At Home in the World: Recent Episodes
Claudia Cummins
Movement and stillness practices for vitality and ease, with Claudia Cummins. Learn more at www.ClaudiaCummins.com.
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Meditation can be a good friend as we navigate the ups and downs of life. The practice is simple: We train our mind to behave in wholesome and supportive ways. Refining the practice can be a lifetime’s journey.
In this 19-minute guided meditation, we explore the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation. We settle into the body, steady the mind, and then spread our awareness outward into the world around us. We watch what happens when we rest with loving awareness in the embodied experience of being alive.
There are lots of ways to meditate and it’s worth exploring a range of approaches until you find one that works well for you. Typically, I begin with an anchoring practice - a deep focus on just one thing - until I sense my mind growing calmer and steadier. When and if that happens, I relinquish my hold on my chosen anchor and allow my awareness to spread outward in all directions, awash in the vitality and vibrancy of the here-and-now.
A meditation anchor can be any object of awareness that holds the mind’s attention: the breath, sounds, a mantra, an image, and more. Your chosen mental anchor is like a chew toy for the restless puppy dog of the mind, keeping it occupied with a more wholesome activity than habitual thoughts and worries. After a while, the anchor coaxes the mind to grow quiet enough that we can see clearly and rest with ease among the lovely vicissitudes of life.
You may hear some rhythmic rumbling sounds toward the end of the practice. That’s when my cat - a meditation master for sure - settles onto my lap and begins purring. Feel free to purr right along!
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Gravity is our friend, yet we spend so much of our lives fighting its primordial pull. In the struggle we miss the opportunity to cultivate deep connection, soul-satisfying rest, and an unshakeable sense of vitality and ease.
In this 22-minute practice we’ll explore the possibility of befriending the earth in ways that release tension and cultivate renewed energy. This gentle movement practice can help nurture feelings of balance, well-being and ease.
The earth receives us and holds us. It offers us a place of deep rest and steadiness. By settling into its arms we are invited to let tension melt off our bodies so that we may soften and settle into ease.
The earth also has the power to gently energize us, to offer us a bright vitality that can buoy us upward and outward into the world. And somehow, magically, with just a little nudging from us, the earth knows just what we need in order to slip toward a more balanced way of being in the world.
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One of the great gifts of contemplative practice is the ability to drop into the experience of the moment without demanding that it be anything other than it is. With this open-hearted attitude, we rest in the greater flow of life and savor the experience of simply being present in the moment to enjoy the passing show.
This experience can be deeply restorative, as we let go of habits of grasping and micromanaging and insisting that life play out a certain way. It can also help us connect to something far larger than our own small lives, reminding us that we are bit players in the vast story of the world.
This 18-minute practice offers a taste of this experience. We settle into the moment and savor the invitation to rest deeply in the sensations of being alive. We let the quiet vitality we sense within soothe and revitalize our spirits. And then we return to our lives feeling brighter, clearer and once again at home in the world.
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Life has a way of leaving us bent out of shape from time to time, a bit less clear and whole than we might like. Sometimes we need a little help finding our way back to ease and peace. A few moments of quiet presence can bring us right back home to our selves, reminding us who we are and how we want to be in the world.
This gentle 14-minute movement practice offers just such an opportunity. It is explored on the ground, lying on the back, although a cozy bed might work just fine, too. A little rest, a bit of easy breathing and a small helping of movement all help us shed tension and reclaim ease. I hope that you, too, find that these few moments of grounded presence have the power to reshape the contours of not just your day, but of your whole life.
These practices are such a gift, when we hold them close. They have the power to keep our eyes open, our hearts clear, our spirits bright. They can so easily nudge a stormy day toward peace. They only work, though, when we actually do them instead of just plan to do them, or perhaps just think about doing them. They require us to muster up the energy to roll out our mats or climb onto our cushions, to dive into the movement, the stillness, and the deep sigh of relief.
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Amid the busy-ness of life, we all need reminders to give ourselves a break from the world’s frantic pace, so that we can give our minds and our bodies a chance to return to the healing balm of the present moment.
In this 10-minute guided relaxation, we’ll take a beautiful time out. Just settle into a comfortable position, exhale deeply and let everything go. Let the world spin off as it likes, as you practice self calm and self care.
Whether meditating on a cushion, practicing savasana at the end of a yoga session, or settling into a cozy chair, a few moments of peace and calm can help us return to our more balanced and steady selves. And when we grow quieter within, we are able to see more clearly the truths of our lives. And that, in turn, allows us to act from a place of deep love, on behalf of both ourselves and the wider world.
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How would it feel to move like water? What sharp edges of our beings might soften if we allowed ourselves to shift and slip and swirl in soft and liquid ways? What might loosen, what might fall away, and what might emerge out of such a way of being in the world? My hunch is that our bodies and our minds might grow softer, easier, freer.
In this 25-minute guided practice, we’ll stay close to the ground and invite the body to unravel and stretch in gentle, fluid ways. We’ll let this liquid movement erode our harsher edges, leaving us softer and calmer. And perhaps we’ll re-emerge feeling restored and rinsed clean.
Water yields instead of fights. Water shape-shifts in ways that accommodate boundaries and barriers. Water ebbs and flows without resistance or complaint. Water responds to the world around it, never insisting that life be anything other than what it is. Its fluidity allows it to accommodate the truth of each moment. And its yielding nature is a source of deep strength. What a good teacher and a good friend!
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We spend so much of our lives looking outward to the world around us. Every once in a while it can be such a relief to turn our gaze inward instead for a little while. Closing the eyes and refocusing within can help us quiet the nervous system, recharge our batteries, and return us to what matters most in our lives.
In this 12-minute practice, we’ll consider the lovely possibility that we have a garden within where we can rest and savor the moment. We’ll call upon our powers of imagination and imagery to create a quiet oasis inside of us. Consider this a meditation, perhaps, or an opportunity to practice deep rest.
Sit upright if you like, or rest back in any comfortable position. You might even be able to do this while strolling through your favorite garden. Feel free to toss out any of the words or images that don’t ring true to you. And, of course, head off onto your own inner journey any time you like.
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The sages of ancient China envisioned a world comprised of two complementary and interconnected types of energy. Yang energy is bright and uplifting, while yin energy is cool and steady. Yang sometimes is described as the sunny side of the mountain where the light shines brightly, while yin is offered as the shady side of the mountain where the air is moist and cool.
In our culture we are often primed to embrace the bold energy of yang, while perhaps steering clear of yin’s darkness and depth. But the ancient sages taught us that yin and yang can’t exist without each other. We need to nurture both, they taught, in order for our lives to flow with true vitality and health.
Everyone needs this healthy balance of yin and yang in their lives. It is said that women in particular - and especially women as we age - need to nurture strong reserves of quiet, cool, nurturing energy in our lives.
This 28-minute movement practice, done in a reclined position close to the ground (or perhaps nestled in bed), offers a taste of the quiet and restorative energy of yin. The movements are slow and gentle and almost liquid in quality. The emphasis is on yielding and harmonizing, with no feeling of aggression or ambition or heat.
Yin isn’t weak or static, but rather flows like the current of a river deep beneath the surface - with quiet strength and steady purpose. In the heat of summer, this watery coolness can feel especially delicious. We enjoy the brilliance of the light blooming all about us, even as we savor the cool, quiet moments that quench our thirst as we rest in the shade.
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Even the Dalai Lama agrees that the purpose of life is to be happy. But what exactly does that mean? What constitutes happiness and how do we find our way there?
Does happiness come from savoring a fresh raspberry as it bursts on the tongue? Does it come from a sense of mission in one’s broader life? Or does it come from sensing a deep and radiant connection between our small self and the vast Self of the world? Yes, yes and yes!
In this 19-minute practice, we’ll explore three important pillars of happiness: pleasure, purpose and peace. This is a restful and meditative practice that could be explored sitting upright or perhaps tucked in a cozy chair with a cup of tea.
Spending time contemplating the experiences and relationships that bring us alive can incline our minds toward a deeply embodied sense of happiness and wellbeing. This sort of contemplation can also cultivate clarity about aspects of our lives that might need a little tending and care. My hope is that returning to this practice from time to time might shine new light on the pillars of happiness in your own life.
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Settling onto the earth marks the beginning of our connection to the wider world. Gravity binds us to the ground and invites us to release, to root, to relate. Through this, we sense an expanse of life beyond the narrow confines of our small bodies. We sense denseness, solidity, steadiness. We come to know the deep power of the world below.
And once our bodies become good friends with the earth - feeling held, swaddled, weighty and solid - we open our eyes to the sky above. The sky fills us with possibility, with lightness, with a yearning to reach out and up and beyond. The sky beckons us toward adventure into the world of action and connection. We reach, we expand, we explore.
Between these two primary elements - earth and sky - our lives flow. We come into relationship with gravity and with levity both. We enter into a joyful and lifelong conversation between the rock-solid steadiness of ground beneath and the transcendent freedom of the space above.
In this 22-minute practice, we hand ourselves over to the earth, softening and settling downward. And then we rise up and out into the spacious freedom of the sky. We breathe and move in gentle and organic forms, exploring the way we serve as a living bridge between what lies beneath and what soars above.
Earth. Sky. Down. Up. Inner. Outer. Through our explorations we cultivate an ever deepening sense of wholeness, including all of life into the sphere of experience. And wholeness, of course, is what allows us to finally feel at home in the world, in this breath, right here and right now.
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Most spiritual traditions include vocalization as a ritual that bridges head and heart, inner and outer, self and other. We sing, we chant, we recite sacred texts. We do this in bright happiness and also in deep grief. Waves of sound pour out of us as expression, as benediction, as prayer.
This 18-minute session explores one of the simplest vocalization strategies: humming. The ancient yogis found humming so powerful that they elevated it to a formal practice called bhramari breath, or buzzing bee breath. The instructions are simple: Soften your body, close your mouth and hum as you exhale.
The practice is easy, portable and deeply steadying. It can be considered a breathing practice, a meditation practice, and even a movement practice as we explore the subtle sound vibrations rippling through the body. In just a few moments of focused practice, bhramari breath has the power to calm the mind, soothe the spirit, and offer a gentle buzz of uplift and delight.
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The modern world loves extremes, but age-old wisdom points us toward the middle way. The excitement of heading to the far edge of the world can wake us up, for sure. But, oh, what a relief it is to let go of the need to be on fire in order to feel alive. There is nothing quite like the sweet relief of coming home to ease and balance, to the discovery that not much needs to happen in order for us to feel happy, right here and right now.
In between too tight and too loose we warm to the possibility that we already have everything we need. We notice that we don’t have to travel far from home in order to feel content. We consider the possibility that less is sometimes more. And blessedly, our expectations of ourselves and the world begin to soften just a bit. Sometimes we even embrace the possibility that good enough might just be enough.
This 35-minute movement sequence embodies the possibility that we don’t have to travel to extremes in order to cultivate balance and wellbeing. Lying on our backs, close to the ground, we commit to soft, easy, pain-free movement. We relinquish some long-held beliefs and welcome some new ones. We let go of the “no pain, no gain” mentality. We cultivate flexibility of mind and heart. And when this happens, we settle toward a state of of profound peace and ease, at home in the very middle of our lives.
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Some practices are simple and straightforward: We practice yoga or we practice qigong or we practice mindfulness meditation. Others take a meandering path, dipping into a array of awareness practices as we slip easily downstream.
This 30-minute meditation is the meandering sort of meditation. We start with a gentle breathing practice designed to help cultivate balance and steadiness. Then we let go of shaping the breath and simply watch the breath. And then - as often happens - the breath meditation awakens a quiet light within and we find ourselves slipping toward lovingkindness practice.
Breath, body, mind, spirit love. They’re connected so deeply that it’s sometimes impossible to tease them apart. We start out stretching our hamstrings and somehow we end up communing with all creation. We sit down to meditate and we end up floating in an ocean of love. We begin practicing to save ourselves and we end up caring for the whole wide world. Pull one strand, and the whole tapestry shifts. What a strange and lovely mystery!
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Meditation instructions are simple: Rest your awareness with openness and ease in the experience of the present moment.
Simple, of course, doesn’t always mean easy. Often when we sit down to meditate, the mind rebels and we find ourselves spinning off into fantasies of the future or memories of the past. It takes patience and practice to train the mind to settle with steadiness into the here-and-now.
Many people give up when they encounter the restless mind of meditation. There are ways, though, to smooth out the process of learning to meditate - ways of sweet-talking the mind out of chaos and in the direction of peace. It’s well worth learning how.
Sometimes it can be helpful to begin with a little movement, and then - as we settle - inject small gaps of attentive stillness into the movement flow. In the beginning, we may move for several moments and then “meditate” for two breaths. And then three breaths, and then five, ten, 30 or more, until eventually the mind has softened enough to truly stay, stay, stay.
This 20-minute guided practice shares a taste of this form of movement guiding us toward stillness. We begin with gentle movement, with quiet gaps of stillness here and there. And then we slip toward gentle breath work, punctuated for longer stretches of quiet. And finally, we rest in stillness for an even longer stretch.
It’s all meditation, really. We start out with meditation in movement, and we end up with meditation in stillness.
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One thing leads to another, in our practice as well as in our lives. Sometimes our minds like to divide things up into separate and discrete parts, but when we take 100 steps back we begin to see that everything is connected into a single unified tapestry of life.
In this 21-minute guided practice, we begin with deep relaxation. This quiet space leads us toward breath awareness and eventually into the possibility of reshaping our mood by reshaping our breath. Breathing practice - in this session an exploration called “box breathing” - leads us toward the calm of meditation. And then, beautifully, the steadiness and ease of meditation leads us right toward the heart into lovingkindness practice.
Call it relaxation, call it breath work, call it meditation. Or, just call it practice. A practice that helps us remember who we are and how we want to live our lives.
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When is the last time someone encouraged you to move in a way that feels joyful? When is the last time someone suggested you do more with your body than follow someone else’s rules about how to stand, how to eat, how to breathe? Has anyone ever suggested that you explore the possibility of moving and breathing and resting with delight?
In this 25-minute practice we'll explore the joy of movement - the quiet happiness of moving the body in a free and easy way, with no agenda other than savoring the sensations of life as they pass through us. We'll let our bodies out of their cages to roam the landscape with curiosity and freedom, and we'll observe how this exploration changes the mind, the mood, the body and the breath.
