What a relief to have a practice to return to when the waters of life grow choppy. What a gift to remember to turn away for a little while from the news of the world and reclaim our inner sense of steadiness and light. And what a balm to restore our whole beings to a place of tenderness and ease, to remember the way back to unshakable wholeness and light.

I hope that you, too, find these practices to be little life rafts that help keep us afloat. I hope that you find the simple act of lying down, exhaling, and settling inward to be a wise and necessary act, in good times and in bad. I hope that you, too, find your practices to be good friends always ready to soothe the soul.

I’m here with another good friend to help us stay steady and bright in the season ahead. This 27-minute practice offers gentle reclined movements for the hips and the shoulders that help create spaciousness within. We surrender into the moment, we relinquish stickiness and stagnation, and we welcome into our beings a sense of tenderhearted vitality. Slowly but surely, breath by breath and stretch by stretch, we find our way back to calm and clear state of being.

I once heard a yoga teacher describe nirvana - the state of enlightenment yogis are supposedly seeking - as simply “an untroubled mind.” I loved that possibility so much that I scribbled the words onto a sticky note and stuck the note to the wall by my computer. Something in me softens every time my eyes land on those words: an untroubled mind.

Why stop there? How about an untroubled body? An untroubled heart? An untroubled soul? My wish is that somehow these practices nudge us - at least a little - toward that direction of being utterly engaged in the world, but with the mind, body and heart untroubled… calm, steady, bright and free.

Please visit my home website to explore a range of articles and essays I’ve written through the last several decades that I hope will help us move toward untroubled ways of being in the world. And if you’re enjoying these practices here at At Home in the World and would like to support this programming, please consider subscribing as a paid member. (Visit the site and click the subscribe button or select “My Account” in the dropdown menu.) And if you’ve already done so, a million miles of thanks!

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