This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our senses with awareness.

In this talk, Tara explores:

• how embodied presence awakens love, creativity, and wisdom—inviting us to meet life’s moments with full attention and an open heart.
• the universal tendency to leave our bodies when discomfort arises, and how returning to direct sensation reconnects us to aliveness.
• practical ways to stay present with physical and emotional pain, transforming “pain” into the changing flow of sensation.
• mindful strategies like pendulating between ease and discomfort, softening resistance, and “resting in love” to reduce suffering.
• how waking up in the body opens a portal to mystery, dissolving the small self and revealing our true nature as vast awareness.

The practice of visualizing and feeling a smile spreading through the body helps us access the natural tenderness and openness of our being. This meditation guides us in the smile-down, and then invites a full opening and resting in openhearted presence. We close by bringing that awake heart to an area of difficulty in our life.

This two part series explores how we regularly leave our body and skim life’s surface in a mental trance, and the ways we can train our attention to come home again. We look at working with physical and emotional pain, and the gifts of love, wisdom, creativity and aliveness that arise as we learn to fully inhabit these living forms and all our senses with awareness.

In part 1, Tara explores:

• how embodied presence is the gateway to healing, love, and spiritual connection.
• the four common trances—obsessive thinking, judgment, distraction, and rushing—and how they block presence.
• how disconnection from the body fuels suffering, while mindful awareness restores empathy and wholeness.
• practical ways to return to the body throughout daily life and expand our capacity for presence.
• how slowing down, reconnecting with nature, and sensing the body open us to the sacred mystery of life.

https://www.tarabrach.com/embodied-presence-portal-to-the-sacred-part1-2/