We have been well-trained since childhood to follow the call of the outer world, to be good students and good sheep. Maybe it’s time we recover our inner agency and reclaim our inborn wisdom. We may be surprised by how our lives bloom when we spend a little more time listening inward, learning more about who we are and how we most want to spend our days. The whole world may come alive as we rediscover the simple joy of being here, now… present and moving through the world with ease and quiet delight.
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The world offers us innumerable tools to help us stay bright and steady even among the challenges of life. The ancient mystics were experts at unearthing and developing these tools to help us find our way.
For centuries, spiritual adepts have used the breath to shift the inner workings of the nervous system in ways that bring us into balance. They developed breathing techniques to amp us up when we are feeling lethargic and they refined techniques to calm us when we are feeling over-activated. Some of their techniques require years of practice and refinement, but some are simple and accessible to us all.
In this 12-minute practice, we’ll explore the quiet power of the breath to help guide us toward a calmer way of being. We’ll practice what I like to call the cleansing breath - a long, slow and easy exhalation - to help return us back to our saner and steadier way of being. We’ll let a few rounds of cleansing breath lead us right into a space of quiet relaxation. We’ll return to a state of being where we feel rested, restored and at home.
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The promise of spiritual practice is that it will help us find our way toward a deep and lasting sense of peace in ourselves and the world. Call it enlightenment or nirvana or wholeness or wellbeing. The hopeful proposition is that there is a way of being that embodies profound wakefulness and also deep equanimity, even in the very same breath.
Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh called this inner wellbeing the “island of self,” and he urged his students to return to this quiet refuge every day. “If you don’t go home to yourself, you continue to lose yourself,” he wrote. “You destroy yourself and you destroy people around you, even if you have goodwill and want to do something to help. That is why the practice of going home to the island of self is so important. No one can take your true home away.”
This 22-minute reclined practice - with gentle movement, easy breathing, and a return the here-and-now - explores the possibility of reconnecting with our own inner refuge. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to nudge us out of confusion and in the direction of clarity and calm.
The ultimate teaching, of course, is that peace is already here, that we don’t need to go searching for it. Making sense of this koan is advanced practice, for sure. How is it possible that the very thing we are seeking is already nestled deep within us, just waiting to be found? With devoted practice, day-by-day we move ever closer to the answer.
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Here’s a news flash: You already know how to breathe! Your body is exquisitely tuned to know just when and how to inhale and exhale. Even though we are primed in our culture to look for answers outside of ourselves, here’s an opportunity to try something different.
Put aside the breathing books and instructions (for a little while, at least, in the name of curiosity and investigation). Stop counting breaths. Stop holding breaths. Stop manipulating or micromanaging. (No worry, you can return to these techniques - which do have their place - later.)
Instead, in this restful 21-minute session, settle into the beautiful rhythms and melodies of your own body, as you inhale and exhale without a drill sergeant watching over you. Let the breath go and let it be. Take a lighter approach. Learn about your own signature “breath print.” Trust. Be curious and be amazed.
And, of course, relax. The more we allow the body to settle into a restful and easy space, the freer the breath becomes. With each muscle that unclenches, with each ounce of tension that melts away, we move closer to that organic and whole-bodied breath we were born with. As we unravel holding patterns and long-held armoring, we make room for the return of our natural, responsive, full-bodied way of breathing. And when that happens, our whole being smiles and sighs in relief.
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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.
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.
Some sages define nirvana, or enlightenment, as “an untroubled mind.” My wish is that these practices nudge us in that direction. May we learn to remain wholeheartedly engaged in the wider world, while at the same time maintaining an untroubled mind… calm, steady, bright and free.
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In this go-go modern world, our nervous systems are easily thrust into overdrive, leaving us perpetually exhausted and out-of-sorts. We need strategies to help us downshift into a steadier, calmer way of being in the world.
In this 12-minute relaxation practice, we nudge the body, mind and spirit in the direction of equanimity and ease. We lie quietly, settling into the peace of the present moment while inviting our whole being to rest. We let a few easy breaths smooth out the wrinkles of the day, with a smile and a sigh of relief.
Living well requires energy. It takes effort to muster up the strength and creativity to thrive. If we want our lives to feel less like drudgery and more like delight, we need to take good care of ourselves. We need to refuel, replenish, revitalize. Resting deeply isn’t a sin - it is self care. So go ahead. Lie down for a little while, exhale, and let everything be. Remember what it feels like to be a body at rest - alive, awake and at home in the world.
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Settling close to the earth each day - relinquishing our burdens and allowing our bodies to feel held - can be such a balm in this busy and unpredictable world. We nudge our lives from a state of frantic doing toward the clean, clear relief of pure being. In this quiet steadiness, we begin to see more clearly what is true and what matters most.
Through gentle movement, a little quiet, and a whole lot of letting go, this 22-minute session invites us to exhale deeply and reclaim our inner sense of ease. We come back home to our bodies, to our lives, and to the earth that holds us all.
These moments of quiet tenderness help our days flow a little more smoothly, leading us in the direction of wholeness and wellbeing. We reclaim our sense of amazement and adventure. For a little while, at least, we remember how it feels to be more curious than afraid of the world within us and also the world beyond.
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Sometimes we just need a break. The world has had its way with us, perhaps, and we need a little time to rest and recover from the challenges of the day. We need time to calm the nerves, quiet the breath, and warm the heart.
In this session, we’ll take a 20-minute pause. We’ll leave the busy world behind and settle into a quiet space within. We’ll expand our awareness beyond the thinking brain and toward the sensations of life as they pass through us. We’ll downshift the nervous system and rekindle a sense of presence and possibility.
So lie down onto the ground - or perhaps nestle into your favorite cozy chair - and let everything go and let everything be, for at least a little while. After relaxing for a spell, you will likely return to the world refreshed and replenished, and still tethered to the quiet places of peace that make their home within.
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In yoga philosophy there is a belief that life - at its most basic level - is comprised of an endless flow of subtle vibrations. All creation is said to hum with pulsation, with a wavelike alternation of rising and falling, of reaching and returning, of becoming and being. The flow of these subtle vibrations is called spanda in yoga philosophy, and much of our practice is about settling into these waves of life with an ever deepening clarity and ease.
This 27-minute reclined movement practice explores the lovely ways that life is expressed through us, as we move and breathe and rest. We explore the possibility of rooting - of reaching and of returning - in ways that key us into the springy and wavelike flow of movement both within and beyond us.
Like waves, we aren’t meant to only rise or only fall. We aren’t meant to only reach out and never return home. Our lives are expression of the beautiful play of ebb and flow, of movement and stillness, of giving and receiving, of self and other. In each moment, we are invited to participate with delight in the ever-changing flow of life.
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Look outside your window. What’s the weather like right now? Now, look inside yourself. What’s the weather within? Are you running hot or cold? Is the sun shining or is this a rainy day? Are your thoughts stormy or serene? And is your vitality shining brightly or hiding behind a few clouds?
In this 14-minute guided meditation, we’ll consider our inner weather patterns. We’ll watch the energetic weather pass across the landscape of our bodies. We’ll sharpen our powers of perception to sense more clearly the sensations, feelings, thoughts and energies moving through our inner worlds.
Seeing clearly helps us tend to the world with wisdom and compassion. Holding close to the truth of what is - whether we like what we find or not - allows us to make clear-eyed decisions about how to respond with ease to the ever-changing weather of our lives. Through this process, we begin to understand that happiness depends not on living in a world of perfect weather, but rather in knowing how to gracefully accommodate - and maybe even enjoy - whatever weather comes our way.
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Our inner bodies need space in order to move with ease and strength. Alas, sometimes the world conspires to leave us feeling strangled and stuck inside, as if there’s not enough room for the rivers of life to flow freely. Thankfully, gentle movement can help.
This 21-minute guided practice dives toward the body’s core, exploring gentle movements that help cultivate a long and spacious spine. We begin on our backs in “constructive rest” position, with the knees bent and the feet on the floor. Tuck a pillow under your head if you like, and adjust in any way that feels appropriate for you. As always, please stay within your comfort zone throughout the practice. If any movement causes strain, then stop, soften, and move in a happier way.
A little self-care goes a long way. If we want to be bright citizens of the world, we need to take good care of ourselves - physically, mentally and emotionally. We need to stretch and move and rest like the good animals we are. We need to connect in loving ways, both within and beyond. When we commit to taking good care of our lives, we nourish the rivers of happiness and vitality that flow within us all.
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Every spiritual practice, one way or another, brings us back to our own good hearts and the love the shines forth from within. We may not join a yoga class because we want to soften our hearts. We may not begin meditating because we want to cultivate goodwill. But in some mysterious bit of spiritual magic, these practices transform us into kinder and more compassionate human beings.
The Buddhist practice of lovingkindness, or metta meditation, offers an explicit pathway to cultivating good heart. In lovingkindness meditation, we call up images of people in our lives and we send wishes for happiness and wellbeing in their direction. We may not know for sure whether these wishes change others, but we very quickly learn that they can change us in profound ways.
In this 19-minute guided practice, we’ll explore a variation of the traditional Buddhist practice of lovingkindness meditation. This contemplation is a little more free-form than is often taught, but I hope it brings a smile to your face nonetheless. We settle into a restful position and reclaim our own good hearts. We rest and breathe and be. And we befriend the world, moment after moment, one heart to another.
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Modern life is loud and busy and crowded. It’s filled with non-stop energy and bright lights and startling noises. If we could, it seems, we’d likely keep the sun at high noon all day and all night. It’s exhilarating, for sure. But it can also be exhausting, especially for those of us who crave a little peace and quiet from time to time.
In this 20-minute movement practice, we nestle onto the ground, exhale deeply, and rest in the quiet of pure being. We explore the calm, grounding energy the Taoists call “yin,” which balances the sunny and stimulating energy of “yang” we all know so well. Thoughts slow down, the body relaxes and the breath returns to its baby-like ease.
These movements feel like moonlit nights and cool, cleansing calm. They are refreshing and restorative, and they nudge us back to a soft and settled way being. They are the perfect antidote to our loud, fast and over-caffeinated world. And they guide us back home to our most steady and faithful way of being in the world.
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We all need opportunities each day to slow down and simplify, to create quiet pockets of time and space in which to settle the nervous system and calm the heart. In these restful moments, we recover a sense of spaciousness and ease. We turn down the volume of our lives and linger in the open skies of the here and now.
When we make room each day for at least a few moments of rest - downshifting from fast forward into neutral - our whole lives flow a little more smoothly. We breathe more freely. We see more clearly. We respond to the stresses of life in kinder, gentler ways. We feel more at home in our lives and in the world.
In this 11-minute guided relaxation, we allow the great healers of time and space restore us to a sense of wholeness and ease. We befriend earth, we become sky, and we savor the space in between.
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Japanese poet Koboyashi Issa, who was born in 1763 and penned more than 10,000 haiku, wrote two poems that are perfect for this oh-so-slow time of year. First, the sweetest four-word poem ever: Snail always at homeAnd second, just eight words: Oh, snail, climb Mt. Fuji, but slowly, slowlyThis 25-minute movement practice takes its inspiration from Issa and his snails. We move slowly, in no particular hurry, enjoying every sensation along the way. We explore the possibility that life is best savored slowly and with delight. And we breathe and rest in the faithful knowing that wherever we go, we are already home.
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Sometimes even grown ups need a time-out. The busy-ness of the world exhausts us with its noisy, frantic pace. We feel our nerves fraying, our heads pounding, our patience slipping away. There is such wisdom in giving ourselves permission to turn away from life’s cacophony from time to time, so that we may turn inward toward the quieter rhythms of the heart.
This 21-minute session offers just such a break. The invitation is to rest in any position, in any place where we can settle with a sigh of relief. We relax into the here-and-now, and we return our nervous system to a state of balance. We practice, as meditation teacher Jack Kornfield calls it, “benevolent rest.”
In some strange and topsy-turvy logic, this willingness to turn away from the world every once in a while becomes a superpower that allows us to be more effective citizens in the world. In relaxing our tight-fisted grip, in reclaiming our breath, in settling our nerves, we return to a state of clarity and wellbeing. We remember what matters most and we remember who we really are. And then guided by this vision, we rise up with a smile, ready to resume our good work of loving, caring and connecting with the greater world.
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This is the perfect moment for rest and restoration. The busy season has passed and winter’s stillness has firmly taken hold. We are free to relax, to exhale, to immerse ourselves in well-earned peace and quiet.
In this 20-minute exploration, we move a little, we breathe a little, and we do a whole lot of nothing. We settle into life’s slower rhythms, we wait patiently, we trust the process of deep rest. We explore how gentle movement and spacious stillness can be potent healing balms.
Practices like this feel like magic. Not much seems to happen as we gently slip this way and slowly stretch that way. But by the end we’ve somehow sloughed off long-held angst and agitation, and we’ve been returned to our calmer and steadier self. What a relief!
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Life is a series of endings and beginnings. We never fully arrive at constancy or solid ground. Why not embrace this ever-changing flow, swimming with the current instead of against it, and maybe even enjoying the trip downstream?
In this 18-minute quiet contemplation we’ll say goodbye to what has passed, welcome all that lies ahead, and rest with whole heart in the here-and-now.
This moment, after all, is the only place life flows. Anchoring our lives in the experience of the present, with a spirit of welcoming acceptance, is the secret to living in happiness and peace. When we commit to taking good care of the present, the future has a way of taking care of itself.
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In one of his most famous poems, Rumi says, “This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival.” The poet urges us to consider every emotion that comes knocking on the door of our awareness with a spirit of openness and curiosity. “A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.” he says. “Welcome and attend them all!” (Read the whole poem here.)
I love this image so very much. I imagine us going about our lives, puttering about in in our slippers, and then hearing the doorbell ring. I imagine us heading toward the door with eagerness rather than impatience or even dread. I imagine us graciously greeting whoever stands at the threshold, offering a warm smile and a welcoming spirit.
What if we treated every experience in our lives with such reverence and respect? What if we welcomed everyone into our field of awareness with whole heart, even - and perhaps especially - the ones we’re not sure we want? Most days, this may be a bit of a stretch. But, doesn’t it also sound like an enlightened way of being in the world?
In this 25-minute gentle flow - interspersed with a generous helping of what meditation teacher Jack Kornfield calls “benevolent rest” - we’ll continually revisit the inner sensations of our lives as honored guests worthy of our attention. We’ll nudge ourselves toward accommodating with warmth the experience of the moment, moving beyond simply loving or hating every sensation we meet.
