Tara Brach - Meditation: The Blessings of Yes (20:10 min.)

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

When our hearts open to the life that is here, just as it is, we discover vast loving presence. This meditation engages the smile as we scan through and awaken to our body and senses. Then we practice meeting the changing flow of life with a full allowing, wakeful and open awareness.

The following meditation is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or join my email list, please visit tarabrock.com. Let yourself imagine a wide open blue sky and sense the curve of a smile spreading through that sky. Just imagine that, that receptivity and openness of a smile spreading through a great open sky, and let your mind merge with that sky. So you can sense the curve and receptivity of a smile spreading through your awareness, filling your awareness. And you might directly sense the outer corners of your eyes lifting slightly in a smile.

Let the eyes be soft and the brow smooth. The eyes are smiling and bring a slight smile to the mouth and feel the inside of the of the mouth smiling. Tickna-Han Zen Master describes this as smile yoga because it helps our nervous system relax and open in a very benevolent way, feeling kindness, awareness filled with a smile, the eyes smiling, in the mouth. You might visualize and sense a smile spreading through the heart.

and this isn't to cover over anything. It's really to create the space, to let life be as it is, to say yes to the life that's here, without resisting, without opposing. The eyes are smiling, soft, the mouth, the heart. You might imagine in widening circles spreading out from the heart,

from the heart, that openness and ease of a smile, relaxing you, relaxing and opening, allowing the shoulders to fall away from the neck, sensing the space inside the shoulders, letting whatever tightness or tension is there, let it float in awareness, aware of the length and the weight and the volume of your arms. your hands rests in a very easy, effortless way. You might explore softening your hands, as if that receptivity and sensitivity of a smile could fill the hands, softening the hands again. Just feeling the hands from the inside out, letting there be an openness to the chest, still sensing that smile in the heart and softening down through the inside,

the belly, letting this next breath be received in a softening belly. This breath and now this one and again. Continuing breathing deep into the torso, belly soft. You might visualize and sense the curve of a smile spreading through the belly, allowing you to feel from the inside out the life that's here. further down into the body, you might visualize and have the felt sense of a smile spread through the pelvic region, noticing the possibility of opening to the life that's there. The eyes are smiling, soft, the mouth, smile spreading through the heart.

The hands are soft and letting the chest be open, softening through the belly yet again and and softening again, deep into the torso, dealing the aliveness moving through your whole body, down through the legs, into the feet. And then you might sense this body, this energy body, all at once has a field of sensation. And just let everything happen, tingling and vibrating, areas of flow or tightness, heat or warmth,

is letting life live through you. And with the receptivity of that smile, it's like truly saying yes to the life that's here, including the sounds that come and go, to listening not just with your ears, but your whole awareness, your whole awareness, listening to and feeling this changing life, resting in the awareness that experiences the movement of the breath,

that's listening to sounds and receptive to the play of sensation when the mind goes off into thoughts. And there's a noticing of that, relax open again, listening to and feeling just this moment, this breath, and if something difficult arises, some unpleasant sensations,

tension or tightness or burning or twisting. A real gentle, kind attention. See if you can say yes to what's here. Giving it room to come and go. Resting in the awareness that lets life live through us in a similar way of it's a difficult emotion, fear, sadness, anger. Just saying yes to the energy that arises.

This belongs in the same way that waves belong in the ocean. Let it come and let it go. Perhaps sensing this life breath as a way of staying right here and present, moment to moment, yes to the life that's right here. You might notice where your attention is and if the mind has been drifting into the past or future, just to invite yourself right here. You can start fresh in any moment. Letting that smile spread through the eyes,

softening the eyes, slight smile at the mouth and visualizing and sensing the curve of a smile at your heart. Taking in these last few minutes, sensing the heart space that can be with what arises, saying yes to the waves of the moment, Yes doesn't mean I like this or want it to keep going. Yes is an honest acknowledgement of the life that's here. Allowing life to be just as it is.

And when the heart says yes, the experience is love. What happens when your heart says yes to the life of this moment? And what happens when that yes goes even deeper? We close with a poem by E. E. Cummings and it's called Love is a Place. Love is a place and through this place of love move with brightness of peace all places. Yes is a world and in this world of yes live skillfully curled all worlds.