2025: A Year of Courageous Loving
with Tara Brach and Friends
A Yearlong Journey of Compassion, Connection, and Courageous Love
A Personal Invitation
from Tara Brach
Dear Friend,
As we move into the new year, it’s impossible to ignore the challenges that surround us–the fear, violence and dividedness in our world. There is a sense that we are teetering on an edge, humanity is devolving and the existential dangers we face are only becoming more intense. And yet, at the same time, many of us are yearning to awaken our hearts, and seeking a way to be a force of love and healing in this precious world.
How do we navigate these times from an awake, open heart?
I am deeply honored to invite you to join me for “2025: A Year of Courageous Loving.” This year-long program is an opportunity for us to work closely and walk this path together. We will cultivate what is often referred to as a “greatness of heart”—a courageous love that allows us to meet pain with compassion and stand steady in the face of life’s difficulties. Together, we’ll explore how to deepen and expand this courageous love so that we respond to challenges with wisdom and care.
Why courageous love?
In these turbulent times, it’s easy to fall into patterns of fear and reactivity. When others act out of anger or hostility, our survival brain can take over, pulling us into blame, defensiveness, and aggression. While these responses are natural, they can keep us locked in the suffering of separation.
Our task is to bridge divides, and this begins with an inner listening, a willingness to pause and ask ourselves: What am I feeling right now? Instead of bypassing difficult emotions or forcing ourselves into premature forgiveness, we choose a path that helps us bring kind attention and courageous compassion to the vulnerability inside us. We then are more able to nurture connectedness, understanding and love with others.
During the program’s yearlong journey, we will walk a transformative path together. You’ll receive:
Weekly Practices and Reflections
At the start of every week, I’ll email and or text you messages and practices to help you stay centered and connected to your heart as you move through the day.
Weekly Community Guided Meditation
You can choose to join a live 45-minute gathering that includes a guided meditation and time for sharing and questions. These will be led by myself and four other meditation teachers, and give you support in staying grounded, present and openhearted throughout the year.
6 Live Q&A Sessions
We will meet every other month for special live sessions. You’ll be able to ask me any questions, and we will also work through what’s most alive in our experience and whatever new challenges arise in 2025.
The times we are living in call for courageous love. They ask us not to meet fear with more fear, but with a love strong enough to embrace our vulnerability and brave enough to face the fire of our collective challenges. This is the foundation of healing—not only for ourselves but for the world around us.
The good news is that the capacity for courageous love already exists within each of us. It’s woven into the fabric of our being. While the journey may not always be easy, it becomes more meaningful—and even joyful—when we walk together.
I would be so honored to have you join me for “2025: A Year of Courageous Loving.”
With loving blessings,
Tara
2025: A Year of Courageous Loving
Here’s What You’ll Experience
Step into the fullness of courageous love with Tara Brach and her community. Over the course of the year, we will explore the transformative power of compassionate presence, , self-kindness, and love-in-action.
This program offers regular teachings with Tara, practical guidance, meditations, and a supportive community to help you deepen your practice of loving with courage, both toward yourself and others.
Themes of the Year
A Pathway to Courageous Loving
Throughout 2025, Tara will explore four key areas of courageous loving.
1. Embracing Our Inner Life
- Cultivating presence and mindfulness
- Deepening self-kindness and compassion
- Letting go of self-blame and fear
2. Loving Without Holding Back in Relationships
- Practicing compassion with our loved ones and friends
- Awakening compassion in moments of conflict
- Recognizing and reflecting the goodness in others
3. Widening the Circle of Compassion
- Extending compassion to all beings, especially those who are suffering or marginalized
- Overcoming dehumanization and embracing empathy
- Embodying the wisdom of interbeing, living with the world in your heart
4. Living Wholeheartedly
- Cultivating gratitude, joy, and peace in everyday life
- Living with an open and loving heart
- Taking compassionate action in the world
PROGRAM OPTIONS
Two Ways to Join: Choose What Best Supports You
OPTION #1
FULL PROGRAM
A Year of Courageous Loving
Full Program
$365
Just $1 a Day
This is the complete experience, offering a full range of teachings, meditations, and opportunities for connecting live.