And maybe, through this experience, we’ll find ourselves settling just a little more faithfully into the guest house of our lives - welcoming all that is with respect, curiosity, and tenderness.
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The breath has long been considered a potent gateway between our outer and inner worlds. Climbing into its rhythms can help us find our way back to deeper waves of life as they pass through us.
In this 15-minute session, we explore the power of the breath to steady the mind, calm the body, and bring our awareness to the here-and-now. We aren’t trying to change the breath in any way - as we would in yogic pranayama practices. We simply allow the breath to flow naturally and without strain. We use it as an anchor for the mind in a meditation practice. We simply allow the breath to help us feel awake in the moment and at home in the world.
This practice - first shared in my long-ago CD Mindful Breathing - offers a gentle introduction into basic breath awareness. It can be done seated in any comfortable position, or even lying down if you want to rest more deeply.
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We spend so much of our lives rushing from one event to the next that we forget there is another way to live. We forget that it’s possible to move through our days with steadiness and ease. We forget that we don’t always have to race breathlessly, full-speed ahead.
Practice gives us an opportunity to remember what it feels like to slow down, to exhale, to be. Practice helps our sticky habits (like the habit of speed) release their grip and maybe even slip away. Practice lets us explore alternative ways of moving through our lives. And it gives us the skills to shift from fast to slow and then - when necessary - to fast again. What a relief to discover that we have a choice, that there are many ways to live and move and breathe.
This 25-minute practice is slow, steady and restful. It is a gentle movement practice with a meditative focus. Or, alternatively, it may be a meditation practice accompanied by gentle movement. Or maybe it is both. Either way, it is an opportunity to downshift our nervous systems and return us to a less frantic and more gentle way of being in the world.
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Open awareness meditation is very simple: We rest our attention with the simple experience of being alive in the moment just as it is. We rest quietly and attentively, noticing the shifting sensations within us as life passes by. We draw the mind out of its endless parade of thoughts and judgments and fears and grudges, and we return ourselves to the direct experience of being fully present, right here and right now.
This 7-minute practice - recorded outside at Kingwood Center in Mansfield, Ohio - is a short and sweet introduction to the practice. The instructions are simple: rest your mind in the experience of the present moment with a welcoming and curious spirit. Settle your mind on the raw ingredients of life, practicing what the Buddhists call “bare attention.”
This practice can be a good friend to call upon whenever the mind feels tangled up or overwhelmed. Resting in pure awareness brings us back to life, waking us up again to simple joy of being fully present, energized and alive - at home in the body, in this breath, in this moment, in this world.
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We spend much of our lives fixated on the past and the future, and this habit has a tendency to perpetuate suffering. We rehash the past. We fret over the future. Our minds spin round and round trying to make sense of the world yesterday and life tomorrow.
And yet, the only place we have true agency and power is here. The only time we are able to take action is now. With feet firmly planted, with eyes open wide, we change the world one moment at a time, in acts large and small. We counter hatred with love. We answer deception with truth. We combat disregard with deep care. And no matter what, moment by moment and step by step, we remain committed to our primary mission here on earth: to ease suffering and cultivate love on behalf of all beings everywhere.
Sages the world over have taught us that the present moment is the ideal touchstone. Whenever we feel stressed or lost or uncertain, coming back to our senses right here and now can help us find our way. We breathe in and we breathe out. We sense our fingers and our toes. We move our bodies this way and that, paying close attention to the sensations that accompany each stretch.
Through these actions, we settle the nervous system and steady the mind. Life comes back into focus and we see more clearly who we are and how we want to move through life. We return to the loving, wise, clear-hearted beings we are always meant to be. We recover the unshakeable peace and unbreakable wellbeing that allow us to live with wisdom and compassion.
In being fully present we see most clearly the proper path forward.
This 30-minute practice helps us settle into the balm of the present moment. We rest a little, we move a little, and then we settle into stillness some more. We watch what happens as we return our attention to the sensations of life passing through us. Breath by breath, we are returned to ourselves: bright, vital, potent and clear.
We shift out of then-time into now-time. We climb out of fear and we return to love. We relinquish small-mindedness and we sense deep communion. We expand our identity, our compassion, our care, out beyond little time-bound mortal me and into the wide open sky of we, of us, of the whole wide world.
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It can be such a relief in the midst of our busy lives to give ourselves permission to set the to-do list aside and slip into resting mode, even for a little while. We settle into our favorite cozy spot - on the ground, in bed or in our favorite chair. We turn our gaze inward and we practice the fine are of letting everything be, just as it is.
What a relief! The world will spin on without us and it will be there for us when we return. In the meantime, for just a few moments we soften our clenched fists and release our fierce grip on the reins of life. We return home to a sense of unshakable wellbeing as we remember our deep connection with the greater flow of life.
This 12-minute guided relaxation offers an opportunity to practice resting deeply, even amid the busy-ness of our lives. Our bodies soften, our nervous systems settle and our minds grow clear. We remember who we are and how we want to live, in love and connection with the vast flow of life.
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Wise souls tell us that time and space are great healers. Slowing down and waiting patiently, they teach, can allow stress to slip away and feelings of wellbeing to re-emerge from deep within.
Moving mindfully in slow, simple, steady ways can help us find our way back to these feelings of ease and peace. Little by little and stretch by stretch, our bodies grow calm. And as the body settles, the mind begins to steady, too. It turns out that we don’t need to head to the far ends of the earth - literally or metaphorically - in order to recover feelings of spaciousness and ease. Sweet, slow and simple works!
In the moment it may feel like not much is happening. If you are the high achieving type, your brain may even wonder why you aren’t doing more. But there is beautiful magic at work here and when we emerge, we feel restored. Time, space and presence have shaken loose our ill-will and aggression, and have restored our clear-minded, warm-hearted way of being in the world.
Those of us who have befriended these gentle, attentive and unhurried practices sometimes wonder how others make it through the day without them. These easy stretches and gentle movements - accompanied by patience and presence - become good friends that help us reclaim our steadiness and ease, each and every day.
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Meditation teacher Ram Dass was famous for saying, “Be here now,” an instruction that lies at the heart of all mindfulness practices. If we want to shine brightly, if we want to show up for our lives, we need to keep our awareness tethered in the present moment.
This is easier said than done, of course. The mind tends to get tangled up in distraction and delusion remarkably easily. Lucky for us, we have many beautiful practices that help us find our way back to the here-and-now, the only place where life can be truly lived. We move, we breathe, we contemplate, we see. We train our minds to spend less time trolling in the past or skipping into the future. We remember what it feels like to be here now - fully embodied and fully present.
This 11-minute guided relaxation practice is designed to help us shift into a quieter, clearer state of being that settles us into the moment, just as it is. Little by little, we nudge our minds toward the simple delight of resting quietly and paying attention to life as it passes in and through and beyond our beings. What a relief!
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As I write this, we are settling into the heart of fall. The world is growing quieter - and, perhaps, so are we. We sense a stilling within, a settling of our energies inward.
And yet, we’re not quite ready for hibernation. We still feel life stirring and we still feel a need to move and stretch ourselves out into the world. In this lovely space we are invited to inhabit the middle ground, the place where movement and stillness meet, where doing settles into being, and then being rises back into movement. And on and on and on.
This 15-minute reclined movement practice explores these various energies, along with the possibility of saying yes to them all. We explore possibility of settling in and down, while still maintaining a sense of inner agency and freedom. We say yes with one way of being without saying no to the other. We affirm the possibility of simply enjoying the sensations of being alive, right here and now.
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Hatha yoga classes traditionally end with a guided relaxation called savasana, or corpse pose. After having moved the body and freed the breath, we rest in stillness. Within this quiet space, we cultivate a steady, rich awareness that helps us feel deeply alive in the moment and utterly at home in the world.
In many ways, the entire session leading up to the last few minutes of yoga class is preparation for savasana. In the more active portion of class, we move and breathe and release tension, so that when we come to stillness at the end of class, we are primed to open to the clarity and tenderness deep within.
This 10-minute guided relaxation is, in fact, a savasana from one of the yoga classes I offer each week. (It even includes a little birdsong and a gentle rain shower.) I hope it gives you a taste of contentment, even if you haven’t enjoyed a session of mindful movement beforehand. Or, better yet, stand up and move gently for a few moments, and then settle onto the ground for what I hope will be a tasty dessert.
A few quiet moments feel like a balm and a gift, especially amid the din of our busy world. Just a few moments of rest nestled into the folds of our lives can reset our bodies and our minds, helping us cultivate steadiness and light even amid the challenges of life.
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We begin the process of settling into a state of calm by bringing the body and mind right back to the present moment. This simple act of cultivating embodied presence changes everything.
Adding gentle movement to this quiet presence helps us release even deeper tension held within our muscles, tendons, bones and breath. Moment by moment and movement by movement, we are returned to a profound sense of wholeness in our bodies, our minds and in the world.
In this 36-minute gentle movement session, we turn away from the busy events of the day and remember that right here is where life happens. We rest, we move quietly, we watch and we listen. After a little while, we return to to the world feeling calmer, brighter and more like the person we were meant to be.
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There is a common misconception in the world of yoga and other somatic disciplines that if we want to harness the true power of the breath we need to huff and puff in huge and aggressive ways. We are taught to sound like Darth Vader as we vault from one yoga pose to the next. We are taught to hold our bodies taut and then gulp big breaths of air… as if bigger is always better and more is always best.
Beautifully, there’s another way to breathe that can be even more potent and restorative. Ancient adepts suggested that we relax deeply into a state where the breath can be slow, steady, quiet and nearly imperceptible to the outer eye and ear. Sometimes called the subtle breath or the embryonic breath, this tender-hearted approach can leave us feeling relaxed and also quietly revitalized. It feels like a gentle breeze on a lazy afternoon.
This 14-minute practice offers an introduction to this subtle way of breathing and being in the world. What a relief to remember that less is often more. What a relief to shed our need for speed and over-caffeination. What a gift to explore the possibility of letting the body, breath and mind grow deeply calm… simple light, spacious and free.
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Mostly we lead lives of distraction, bouncing from one thought to another. We spend a whole lot of time in our heads - thinking, ruminating, planning. This endless parade of thoughts can easily lead us toward a deep sense of depletion - sometimes even exhaustion. We get so tangled up in our small-minded preoccupations that we lose touch with the greater flow of life.
It’s good to have a brain, of course. But it’s also good to remember that we are so much more than simple thought machines. We have bodies that move and breathe and reach out toward one another. We have hands that create and legs that carry us and hearts that keep life flowing into every cell of the body. We have eyes that take in beauty and ears that listen to the sounds that tell us we are here, now, awake and alive.
The practices of embodied wisdom - yoga, meditation, qigong and modern somatic disciplines, too - have the power to return us to a wider range of human experience. They remind us how to enter the stream of deep awareness, of heartfulness, of love, so that we can feel awake in each moment and at home in the world.
This 32-minute guided practice offers a taste of the ways that embodied presence can cultivate vitality and light. It is slow, quiet and improvisatory. It nudges us, little by little, toward steadiness and calm.
Through practice we unearth the deep and life-giving vitality that comes with living fully and attentively in the here-and-now. Something shifts when we climb out of our heads and back into our bodies. Life blooms when we are reunited with the deep and natural intelligence that flows through all creation.
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Taoist sages long ago created beautiful and evocative maps of our inner worlds to help us cultivate deep wakefulness and profound ease. Their imagery was poetic and profound. Their visions offered a path inward, in ways designed to help us find our way back home to wholeness and peace.
This 19-minute meditation (with a little bit of movement) explores what Taoist masters called the three heavens within us. These heavens, sometimes called fields of elixir, are said to serve as reservoirs of potent energy and vital essence. By nurturing the energy flowing through these three heavens, Taoist masters taught, we can cultivate strength, peace, longevity and love.
Whether or not you believe that heaven is within you (not to mention three heavens!), exploring these three regions of the body can be both soothing and enlivening. Sometimes by simply placing our hands on our bellies we can sense some inner ease or unease, some sense of being settled or a little off. Sometimes when we place our hands on our hearts we can sense warmth or coolness, buoyancy or depletion, lushness or a sense of feeling parched. And when we rest our hands on our brow, we might sense congestion or thickness or deep blue peace.
More and more I find myself astounded by the natural intelligence that seems to flow not just within us but through the whole universe. There are ways of knowing and being that are bigger and wiser than our small passing thoughts. We short-change ourselves when we are lulled into believing that our conscious thoughts are the sole source of intelligence. Maybe we would be wise to widen our vision just a bit.
Perhaps there’s a good reason that we instinctively place our hands on our bellies when we have a stomach ache. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised when we touch our hands to our chests when we are deeply moved. And any parent knows that there is something big going when we rest a cool hand on the warm brow of an ailing child. Maybe those old masters were on to something, after all.
Mostly, it seems, we just have to make room for this wise presence in the world to let it flow in fullest form. We need only pause, grow quiet and listen for the song of life to reveal itself to us, note by note.
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We spend so much of our lives thinking, planning, replaying, figuring things out. Sometimes we even begin to feel like one big brain with a body whose job is simply to carry around all of our thoughts.
We are so much more than our puny thoughts and it can be such a relief to remember this from time to time. Embodiment brings us back to life - to real life in its full range of experience and feeling and sensation. Embodiment tethers us to the here-and-now, to the feeling of being awake in this moment, connected to all of the other lives that are also living right here and right now.
We know how to be fully present in the world when we are babies and small children. But often as we grow up we lose touch with this sense of being alive in not just our brains but our bodies, too. We sense that something vital is missing from our lives. And then we do crazy things like sign up for yoga classes (or even listen to guided audios!) to help us find our way back home to a deeper sense of presence in the world.
This 30-minute guided practice offers an invitation to return to our sensing, feeling, breathing and perceiving way of being. Through gentle organic movement, we remember the sheer delight of being able to move through space. We explore the possibility of riding the waves of life as they pulse through us. We remember how to trust our deeper intelligence, how to climb out of habits and ruts of own making. We remember how to shine.
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Befriending the earth is a beautiful practice. We lie down, close to the ground, resting in stillness and perhaps even gliding through a few quiet, earthy movements. In the midst of so many challenges in the greater world, settling back into the arms of Mother Earth can be such a relief. We reconnect with the greater flow of life and remember how good it feels to invite equanimity and ease into our beings.
