Opening Minds, Opening Hearts

We're back after a short break, and we're now at the mid-season mark of season four. In this episode, we step back from guest conversations to reflect on what we've been learning and the themes that have emerged so far.

We explore what it means to bring our pain into the light, reflecting on suffering as a kind of fracture and separation, and unpacking the paradox that we are already whole while also needing to do the patient work of dismantling the false self. And at the heart of it all, we consider why we are always returning: to the sacred word, to our wholeness, to each other, and to God.

To connect further with us:Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent/
Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach
Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcasts, Amazon and Spotify!

This episode weaves together three healing modalities: 12-step recovery, psychotherapy, and Centering Prayer, through the wisdom and lived experience of Howard B. Howard shares what it truly means to accept our basic core of goodness as our true self, and why that acceptance becomes the foundation from which we can look at our shadow and false self. Together, we explore how this radical acceptance, grounded in the belief that we are loved unconditionally, transforms not only how we see ourselves but how we show up in the world. 

To connect further with us:
Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent/
Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach
Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Amazon and Spotify!

Welcome back to Opening Minds, Opening Hearts. In this episode, we are joined by Lawrence H, who was introduced to Centering Prayer while serving time at Folsom State Prison in 2009 and has since dedicated his life to sharing the practice with others. In a conversation full of honesty, hard-won wisdom and real hope, Lawrence shares what it truly means to bring our trauma into God's presence and allow it to be transformed. Together, we also explore the dark night of the soul and how Father Thomas Keating understood it not as something to be feared but as a profound and hidden work of divine therapy that carries us toward deeper freedom.

More about Lawrence’s prison ministry:
Prison Contemplative Fellowship: https://youtube.com/@pcf_praestolari?si=viiL99d4tJDxq5ey
Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition to view the documentary Holding Still: https://www.catholicprisonministries.org/holding-still
To learn more about the mission of Contemplative Outreach’s Prison Outreach Service Team (COPOST), visit: https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/prison-outreach-homepage/

To connect further with us:
Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent/
Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach

Season 4 of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts was made possible in part by a grant from the Trust for the Meditation Process, a charitable foundation encouraging meditation, mindfulness, and contemplative prayer.

We are extremely grateful for their support [of TMP] and would be grateful for any additional support that you, as a listener, might offer. Your donation helps Contemplative Outreach [us] to freely offer the wisdom of the contemplative tradition and Centering Prayer to all who are interested.

If you are a grateful listener and would like to support this podcast, go to: https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/opening-minds-opening-hearts-podcast-donation/ to make a donation of any amount.

This season of Opening Minds, Opening Hearts is produced by Rachael Sanya

Welcome back, everyone! We are so glad you are joining us. In this episode, we are joined by the Reverend Nhien Vuong, contemplative teacher, ordained minister, founder of the Evolving Enneagram, and author of The Enneagram of the Soul, for a deeply personal and illuminating exploration of the Enneagram as a sacred companion to Centering Prayer on the journey of divine therapy. Together, we explore what it truly means to move from a life shaped by the question 'what is wrong with me?' to the lived and felt knowing that we are already whole, and the profound and practical ways the Enneagram and Centering Prayer work together as companions on the same journey toward wholeness and freedom. 

To connect with Nhien, check out:
Her Evolving Enneagram Community: https://www.evolvingenneagram.com/
Her YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@evolvingenneagram
Her Enneagram of the Soul Book Journey Training & Certification Program: https://evolvingenneagram.com/enneagram-of-the-soul-facilitator-training
Her Contemplative Practices & the Enneagram 12-week cohorts: https://evolvingenneagram.com/contemplative-enneagram-community
Her (New!) Mighty Networks Contemplative Community: http://bit.ly/472KcnC
To connect further with us:
Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent/
Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach
Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Amazon, and Spotify!

Welcome back to Opening Minds, Opening Hearts. In this episode, we are joined by two dear friends and beloved members of the Contemplative Outreach family, Pamela Begeman and Matt Scrimgeour, for a warm and honest dinner table conversation about Centering Prayer as divine therapy. Drawing on decades of lived experience with the practice, our guests share how Centering Prayer has been the foundation of their own healing journeys, and what it truly means to be restored to our fundamental core of goodness.

To connect further with us:
Visit our website: www.contemplativeoutreach.org
Find us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/prayerofconsent/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prayerofconsent/
Check out our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/coutreach
Stream and Download the Opening Minds, Opening Hearts Podcast NOW for FREE on Apple Podcast, Amazon and Spotify!