Shows
Heart Haven MeditationsAwakening Practice 5: Making Eye ContactThis is part of a series of short awakening practices that I will be posting over the next few weeks. They can be used in the morning, at bedtime, or on the spot in the course of your day. They build on each other, so you can listen consecutively, but if there is one in particular that speaks to you, feel free to stick with it. Loosely based on the teachings of Adyashanti, they can be used alone or as a companion to his audio series, The 30-Day Wake Up Challenge, or his book, The Direct Way: 30 Practices to...2025-04-1605 minHeart Haven MeditationsAwakening Practice 4: Embracing the "I Am"This is part of a series of short awakening practices that I will be posting over the next few weeks. They can be used in the morning, at bedtime, or on the spot in the course of your day. They build on each other, so you can listen consecutively, but if there is one in particular that speaks to you, feel free to stick with it. Loosely based on the teachings of Adyashanti, they can be used alone or as a companion to his audio series, The 30-Day Wake Up Challenge, or his book, The Direct Way: 30 Practices to...2025-04-0905 minHeart Haven MeditationsAwakening Practice 3: The Light of the WorldThis is part of a series of short awakening practices that I will be posting over the next few weeks. They can be used in the morning, at bedtime, or on the spot in the course of your day. They build on each other, so you can listen consecutively, but if there is one in particular that speaks to you, feel free to stick with it. Loosely based on the teachings of Adyashanti, they can be used alone or as a companion to his audio series, The 30-Day Wake Up Challenge, or his book, The Direct Way: 30 Practices to...2025-03-3107 minHeart Haven MeditationsAwakening Practice 2: Mind Like SkyThis is part of a series of short awakening practices that I will be posting over the next few weeks. They can be used in the morning, at bedtime, or on the spot in the course of your day. They build on each other, so you can listen consecutively, but if there is one in particular that speaks to you, feel free to stick with it. Loosely based on the teachings of Adyashanti, they can be used alone or as a companion to his audio series, The 30-Day Wake Up Challenge, or his book, The Direct Way: 30 Practices to...2025-03-2405 minHeart Haven MeditationsAwakening Practice 1: Effortless AwarenessThis is part of a series of awakening practices that I will be posting over the next few weeks. They can be used in the morning, at bedtime, or on the spot in the course of your day. They build on each other, so you can listen consecutively, but if there is one in particular that speaks to you, feel free to stick with it. Loosely based on the teachings of Adyashanti, they can be used alone or as a companion to his audio series, The 30-Day Wake Up Challenge, or his book, The Direct Way: 30 Practices to Evoke...2025-03-1705 minHeart Haven MeditationsAwakening Practices: IntroductionThis is an introduction to a series of short practical meditations I will be posting over the next few weeks. They can be used in the morning, at bedtime, or on the spot in the course of your day. They build on each other, so you can listen consecutively, but if there is one in particular that speaks to you, feel free to stick with it. Loosely based on the teachings of Adyashanti, they can be used alone or as a companion to his audio series, The 30-Day Wake Up Challenge, or his book, The Direct Way: 30 Practices to...2025-03-1302 minHeart Haven MeditationsDr. Samra Zafar on Attuning to the Voice of LoveInternationally renowned speaker, physician, and author Dr. Samra Zafar speaks with Tess about her new book Unconditional: Break Through Past Limits to Transform Your Future, which explores breaking free from old conditioning and embracing self-acceptance. She shares her journey from an abusive marriage to building a better life, emphasizing the importance of meditation, visualization, and unlearning. Zafar highlights the concept of "parts work" therapy to understand and heal different aspects of oneself. She stresses the significance of solitude, self-compassion, and community in personal growth. Zafar also underscores the power of self-trust, mentorship, and the courage to pursue dreams, despite...2025-02-021h 08
A Joyful RebellionFrom Dreams to Dawn Land- Tess Callahan’s Creative JourneyIn this episode, James sits down with Tess Callahan, novelist, teacher, and meditation guide, for a deeply inspiring conversation about creativity, writing, and the transformative power of mindfulness. Tess shares the story behind her upcoming novel Dawnland, a rich exploration of family, secrets, and redemption.