And, beautifully, as we hand ourselves over to the embrace of gravity, the earth not only holds us close, but she also somehow magically buoys us upward again into the arms of the great blue sky. Earth and sky… they are good friends and they are good teachers, too.
This 13-minute guided meditation explores these possibilities of both grounding and rising. We are invited to melt into the earth, we are invited to bloom into the sky, and then we consider the possibility of embracing both in the very same breath.
Lucky for us, we don’t have to choose one over the other. In fact, we can’t really choose one or another. We get to be friends with both. We are invited to be as steady and faithful as the earth beneath us. And, in the very same breath, we are invited to be as clear and spacious as the sky above.
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The body is our portal to the present moment. The body only exists in the here-and-now. Any time our thoughts fly back into the past or forward into the future, we leave the body’s sensate experience of the world. We become dis-embodied.
Sages teach that if we want to recover our deepest vitality - if we want to truly shine - we need to recover our sense of being alive in our bodies in the here-and-now. We need to return to the intelligence and wakefulness that pulses through every cell within. We can’t just think our way into feelings of wholeness and wellbeing.
And so in this gentle movement practice - as in all of our explorations - we use the body as our home base. We return to our senses, to experiencing the world through bone, muscle, breath, sound, sight, skin. We remember how to feel our way into life, in addition to thinking our way through. Not only does this cultivate a quality of wakefulness, but also it brings us back to the deep ease of wholeness and balance. We return home, both in the body and in the greater world.
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Sages teach that the secret to living happily is to rest with ease in each moment, with a sense of openness and freedom. This is easier said than done, of course, but with practice we can nudge our minds in that direction.
This 20-minute guided practice offers an opportunity to settle into the moment, to let go of excess tension, and to offer goodwill toward ourselves and the world around us. We learn to befriend what is, in our bodies, our breath, our mind and our world.
Just a few moments each day of letting go of our busy-ness and to-do lists can nudge us back toward sanity. We rest our minds and our bodies in the here and now. We remember who we are and what matters most. We reconnect with our truest selves, our deepest loves and the light that shines everywhere.
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Many eastern spiritual traditions embrace and elevate the possibility of tranquil and open-hearted spaciousness. Through practice we are nudged toward a place of both uplift and ease. It’s not fancy and it doesn’t draw attention to itself. And yet it feels so open, so free, so right.
This possibility is embodied in the comments of one revered monk, when asked what enlightenment felt like. He responded, “Lots of space, nothing holy.”
In Japanese, this possibility is called yutori, or tranquil spaciousness. Yutori invites us to slow down, to listen deeply and to be fully present in our lives. We are gently led in the direction of openness and freedom, even as we are nudged to release the constriction and smallness that we so often carry within.
In this 27-minute movement practice, we explore the possibility of stretching our way into spaciousness and freedom, both in our bodies and in our lives. This exploration is done lying down on our backs, resting on the ground or another supportive surface.
As always, let my suggestions be invitations rather than instructions. Stay within your comfort zone and avoid movements that cause discomfort. Feel free to move in any way you like, carrying the practice into new, interesting and spacious ways that feel just right for you.
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One of the great gifts of contemplative practice is the ability to drop into the experience of the moment without demanding that it be anything other than it is. With this open-hearted attitude, we rest in the greater flow of life and savor the experience of simply being present in the moment to enjoy the passing show.
This experience can be deeply restorative, as we let go of habits of grasping and micromanaging and insisting that life play out a certain way. It can also help us connect to something far larger than our own small lives, reminding us that we are bit players in the vast story of the world.
This 18-minute practice offers a taste of this experience. We settle into the moment and savor the invitation to rest deeply in the sensations of being alive. We let the quiet vitality we sense within soothe and revitalize our spirits. And then we return to our lives feeling brighter, clearer and once again at home in the world.
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Gravity is our friend, yet we spend so much of our lives fighting its primordial pull. In the struggle we miss the opportunity to cultivate deep connection, soul-satisfying rest, and an unshakeable sense of vitality and ease.
In this 22-minute practice we’ll explore the possibility of befriending the earth in ways that release tension and cultivate renewed energy. This gentle movement practice can help nurture feelings of balance, well-being and ease.
The earth receives us and holds us. It offers us a place of deep rest and steadiness. By settling into its arms we are invited to let tension melt off our bodies so that we may soften and settle into ease.
The earth also has the power to gently energize us, to offer us a bright vitality that can buoy us upward and outward into the world. And somehow, magically, with just a little nudging from us, the earth knows just what we need in order to slip toward a more balanced way of being in the world.
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Meditation can be a good friend as we navigate the ups and downs of life. The practice is simple: We train our mind to behave in wholesome and supportive ways. Refining the practice can be a lifetime’s journey.
In this 19-minute guided meditation, we explore the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation. We settle into the body, steady the mind, and then spread our awareness outward into the world around us. We watch what happens when we rest with loving awareness in the embodied experience of being alive.
There are lots of ways to meditate and it’s worth exploring a range of approaches until you find one that works well for you. Typically, I begin with an anchoring practice - a deep focus on just one thing - until I sense my mind growing calmer and steadier. When and if that happens, I relinquish my hold on my chosen anchor and allow my awareness to spread outward in all directions, awash in the vitality and vibrancy of the here-and-now.
A meditation anchor can be any object of awareness that holds the mind’s attention: the breath, sounds, a mantra, an image, and more. Your chosen mental anchor is like a chew toy for the restless puppy dog of the mind, keeping it occupied with a more wholesome activity than habitual thoughts and worries. After a while, the anchor coaxes the mind to grow quiet enough that we can see clearly and rest with ease among the lovely vicissitudes of life.
You may hear some rhythmic rumbling sounds toward the end of the practice. That’s when my cat - a meditation master for sure - settles onto my lap and begins purring. Feel free to purr right along!
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Life has a way of leaving us bent out of shape from time to time, a bit less clear and whole than we might like. Sometimes we need a little help finding our way back to ease and peace. A few moments of quiet presence can bring us right back home to our selves, reminding us who we are and how we want to be in the world.
This gentle 14-minute movement practice offers just such an opportunity. It is explored on the ground, lying on the back, although a cozy bed might work just fine, too. A little rest, a bit of easy breathing and a small helping of movement all help us shed tension and reclaim ease. I hope that you, too, find that these few moments of grounded presence have the power to reshape the contours of not just your day, but of your whole life.
These practices are such a gift, when we hold them close. They have the power to keep our eyes open, our hearts clear, our spirits bright. They can so easily nudge a stormy day toward peace. They only work, though, when we actually do them instead of just plan to do them, or perhaps just think about doing them. They require us to muster up the energy to roll out our mats or climb onto our cushions, to dive into the movement, the stillness, and the deep sigh of relief.
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Even the Dalai Lama agrees that the purpose of life is to be happy. But what exactly does that mean? What constitutes happiness and how do we find our way there?
Does happiness come from savoring a fresh raspberry as it bursts on the tongue? Does it come from a sense of mission in one’s broader life? Or does it come from sensing a deep and radiant connection between our small self and the vast Self of the world? Yes, yes and yes!
In this 19-minute practice, we’ll explore three important pillars of happiness: pleasure, purpose and peace. This is a restful and meditative practice that could be explored sitting upright or perhaps tucked in a cozy chair with a cup of tea.
Spending time contemplating the experiences and relationships that bring us alive can incline our minds toward a deeply embodied sense of happiness and wellbeing. This sort of contemplation can also cultivate clarity about aspects of our lives that might need a little tending and care. My hope is that returning to this practice from time to time might shine new light on the pillars of happiness in your own life.
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The sages of ancient China envisioned a world comprised of two complementary and interconnected types of energy. Yang energy is bright and uplifting, while yin energy is cool and steady. Yang sometimes is described as the sunny side of the mountain where the light shines brightly, while yin is offered as the shady side of the mountain where the air is moist and cool.
In our culture we are often primed to embrace the bold energy of yang, while perhaps steering clear of yin’s darkness and depth. But the ancient sages taught us that yin and yang can’t exist without each other. We need to nurture both, they taught, in order for our lives to flow with true vitality and health.
Everyone needs this healthy balance of yin and yang in their lives. It is said that women in particular - and especially women as we age - need to nurture strong reserves of quiet, cool, nurturing energy in our lives.
This 28-minute movement practice, done in a reclined position close to the ground (or perhaps nestled in bed), offers a taste of the quiet and restorative energy of yin. The movements are slow and gentle and almost liquid in quality. The emphasis is on yielding and harmonizing, with no feeling of aggression or ambition or heat.
Yin isn’t weak or static, but rather flows like the current of a river deep beneath the surface - with quiet strength and steady purpose. In the heat of summer, this watery coolness can feel especially delicious. We enjoy the brilliance of the light blooming all about us, even as we savor the cool, quiet moments that quench our thirst as we rest in the shade.
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Amid the busy-ness of life, we all need reminders to give ourselves a break from the world’s frantic pace, so that we can give our minds and our bodies a chance to return to the healing balm of the present moment.
In this 10-minute guided relaxation, we’ll take a beautiful time out. Just settle into a comfortable position, exhale deeply and let everything go. Let the world spin off as it likes, as you practice self calm and self care.
Whether meditating on a cushion, practicing savasana at the end of a yoga session, or settling into a cozy chair, a few moments of peace and calm can help us return to our more balanced and steady selves. And when we grow quieter within, we are able to see more clearly the truths of our lives. And that, in turn, allows us to act from a place of deep love, on behalf of both ourselves and the wider world.
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How would it feel to move like water? What sharp edges of our beings might soften if we allowed ourselves to shift and slip and swirl in soft and liquid ways? What might loosen, what might fall away, and what might emerge out of such a way of being in the world? My hunch is that our bodies and our minds might grow softer, easier, freer.
In this 25-minute guided practice, we’ll stay close to the ground and invite the body to unravel and stretch in gentle, fluid ways. We’ll let this liquid movement erode our harsher edges, leaving us softer and calmer. And perhaps we’ll re-emerge feeling restored and rinsed clean.
Water yields instead of fights. Water shape-shifts in ways that accommodate boundaries and barriers. Water ebbs and flows without resistance or complaint. Water responds to the world around it, never insisting that life be anything other than what it is. Its fluidity allows it to accommodate the truth of each moment. And its yielding nature is a source of deep strength. What a good teacher and a good friend!
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We spend so much of our lives looking outward to the world around us. Every once in a while it can be such a relief to turn our gaze inward instead for a little while. Closing the eyes and refocusing within can help us quiet the nervous system, recharge our batteries, and return us to what matters most in our lives.
In this 12-minute practice, we’ll consider the lovely possibility that we have a garden within where we can rest and savor the moment. We’ll call upon our powers of imagination and imagery to create a quiet oasis inside of us. Consider this a meditation, perhaps, or an opportunity to practice deep rest.
Sit upright if you like, or rest back in any comfortable position. You might even be able to do this while strolling through your favorite garden. Feel free to toss out any of the words or images that don’t ring true to you. And, of course, head off onto your own inner journey any time you like.
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Settling onto the earth marks the beginning of our connection to the wider world. Gravity binds us to the ground and invites us to release, to root, to relate. Through this, we sense an expanse of life beyond the narrow confines of our small bodies. We sense denseness, solidity, steadiness. We come to know the deep power of the world below.
And once our bodies become good friends with the earth - feeling held, swaddled, weighty and solid - we open our eyes to the sky above. The sky fills us with possibility, with lightness, with a yearning to reach out and up and beyond. The sky beckons us toward adventure into the world of action and connection. We reach, we expand, we explore.
Between these two primary elements - earth and sky - our lives flow. We come into relationship with gravity and with levity both. We enter into a joyful and lifelong conversation between the rock-solid steadiness of ground beneath and the transcendent freedom of the space above.
In this 22-minute practice, we hand ourselves over to the earth, softening and settling downward. And then we rise up and out into the spacious freedom of the sky. We breathe and move in gentle and organic forms, exploring the way we serve as a living bridge between what lies beneath and what soars above.
Earth. Sky. Down. Up. Inner. Outer. Through our explorations we cultivate an ever deepening sense of wholeness, including all of life into the sphere of experience. And wholeness, of course, is what allows us to finally feel at home in the world, in this breath, right here and right now.
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Most spiritual traditions include vocalization as a ritual that bridges head and heart, inner and outer, self and other. We sing, we chant, we recite sacred texts. We do this in bright happiness and also in deep grief. Waves of sound pour out of us as expression, as benediction, as prayer.
This 18-minute session explores one of the simplest vocalization strategies: humming. The ancient yogis found humming so powerful that they elevated it to a formal practice called bhramari breath, or buzzing bee breath. The instructions are simple: Soften your body, close your mouth and hum as you exhale.
The practice is easy, portable and deeply steadying. It can be considered a breathing practice, a meditation practice, and even a movement practice as we explore the subtle sound vibrations rippling through the body. In just a few moments of focused practice, bhramari breath has the power to calm the mind, soothe the spirit, and offer a gentle buzz of uplift and delight.
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The modern world loves extremes, but age-old wisdom points us toward the middle way. The excitement of heading to the far edge of the world can wake us up, for sure. But, oh, what a relief it is to let go of the need to be on fire in order to feel alive. There is nothing quite like the sweet relief of coming home to ease and balance, to the discovery that not much needs to happen in order for us to feel happy, right here and right now.
In between too tight and too loose we warm to the possibility that we already have everything we need. We notice that we don’t have to travel far from home in order to feel content. We consider the possibility that less is sometimes more. And blessedly, our expectations of ourselves and the world begin to soften just a bit. Sometimes we even embrace the possibility that good enough might just be enough.
This 35-minute movement sequence embodies the possibility that we don’t have to travel to extremes in order to cultivate balance and wellbeing. Lying on our backs, close to the ground, we commit to soft, easy, pain-free movement. We relinquish some long-held beliefs and welcome some new ones. We let go of the “no pain, no gain” mentality. We cultivate flexibility of mind and heart. And when this happens, we settle toward a state of of profound peace and ease, at home in the very middle of our lives.
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Some practices are simple and straightforward: We practice yoga or we practice qigong or we practice mindfulness meditation. Others take a meandering path, dipping into a array of awareness practices as we slip easily downstream.
This 30-minute meditation is the meandering sort of meditation. We start with a gentle breathing practice designed to help cultivate balance and steadiness. Then we let go of shaping the breath and simply watch the breath. And then - as often happens - the breath meditation awakens a quiet light within and we find ourselves slipping toward lovingkindness practice.
