach, a meditation teacher and author, discusses the dangers of self-criticism and its impact on self-acceptance. She shares the concept of being addicted to self-hatred and presents simple meditative techniques, like RAIN, for self-forgiveness. Brach emphasizes the importance of recognizing our inherent goodness and cultivating kindness towards ourselves to combat feelings of inadequacy. The conversation also highlights the transformative power of self-compassion and how it can enhance personal growth and relationships.
01:13:25
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
question_answer ANECDOTE
Tilted Buddha
Tara Brach tells the story of a tilted Buddha statue.
This symbolizes acceptance of imperfections, both in ourselves and others.
Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach offers a transformative practice to help readers overcome habitual feelings of deficiency and better relate to their experiences and emotions. The book emphasizes two key pillars: observing one's experience clearly and responding with compassion. Through personal stories, case histories from her clinical psychology practice, and guided meditations, Brach provides practical guidance on mindfulness, compassion, and acceptance. The book helps readers stop being at war with themselves and live fully in every moment, addressing issues such as self-judgments, conflicts, addictions, and perfectionism. It also clarifies that Radical Acceptance does not mean self-indulgence or passivity but rather empowers genuine change and healing[1][3][5].
Radical Compassion
Tara Brach
In 'Radical Compassion,' Tara Brach offers a heartfelt and deeply practical approach to healing and freedom. The book introduces the RAIN meditation practice—Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture—which helps loosen the grip of difficult emotions and limiting beliefs. Brach uses memorable stories and self-reflective questions to support insight and understanding, addressing topics such as shame, fear, negative self-beliefs, and the importance of forgiveness and compassion. The book is grounded in both modern brain science and ancient wisdom, providing accessible practices to awaken courage, love, and deep wisdom within readers.
Trusting the Gold
Uncovering Your Natural Goodness
Tara Brach
In 'Trusting the Gold,' Tara Brach draws from over four decades of experience as a meditation teacher and psychologist to share practices for reconnecting with the beauty of our humanity. The book explores three pathways: Opening to the Truth of the present moment, Turning toward Love in any situation, and Resting in the Freedom of our natural, radiant awareness. It emphasizes the importance of recognizing and trusting our essential human goodness as a radical act of healing, leading to happiness, peace, and freedom. Brach combines timeless Buddhist wisdom with techniques adapted to modern challenges, highlighting self-compassion as a key pathway through emotional suffering.
New episodes come out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers.
---
It’s possible to actually be addicted to self-criticism, especially as a way to keep yourself safe. But evidence shows that’s not true, and today’s episode dives into strategies to deal with your own self-hatred.
This is part two of a series this week on forgiveness. In our last episode, Jack Kornfield focused on forgiving other people and in today’s episode, Tara Brach talks about forgiving yourself.
Tara Brach is a meditation teacher, psychologist and author of several books including Radical Acceptance, Radical Compassion and Trusting the Gold. Her weekly podcast is downloaded 3 million times a month. Tara is also the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington.
In this episode we talk about:
Why Tara says self-hatred “divides us from our ourselves”
The benefits of learning the habit to stop kicking our own asses
Simple meditations to help us with self-forgiveness
Questions that can help us understand what really matters to us, and what we really want
The power of seeing the profundity in mundane experiences
A refresher on a fan favorite meditation technique: RAIN
How to start trusting reality more than we believe the beliefs about ourselves
10% Happier with Dan Harris 
