One Heart One Mind

Do we transform through consistent, effortful practice, or are we transformed by something more mysterious that we can’t control and can’t even properly understand at the end of the day? Even framing this question in terms of either/or causes us to miss the mark. Thomas shares in this episode an unexpected transformation he recently experienced in the kitchen, seemingly in spite of his years of meditation practice. Listen in and start to appreciate how profoundly things are already working out at the deepest level. If you feel fed by the show, please support Mindfulness+ by sharing with a friend, leaving a review or making a tax-deductible donation to Lower Lights School of Wisdom. We’re grateful for your support! Want more guidance from Thomas? Come to our monthly online practitioners retreat.  Have a practice question for Thomas? Leave a voicemail Voicemail. We would love to hear from you.

Have you ever noticed how many ideas you have about, well, everything? We can hardly help but form opinions, beliefs, even dogmas about virtually every aspect of life. In this episode, Thomas recounts meeting his first teacher, and the freedom he felt when his teacher nonchalantly declared that any thought he has about anything is fundamentally inaccurate. What role do thoughts and beliefs have in life if they’re all just “inaccurate?” Listen in to get a taste of this delightfully fertile polarity. If you feel fed by the show, please support Mindfulness+ by sharing with a friend, leaving a review or making a tax-deductible donation to Lower Lights School of Wisdom. We’re grateful for your support! Want more guidance from Thomas? Come to our monthly online practitioners retreat.  Have a practice question for Thomas? Leave a voicemail Voicemail. We would love to hear from you.  

Often when we’re faced with a challenging decision, we have the experience of feeling stuck, or frozen, because we just can’t decide which direction is right for us. Thomas suggests in this episode that a powerful remedy for the feeling of stuckness in life is to more fully open up to the experience of loss. When we are willing to experience the inevitable loss that any given decision entails, we simultaneously open ourselves to the inevitable gain that comes from living the life we’ve chosen to live. If you feel fed by the show, please support Mindfulness+ by sharing with a friend, leaving a review or making a tax-deductible donation to Lower Lights School of Wisdom. We’re grateful for your support! Want more guidance from Thomas? Come to our monthly online practitioners retreat.  Have a practice question for Thomas? Leave a voicemail Voicemail. We would love to hear from you.

It is a common misunderstanding in our society that meditation is primarily a practice of learning to relax. While relaxation is very much one of the fruits of this practice, it is just the beginning of the profound gifts that flow from open mind and open heart. In this episode, Thomas leads a longer meditation and points out one of the qualities that naturally arises in awake awareness—the feeling of Life itself.  If you feel fed by the show, please support Mindfulness+ by sharing with a friend, leaving a review or making a tax-deductible donation to Lower Lights School of Wisdom. We’re grateful for your support! Want more guidance from Thomas? Come to our monthly online practitioners retreat.  Have a practice question for Thomas? Leave a voicemail Voicemail. We would love to hear from you.

Andrew Holecek is an author, speaker, and humanitarian who offers seminars internationally on meditation, lucid dreaming, and the art of dying. Andrew’s books include Dreams of Light, Dream Yoga, and Reverse Meditation. He hosts the popular Edge of Mind podcast and is the founder of the Night Club community, a support platform for nocturnal meditations In this episode, Thomas and Andrew discuss lucid dreaming, dream yoga, pain, neuroscience, all in the context of what Andrew calls “reverse meditation.” What is reverse meditation? In a word, it is bringing unwanted experience directly to the path of meditation. Listen in for new insights and some guided practice. Also, you can find Andrew’s new book from Sounds True here. Please support Mindfulness+ by sharing with a friend, leaving a review or making a tax-deductible donation to Lower Lights School of Wisdom. We’re grateful for your support!

Thomas reprises the ever-present theme of vulnerability in this episode. As we mature in life, our capacity to tolerate more disturbing experience tends to mature as well. We start to realize how much energy we’ve spent avoiding certain experiences that have been with us all along. Mindfulness practice reveals to us a deeper capacity we have to stay present and awake to whatever is arising. In this way, we begin to let go of the struggle to not feel. If you feel fed by the show, please support Mindfulness+ by sharing with a friend, leaving a review or making a tax-deductible donation to Lower Lights School of Wisdom. We’re grateful for your support! Want more guidance from Thomas? Come to our monthly online practitioners retreat.  Have a practice question for Thomas? Leave a voicemail Voicemail. We would love to hear from you.  

We all come with a particular disposition—a way we like to be and move in the world. Contemplative practice helps us attune to these subtle, soulful rhythms and move with greater kindness in our journey. Give yourself some space for this episode. Find a place where you can relax and just be. Savor the experience of coming home. If you feel fed by the show, please support Mindfulness+ by sharing with a friend, leaving a review or making a tax-deductible donation to Lower Lights School of Wisdom. We’re grateful for your support! Want more guidance from Thomas? Come to our monthly online practitioners retreat.  Have a practice question for Thomas? Leave a voicemail Voicemail. We would love to hear from you.  

Sometimes in life it can feel like what we need, what we’re searching and striving for is so hard to come by. Mindfulness practice reveals to us exactly the opposite truth: it does not take much at all to relax into a mindset of “more than enough.” Fully embodied, open-hearted and open to life, the contentment and fulfillment we believed was somewhere in the far-off future reveals itself to be always here and now. Want to practice with Thomas? Join on Zoom from anywhere in the world for a monthly mini-retreat. Feeling called to a really deep dive? Join his 7-day intensive training in Scholls, Oregon from August 10th-17th.  

In this and every moment, life invites us into a brand new experience at the edge of our knowing and our capacity. Too often we pretend like we know who we are and where we’re going. We then miss out on the precious experience of tenderness, where life reminds us that we have never, in fact, been here before. In this raw, exposed state, the possibilities are infinite. Want to practice with Thomas? Join on Zoom from anywhere in the world for a monthly mini-retreat. Feeling called to a really deep dive? Join his 7-day intensive training in Scholls, Oregon from August 10th-17th.

Hello, Mindfulness+ fans! We're excited to let you know that Season 6 is coming next week! In the meantime, if you're looking for other supports to practice, Thomas offers a monthly mini-retreat on Zoom. And if you really want to go deep, join Thomas and Lower Lights for a 7-day retreat in Scholls, Oregon, August 10th-17th. Learn more here.