Breath, body, mind, spirit love. They’re connected so deeply that it’s sometimes impossible to tease them apart. We start out stretching our hamstrings and somehow we end up communing with all creation. We sit down to meditate and we end up floating in an ocean of love. We begin practicing to save ourselves and we end up caring for the whole wide world. Pull one strand, and the whole tapestry shifts. What a strange and lovely mystery!
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Meditation instructions are simple: Rest your awareness with openness and ease in the experience of the present moment.
Simple, of course, doesn’t always mean easy. Often when we sit down to meditate, the mind rebels and we find ourselves spinning off into fantasies of the future or memories of the past. It takes patience and practice to train the mind to settle with steadiness into the here-and-now.
Many people give up when they encounter the restless mind of meditation. There are ways, though, to smooth out the process of learning to meditate - ways of sweet-talking the mind out of chaos and in the direction of peace. It’s well worth learning how.
Sometimes it can be helpful to begin with a little movement, and then - as we settle - inject small gaps of attentive stillness into the movement flow. In the beginning, we may move for several moments and then “meditate” for two breaths. And then three breaths, and then five, ten, 30 or more, until eventually the mind has softened enough to truly stay, stay, stay.
This 20-minute guided practice shares a taste of this form of movement guiding us toward stillness. We begin with gentle movement, with quiet gaps of stillness here and there. And then we slip toward gentle breath work, punctuated for longer stretches of quiet. And finally, we rest in stillness for an even longer stretch.
It’s all meditation, really. We start out with meditation in movement, and we end up with meditation in stillness.
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One thing leads to another, in our practice as well as in our lives. Sometimes our minds like to divide things up into separate and discrete parts, but when we take 100 steps back we begin to see that everything is connected into a single unified tapestry of life.
In this 21-minute guided practice, we begin with deep relaxation. This quiet space leads us toward breath awareness and eventually into the possibility of reshaping our mood by reshaping our breath. Breathing practice - in this session an exploration called “box breathing” - leads us toward the calm of meditation. And then, beautifully, the steadiness and ease of meditation leads us right toward the heart into lovingkindness practice.
Call it relaxation, call it breath work, call it meditation. Or, just call it practice. A practice that helps us remember who we are and how we want to live our lives.
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When is the last time someone encouraged you to move in a way that feels joyful? When is the last time someone suggested you do more with your body than follow someone else’s rules about how to stand, how to eat, how to breathe? Has anyone ever suggested that you explore the possibility of moving and breathing and resting with delight?
In this 25-minute practice we'll explore the joy of movement - the quiet happiness of moving the body in a free and easy way, with no agenda other than savoring the sensations of life as they pass through us. We'll let our bodies out of their cages to roam the landscape with curiosity and freedom, and we'll observe how this exploration changes the mind, the mood, the body and the breath.
We have been well-trained since childhood to follow the call of the outer world, to be good students and good sheep. Maybe it’s time we recover our inner agency and reclaim our inborn wisdom. We may be surprised by how our lives bloom when we spend a little more time listening inward, learning more about who we are and how we most want to spend our days. The whole world may come alive as we rediscover the simple joy of being here, now… present and moving through the world with ease and quiet delight.
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The world offers us innumerable tools to help us stay bright and steady even among the challenges of life. The ancient mystics were experts at unearthing and developing these tools to help us find our way.
For centuries, spiritual adepts have used the breath to shift the inner workings of the nervous system in ways that bring us into balance. They developed breathing techniques to amp us up when we are feeling lethargic and they refined techniques to calm us when we are feeling over-activated. Some of their techniques require years of practice and refinement, but some are simple and accessible to us all.
In this 12-minute practice, we’ll explore the quiet power of the breath to help guide us toward a calmer way of being. We’ll practice what I like to call the cleansing breath - a long, slow and easy exhalation - to help return us back to our saner and steadier way of being. We’ll let a few rounds of cleansing breath lead us right into a space of quiet relaxation. We’ll return to a state of being where we feel rested, restored and at home.
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The promise of spiritual practice is that it will help us find our way toward a deep and lasting sense of peace in ourselves and the world. Call it enlightenment or nirvana or wholeness or wellbeing. The hopeful proposition is that there is a way of being that embodies profound wakefulness and also deep equanimity, even in the very same breath.
Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh called this inner wellbeing the “island of self,” and he urged his students to return to this quiet refuge every day. “If you don’t go home to yourself, you continue to lose yourself,” he wrote. “You destroy yourself and you destroy people around you, even if you have goodwill and want to do something to help. That is why the practice of going home to the island of self is so important. No one can take your true home away.”
This 22-minute reclined practice - with gentle movement, easy breathing, and a return the here-and-now - explores the possibility of reconnecting with our own inner refuge. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to nudge us out of confusion and in the direction of clarity and calm.
The ultimate teaching, of course, is that peace is already here, that we don’t need to go searching for it. Making sense of this koan is advanced practice, for sure. How is it possible that the very thing we are seeking is already nestled deep within us, just waiting to be found? With devoted practice, day-by-day we move ever closer to the answer.
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Here’s a news flash: You already know how to breathe! Your body is exquisitely tuned to know just when and how to inhale and exhale. Even though we are primed in our culture to look for answers outside of ourselves, here’s an opportunity to try something different.
Put aside the breathing books and instructions (for a little while, at least, in the name of curiosity and investigation). Stop counting breaths. Stop holding breaths. Stop manipulating or micromanaging. (No worry, you can return to these techniques - which do have their place - later.)
Instead, in this restful 21-minute session, settle into the beautiful rhythms and melodies of your own body, as you inhale and exhale without a drill sergeant watching over you. Let the breath go and let it be. Take a lighter approach. Learn about your own signature “breath print.” Trust. Be curious and be amazed.
And, of course, relax. The more we allow the body to settle into a restful and easy space, the freer the breath becomes. With each muscle that unclenches, with each ounce of tension that melts away, we move closer to that organic and whole-bodied breath we were born with. As we unravel holding patterns and long-held armoring, we make room for the return of our natural, responsive, full-bodied way of breathing. And when that happens, our whole being smiles and sighs in relief.
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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.
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.
Some sages define nirvana, or enlightenment, as “an untroubled mind.” My wish is that these practices nudge us in that direction. May we learn to remain wholeheartedly engaged in the wider world, while at the same time maintaining an untroubled mind… calm, steady, bright and free.
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In this go-go modern world, our nervous systems are easily thrust into overdrive, leaving us perpetually exhausted and out-of-sorts. We need strategies to help us downshift into a steadier, calmer way of being in the world.
In this 12-minute relaxation practice, we nudge the body, mind and spirit in the direction of equanimity and ease. We lie quietly, settling into the peace of the present moment while inviting our whole being to rest. We let a few easy breaths smooth out the wrinkles of the day, with a smile and a sigh of relief.
Living well requires energy. It takes effort to muster up the strength and creativity to thrive. If we want our lives to feel less like drudgery and more like delight, we need to take good care of ourselves. We need to refuel, replenish, revitalize. Resting deeply isn’t a sin - it is self care. So go ahead. Lie down for a little while, exhale, and let everything be. Remember what it feels like to be a body at rest - alive, awake and at home in the world.
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Settling close to the earth each day - relinquishing our burdens and allowing our bodies to feel held - can be such a balm in this busy and unpredictable world. We nudge our lives from a state of frantic doing toward the clean, clear relief of pure being. In this quiet steadiness, we begin to see more clearly what is true and what matters most.
Through gentle movement, a little quiet, and a whole lot of letting go, this 22-minute session invites us to exhale deeply and reclaim our inner sense of ease. We come back home to our bodies, to our lives, and to the earth that holds us all.
These moments of quiet tenderness help our days flow a little more smoothly, leading us in the direction of wholeness and wellbeing. We reclaim our sense of amazement and adventure. For a little while, at least, we remember how it feels to be more curious than afraid of the world within us and also the world beyond.
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Sometimes we just need a break. The world has had its way with us, perhaps, and we need a little time to rest and recover from the challenges of the day. We need time to calm the nerves, quiet the breath, and warm the heart.
In this session, we’ll take a 20-minute pause. We’ll leave the busy world behind and settle into a quiet space within. We’ll expand our awareness beyond the thinking brain and toward the sensations of life as they pass through us. We’ll downshift the nervous system and rekindle a sense of presence and possibility.
So lie down onto the ground - or perhaps nestle into your favorite cozy chair - and let everything go and let everything be, for at least a little while. After relaxing for a spell, you will likely return to the world refreshed and replenished, and still tethered to the quiet places of peace that make their home within.
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In yoga philosophy there is a belief that life - at its most basic level - is comprised of an endless flow of subtle vibrations. All creation is said to hum with pulsation, with a wavelike alternation of rising and falling, of reaching and returning, of becoming and being. The flow of these subtle vibrations is called spanda in yoga philosophy, and much of our practice is about settling into these waves of life with an ever deepening clarity and ease.
This 27-minute reclined movement practice explores the lovely ways that life is expressed through us, as we move and breathe and rest. We explore the possibility of rooting - of reaching and of returning - in ways that key us into the springy and wavelike flow of movement both within and beyond us.
Like waves, we aren’t meant to only rise or only fall. We aren’t meant to only reach out and never return home. Our lives are expression of the beautiful play of ebb and flow, of movement and stillness, of giving and receiving, of self and other. In each moment, we are invited to participate with delight in the ever-changing flow of life.
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Every spiritual practice, one way or another, brings us back to our own good hearts and the love the shines forth from within. We may not join a yoga class because we want to soften our hearts. We may not begin meditating because we want to cultivate goodwill. But in some mysterious bit of spiritual magic, these practices transform us into kinder and more compassionate human beings.
The Buddhist practice of lovingkindness, or metta meditation, offers an explicit pathway to cultivating good heart. In lovingkindness meditation, we call up images of people in our lives and we send wishes for happiness and wellbeing in their direction. We may not know for sure whether these wishes change others, but we very quickly learn that they can change us in profound ways.
In this 19-minute guided practice, we’ll explore a variation of the traditional Buddhist practice of lovingkindness meditation. This contemplation is a little more free-form than is often taught, but I hope it brings a smile to your face nonetheless. We settle into a restful position and reclaim our own good hearts. We rest and breathe and be. And we befriend the world, moment after moment, one heart to another.
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Our inner bodies need space in order to move with ease and strength. Alas, sometimes the world conspires to leave us feeling strangled and stuck inside, as if there’s not enough room for the rivers of life to flow freely. Thankfully, gentle movement can help.
This 21-minute guided practice dives toward the body’s core, exploring gentle movements that help cultivate a long and spacious spine. We begin on our backs in “constructive rest” position, with the knees bent and the feet on the floor. Tuck a pillow under your head if you like, and adjust in any way that feels appropriate for you. As always, please stay within your comfort zone throughout the practice. If any movement causes strain, then stop, soften, and move in a happier way.
A little self-care goes a long way. If we want to be bright citizens of the world, we need to take good care of ourselves - physically, mentally and emotionally. We need to stretch and move and rest like the good animals we are. We need to connect in loving ways, both within and beyond. When we commit to taking good care of our lives, we nourish the rivers of happiness and vitality that flow within us all.
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Look outside your window. What’s the weather like right now? Now, look inside yourself. What’s the weather within? Are you running hot or cold? Is the sun shining or is this a rainy day? Are your thoughts stormy or serene? And is your vitality shining brightly or hiding behind a few clouds?
In this 14-minute guided meditation, we’ll consider our inner weather patterns. We’ll watch the energetic weather pass across the landscape of our bodies. We’ll sharpen our powers of perception to sense more clearly the sensations, feelings, thoughts and energies moving through our inner worlds.
Seeing clearly helps us tend to the world with wisdom and compassion. Holding close to the truth of what is - whether we like what we find or not - allows us to make clear-eyed decisions about how to respond with ease to the ever-changing weather of our lives. Through this process, we begin to understand that happiness depends not on living in a world of perfect weather, but rather in knowing how to gracefully accommodate - and maybe even enjoy - whatever weather comes our way.
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Modern life is loud and busy and crowded. It’s filled with non-stop energy and bright lights and startling noises. If we could, it seems, we’d likely keep the sun at high noon all day and all night. It’s exhilarating, for sure. But it can also be exhausting, especially for those of us who crave a little peace and quiet from time to time.
In this 20-minute movement practice, we nestle onto the ground, exhale deeply, and rest in the quiet of pure being. We explore the calm, grounding energy the Taoists call “yin,” which balances the sunny and stimulating energy of “yang” we all know so well. Thoughts slow down, the body relaxes and the breath returns to its baby-like ease.
These movements feel like moonlit nights and cool, cleansing calm. They are refreshing and restorative, and they nudge us back to a soft and settled way being. They are the perfect antidote to our loud, fast and over-caffeinated world. And they guide us back home to our most steady and faithful way of being in the world.
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We all need opportunities each day to slow down and simplify, to create quiet pockets of time and space in which to settle the nervous system and calm the heart. In these restful moments, we recover a sense of spaciousness and ease. We turn down the volume of our lives and linger in the open skies of the here and now.
When we make room each day for at least a few moments of rest - downshifting from fast forward into neutral - our whole lives flow a little more smoothly. We breathe more freely. We see more clearly. We respond to the stresses of life in kinder, gentler ways. We feel more at home in our lives and in the world.
In this 11-minute guided relaxation, we allow the great healers of time and space restore us to a sense of wholeness and ease. We befriend earth, we become sky, and we savor the space in between.
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Japanese poet Koboyashi Issa, who was born in 1763 and penned more than 10,000 haiku, wrote two poems that are perfect for this oh-so-slow time of year. First, the sweetest four-word poem ever: Snail always at homeAnd second, just eight words: Oh, snail, climb Mt. Fuji, but slowly, slowlyThis week’s 25-minute movement practice takes its inspiration from Issa and his snails. We move slowly, in no particular hurry, enjoying every sensation along the way. We explore the possibility that life is best savored slowly and with delight. And we breathe and rest in the faithful knowing that wherever we go, we are already home.
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Sometimes even grown ups need a time-out. The busy-ness of the world exhausts us with its noisy, frantic pace. We feel our nerves fraying, our heads pounding, our patience slipping away. There is such wisdom in giving ourselves permission to turn away from life’s cacophony from time to time, so that we may turn inward toward the quieter rhythms of the heart.