Together, they discuss how Tess uses meditation and dreams as part of her creative process, the concept of creative constraints, and her personal journey balancing the demands of life with her passion for storytelling. Whether you’re a writer, a seeker, or someone curious about unlocking your own potential, this episode is pa...2025-01-0452 minHeart Haven MeditationsCalm Clarity: Guided MeditationIn moments of personal or collective anxiety it is easy to feel thrown. This meditation offers an opportunity to cultivate calm clarity through attuning to your heart. Life requires us to walk through many portals, some more challenging than others. Hard times allow us to discover who we are, to find our mettle. This meditation invites you to open to whatever life presents you in this moment, to feel the weather in your heart, to be curious. When we allow the inner waters to become still, we find the clarity we need to respond to life with wisdom and...2024-12-0531 minHeart Haven MeditationsInterview with Writer Manda Scott: Shamanic Practice, Creative Vision & Systemic ChangeAward-winning novelist, teacher, and podcaster Manda Scott talks with Tess Callahan about her shamanic spiritual practice, her new Thrutopian novel ANY HUMAN POWER, and her highly acclaimed podcast Accidental Gods. Tess and Manda discuss dreams, visions, and the liminal states between waking, sleeping, life, and death. Manda encourages writers to create new narratives that will pave the way to the systematic changes our world needs.Best known for the Boudica: Dreaming series, Manda's previous novels have been short-listed for the Orange Prize, the Edgar, Wilbur Smith and Saltire Awards, and won the McIllvanney Prize. Her latest novel...2024-11-271h 06Heart Haven MeditationsInterview with Writer Alan Watt: Evolving through Meditation and WritingNovelist, screenwriter, and founder of LA Writers' Lab Alan Watt tells host Tess Callahan his extraordinary experience of recovering a childhood memory through meditation. This memory from infancy, preverbal and terrifying, had already begun to surface through the writing of his novel, Diamond Dogs. Watt asserts that the desire to write is connected to the desire to evolve. He first began meditating decades ago to help with insomnia. His practice calmed his nervous system, lessened anxiety, and helped him sleep. With his mind stabilized, the repressed memory was able to surface and be healed. In spirituality and in writing...2024-10-2350 minHeart Haven MeditationsHeart Alchemy MeditationDrawing from ancient wisdom traditions and inspired by Ram Dass, this timeless meditation invites you to bathe in liquid love, release sadness and loneliness from your heart, and become an instrument for peace, light, and love. The meditation begins with a relaxing body scan before focusing on the heart. You are invited to visualize a wisdom figure whose heart connects to yours. This being lovingly receives any old energies and patterns you wish to let go of. The meditation ends with a lovingkindenss practice. Relax and enjoy this gentle alchemical experience. Music by Christopher Lloyd Clarke....2024-10-1725 min
Online For Authors PodcastUncovering Secrets: A Family Cape Cod Vacation Unraveled with Author Tess CallahanMy guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Tess Callahan, author of the book Dawnland. Tess Callahan is also the author of the novel April & Oliver. Her essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Writer’s Digest, National Public Radio, Agni, Narrative Magazine, AWP Notebook, Newsday, The Common, the Best American Poetry blog, and elsewhere. Her TEDx talk on creativity is titled, “The Love Affair Between Creativity & Constraint.” Tess is a graduate of Boston College and Bennington College Writing Seminars and teaches creative writing and meditation. She curates Muse-feed.com, a toolbox for aspiri...2024-10-1028 minOnline For Authors PodcastUncovering Secrets: A Family Cape Cod Vacation Unraveled with Author Tess CallahanMy guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Tess Callahan, author of the book Dawnland. Tess Callahan is also the author of the novel April & Oliver. Her essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Writer’s Digest, National Public Radio, Agni, Narrative Magazine, AWP Notebook, Newsday, The Common, the Best American Poetry blog, and elsewhere. Her TEDx talk on creativity is titled, “The Love Affair Between Creativity & Constraint.” Tess is a graduate of Boston College and Bennington College Writing Seminars and teaches creative writing and meditation. She curates Muse-feed.com, a toolbox for aspiri...2024-10-1028 min
Heart Haven MeditationsCan Life Meditate Us? A Talk on the novel DAWNLANDFriends, this episode is a departure from my usual offerings. I will return to meditations and occasional interviews after my mini book tour, but today I'm talking about my novel DAWNLAND, and what IT has to do with meditation, particularly the question: Do we sometimes meditate by accident? And if so, what’s happening there? Inadvertent meditation might seem like an oxymoron. We usually associate meditation with intention and focus. Even devotion. But I think there are moments when life meditates us. And the more we practice, the more we open ourselves for this to happen spontaneously. The characters in...2024-09-0309 min
Literary ProspectsInterview with Author Tess CallahanAuthor Tess Callahan talks with Kelley Vick about her new novel Dawnland, the connection between meditation and art, how constraint breeds creativity, and much more. *For literary shirts, totes and gifts, and other tools for writers, check out our new Literary Prospects Shop.*For books featured on the podcast and other curated booklists, check out our online store at Bookshop.org, Literary Prospects Books.*More good stuff for writers and readers at LiteraryProspects.com.2024-08-2747 min
KPL PodcastKPL Podcast August 2024 Week 2 with Special Guest Tess CallahanThis week we have author Tess Callahan on the KPL podcast to tell us about her latest novel, Dawnland. This is a multigenerational story about a family with secrets set in Cape Cod. Author RecommedationsFoster by Claire KeeganBetween the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi CoatesSandwich by Catherine Newman2024-08-0927 minHeart Haven MeditationsCreativity as Divine Play: Talk & Meditation on LilaCreativity flows when our hearts and minds are open, and tightens when we grasp onto particular ideas of outcome. It tends to hide from us when we take ourselves too seriously. Lightness of spirit is key. "Lila" is a Hindu term that has many layers. It describes the effortless play between the relative world and the absolute. Lila manifests when when fullness, unable to contain itself, spills over into creation. This episode includes a 7-minute talk about creativity that alludes to Carl Jung's method of Active Imagination and the benefits of paying attention to our dreams. If you wish...2024-07-2916 min
Famous Interviews with Joe DiminoNovelist, Speaker & Teacher Tess CallahanWelcome to a new edition of the Famous Interviews with Joe Dimino series .. On this episode, we talk with Novelist, Speaker & Teacher Tess Callahan .. This former teacher is the author of the novels APRIL & OLIVER and the 9/3/24 release of DAWNLAND. Her essays and stories have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Writer’s Digest, NPR, and elsewhere. As a teacher and TEDx speaker on creativity, she offers tips on maximizing your creative flow and getting your writing out into the world. She has a fascinating story. Tune in.
