Tara Brach Podcast

Meditation: In the Body

Date: September 17, 2025
Host: Tara Brach
Duration: 20:29

Episode Overview

In this episode, Tara Brach leads a guided meditation focused on “being in the body.” Through gentle, mindful awareness and somatic cues, Tara invites listeners to soften and relax into the present moment, cultivating a sense of aliveness, openness, and self-compassion. The meditation guides attention through different areas of the body, encourages a friendly awareness of wandering thoughts, and underscores the importance of kindness in the meditative process.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Softening and Smiling into the Body

• Gentle Opening: Tara starts by encouraging awareness in the face and especially the eyes, suggesting practitioners soften them and “smile into them.”

  "See if you can soften your eyes as if you could smile into them." (00:27)

• The Half Smile of the Buddha: A light smile at the mouth and the “inside of the mouth smiling,” signaling relaxation to the nervous system.

  "It's called the half smile of the Buddha. The inside of the mouth smiling, jaw slightly open. This sends a signal to the whole nervous system to be at ease." (00:52)

• Spreading the Smile: The meditation proceeds by visualizing a smile extending into the heart, chest, and throughout the body for increased space and freedom.

  "You can smile into the heart. Just imagine smiling into the heart. Imagine the curve and feeling of a smile spreading through the chest." (01:15)

2. Body Scan and Awareness of Sensations

• From Head to Feet: Tara leads listeners through various body parts—shoulders, arms, hands, navel, lower torso, legs, and feet—inviting a direct, curious awareness of inner sensations.

  "Feel the life inside the hands. Notice if you can sense the pulsing or tingling that's there." (02:02) "Letting that sense of space and aliveness in the belly spread through the whole lower torso pelvic area, right down through the legs." (03:02)

• Noticing Boundaries and Openness: She encourages widening attention to the whole body, exploring its boundaries, and sensing the "dynamic changing flow of experience."

  "Notice if there's a boundary to what you call body. Noticing the dynamic changing flow of experience..." (04:09)

3. Open Awareness and Connection to Presence

• Breath and Sounds: Listeners are prompted to treat the breath like any sensation: not controlling, but receiving, just as one receives sounds.

  "Just receiving the breath like sounds like other sensations. And this open awareness right here, for this in breath and for this out breath..." (05:19)

• Mind Wandering: Tara normalizes the drifting of the mind and suggests a kind, nonjudgmental return to the body whenever it happens.

  "You might find the mind’s drifted into a virtual reality. See if it's possible to recognize that with a real friendly, curious attention." (06:15) "Each time the mind wanders and you choose to arrive here again, you're strengthening the pathway home, the capacity to be here." (07:20)

4. The Importance of Kindness in Meditation

• Relaxing with Kindness: Returning with “a quality of kindness” allows presence to “really flower.”

  "If you do it with a quality of kindness, you'll find that presence really flowers. Sometimes the kindness has the form of relaxing." (07:55)

• Letting Go: Tara invites further physical relaxation, particularly in the shoulders, hands, and heart, to deepen the sense of presence.

  "Maybe you relax the hands, relax the heart. Discover what it means to be awake right in the center of now." (08:30)

5. Relating to the Practice and Yourself

• Awareness of Process: She encourages listeners to observe how they relate to their meditation, noting any judgment, and invites a compassionate, trusting approach.

  "If there’s any sense of judgment, this is a nice time to open out of the judgment, see if it's possible to honor your own sincerity, to trust what's unfolding..." (09:13)

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “Let the brow be smooth and to invite a slight smile at the mouth. Just a gentle smile. It's called the half smile of the Buddha.” (00:47)
• “This sends a signal to the whole nervous system to be at ease. Relaxes the fight flight tension in the body.” (00:56)
• “Feeling the whole chest is filled with space and aliveness. Open and then sensing that you could smile right into the navel area...” (02:51)
• “Letting it live through you, not resisting anything.” (05:06)
• “You're strengthening the pathway home, the capacity to be here.” (07:25)
• “To be available, to learn, to wake up from whatever the experience is.” (09:33)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:27: Softening the face and eyes; beginning the gentle body scan
• 01:15: Spreading smile into the heart/chest; deepening bodily relaxation
• 02:02: Attention to hands and arms; sensing aliveness
• 03:02: Awareness in the belly, pelvis, legs, and feet
• 04:09: Expanding attention to whole body; noticing boundaries and flow
• 05:19: Breath focus and open awareness
• 06:15: Managing the wandering mind with friendly, curious attention
• 07:20: Coming back home to presence, kindness in practice
• 08:30: Letting go, relaxing heart, hands, and shoulders
• 09:13: Observing your relationship to meditation, moving beyond self-judgment

Conclusion

This calming guided meditation by Tara Brach gently ushers the listener into deeper presence with the body and mind. She highlights the importance of softness, self-compassion, curiosity, and a nonjudgmental return—to the body, the breath, and the living reality of the present moment. The practice serves as an invitation to befriend every aspect of one’s experience, cultivating a skillful, kind presence that serves greater healing and awakening.