Enjoy this first Full Moon meditation of 2026.
Enjoy this meditation recorded on the New Moon of December 19, 2025.
Enjoy this meditation recorded on the December 4 Full Moon.
Enjoy this meditation to help you tap in to peace during this busy holiday season.
Blessings on this Full Moon. A time to connect to the energies of the moon and allow her to shine light and illuminate the shadows.
Enjoy this Full Moon Meditation!
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 second publication and is the book that she initially had set out to write when she began this tattooing escapade so many years ago…dating back to her adolescence!
You can read all about the juicy details regarding her inking journey soon, in Scientific Poetry & Prose. We are aiming for a February publication date. Tara intentionally chose this month in honor of her biological Mother’s birthdate which is on 2/6 story Keep an ear out for the exact date. We’ll certainly keep you posted!
Now, many of you listeners have already sat with us in circle and know that we don’t just stop there…
…simply talking about books and tattoos.
As a matter of fact, we’ve recently been told that some of our listeners have found inspiration in the words and ideas exchanged as Tara and I discuss little crumbs of our personal stories. During past Tea Times, she and I had candid conversations regarding our experiences as friends, colleagues, and soul sisters. We share talk about the tools we’ve used regarding our own healings. And sometimes, but only with permission, talk about the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual healings we’ve witnessed in others - those of who we work with in our leadership roles.
By now, our listeners know that when we speak of gossip with a purpose, this is what we mean. Sharing stories of ours and those who have entrusted us to tell their tales…during Tea Times. And sometimes…they even join in!
So, pour an extra large potion today…because this episode is packed with tips, tools, tales, and even a little chit chat with a guest who “spontaneously knocked’ on our door when Tara and I had just sat ourselves down for this week’s Tea Times! We had invited her to join us last minute and weren’t sure if she could make it. But she showed up!
Alright now, take a moment, get comfy and listen as we drop in, starting with a pre conversation between Tara and I, regarding our own experiences thus far, while in process of producing these books and in tandem, the podcast series - known to y’all as Tea Times.
To connect to today's guest, Katie, please visit:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/KtVDesignShop
https://foxxyktv.threadless.com/
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 asking, she shifts gears and focuses down a slightly different lens. Pull up a chair, pour your favorite potion into your chosen mug and journey with us…through voice and story, as we boldly dare explore more of this unique expression of self through Tara’s sharing of her poetry and prose.
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, even the inspiration for two of her tattoos!
Grab your potion and find your seat at the table, hear a bit more about the multifaceted “why” of this book.
Enjoy!
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, on record, about the things that go on behind their closed doors.
All with a purpose of healing.
Tara likes to giggle and call this “gossip with a purpose” - the purpose that we come together as wise women (and men) bringing all of our skill sets - as well as our friends and their knowings - to gather in “circle” & share wisdoms.
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, one needs new neural pathways. And to start this process, one must disengage from the repetitivity of mental looping. For me, this new thinking begins with meditation.
Be open to something different
As you embark on a new moon or a new mind, I invite you to be curious. Truthfully, this way of being open to something different can feel like a mind-mess. If this happens, be curious. Personally speaking, even if there is no problem, I want to be open to looking at things with new eyes and new ways of being. I want to expand. I want my vision to widen. I want my beingness to evolve. So as we come together today, I invite you to use meditation as a way to be grounded in the shakeup of your thinking. Most of all and again, I invite you – through meditation – to be curious.
As always, please enjoy!
More from Melissa and Today I Choose
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, in the process, has uncovered an incredible truth – that life is so much calmer, easier, and more FUN when we’re able to be ourselves. In other words and to her, being ourselves is what JOY looks and feels like.
Cathy Weiss: the mystical healer…AND Disney Travel Planner??
As you’ll hear, Cathy is an effervescent delight. We cover so much ground in this short conversation, including:
If I had to describe this conversation in a word, I would call it…a JOY! And after you listen, it is my hope that you’ll find yourself in an energetically and vibrationally higher place than when you started. Most of all and as always, please enjoy!
Resources Related to this Episode
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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 visibility. Nonetheless, that energy is touching other energy, becoming one with the pond, one with the whole.
You are the nucleus.
Going back to this idea of a pond or a lake, this is how I see mediation. When the wind is blowing and the water is rough, the surface of the water is stirred. But if we are the water – all of the water – we are both the surface and the depth, the stillness underneath and the movement without. If this is confusing, here’s another way to think about it: we each ripple out what we are. What our brain is thinking at any given moment is the drop of water falling in the pond; our thoughts are the ripples calling from within the universe without.
