What We’re Listening to

GUIDED MEDITATION

“Beautiful Feelings,” Willa Blythe Baker
If you don’t feel like sitting with fear, anger, and pain, you’re not alone. In this 19-minute guided meditation, Willa Blythe Baker, a Tibetan Buddhist lama and director of Boston’s Natural Dharma Fellowship, invites you to gently access difficult feelings in the body. She uses a Mahamudra practice informed by Tsoknyi Rinpoche, prompting you to stay with difficult feelings and extend a handshake to them. You don’t have to be best friends right away; just saying hello and being together is a step in a positive direction.

PODCAST

Mental Health Series, Metta Hour Podcast with Sharon Salzberg

This multipart podcast series from Insight Meditation Society cofounder Sharon Salzberg provides a powerful discussion from multiple perspectives. Though we’ve progressed from the “barbaric” ways we’ve treated people with mental health conditions in the past, mental well-
being (or lack thereof) often remains a stigmatized area of our lives. Sharon’s guests—including meditation teachers Reggie Hubbard, Kimberly Brown, and George Mumford—speak on developing emotional intelligence, the role of community in healing, and more.

GUIDED MEDITATION

“Notorious N.A.P. Yoga Nidra for Anxiety,” Beth Behrs

Yoga nidra, or yogic sleep, shares similarities to Tibetan dream yoga and the night practices of other contemplative traditions. This ancient practice that invokes a state of consciousness between awake and asleep is enjoying a modern moment, at least based on the number of Insight Timer tracks. Behrs’s 28-minute practice is designed to get you out of your mind and relax your body (you know, what people think you’re doing when you’re meditating) and is perfect for a midday reset or ending a particularly stressful day, paving the way for deep sleep. 

MUSIC

“I Can’t Stand the Rain,” Tina Turner

This is the first installment of “What We’re Listening To” since the death of the Queen of Rock and Roll and Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhist Tina Turner. Turner’s rendition was released on her 1984 album Private Dancer, and the eighties influence is felt through the raindrops on a synthesizer, big horns, and even bigger vocals. The rawness of the human condition is on display throughout the song—love, loss, and longing for what we once had. And though it’s not an explicit dharma song, we know that Tina weathered the storm, and if she can begin to stand the rain, maybe we can too.