This 21-minute session offers just such a break. The invitation is to rest in any position, in any place where we can settle with a sigh of relief. We relax into the here-and-now, and we return our nervous system to a state of balance. We practice, as meditation teacher Jack Kornfield calls it, “benevolent rest.”
In some strange and topsy-turvy logic, this willingness to turn away from the world every once in a while becomes a superpower that allows us to be more effective citizens in the world. In relaxing our tight-fisted grip, in reclaiming our breath, in settling our nerves, we return to a state of clarity and wellbeing. We remember what matters most and we remember who we really are. And then guided by this vision, we rise up with a smile, ready to resume our good work of loving, caring and connecting with the greater world.
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This is the perfect moment for rest and restoration. The busy season has passed and winter’s stillness has firmly taken hold. We are free to relax, to exhale, to immerse ourselves in well-earned peace and quiet.
In this 20-minute exploration, we move a little, we breathe a little, and we do a whole lot of nothing. We settle into life’s slower rhythms, we wait patiently, we trust the process of deep rest. We explore how gentle movement and spacious stillness can be potent healing balms.
Practices like this feel like magic. Not much seems to happen as we gently slip this way and slowly stretch that way. But by the end we’ve somehow sloughed off long-held angst and agitation, and we’ve been returned to our calmer and steadier self. What a relief!
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Life is a series of endings and beginnings. We never fully arrive at constancy or solid ground. Why not embrace this ever-changing flow, swimming with the current instead of against it, and maybe even enjoying the trip downstream?
In this 18-minute quiet contemplation we’ll say goodbye to what has passed, welcome all that lies ahead, and rest with whole heart in the here-and-now.
This moment, after all, is the only place life flows. Anchoring our lives in the experience of the present, with a spirit of welcoming acceptance, is the secret to living in happiness and peace. When we commit to taking good care of the present, the future has a way of taking care of itself.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
In one of his most famous poems, Rumi says, “This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival.” The poet urges us to consider every emotion that comes knocking on the door of our awareness with a spirit of openness and curiosity. “A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.” he says. “Welcome and attend them all!” (Read the whole poem here.)
I love this image so very much. I imagine us going about our lives, puttering about in in our slippers, and then hearing the doorbell ring. I imagine us heading toward the door with eagerness rather than impatience or even dread. I imagine us graciously greeting whoever stands at the threshold, offering a warm smile and a welcoming spirit.
What if we treated every experience in our lives with such reverence and respect? What if we welcomed everyone into our field of awareness with whole heart, even - and perhaps especially - the ones we’re not sure we want? Most days, this may be a bit of a stretch. But, doesn’t it also sound like an enlightened way of being in the world?
In this 25-minute gentle flow - interspersed with a generous helping of what meditation teacher Jack Kornfield calls “benevolent rest” - we’ll continually revisit the inner sensations of our lives as honored guests worthy of our attention. We’ll nudge ourselves toward accommodating with warmth the experience of the moment, moving beyond simply loving or hating every sensation we meet.
And maybe, through this experience, we’ll find ourselves settling just a little more faithfully into the guest house of our lives - welcoming all that is with respect, curiosity, and tenderness.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
It can be such a relief in the midst of our busy lives to give ourselves permission to set the to-do list aside and slip into resting mode, even for a little while. We settle into our favorite cozy spot - on the ground, in bed or in our favorite chair. We turn our gaze inward and we practice the fine are of letting everything be, just as it is.
What a relief! The world will spin on without us and it will be there for us when we return. In the meantime, for just a few moments we soften our clenched fists and release our fierce grip on the reins of life. We return home to a sense of unshakable wellbeing as we remember our deep connection with the greater flow of life.
This 12-minute guided relaxation offers an opportunity to practice resting deeply, even amid the busy-ness of our lives. Our bodies soften, our nervous systems settle and our minds grow clear. We remember who we are and how we want to live, in love and connection with the vast flow of life.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
We spend much of our lives fixated on the past and the future, and this habit has a tendency to perpetuate suffering. We rehash the past. We fret over the future. Our minds spin round and round trying to make sense of the world yesterday and life tomorrow.
And yet, the only place we have true agency and power is here. The only time we are able to take action is now. With feet firmly planted, with eyes open wide, we change the world one moment at a time, in acts large and small. We counter hatred with love. We answer deception with truth. We combat disregard with deep care. And no matter what, moment by moment and step by step, we remain committed to our primary mission here on earth: to ease suffering and cultivate love on behalf of all beings everywhere.
Sages the world over have taught us that the present moment is the ideal touchstone. Whenever we feel stressed or lost or uncertain, coming back to our senses right here and now can help us find our way. We breathe in and we breathe out. We sense our fingers and our toes. We move our bodies this way and that, paying close attention to the sensations that accompany each stretch.
Through these actions, we settle the nervous system and steady the mind. Life comes back into focus and we see more clearly who we are and how we want to move through life. We return to the loving, wise, clear-hearted beings we are always meant to be. We recover the unshakeable peace and unbreakable wellbeing that allow us to live with wisdom and compassion.
In being fully present we see most clearly the proper path forward.
This 30-minute practice helps us settle into the balm of the present moment. We rest a little, we move a little, and then we settle into stillness some more. We watch what happens as we return our attention to the sensations of life passing through us. Breath by breath, we are returned to ourselves: bright, vital, potent and clear.
We shift out of then-time into now-time. We climb out of fear and we return to love. We relinquish small-mindedness and we sense deep communion. We expand our identity, our compassion, our care, out beyond little time-bound mortal me and into the wide open sky of we, of us, of the whole wide world.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Hatha yoga classes traditionally end with a guided relaxation called savasana, or corpse pose. After having moved the body and freed the breath, we rest in stillness. Within this quiet space, we cultivate a steady, rich awareness that helps us feel deeply alive in the moment and utterly at home in the world.
In many ways, the entire session leading up to the last few minutes of yoga class is preparation for savasana. In the more active portion of class, we move and breathe and release tension, so that when we come to stillness at the end of class, we are primed to open to the clarity and tenderness deep within.
This 10-minute guided relaxation is, in fact, a savasana from one of the yoga classes I offer each week. (It even includes a little birdsong and a gentle rain shower.) I hope it gives you a taste of contentment, even if you haven’t enjoyed a session of mindful movement beforehand. Or, better yet, stand up and move gently for a few moments, and then settle onto the ground for what I hope will be a tasty dessert.
A few quiet moments feel like a balm and a gift, especially amid the din of our busy world. Just a few moments of rest nestled into the folds of our lives can reset our bodies and our minds, helping us cultivate steadiness and light even amid the challenges of life.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
There is a common misconception in the world of yoga and other somatic disciplines that if we want to harness the true power of the breath we need to huff and puff in huge and aggressive ways. We are taught to sound like Darth Vader as we vault from one yoga pose to the next. We are taught to hold our bodies taut and then gulp big breaths of air… as if bigger is always better and more is always best.
Beautifully, there’s another way to breathe that can be even more potent and restorative. Ancient adepts suggested that we relax deeply into a state where the breath can be slow, steady, quiet and nearly imperceptible to the outer eye and ear. Sometimes called the subtle breath or the embryonic breath, this tender-hearted approach can leave us feeling relaxed and also quietly revitalized. It feels like a gentle breeze on a lazy afternoon.
This 14-minute practice offers an introduction to this subtle way of breathing and being in the world. What a relief to remember that less is often more. What a relief to shed our need for speed and over-caffeination. What a gift to explore the possibility of letting the body, breath and mind grow deeply calm… simple light, spacious and free.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Even the Dalai Lama agrees that the purpose of life is to be happy. But what exactly does that mean? What constitutes happiness and how do we find our way there?
Does happiness come from savoring a fresh raspberry as it bursts on the tongue? Does it come from a sense of mission in one’s broader life? Or does it come from sensing a deep and radiant connection between our small self and the vast Self of the world? Yes, yes and yes!
In this 19-minute practice, we’ll explore three important pillars of happiness: pleasure, purpose and peace. This is a restful and meditative practice that could be explored sitting upright or perhaps tucked in a cozy chair with a cup of tea.
Spending time contemplating the experiences and relationships that bring us alive can incline our minds toward a deeply embodied sense of happiness and wellbeing. This sort of contemplation can also cultivate clarity about aspects of our lives that might need a little tending and care. My hope is that returning to this practice from time to time might shine new light on the pillars of happiness in your own life.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
The modern world loves extremes, but age-old wisdom points us toward the middle way. The excitement of heading to the far edge of the world can wake us up, for sure. But, oh, what a relief it is to let go of the need to be on fire in order to feel alive. There is nothing quite like the sweet relief of coming home to ease and balance, to the discovery that not much needs to happen in order for us to feel happy, right here and right now.
In between too tight and too loose we warm to the possibility that we already have everything we need. We notice that we don’t have to travel far from home in order to feel content. We consider the possibility that less is sometimes more. And blessedly, our expectations of ourselves and the world begin to soften just a bit. Sometimes we even embrace the possibility that good enough might just be enough.
This 35-minute movement sequence embodies the possibility that we don’t have to travel to extremes in order to cultivate balance and wellbeing. Lying on our backs, close to the ground, we commit to soft, easy, pain-free movement. We relinquish some long-held beliefs and welcome some new ones. We let go of the “no pain, no gain” mentality. We cultivate flexibility of mind and heart. And when this happens, we settle toward a state of of profound peace and ease, at home in the very middle of our lives.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Every spiritual practice, one way or another, brings us back to our own good hearts and the love the shines forth from within. We may not join a yoga class because we want to soften our hearts. We may not begin meditating because we want to cultivate goodwill. But in some mysterious bit of spiritual magic, these practices transform us into kinder and more compassionate human beings.
The Buddhist practice of lovingkindness, or metta meditation, offers an explicit pathway to cultivating good heart. In lovingkindness meditation, we call up images of people in our lives and we send wishes for happiness and wellbeing in their direction. We may not know for sure whether these wishes change others, but we very quickly learn that they can change us in profound ways.
In this 19-minute guided practice, we’ll explore a variation of the traditional Buddhist practice of lovingkindness meditation. This contemplation is a little more free-form than is often taught, but I hope it brings a smile to your face nonetheless. We settle into a restful position and reclaim our own good hearts. We rest and breathe and be. And we befriend the world, moment after moment, one heart to another.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
The promise of spiritual practice is that it will help us find our way toward a deep and lasting sense of peace in ourselves and the world. Call it enlightenment or nirvana or wholeness or wellbeing. The hopeful proposition is that there is a way of being that embodies profound wakefulness and also deep equanimity, even in the very same breath.
Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh called this inner wellbeing the “island of self,” and he urged his students to return to this quiet refuge every day. “If you don’t go home to yourself, you continue to lose yourself,” he wrote. “You destroy yourself and you destroy people around you, even if you have goodwill and want to do something to help. That is why the practice of going home to the island of self is so important. No one can take your true home away.”
This 22-minute reclined practice - with gentle movement, easy breathing, and a return the here-and-now - explores the possibility of reconnecting with our own inner refuge. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to nudge us out of confusion and in the direction of clarity and calm.
The ultimate teaching, of course, is that peace is already here, that we don’t need to go searching for it. Making sense of this koan is advanced practice, for sure. How is it possible that the very thing we are seeking is already nestled deep within us, just waiting to be found? With devoted practice, day-by-day we move ever closer to the answer.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Here’s a news flash: You already know how to breathe! Your body is exquisitely tuned to know just when and how to inhale and exhale. Even though we are primed in our culture to look for answers outside of ourselves, here’s an opportunity to try something different.
Put aside the breathing books and instructions (for a little while, at least, in the name of curiosity and investigation). Stop counting breaths. Stop holding breaths. Stop manipulating or micromanaging. (No worry, you can return to these techniques - which do have their place - later.)
Instead, in this restful 21-minute session, settle into the beautiful rhythms and melodies of your own body, as you inhale and exhale without a drill sergeant watching over you. Let the breath go and let it be. Take a lighter approach. Learn about your own signature “breath print.” Trust. Be curious and be amazed.
And, of course, relax. The more we allow the body to settle into a restful and easy space, the freer the breath becomes. With each muscle that unclenches, with each ounce of tension that melts away, we move closer to that organic and whole-bodied breath we were born with. As we unravel holding patterns and long-held armoring, we make room for the return of our natural, responsive, full-bodied way of breathing. And when that happens, our whole being smiles and sighs in relief.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Look outside your window. What’s the weather like right now? Now, look inside yourself. What’s the weather within? Are you running hot or cold? Is the sun shining or is this a rainy day? Are your thoughts stormy or serene? And is your vitality shining brightly or hiding behind a few clouds?
In this 14-minute guided meditation, we’ll consider our inner weather patterns. We’ll watch the energetic weather pass across the landscape of our bodies. We’ll sharpen our powers of perception to sense more clearly the sensations, feelings, thoughts and energies moving through our inner worlds.
Seeing clearly helps us tend to the world with wisdom and compassion. Holding close to the truth of what is - whether we like what we find or not - allows us to make clear-eyed decisions about how to respond with ease to the ever-changing weather of our lives. Through this process, we begin to understand that happiness depends not on living in a world of perfect weather, but rather in knowing how to gracefully accommodate - and maybe even enjoy - whatever weather comes our way.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Modern life is loud and busy and crowded. It’s filled with non-stop energy and bright lights and startling noises. If we could, it seems, we’d likely keep the sun at high noon all day and all night. It’s exhilarating, for sure. But it can also be exhausting, especially for those of us who crave a little peace and quiet from time to time.
In this 20-minute movement practice, we nestle onto the ground, exhale deeply, and rest in the quiet of pure being. We explore the calm, grounding energy the Taoists call “yin,” which balances the sunny and stimulating energy of “yang” we all know so well. Thoughts slow down, the body relaxes and the breath returns to its baby-like ease.
These movements feel like moonlit nights and cool, cleansing calm. They are refreshing and restorative, and they nudge us back to a soft and settled way being. They are the perfect antidote to our loud, fast and over-caffeinated world. And they guide us back home to our most steady and faithful way of being in the world.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Sometimes we just need a break. The world has had its way with us, perhaps, and we need a little time to rest and recover from the challenges of the day. We need time to calm the nerves, quiet the breath, and warm the heart.
In this session, we’ll take a 20-minute time out. We’ll leave the busy world behind and settle into a quiet space within. We’ll expand our awareness beyond the thinking brain and toward the sensations of life as they pass through us. We’ll downshift the nervous system and rekindle a sense of presence and possibility.
