For episode 270, we bring you the second of a two-part episode from the archives.

Recorded in the early 2010s in a visit to Asheville, North Carolina, Sharon is teaching on Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances.

In this teaching, Sharon speaks about:

• Brief History of IMS

• The word Lovingkindness

• the cultural baggage of “love”

• The reality of interconnection

• “Never throw anyone out of your heart” - NKB

• Looking for the good

• How to make a gratitude list

• Sharon’s only joke

• Making different choices

Sharon then takes some questions from the audience on

• Feeling the sorrow of the world

• Balancing concentration in practice

• How do we open despite our conditioning

• Learn to let go of grievances

• The spaces between the breath

You can listen to the first part of this teaching in Episode 269 of the Metta Hour, released on September 3, 2025 entitled Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances Part 1.

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For episode 269, we bring you the first of a two-part episode from the archives.Recorded in the early 2010s in a visit to Asheville, North Carolina, Sharon is teaching on Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances.

In this teaching, Sharon speaks about:

• Her travel adventure to North Carolina

• Her first impressions of Asian philosophy

• Changing our relationship to joy & delight

• Transforming our relationship to suffering

• Awakening to the realm of neutral experiences

• Sharon’s first time meditating

• The three skills of meditation

• Sharon’s mantra of “something will happen”

• The deepening of concentration

• Our tendency to project into the future

• Mindfulness is not passive

• The magic moment in meditation

The episode closes with Sharon leading a guided meditation practice. Stay tuned for the second half of this teaching, which will be released in two weeks' time in Part 2 of Lovingkindness in Difficult Circumstances.

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For episode 268, Emma Seppälä returns to the Metta Hour for our ongoing Anxiety Series.

In this series, Sharon is speaking with Mental Health experts, providers and different researchers for tools to work with anxiety in increasingly challenging times. This is the eighth episode in the series.

Emma Seppälä is a best-selling author, Yale lecturer, and international keynote speaker. She teaches executives at the Yale School of Management and is faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program. She is also the Science Director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. A psychologist and research scientist by training, Emma’s expertise is the science of happiness, emotional intelligence, and social connection. Her latest book, “Sovereign: Reclaim Your Freedom, Energy, and Power in a Time of Distraction, Uncertainty, and Chaos” came out in 2024.

In this conversation, Emma and Sharon speak about:

• Mental Health study on university students
• How self-compassion figures into wellbeing
• Reflective Best-Self Exercise
• How the Dalai Lama made a mistake
• Sovereignty: awareness + courage + energy
• Suppressing emotions makes them stronger
• Emma’s experience with an Eating Disorder
• Working with difficult emotions
• Different regulation techniques
• Breathing techniques for regulation
• Research on Lovingkindness
• Benefits of meditation
• How intuition can help our anxiety

Emma closes the conversation with a guided breathing practice. To learn more about Emma’s work and get a copy of “Sovereign” on her website right here. Learn about Emma’s 6-week course, the Science of Sovereignty right here.

Check out the first episode in the Anxiety Podcast Series with Dr. Jud Brewer on Ep.260 of the Metta Hour Podcast.

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