Sharon Salzberg: Healing Pain and Changing Your Life with Mindfulness

If you’ve experienced personal suffering, an incredibly powerful way to begin healing is through meditation, as Sharon Salzberg discovered back in 1969. If you’ve been wondering about the transformative power of meditation, if you’re keen to learn more about Lovingkindness meditation, listen today.

Key takeaways:
People who have the least, give the most
Discovering Buddhism and meditation
Handling negative self dialogue
Why we’re so fearful of showing our true selves
The Buddhist concept of equanimity

Show Notes

If you’ve experienced personal suffering, an incredibly powerful way to begin healing is through meditation, as Sharon Salzberg, New York Times best selling author, Buddhist meditation teacher, and co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society, discovered back in 1969. 

Having come through a childhood involving considerable loss and turmoil, Sharon’s eyes were opened to Buddhism during an Asian philosophy course at the State University of New York, Buffalo. That one class would determine her life direction. 

“That was an immense liberation right there. It was a moment of belonging that was very, very different than anything I had felt before. And then I heard in the context of that class, that there were methods that were practices called meditation. And if you practice them, you could actually be a lot happier.”

In this episode of Into The Magic Shop, Sharon shares how important a sense of agency is for us to actualize our potential as humans, how we can overcome our negative self dialogue through meditation, why we’re so fearful of showing our true selves, and why we need equanimity in our lives. 

“Equanimity doesn't mean indifference, but it's like a spaciousness of approach that actually enhances compassion. It doesn't diminish compassion.”

So, if you’ve been wondering about the transformative power of meditation, if you’re keen to learn more about Lovingkindness meditation, don’t miss Sharon Salzberg. 

On today’s podcast:

• People who have the least, give the most
• Discovering Buddhism and meditation
• Handling negative self dialogue
• Why we’re so fearful of showing our true selves
• The Buddhist concept of equanimity

Links:

• Book - Real Change: Mindfulness To Heal Ourselves And The World
• Book - Real Love: The Art Of Mindful Connection

What is Into the Magic Shop?

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many were overwhelmed with stress, anxiety and depression. While this epidemic of stress has been growing over the past decade, it has been exacerbated by the pandemic and the divisive nature of political discourse. As a result, many people feel disconnected, inauthentic, and unhappy, while questioning the source of their unhappiness when they presumably have “everything”—an absence of compassion, for oneself and others, is often the source of the problem.

Many of us don’t understand the nature of self-compassion nor the power of compassion to improve our lives and alleviate our suffering. By entering the “Magic Shop”, Jim will share his wisdom and introduce a variety of techniques to change the course of one’s life and share his own lessons learned through the exchange of untold stories of his guests. He will interview authors and experts in the fields of philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, spirituality and religion, as well as individuals with unique points of view. He will also engage his listeners by answering their questions and also at times interview listeners who are willing to share their own stories of challenge and hardship.