Ordained Taoist and multi-disciplinary therapist David James Lees discusses the Tao of love and relationships. David offers practical and spiritual wisdom and advice as he explores the three main areas of ‘emotional misunderstanding’ that he encounters when dealing with love and relationship issues with his clients.  

The Tao of Love and Relationships by David James Lees

20 minute guided meditation / iRest Yoga Nidra for Inner Strength.
Want other audio meditations like this? Download the free app: Yoga for Better Health - www.yogabetterhealth.com/ybh-app

IRest Yoga Nidra / Guided Meditation for Inner Strength

This is a led meditation practice, as taught at the City Lit and the West London Buddhist Centre.

I encountered this meditation for the first time when I was finding life a little stressful, and there is no doubt that it has helped me immensely since 2007. I would heartily recommend anyone to have a go.

You could start right now, but you might like to read this introduction that Jinananda once wrote:

The first thing is to find a quality of stillness.  It is possible to move or walk with this quality of stillness, but in this practice, you can start to develop it by being physically still.  You can move during the practice, but the invitation of the practice is not to fidget. 

If you need to, you can lie down to do the practice, but if you can, you should sit up, in a chair or on the floor, either kneeling astride cushions, or if sitting cross-legged, sitting high enough on cushions so that the knees are lower than the hips. 

The aim of the practice is to cultivate a concentrated appreciative attention to our moment-by-moment experience of the breathing process. 

There are four stages, or approaches, to the practice.  Each of these stages represents a slightly different way of being aware of the breath, of being aware of in the breath.  Starting with the easiest, and working towards the stage requiring the most delicate focus of concentration. 

Mindfulness is not about closing down or cutting off our thinking, it is not an exercise in fixing or forcing the attention.  It simply provides our thinking with something to come back to when it becomes aware of what it is doing. 

We are being mindful at the very moment that we realize that our mind has been all over the place.  Coming home to the breath, we are coming home to ourselves.  Without trying to stop the mind doing what it wants to do, we are centring the mind, settling it.

You can find other meditations of Jinananda's on jonfrewin's soundcloud page.

A guided Mindfulness of Breathing meditation for beginners, by Jinananda

Using sound as an anchor to ground attention. Recorded 2017.

20 min. Guided Meditation: Receptive Listening

Tuning into breath in the nostrils to explore subtle sensations and bring mind into its natural state. Recorded 2017.

20 min. Guided Meditation: Tuning into Breath in the Nostrils

Nothing needs to be refused. Let the breath travel the body without picking up speed. The clouds of thought haul across the sky. Let them come and go. Let the breath move the way blood moves: let it find its own rhythm. Recorded 2017.

20 min. Guided Meditation: Feeling the Sensations of the Body

The introduction track from the new Guided Meditation Treks: Vipassana album. This track gives an overview of the album, its intentions, and a brief background on the Theravada sect of Buddhism which has been practicing some version of this technique for centuries. Learn more about the album and the apps that go along with it at http://www.guidedmeditationtreks.com/vipassana.html

Vipassana Introduction

A new meditation with Diana Lang 
www.DianaLang.com  
Diana Lang © 2018

MUSIC used with permission by Steve Roach, 
"Structures from Silence"

GRATITUDE MEDITATION

Become available for healing, forgiveness and a deeper connection with others.

This 15 minute guided meditation asks you to smile! This may seem an unusual practice however it is a rather beautiful way to open a connection to your heart which is the centre for healing and forgiveness. The intention of this meditation is to open your heart which allows you to connect more deeply to your own truth and to open lines of communication with others.

Open Heart Meditation

This is Alistair Appleton's guided meditation 'Polyvagal Tuning' based on the neuroscientific work of Stephen Porges. It's 25 minutes long.

Polyvagal Tuning

M2.0 Week 4 – Meditation On Loving Kindness & Compassion (18 mns) – Lea Godfrey

Awake in the World Podcast is a library of talks on a wide-range of topics, including bringing mindfulness and meditation practice into daily life; personal and community issues regarding mental health; and social change. The podcasts were recorded at live events so you might hear coughing, airplanes, cars, sirens, laughter, and peoples’ questions—all part of the intimate experience. Michael Stone (1974-2017) was a Buddhist teacher, author, and mental health advocate. His legacy is stewarded by Carina Stone. Podcast funded by Patreon (patreon.com/michaelstone).