Tara Brach - Meditation: Relaxed and Alert (20:43 min.)

Episode Date: February 4, 2026

This meditation begins with a period of relaxing and collecting our attention with intentional long, deep breathing. We then deepen embodied presence, and widen to the awareness that includes sounds, sensations, feelings, breath, and all experience. When the mind drifts from this open, awake awareness, we gently return, re-relaxing and resting in an easeful, alert presence. Recorded at Tara's Wednesday night class, the meditation ends with a sense of melting into community – relaxed and alert.   Our introduction music is from "Opening" by Adrienne Torf, © 2025 ABT Music

Welcome, friends, to the Tara Brock podcast. I'm so glad you're here. Each week, I share teachings and guided meditations to help us awaken our hearts and bring healing to our world. You can learn more or support this offering by visiting tarabrock.com, where you can also join our email list. Now, let's explore together the many ways we can live from the love and presence that's our deepest essence. Namaste. This fall we experimented for about six weeks with including an ad before this podcast,

and we've decided not to move forward with any more advertising. Many of you shared that it disrupted the flow of your listening, and I really understand it didn't feel aligned with the spirit of this offering. These teachings and meditations will continue to be freely available and your support truly makes that possible. Thank you, friends. Thank you for whatever you've offered and for your continued generosity

in whatever form feels right to you. You may take some moments to feel the movement of the breath in the area of the heart and let your attention be at the heart, a kind of listening attention, listening inwardly, sense your deepest intention for practicing right now. What is that your heart really longs for?

What's the quality of presence or heart or awareness? That really would feel like home, connecting with your own sincerity. Let yourself be aware of the breath and intentionally extending the breath. a long, slow in-breath, you might even count to five, and a matched slow out-breath, again, counting to five. Breathing in, counting to five, breathing out, counting to five. And if you need to make it shorter, longer, either way it's fine,

just extend it beyond your normal breath, continuing this matched in-breath and out-breath. As you breathe, you might sense if you're frowning and bring a very slight smile to the mouth. Staying with the breath, sensing with the in-breath that you can open and receive, even in a cellular way. And with the out-breath, a letting go. Nice, long, in-breath. Slow, even out-breath. relaxing with the breath, opening with the receiving, the in-breath,

letting go with the out-breath. If you find you've lost track of the breath, no problem. Just gently come back again. Nice, full, deep in-breath, slow, smooth out-breath. Now, letting go of any control of the breath. Just relax back and witness the natural breath. breath, letting the breathing be just as it is naturally, sensing the quality of presence that's here, with that presence scanning your body, noticing if there's any places of unnecessary tightness

or holding, that you can just gently soften and relax. You might check the area around the eyes and see if you can soften the eyes and let the brow be smooth, letting go of any tension in the jaw. Again, that slight smile at the mouth. Maybe you can let the shoulders relax back and down some. Feel the shoulders from the inside out. Again, softening. And see if you can notice the movement of energy, sensations, aliveness. and of tension remains in the shoulders. Sense if you can let it float some in awareness, softening the hands,

letting them rest in a very effortless way, an easy way. And when you place the awareness inside them, noticing the aliveness, tingling, vibrating, perhaps warmth, maybe the feeling of pressure and particular warmth through your hands contact, your legs, or touch each other. Let there be an openness at the chest and feel from the inside out the region of the heart. Perhaps you might smile into the heart or imagine and feel the curve of a smile spreading

through the heart. That's not to cover over, but really to make space for what's here. What's the experience of aliveness in the region of the heart? Relaxing down the torso, the abdominal area, and letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath, now this breath, then again, feeling from the inside out the life in the belly. In a similar way, relaxing and opening down through the pelvic region.

feeling the places of pressure and contact where you're sitting on your cushion or chair, where your hands touch your legs or each other, contact where your feet touch the floor. And then from the inside out, sensing this whole body as a field of sensation, just feeling simultaneously this energy body all at once. And see how much you can let everything be, Yes, it is, pulsing or tinkling, places of noddedness and places of flow, pleasantness and unpleasantness, all arising, moving, passing in this open space of awareness, including the sounds that are here,

resting in that awareness that's listening to and feeling the whole moment, resting in the awareness, it feels the particular stream of the breath, not controlling anything, completely receptive, as if you could listen to and feel the breath. It's the habit of our mind to get pulled away, get caught in thoughts through memories, planning, worrying.

So if you notice you've been drawn away from presence, just gently relax back. no need to try to focus on the breath or in anything particular. Really, the pathway is to re-relax. See if you can re-relax the body, wherever there's obvious tightness. Relax open the mind, aware of and including sounds. Relax back into that awareness that's listening to and feeling, moment-to-moment experience.

and sensing that presence is the most intimate expression of who you are. Awake and relaxed, at home, in natural awareness. These last few moments, letting go again of thoughts, of anything that takes your way from this hereness right here, letting go into the aliveness that's here, relaxed and awake as a way of closing this practice I'd like to invite you to explore the transition if your eyes are closed to opening your eyes now,

still meditative, still relaxed and present. Just opening your eyes with soft eyes and a kind of receptivity taking in the forms and colors and the life around you. And continuing as you perhaps move your bodies and some of you stand or stretch to sense the possibility of continuing to attend with the relaxed quality of presence

to sensation, sound, each other, and life. Namaste.