More on Tess - https://tesscallahan.com/
F...2024-07-2725 minHeart Haven MeditationsOpen Awareness Ocean Expanse MeditationOpen awareness is a non-referential meditation, meaning you don’t use any reference point such as the breath or the body to keep your mind focused. Those focal points are useful as first, but as you progress, they can hold you back. In open awareness, your attention rests with everything that’s happening. To this end, you meditate with your eyes gently open. Normally our eyes are trained to focus on a single object. Here, you softly take in everything in your field of vision simultaneously, particularly the periphery, the way you might gaze at a wide expanse of ocea...2024-05-1521 minHeart Haven MeditationsInterview with Writer Mar'ce Merrell: Bridging the Gap Between the Impossible and the PossibleJoin novelist, essayist, and canoe adventurer Mar’ce Merrell as she unpacks her spiritual and creative toolbox, sharing how she uses meditation to move through stuck places in life and on the page. Mar’ce describes some of her extraordinary life-and-death moments in the canoe, how she learned to work with water and not against it, and how her life has unfolded in the gap between the impossible and the possible. Mar’ce is the author of the novel Wicked Sweet, a Barnes & Noble Best Summer Read pick for Young Adults. Her stories and essays include: “Water Calls, Wat...2024-04-291h 11Heart Haven MeditationsTranquil Shamatha Short VersionThis is a shorter version of Episode 71 "Tranquil Ocean Shamatha," with a bit less instruction. Shamatha or “peaceful abiding” helps stabilize the mind by cultivating a steady awareness of the object of meditation, in this case, the breath. You can do the same practice using alternative anchors such as bodily sensations or sounds. Staying present to an anchor provides scaffolding or training wheels to help keep your mind focused. Over time, practicing Shamatha meditation steadies you inwardly. You learn to calmly witness your thoughts without being triggered by them. Eventually, this leads to a natural decrease in unhelpful thoughts. Very f...2024-04-1815 min
Heart Haven MeditationsTranquil Ocean Shamatha Meditation Shamatha, which means “peaceful abiding” or “tranquility," is the foundational meditation of Buddhist practice. It helps stabilize the mind by cultivating a steady awareness of the object of meditation, in this case, the breath. You can do the same practice using alternative anchors such as bodily sensations or sounds. Staying present to an anchor provides scaffolding or training wheels to help keep your mind focused. Once you become proficient at Shamatha, you no longer need an object of meditation. Meditating without an anchor or reference point is known as Open Awareness. Over time, practicing Shamatha meditation steadies you inwardly. You learn...2024-03-2227 min
Heart Haven MeditationsLovingkindness 10-minute MettaLovingkindness, also known as "metta," is a Buddhist practice of cultivating good will and positive regard toward yourself and others. The practice invites us to expand the good will of our hearts to reach ever widening circles, extending to loved ones, neutral acquaintances, difficult people, animals, and the planet itself. A longer version of this meditation can be found under the title "Lovingkindness Deep Immersion." Whether done on the meditation pillow or spontaneously in the course of a day, metta has been shown to decrease stress and anxiety and increase compassion for oneself and others. It is a powerful...2024-02-2109 min
Heart Haven MeditationsInterview with Sculptor/Poet Don Freas: Meditation and the Creative LeapJoin sculptor and poet Don Freas, author of In-Between: Creativity Set Free and Swallowing the World: New and Selected Poems, in a rich exploration of the relationship between meditation and creativity. Don describes how his practice of Liangong, a form of Qigong, deepens his somatic awareness in the studio and in life. He explains how his process of journaling, partly inspired by Robert A. Johnson’s book Inner Work: Using Dreams and Active Imagination for Personal Growth, has deepened self-inquiry, and thereby, self-compassion. Don lets us in on his decades-long conversation with an inner wisdom figure he calls Sophie, a...2024-02-141h 06