So lie down onto the ground - or perhaps nestle into your favorite cozy chair - and let everything go and let everything be, for at least a little while. After relaxing for a spell, you will likely return to the world refreshed and replenished, and still tethered to the quiet places of peace that make their home within.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Sometimes even grown ups need a time-out. The busy-ness of the world exhausts us with its noisy, frantic pace. We feel our nerves fraying, our heads pounding, our patience slipping away. There is such wisdom in giving ourselves permission to turn away from life’s cacophony from time to time, so that we may turn inward toward the quieter rhythms of the heart.
This 21-minute session offers just such a break. The invitation is to rest in any position, in any place where we can settle with a sigh of relief. We relax into the here-and-now, and we return our nervous system to a state of balance. We practice, as meditation teacher Jack Kornfield calls it, “benevolent rest.”
In some strange and topsy-turvy logic, this willingness to turn away from the world every once in a while becomes a superpower that allows us to be more effective citizens in the world. In relaxing our tight-fisted grip, in reclaiming our breath, in settling our nerves, we return to a state of clarity and wellbeing. We remember what matters most and we remember who we really are. And then guided by this vision, we rise up with a smile, ready to resume our good work of loving, caring and connecting with the greater world.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
This is the perfect moment for rest and restoration. The busy season has passed and winter’s stillness has firmly taken hold. We are free to relax, to exhale, to immerse ourselves in well-earned peace and quiet.
In this 22-minute exploration, we move a little, we breathe a little, and we do a whole lot of nothing. We settle into life’s slower rhythms, we wait patiently, we trust the process of deep rest. We explore how gentle movement and spacious stillness can be potent healing balms.
Practices like this feel like magic. Not much seems to happen as we gently slip this way and slowly stretch that way. But by the end we’ve somehow sloughed off long-held angst and agitation, and we’ve been returned to our calmer and steadier self. What a relief!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Life is a series of endings and beginnings. We never fully arrive at constancy or solid ground. Why not embrace this ever-changing flow, swimming with the current instead of against it, and maybe even enjoying the trip downstream?
In this 18-minute quiet contemplation we’ll say goodbye to what has passed, welcome all that lies ahead, and rest with whole heart in the here-and-now.
This moment, after all, is the only place life flows. Anchoring our lives in the experience of the present, with a spirit of welcoming acceptance, is the secret to living in happiness and peace. When we commit to taking good care of the present, the future has a way of taking care of itself.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
It can be such a relief in the midst of our busy lives to give ourselves permission to set the to-do list aside and slip into resting mode, even for a little while. We settle into our favorite cozy spot - on the ground, in bed or in our favorite chair. We turn our gaze inward and we practice the fine are of letting everything be, just as it is.
What a relief! The world will spin on without us and it will be there for us when we return. In the meantime, for just a few moments we soften our clenched fists and release our fierce grip on the reins of life. We return home to a sense of unshakable wellbeing as we remember our deep connection with the greater flow of life.
This 12-minute guided relaxation offers an opportunity to practice resting deeply, even amid the busy-ness of our lives. Our bodies soften, our nervous systems settle and our minds grow clear. We remember who we are and how we want to live, in love and connection with the vast flow of life.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
In one of his most famous poems, Rumi says, “This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival.” The poet urges us to consider every emotion that comes knocking on the door of our awareness with a spirit of openness and curiosity. “A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.” he says. “Welcome and attend them all!” (Read the whole poem here.)
I love this image so very much. I imagine us going about our lives, puttering about in in our slippers, and then hearing the doorbell ring. I imagine us heading toward the door with eagerness rather than impatience or even dread. I imagine us graciously greeting whoever stands at the threshold, offering a warm smile and a welcoming spirit.
What if we treated every experience in our lives with such reverence and respect? What if we welcomed everyone into our field of awareness with whole heart, even - and perhaps especially - the ones we’re not sure we want? Most days, this may be a bit of a stretch. But, doesn’t it also sound like an enlightened way of being in the world?
In this 25-minute gentle flow - interspersed with a generous helping of what meditation teacher Jack Kornfield calls “benevolent rest” - we’ll continually revisit the inner sensations of our lives as honored guests worthy of our attention. We’ll nudge ourselves toward accommodating with warmth the experience of the moment, moving beyond simply loving or hating every sensation we meet.
And maybe, through this experience, we’ll find ourselves settling just a little more faithfully into the guest house of our lives - welcoming all that is with respect, curiosity, and tenderness.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Life has a way of leaving us bent out of shape from time to time, a bit less clear and whole than we might like. Sometimes we need a little help finding our way back to ease and peace. Just a few moments of quiet presence can bring us right back home to our selves, reminding us who we are and how we want to be in the world.
This gentle 14-minute movement practice offers just such an opportunity. It is explored on the ground, lying on the back, although a cozy bed might work just fine, too. A little rest, a bit of easy breathing and a small helping of movement all help us shed tension and reclaim ease. I hope that you, too, find that these few moments of grounded presence have the power to reshape the contours of not just your day, but of your whole life.
These practices are such a gift, when we hold them close. They have the power to keep our eyes open, our hearts clear, our spirits bright. They can so easily nudge a stormy day toward peace. They only work, though, when we actually do them instead of just plan to do them, or perhaps just think about doing them. They require us to muster up the energy to roll out our mats or climb onto our cushions, to dive into the movement, the stillness, and the deep sigh of relief.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Even the Dalai Lama agrees that the purpose of life is to be happy. But what exactly does that mean? What constitutes happiness, and how do we find our way there?
Does happiness come from savoring a fresh raspberry as it bursts on the tongue? Does it come from a sense of mission in one’s broader life? Or does it come from sensing a deep and radiant connection between our small self and the vast Self of the world? Yes, yes and yes!
In this 19-minute practice, we’ll explore three important pillars of happiness: pleasure, purpose and peace. This is a restful and meditative practice that could be explored sitting upright or perhaps tucked in a cozy chair with a cup of tea.
Spending time contemplating the experiences, actions and relationships that bring us alive can incline our minds toward a deeply embodied sense of happiness and wellbeing. This sort of contemplation can also cultivate clarity about aspects of our lives that might need a little tending and care. My hope is that returning to this practice from time to time might shine new light on the pillars of happiness in your own life.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
We spend so much of our lives looking outward to the world around us. Every once in a while it can be such a relief to turn our gaze inward instead for a little while. Closing the eyes and refocusing within can help us quiet the nervous system, recharge our batteries, and return us to what matters most in our lives.
In this 12-minute practice, we’ll consider the lovely possibility that we have a garden within where we can rest and savor the moment. We’ll call upon our powers of imagination and imagery to create a quiet oasis deep inside of us. Consider this a meditation, perhaps, or an opportunity to practice deep rest.
Sit upright if you like, or rest back in any comfortable position. You might even be able to do this while strolling through your favorite garden. Feel free to toss out any of the words or images that don’t ring true to you. And, of course, head off into your own inner journey any time you like.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Every spiritual practice, one way or another, brings us back to our own good hearts and the love the shines forth from within. We may not join a yoga class because we want to soften our hearts. We may not begin meditating because we want to cultivate goodwill. But in some mysterious bit of spiritual magic, these practices transform us into kinder and more compassionate human beings.
The Buddhist practice of lovingkindness, or metta meditation, offers an explicit pathway to cultivating good heart. In lovingkindness meditation, we call up images of people in our lives and we send wishes for happiness and wellbeing in their direction. We may not know for sure whether these wishes change others, but we very quickly learn that they can change us in profound ways.
In this 19-minute guided practice, we’ll explore a variation of the traditional Buddhist practice of lovingkindness meditation. This contemplation is a little more free-form than the typical, but I hope it brings a smile to your face nonetheless. We settle into a restful position and reclaim our own good hearts. We rest and breathe and be. And we befriend the world, moment after moment, one heart to another.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Japanese poet Koboyashi Issa, who was born in 1763 and penned more than 10,000 haiku, wrote two poems that are perfect for this oh-so-slow time of year. First, the sweetest four-word poem ever:
Snail
always at home
And second, just eight words:
Oh, snail,
climb Mt. Fuji,
but slowly, slowly
This week’s 25-minute movement practice takes its inspiration from Issa and his snails. We move slowly, in no particular hurry, enjoying every sensation along the way. We explore the possibility that life is best savored slowly and with delight. And we breathe and rest in the faithful knowing that wherever we go, we are already home.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Look outside your window. What’s the weather like right now? Now, look inside yourself. What’s the weather within? Are you running hot or cold? Is the sun shining or is this a rainy day? Are your thoughts stormy or serene? And is your vitality shining brightly or hiding behind a few clouds?
In this 14-minute guided meditation, we’ll consider our inner weather patterns. We’ll watch the energetic weather pass across the landscape of our bodies. We’ll sharpen our powers of perception to sense more clearly the sensations, feelings, thoughts and energies moving through our inner worlds.
Seeing clearly helps us tend to the world with wisdom and compassion. Holding close to the truth of what is - whether we like what we find or not - allows us to make clear-eyed decisions about how to respond with ease to the ever-changing weather of our lives. Through this process, we begin to understand that happiness depends not on living in a world of perfect weather, but rather in knowing how to gracefully accommodate - and maybe even enjoy - whatever weather comes our way.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
When is the last time someone encouraged you to move in a way that feels joyful? When is the last time someone suggested you do more with your body than follow someone else’s rules about how to stand, how to eat, how to breathe? Has anyone ever suggested that you explore the possibility of moving and breathing and resting with delight?
In this 25-minute practice we'll explore the joy of movement - the quiet happiness of moving the body in a free and easy way, with no agenda other than savoring the sensations of life as they pass through us. We'll let our bodies out of their cages to roam the landscape with curiosity and freedom, and we'll observe how this exploration changes the mind, the mood, the body and the breath.
We have been well-trained since childhood to follow the call of the outer world, to be good students and good sheep. Maybe it’s time we recover our inner agency and reclaim our inborn wisdom. Who knows how our lives might shift if we spend a little more time listening inward, learning more about who we are and how we most want to spend our days. The whole world comes alive as we rediscover the simple joy of being here, now… present and moving through the world with ease and quiet delight.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Our inner bodies need space in order to move with ease and strength. Alas, sometimes the world conspires to leave us feeling strangled and stuck inside, as if there’s not enough room for the rivers of life to flow freely. Thankfully, gentle movement can help!
This 21-minute guided practice dives into the body’s core, exploring gentle movements that help cultivate a long and spacious spine. We begin on our backs in “constructive rest” position, with the knees bent and the feet on the floor. Tuck a pillow under your head if you like, and adjust in any way that feels appropriate for you. As always, please stay within your comfort zone throughout the practice. If any movement causes strain, then stop, soften, and move in a happier way.
A little self-care goes a long way. If we want to be bright citizens of the world, we need to take good care of ourselves - physically, mentally and emotionally. We need to stretch and move and rest like the good animals we are. We need to connect in loving ways, both within and beyond. We need to remember what matters most. When we commit to taking good care of our lives, we nourish the rivers of happiness and vitality that flow within us all.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Some practices are simple and straightforward: We practice yoga or we practice qigong or we practice mindfulness meditation. Others take a meandering path, dipping into a array of awareness practices as we slip easily downstream.
This 30-minute meditation is the meandering sort of meditation. We start with a gentle breathing practice designed to help cultivate balance and steadiness. Then we let go of shaping the breath and simply watch it as a form of meditation. And then - as often happens - the breath meditation awakens a quiet light within and we find ourselves slipping toward lovingkindness practice.
Breath, body, mind, spirit love. They’re connected so deeply that it’s sometimes impossible to tease them apart. We start out stretching our hamstrings and somehow we end up communing with all creation. We sit down to meditate and we end up floating in an ocean of love. We begin practicing to save ourselves and we end up caring for the whole wide world. Pull one strand, and the whole tapestry shifts. What a strange and lovely mystery!
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This is the perfect moment for rest and restoration. The busy season has passed and winter’s stillness has firmly taken hold. We are free to relax, to exhale, to immerse ourselves in well-earned peace and quiet.
In this 22-minute exploration, we move a little, we breathe a little, and we do a whole lot of nothing. We settle into life’s slower rhythms, we wait patiently, we trust the process of deep rest. We explore how stillness can be a potent healing balm.
Practices like this feel like magic. Not much seems to happen as we gently slip this way and slowly stretch that way. But by the end we’ve somehow sloughed off long-held angst and agitation, and we’ve been returned to our calmer and steadier self. What a relief!
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Life is a series of endings and beginnings. We never fully arrive at constancy or solid ground. Why not embrace this ever-changing flow, swimming with the current instead of against it, and maybe even enjoying the trip downstream?
In this 18-minute quiet contemplation we’ll say goodbye to what has passed, welcome all that lies ahead, and rest with whole heart in the here-and-now.
This moment, after all, is the only place life flows. Anchoring our lives in the experience of the present, with a spirit of welcoming acceptance, is the secret to living in happiness and peace. When we commit to taking good care of the present, the future has a way of taking care of itself.
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In one of his most famous poems, Rumi says, “This being human is a guest house.Every morning a new arrival.” The poet urges us to consider every emotion that comes knocking on the door of our awareness with a spirit of openness and curiosity. “A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.” he says. “Welcome and attend them all!” (Read the whole poem here.)
I love this image so very much. I imagine us going about our lives, puttering about in in our slippers, and then hearing the doorbell ring. I imagine us heading toward the door with eagerness rather than impatience or even dread. I imagine us graciously greeting whoever stands at the threshold, offering a warm smile and a welcoming spirit.
What if we treated every experience in our lives with such reverence and respect? What if we welcomed everyone into our field of awareness with whole heart, even - and perhaps especially - the ones we’re not sure we want? Most days, this may be a bit of a stretch. But, doesn’t it also sound like an enlightened way of being in the world?
In this 25-minute gentle flow - interspersed with a generous helping of what meditation teacher Jack Kornfield calls “benevolent rest” - we’ll continually revisit the inner sensations of our lives as honored guests worthy of our attention. We’ll nudge ourselves toward accommodating with warmth the experience of the moment, moving beyond simply loving or hating every sensation we meet.
And maybe, through this experience, we’ll find ourselves settling just a little more faithfully into the guest house of our lives - welcoming all that is with respect, curiosity, and tenderness.