So as we come together to mediate today, I invite you to consider: what are you rippling out and calling in? A ripple effect works because everyone influences everyone else. If you remember that your influence begins with you, ask: what are you sending out?
As always, please enjoy!
Resources Mentioned in this Episode
More from Melissa and Today I Choose
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.
Tapping into the pulse of the universe
In addition to nature without, I've been looking at nature within. And I do this by taking my pulse on my wrist, trying to feel my heartbeat and recognize that the same pulse that beats within me is the same pulse that beats within everybody else. All living, sentient beings beat within the heart of mother earth and the cosmos. The heartbeat, in other words, is an expansive reminder of oneness. If we can tap into that beat and anchor ourselves in oneness, peace, harmony, and love, we can hold that as the true picture of who and what we are. So as we come together to meditate today, I invite you to look at your heartbeat within and turn it to see a more harmonious world without.
As always, please enjoy!
More from Melissa and Today I Choose
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 talking about everything from success, worth, alignment, and protecting your energy within a bubble.
Transform your beliefs about money and success
Paula Onysko is a Money & Business Coach who helps soulful entrepreneurs create strong, profitable businesses they love leading. She believes in stopping the hustle mentality that is draining women and creating success through peace, flow, and alignment instead. Through private and group coaching and her annual retreat, Paula guides clients to strengthen their pricing and service offerings, strategic planning, team leadership, and money mindset.
As always, please enjoy!
Resources from this episode:
More from Melissa and Today I Choose
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 “so much going on”…life? Each day, we all must navigate twists and turns, ups and downs, and surprises of all kinds. And to me, what helps to navigate the “so-much” of life is those two words: grounded presence.
The power to choose with grounded presence
Personally speaking, I can get so in my head and get so floaty/out-there that I often have to remind myself, “What's happening right here in my presence and in my body?” Being present allows me to consider: who's speaking? Being present allows me to see the task at hand. Being present allows me to witness the beauty all around. Simply, grounded presence enables me to navigate anything that comes about. Most of all, that's where meditation comes in. For me, meditation is the foundational practice that allows me to come into myself. So as we meditate together today, I invite you to consider: where can you replace “so-much” with “grounded in the now?”
Otherwise and as always, please enjoy!
More from Melissa and Today I Choose
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 energy…) of its own. In any event, we talk about so much here - from Tia Chi, to movement, to Kristin’s work with addition and group recovery, and to her unique process of tapping into your heart-center in the midst of flow. In conclusion, this was such a spirited conversation with so much goodness packed in that, most of all, I hope you enjoy it!
More from Kristin Onderdonk
More from Melissa and Today I Choose
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 and crash. They float upward and they fizz out.
Bubbling up and out
So while this episode was recorded between Christmas and New Years (I’m sure this is why I was thinking about champagne…), it continues to be relevant. For instance, by reflecting back on the year or even the past month, picture all of the different things that have happened to you. Maybe you see somethings as good and others things as bad. Maybe you see somethings as right and other things as wrong. No matter how you look at it, everything that’s happened has bubbled up. The practice, then, is to get in touch with the bottom half of the glass, your base. That’s why we start each week in meditation. So as we come together to meditate today, I invite you to let those little champagne bubbles do their thing and bubble up. Perhaps let yourself tap into your grounded-center.
And as always, please enjoy!
Related resources from Melissa
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 is simple: if you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day.
McRave suggests that by making your bed, you will receive a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do more. That makes sense. But it also got me thinking…what if we change “make your bed” and replaced it with “meditate?” Meditation is a foundational practice for me. It’s the stillness in the swirl of life. So as we meditate together today, I invite you to consider: what might your life look like if you mediated first thing every day?
As always, please enjoy!
Related resources from Melissa
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 into this idea of receiving and the reciprocity of giving.
When we give unconditionally, we also are receiving. In truth, it is in the giving that we receive. Think about this in terms of cyclical breath. As we breath in, we're receiving. As we breathe out, we're giving. That’s what we’ll use as the foundation for our meditation today.
As we prepare to meditate together, I invite you to consider: where else, like your breath, do you see giving to receive? I, for one, am struck by the wisdom of trees: always giving, always receiving.
As always, please enjoy!
Related resources from Melissa