What You Can Expect from the Full Program and Yearlong Journey:
- Tara’s Weekly Teachings and Guided Meditations – Each week, Tara will email and/or text you a new reflection and practice designed to help you stay grounded during the week and cultivate a peaceful mind
- 6 Live Q&As with Tara – Every other month, Tara will host a live session to answer your questions, offer deeper insights, and help you apply the teachings to your everyday life.
- Live Weekly Meditations: You can also choose to join 45-minute community meditations led by Tara and other meditation teachers each week.
- Compassionate Community: You’ll be able to connect and engage throughout the yearlong program with other participants in a private online space, where you can share experiences, challenges, and give and receive support.
- RAIN Partners: For those who are interested, you will also have the option of working with a RAIN partner. The RAIN meditation is a weave of mindfulness and compassion that that can be applied to healing difficult emotions. Many people find that when practiced with a partner, it can be a powerful support in working with life’s challenges.
OPTION #2
LIGHTER TOUCH
A Year of Courageous Loving
A Lighter Touch
$99
Text/Email Only Version***
Inspiration and Practice Delivered to Your Phone or Inbox Weekly
*** Text messages are currently only available to U.S. and Canada, all others will receive emails.
If you prefer a lighter touch and only want to receive messages and practices from Tara each week for the year, you can sign up for the text/email-only version.
You’ll receive new messages and meditations each week from Tara that you can engage with at your own pace.
What You Can Expect from the Text/Email-Only Journey:
- Tara’s Weekly Teachings and Guided Meditations – Each week, Tara will email or text you a new reflection and practice designed to help you stay grounded during the week, nourish inner peace and live more fully from love.
Why This Program? Why Now?
In these uncertain and challenging times, the need for love—courageous, compassionate love—is greater than ever. By cultivating mindfulness, self-compassion, and the capacity to love deeply, we can help ourselves and others. This yearlong program offers a path to living with an open heart, regardless of the difficulties we may face.
As Tara has taught for years, true transformation begins within. Through mindfulness and loving awareness, we can shift our relationship to ourselves and others, and, in doing so, bring healing and greater peace to ourselves and the world.
How to Enroll
Program Begins with an Opening Event on January 14, 2025
Choose Your Path
Select the program that best supports your journey—whether it’s the full, immersive experience or the simpler text/email version.
Full Program and Yearlong Journey
A Year of Courageous Loving
Just $1 a Day
$365
or 3 Payments of $130
A Lighter Touch Yearlong Journey
Text/Email Only*
Just $99 for the year
$99
or 3 Payments of $37
*Text messages are currently only available to U.S. and Canada, all others will receive emails.
About Tara Brach
Tara Brach is a beloved spiritual teacher, psychologist, and author of several books including Radical Acceptance and Trusting the Gold. With decades of experience in meditation, Tara teaches from the heart, offering wisdom on how to live more fully and freely with compassion, mindfulness, and love. Her work has touched the lives of millions of people around the world, helping them find peace, healing, and connection.
Our Weekly Meditation Teachers
Tara will lead the first meditation of every month and the remaining will be led by the following teachers:
Sharon Shelton
Sharon Shelton is a Founding Advisor and Mindfulness Teacher at Banyan, serving alongside Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield on the Teaching Council, and a board member for both the Center for Mindful Self-Compassion and Peace at Any Pace. She mentors students in the Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program and at Banyan, and offers Dharma talks and daylong retreats at the Triangle Insight Meditation Community in Durham, NC. Sharon has guided and inspired hundreds of mindfulness practitioners, weaving together her expertise as a Certified Mindfulness Teacher (CMT-P) and International Coach Federation (ICF) life coach. With warmth and expertise, she helps individuals and groups integrate mindfulness into their lives while cultivating a wholehearted embrace of compassion.
DAVID CABRERA
David Cabrera has been a Vipassana practitioner and instructor since 2007 and received certification through Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program in 2021.
