Part 2: Healing Depression with Meditation

Tara Brach

Buddhism, Religion & Spirituality, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.8 • 10.6K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most people get depressed at times, and many suffer greatly from bouts of major depression. At the heart of the suffering is the experience of severed belonging—of being imprisoned in the pain of separation, unworthiness, unlovability and hopelessness. These two talks explore several meditation practices that reconnect us with our natural aliveness, openheartedness and awareness. They empower us to develop our inner resources, energize us to awaken, free us from rumination and remind us that we are not our depressive thoughts and feelings. The growing realization of the loving awareness that is our home heals the very roots of depression.

In this talk, we’ll look at:

- how depression and anxiety mirror our collective disconnection, and how mindful awareness can begin to heal both body and spirit.
- how ungrieved loss turns into depression, and how opening to sorrow with compassion reconnects us to love and aliveness.
- the “logjam” of depression, showing how small mindful shifts can restore flow, energy, and a sense of possibility.
- how reconnecting with our heart’s deep intention awakens hope and invites a renewed capacity for presence and joy.
- how meditation helps us move from ruminating thoughts to embodied presence, revealing the awareness that frees us.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome, friends, to the Tara Brock podcast. I'm so glad you're here.
0:11.3	Each week, I share teachings and guided meditations to help us awaken our hearts and bring healing
0:17.8	to our world.
0:24.4	You can learn more or support this offering by visiting tarabrock.com,
0:27.1	where you can also join our email list.
0:32.5	Now, let's explore together
0:34.7	the many ways we can live
0:36.7	from the love and presence that's our deepest
0:40.1	essence.
0:47.6	Namaste.
0:49.7	This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp.
0:54.4	Hello, friends. When I started out in clinical psychology more than 40 years ago, things
1:00.6	were different than today. Back then, therapy was often seen as something only for people
1:06.6	with serious mental illness or in deep crisis. there was a kind of stigma around seeking help,
1:13.9	and many people would wait till they were at the breaking point. Therapists for their part were
1:20.2	trained to keep a strict clinical distance and focus more on diagnosing than I'm really attuning
1:26.2	to human beings in front of them.
1:29.3	I remember one woman I met was caring for her partner through a long illness,
1:34.0	and she wasn't falling apart, but she was carrying a natural weight,
1:37.7	you know, exhaustion, resentment, loneliness.
1:41.8	What she needed most was someone to name that truth with her and simply hold a
1:47.6	space without judgment, a kind space. Our time together stayed with me. Over the years, I saw
	...

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