Today I Choose

Hi, happy Tuesday and welcome back to Tea Times with Melissa and Tara, I’m Melissa Bingham and in these special episodes of the Today I Choose podcast, I’m talking with Tara Whiteman-Fager as she shares the multifaceted storytelling behind the scenes of her upcoming book Scientific Poetry & Prose, an Abstract Prequel to the Talk & Tales of the Tattooed Women.  

Talk and Tales of the Tattooed Women is intended to be her se...

Welcome back to Today I Choose and Tuesday’s Tea Times with Melissa and Tara.  

Last week, in episode 2, we filled you in on the multifaceted “whys” of Tara’s upcoming book, her first paper publication titled The Scientific Poetry and Prose, An Abstract Prequel to the Talk and Tales of the Tattooed Women, the first of a 2 part series.  

Join us in circle this week as Melissa carefully convinces Tara to take us with her when per my ...

Welcome to this episode of Tea Times with Melissa & Tara – a place where women partake in an age-old tradition of talking openly, on record, about the things that go on behind their closed doors. All with a purpose of healing.

On today’s podcast, Tara and I continue to gossip with a purpose’ as she likes to say about her upcoming book, “Scientific Poetry & Prose” and how even the most simple things can be made sacred, eve...

Grab your favorite potion and cozy up for Tea Times with Melissa and Tara.

In this first of a four-part conversation, Melissa invites Tara Whiteman-Fager to share about her new book, Scientific Prose and Poetry, the prequel to her forthcoming book Talk and Tales of the Tattooed Women. NOTE: This episode has some salty language. Not for little ears.

About... Tea Times - where women partake in an age old tradition of talking openly, ...

When I recorded this meditation, it was a new moon. And that got me thinking…

First, I was reminded of the Albert Einstein quote, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.” Next, this led me to consider: what does that mean? How do I, in other words, open to a new mind? How do I form new ways of thinking and new ways of being? To create new thoughts or to come to an out-of-the-box solution, Einstein suggests, ...

Clairvoyance, intuition, and the electromagnetic field of joy

On today’s episode, I am so excited to share my conversation with The Joy Healer, Cathy Weiss. In Cathy’s words, she describes herself as a fully recovered codependent, hide-behind-the-drama-and-BS-of-day-to-day-life person who was, tragically, trying to dim her own brightness. Since then, however, she’s spent the better part of the last 25 years healing those wounds and...

Today, we're visiting one of my favorite topics…and that is the ripple effect. To explain this, think about the ripple effect from an energetic perspective: we all walk around this earth with a radiating field that starts at our core and continually undulates outward. Like waves rippling from a single drop of water falling in a pond, we make ripples. And as these waves move further and further away from our center, they might lose ...

There's a lot going on in our world. And personally speaking, I’m just trying to get through each day. To do this, the thing that keeps me grounded, calm, and centered is my meditation practice. And when I need more than my meditation practice to keep me grounded, calm, and centered? I go into nature. This might sound simple – and it is – yet looking at the beauty, wonder, and joy around me reminds me to change my internal picture.

I'm happy to welcome Paula Onysko to the podcast today. Interestingly, I found Paula at the beginning of the pandemic through synchronicity. I was doing research on the tapping technique and her website just…popped up. Since then, Paula has not only been a wonderful resource, she’s become a teacher, a mentor, and a friend. Her tools around abundance, wealth, and a personal money-story have become instrumental. And today we’re talki...

Before recoding this episode, I’d been traveling and sensing into what I wanted to share with you. And over and over again, two words kept coming up: Grounded Presence. While traveling, people kept saying to me, “Melissa, you have so much going on!” And while traveling, I kept saying to myself, “Melissa,” – yes, I sometimes talk to myself in the third person – “You do have so much going on…but don’t we all?” In other words, isn’t “...

On today’s episode, I’m delighted to have my friend, Kristin Onderdonk, back on the show to talk about her new book, Stop & Flow: 8 Steps to Recharge your Life, Overcome Stress, Pain, and Cravings. For those who haven’t heard our previous conversation, Kristin was one of my first guests when I started Today I Choose last year. While her new book was in the works then, it has since taken on a life (and, as you’ll hear, an...

As I was feeling into what to focus our meditation on today, I kept seeing champagne bubbles… “That’s a funny thing to meditation on,” I thought. “Champagne…” Yet the bubbles kept appearing in my mind’s eye and, like the burst of a champagne-bubble under my nose, it struck me: life IS like champagne. Picture this: toward the bottom of the glass, the golden liquid is settled, stable. But toward the top of the glass, bubbles cascade ...

The first task of the day

Welcome to meditation. I'm so glad you're here. It's a rainy, chilly day in Northern California. It’s one of those days where you wanna snuggle up in bed. And that was me all day yesterday. Funny enough, doing podcast interviews last week, somebody brought up the book, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World by Admiral William McRaven. The premise of the book i...

Give unconditionally to receive unconditionally

In preparation for today’s meditation, I was looking at different books in order to bring added context to our session, but I couldn't find one that I wanted to settle on! I was, however, struck by how many beautiful books I’ve received as gifts over the years. And then I was struck by how many beautiful books I’ve given out over the years. So when I woke this morning, I felt...

I am so happy to be sharing my conversation with Meg Tobin. Meg is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor trained in – among other body-centered modalities – EFT Tapping, Brainspotting, EMDR, and Psychodrama. And today, we’re going to talk about the impact that trauma, anxiety, and stress has on our central nervous system.

From the body on up

According to Meg, we in the West tend to take a top-down approach to healing. That is...

As you ring in 2022, I want to share a meditation from Thanksgiving 2021 on gratitude because gratitude is a practice not just reserved for one day of the year. Personally, I try to practice gratitude often. And in today’s meditation, we’re going to reflect on a passage from M.J. Ryan’s book, Giving Thanks: The Gift of Gratitude. M.J. says, “To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, but to ...

Recently, I drove from Santa Cruz to San Francisco on Highway 1…

…and there were so many places to stop and take pictures. I was by myself. I wasn’t on a schedule. So I stopped some 10 times to take spectacular picture after picture. The views were epic. And, to put it simply, the drive was a reminder to see what was in front of me.

Over the last six weeks, life has taught me that things can change in a second. Thus, being...

We were laughing before I hit record today and there’s a very good reason why.

I shared with the group a new mascot for my Monday Morning Meditations. His name is “Gn-OM” and he’s a beautiful ceramic gnome that I found at a holiday bizarre. Simply put, Gn-OM (get it?) brings me so much ridiculous joy. And Gn-OM matters because he can help during this crazy time. “How can Gn-OM help, Melissa?” I hear you ask. Well, Gn-OM he...

Self-care begins with intention

In today's episode, I'm very excited to share a beacon of intentional living, my friend, Tara Whiteman-Fager. Tara has been living her life with intention for over 10 years, incorporating a mind-body approach to self-care. Each day, Tara practices intentional living through all aspects of her life, including her relationships, her work, her parenting, her artistry, her ancestry, her coaching...