He has been a Senior teacher for Banyan for the past 3 years mentoring and also training Mentees for certification David also teaches meditation and mindful movement with One Dharma Nashville, where he co-founded their thriving BIPOC Sangha. David is also a Mentor for the IMCW , a visiting teacher for Insight LA , and leads mindful movement retreats at Spirit Rock and is currently an assistant teacher for their CDL 4 year training program.
Incorporating many years of martial arts studies, David is a Laoshi in Chen Taiji and has taught mindful movement, Qi Gong ,Taiji since 2011. He was trained by the International Tiancai Chenjiagou Federation USA under Sifu Kam Lee. David also specializes in Somatic Integration healing and body based practices.
Alison Cohen
Alison Cohen (she/her), also known as Ali, loves supporting people in strengthening their capacity to connect: with themselves, with others, and with ancient and contemporary wisdom traditions. Alison’s journey to practice began as a young adult when she was desperate for guidance on how to compassionately navigate her tumultuous internal landscape, not to mention the world. On an Insight Meditation retreat, she found what she was looking for and she has practiced extensively in the Insight Meditation tradition ever since. A former public school teacher and mindfulness program director, Alison leads Two Wings Mindfulness. Two Wings offers courses, retreats, and coaching grounded in the wisdom of trauma-informed mindfulness practice. Alison also mentors in the global Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program (MMTCP) and teaches in secular, Buddhist, Jewish, and multifaith spaces. She has trained with Mindful Schools, the UMass Center for Mindfulness (MBSR), and the International Institute for Restorative Practices, as well as under the guidance of several beloved teachers.
Klia Bassing
Klia Bassing mentors both Power of Awareness and MMTCP. Besides mentoring, she has been teaching since 2005 through her business, Visit Yourself at Work (visityourself.net), mainly for multinational organizations including World Bank Group, Organization of American States, and Bank of Switzerland. She also provides private sessions to experienced meditators, spiritual teachers, coaches, and therapists who want to deepen in nondual awakening while healing trauma.
Klia got into teaching through her own suffering with food addiction and body-image issues, 12-step programs, and Tara Brach’s inviting and personally mentoring her to teach. Besides mindfulness, modalities that inform her work include: Circling, Authentic Relating Games, Inner-Relationship Focusing, Internal Family Systems, The Sedona Method, and a variety of nondual practices.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I receive both texts and emails or do I have to choose one?
You can sign up for both! When you register you’ll automatically be registered to receive emails. You’ll receive an email to specify if you want to receive text messages in addition to weekly emails. Text messages are currently only available to those who have a phone number in the U.S. and Canada, all others will receive emails.
- How much will I be able to interact with Tara?
You’ll be able to interact with Tara on Zoom for the community meditation the first Sunday of every month and during the live Q&A sessions that happen every other month.
- When will the community meditations be?
The weekly community meditations will be every Sunday at 11 am ET | 8 am PT beginning February 2, 2025. Tara will be teaching the first meditation of every month and the others will be taught by our incredible meditation teachers.
- What are the dates of the Live Q&As with Tara?
Our live Q&As with Tara will be on the following dates:
February 2, 2025
March 15, 2025
May 17, 2025
July 19, 2025
September 20, 2025
November 15, 2025
The time of these sessions is TBA.
- Will the live sessions be recorded? Can I watch them at a later date if I'm not able to attend?
Yes, the Live Q&As will be recorded and posted on the course platform.
- When does the program begin?
The program begins with an opening event on January 14, 2025 at 12 pm ET | 9 am PT
- Who do I contact if I have questions or need technical support?
If you have additional questions, please find our FAQ page here.
- Are there scholarships or financial aid available?
Sounds True offers a limited number of partial and full scholarships to people who are in true financial need. These scholarships are specifically for those who are financially challenged. If you’d like to apply for one of the partial or full scholarships, you can do that here. Scholarships will be accepted until January 9, 2025 and if your scholarship request is accepted you will receive an email on January 13, 2025.
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