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In this busy season, it’s easy to wear ourselves down and wear ourselves out. There’s so much to do, so much to prepare, so much to carry. We need to pace ourselves so that we can maintain our energy, as we celebrate the joys of bringing light into the darkest season of the year.
Taking a time out from the busy world’s endless to-do list might feel a little decadent right now. But wouldn't lying down for a few quiet moments feel so good, so necessary, so right? Wouldn’t you like to turn away from the noise for just a little while so that you can stay close to the quieter whispers within?
Here’s your chance with 22 minutes of quiet relaxation. All you need to do is lie down in the most comfortable corner of the house, exhale, and follow along with the gentle suggestions to soften and settle. Bit by bit and breath by breath, you will be invited to shift from agitation toward ease, creating a deep sense of steadiness and calm.
My hope is that when it’s time to return to the world of action, you’ll feel refreshed, restored, and ready to shine brightly in the season ahead.
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Thank you for joining me for another guided practice. This week, we’ll consider extending our sense of awareness beyond the skin of the body and out into the greater world. We’ll do this first in stillness, then with gentle and free-form movement, and then we’ll finish up in stillness once again.
This 14-minute session is offered as an upright, standing practice. It could easily be explored, though, while sitting down. As always, feel free to modify my suggestions in ways that work best for you.
I’ve explored this somatic “game” hundreds of times, and each time I find new ways of painting out into the world. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
If you’d like to learn more about this exploration, you might enjoy this article I wrote several years ago that envisions yoga and movement practices not as exercises in mastering poses, but rather as explorations of the vital flow of energy that flows throughout all creation. One way or another, most of my offerings relate to this lovely and life-affirming possibility. Please visit my website to explore more.
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Mostly we lead lives of distraction, bouncing from one thought to another. We spend a whole lot of time in our heads - analyzing, ruminating, planning. Our endless parade of thoughts can lead us toward a crippling sense of depletion - sometimes even exhaustion. We get so tangled up in our small-minded preoccupations that we lose touch with the greater flow of life.
It’s good to have a brain, of course. But it’s also good to remember that we are so much more than simple thought machines.
We have bodies that move and breathe and reach out toward one another. We have hands that create and legs that carry us and hearts that keep life flowing into every cell of the body. We have eyes that take in beauty and ears that listen to sounds that tell us we are here, now, awake and alive.
We live amid amazements. Changing leaves. Falling snow. Seemingly endless winters that eventually sprout into spring, and summers that return with their bounty no matter how much thinking we have - or haven’t - done. Life just keeps on happening, whether we show up or stay lost in our small and petty distractions. What a waste it would be to miss out on our lives.
More and more I am relishing the contented joy that comes with living fully and attentively in the here-and-now. Something shifts when we climb beyond our heads and back into our bodies. Life blooms when we are reunited with that natural intelligence that is larger than any one of us and that flows through all creation.
The practices of embodied wisdom - yoga, meditation, qigong, and modern somatic disciplines, too - soothe us, strengthen us, energize us. They cultivate warmth and light. They immerse us in the greater flow. They bring us back to life.
I hope you feel this, too. And I hope this 32-minute practice returns you to a deeper sense of vitality and ease. It is slow, quiet and improvisatory. It quiets the thinking, ruminating brain. It nudges us, little by little, toward steadiness and calm. And it slips us right back into the streams of light that flow within us all.
As always, I invite you to visit my home website for additional practices that cultivate steadiness and ease. If you enjoy what you find here at At Home in the World and would like to support this programming - and gain access to all of the offerings - please consider subscribing as a paid member. If you’ve already done so, a million miles of thanks. I’m so happy to share this adventure with you!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
The promise of spiritual practice is that it will help us find our way toward a deep and lasting sense of peace in ourselves and the world. Call it enlightenment or nirvana or wholeness or simply wellbeing. The hopeful proposition is that there is a way of being in the world that embodies profound wakefulness and also deep equanimity, even in the very same breath.
Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh called this inner sense of deep wellbeing the “island of self,” and he urged his students to return to this quiet refuge every day.
“If you don’t go home to yourself, you continue to lose yourself,” he wrote. “You destroy yourself and you destroy people around you, even if you have goodwill and want to do something to help. That is why the practice of going home to the island of self is so important. No one can take your true home away.”
Many different paths will lead us there. I find gentle movement, easy breathing, and a return to the experience of the here-and-now to be reliable friends as we continue to cultivate balance and equanimity within. These experiences nudge us in the direction of a little less confusion and a little more clarity. Sometimes that’s all it takes to shift the course of a day.
The ultimate teaching, of course, is that peace is already here, that we don’t need to go out searching for it. Making sense of this koan is advanced practice, for sure. How is it possible that the very thing we are seeking is already nestled deep within us, just waiting to be found?
My hope is that this 22-minute reclined practice will nudge us toward an answer, as we slip in the direction of wholeness and wellbeing. As always, please use my words as suggestions rather than instructions, and take care to feed your own body and breath in the best way you know. I hope you feel both soothed and enlivened by the practice. Thank you for sharing this time with me!
If you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional essays about cultivating ease and peace, including this article about seeking refuge in the classic yoga posture child’s pose. 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. If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Throughout the pandemic, my primary practice has been befriending the earth. I’ve spent a lot of time on my back, resting in savasana, practicing the deep meditation of yoga nidra, and sliding and gliding through quiet, earthy stretches and movements. In the midst of so many challenges in the greater world, settling back into the arms of Mother Earth has been a true balm.
I’ve learned, as I’ve become so happily earthbound, that the earth not only willingly holds us close, but she also somehow magically buoys us upward again into the arms of the great blue sky. Earth and sky… they are good friends and they are good teachers, too.
Lucky for us, we don’t have to choose one over the other. In fact, we can’t really choose one or another. We get to be friends with both. We are invited to be as steady and faithful as the earth beneath us. And, in the very same breath, we are invited to be as clear and spacious as the sky above.
This 13-minute guided meditation explores just that possibility. We are invited to melt into the earth, we are invited to bloom into the sky, and then we consider the possibility of embracing both in the very same breath.
If you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional ways of cultivating ease and wellbeing, including this essay about how befriending the earthsaves my soul daily. 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.) If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
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!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Once upon a time I relished traveling to the far ends of the earth. I loved pushing the boundaries, seeing just how far my body and brain could go. I found sweet medicine in setting goals that seemed beyond my abilities and then somehow - through drive, grit, or sheer luck - finding ways to overcome the impossible.
Obviously, I was young.
I doubt that I’m alone in finding that with age comes a renewed interest in the middle way. Heading off into far-away worlds can wake us up to possibility and adventure, for sure. But day by day and year by year, the sweet relief of coming home feels more like the balm we need.
We warm to the possibility that we already have everything we need. We notice that we don’t have to travel far from home in order to feel content. We consider the possibility that less is sometimes more. And blessedly, our expectations of ourselves and the world begin to soften just a bit, and in a good way. Sometimes - in a pandemic, for instance - we even embrace the possibility that good enough might just be, well, good enough.
Committing to these possibilities requires relinquishing some long-held beliefs and welcoming some new ones. It asks us to forsake the “no pain, no gain” mentality of our younger days. It requires a certain flexibility in spirit and in soul. As the poet Louise Gluck once wrote, “The extremes are easy. Only the middle is a puzzle.”
The SATYA movement practices of Tias Little feel to me like the perfect exploration of the middle way. SATYA explorations are soft and gentle, with rocking, sliding and gliding movements that can offer profound relief to the body, breath and mind. They are akin to the fluid movements of qigong, but they are done while lying close to the ground. And they offer the same feelings of renewal as restorative yoga, even though gentle movement is involved. I’ve never not felt better when I’ve emerged from a SATYA practice.
This 35-minute gentle movement sequence is an introduction to SATYA practice. It embodies the possibility that we don’t have to reach to far extremes in order to cultivate balance and wellbeing. Lying on our backs, close to the ground, we commit ourselves to soft, easy, pain-free movement. I hope you enjoy SATYA as much as I do.
As always, I invite you to visit my home website for additional practices to help cultivate steadiness and ease. If you enjoy what you find and would like to support this programming, please consider subscribing as a paid member. And if you’ve already done so, a million miles of thanks!
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Meditation instructions are simple: Rest your awareness with openness and ease in the experience of the present moment.
Simple, of course, doesn’t always mean easy. Often when we sit down to meditate, the mind rebels and we find ourselves spinning off into fantasies of the future or memories of the past. It takes patience and practice to train the mind to settle with steadiness into the here-and-now.
Many people give up when they encounter the restless mind of meditation. There are ways, though, to smooth out the process of learning to meditate - ways of sweet-talking the mind out of chaos and in the direction of peace. It’s well worth learning how.
My own mind, for example, finds it easier to settle into stillness when I slip into meditation through the doorway of gentle movement and breathing. Focusing on the sensations of the body moving, or settling into the rise and fall of the breath, somehow primes the pump of steadiness that allows the mind to begin to settle, too.
Sometimes I begin with a little movement, and then - as I settle - inject small gaps of attentive stillness into my movement flow. In the beginning, maybe I move for several moments and then “meditate” for two breaths. And then three breaths, and then five, ten, 30 or more, until eventually my mind has softened enough to truly stay, stay, stay.
In this 20-minute guided practice I offer a taste of this form of movement and stillness. We begin with gentle movement, with quiet gaps of stillness here and there. And then we slip toward gentle breath work, punctuated for longer stretches of quiet. And finally, we rest in stillness for an even longer stretch.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s all meditation, really. We start out with meditation in movement, and we end up with meditation in stillness. It works!
I hope you enjoy “moving into meditation” as much as I do.
Thank you so much for being a part of this adventure. If you’re interested, please visit my home website to explore additional essays about both movement and meditation, including an exploration of what meditation is all about and an article about how I finally learned to meditate.
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, which gives you access to more than 40 different guided movement practices. And if you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
In recent years I’ve fallen in love with the qigong, a Chinese movement practice that is sometimes called Taoist yoga. The practice is gentle and rhythmic and guided by the breath. It seeks to cultivate harmony and balance, as practitioners explore movements that are sometimes more yang - sunny and stimulating - and sometimes more yin - quiet and grounding.
This fall I have been craving the slow, fluid movements of yin. These movements feel like moonlit nights and cool, cleansing calm. They are refreshing and restorative, and they nudge us back to a soft and settled way being. They feel like the perfect antidote to our loud, fast and over-caffeinated world.
I’ve found the qualities of yin slipping into my yoga practice, too, as I nestle onto the ground, exhale deeply, and rest in the quiet of pure being. My thoughts slow down, my belly relaxes, and my breath returns to its babylike freshness and ease. I feel drawn back home to my most steady and faithful self.
This 20-minute movement practice isn’t qigong, but it embodies the quiet and fluid qualities that feel like yin to me. In fact, all of these slow and earth-bound sessions are - in one way or another - explorations of slow, flowing yin. I hope you find them as soothing and restorative as I do.
You can learn more about all the many energies of embodied practice at my home website. If you’d like to learn more about qigong, this essay offers a primer, and this one offers a little more detail about the classic qigong practice of the Eight Silken Brocades. And feel free to join us for a Zoom class, where we incorporate qigong into our almost all of our mindful movement sessions.
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The promise of spiritual practice is that it will help us find our way toward a deep and lasting sense of peace in ourselves and the world. Call it enlightenment or nirvana or wholeness or wellbeing. The hopeful proposition is that there is a way of being in the world that embodies both wakefulness and also equanimity, even in the very same breath.
Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh called this inner sense of wellbeing the “island of self,” and he urged his students to return to this quiet refuge every day.
“If you don’t go home to yourself, you continue to lose yourself,” he wrote. “You destroy yourself and you destroy people around you, even if you have goodwill and want to do something to help. That is why the practice of going home to the island of self is so important. No one can take your true home away.”
Many different paths will lead us there. I find gentle movement, easy breathing, and a return to the experience of the here-and-now to be reliable friends as we continue to cultivate balance and equanimity within. These experiences nudge us in the direction of a little less confusion and a little more clarity. Sometimes that’s all it takes to shift the course of a day.
The ultimate teaching, of course, is that peace is already here, that we don’t need to go out searching for it. Making sense of this truth is advanced practice, for sure. How is it possible that the very thing we are seeking is already nestled deep within us, just waiting to be found?
My hope is that this 22-minute reclined practice will nudge us toward an answer, as we slip in the direction of wholeness and wellbeing. As always, please use my words as suggestions rather than instructions, and take care to feed your own body and breath in the best way you know. I hope you feel both soothed and enlivened by the practice.
Thank you for sharing this time with me. Enjoy!
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As I write this, we are settling into the heart of fall. The world is growing quieter. And, perhaps, so are we. We sense a stilling within, a settling of our energies inward.
And yet, we’re not quite ready for hibernation. We still feel life stirring and we still feel a need to move and stretch ourselves out into the world. In this lovely space we are invited to inhabit the middle ground, the place where movement and stillness meet, where doing settles into being, and then being rises back into movement. And on and on and on.
Enjoy Being, a gentle reclined movement practice, explores these various energies and the possibilities of saying yes to them all. We explore possibility of settling in and down, while still maintaining a sense of inner agency and freedom. We say yes with one possibility without saying no to the other. We affirm the possibility of simply enjoying the sensations of being alive, right here and now.
The 15-minute practice is explored on the back and close to the ground. As always, though, feel free to vary the practice in ways that work best for you.
Many more practices are available for you to explore any time at our At Home in the World site. If you enjoy what you find 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, thank you for your generosity!
Get full access to At Home in the World at claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
We spend so much of our lives thinking, planning, replaying, figuring things out. Sometimes we even begin to feel like one big brain with a body whose job is simply to carry around all of our thoughts.
We are so much more than our puny thoughts, though, and it can be such a relief to remember this truth from time to time. Embodiment brings us back to life - to real life in its full range of experience and feeling and sensation. Embodiment tethers us to the here-and-now, to the feeling of being awake in this moment, connected to all of the other lives that are also living right here and right now.
We know how to be fully present in the world when we are babies and small children. But often as we grow up we lose touch with this sense of being alive in not just our brains but our bodies, too. We sense that something vital is missing from our lives. And then we do crazy things like sign up for yoga classes (or even listen to guided audios!) to help us find our way back home to a deeper sense of presence in the world.
This 30-minute guided practice offers an invitation to return to our sensing, feeling, breathing and perceiving way of being. Through gentle organic movement, we remember the sheer delight of being able to move through space. We explore the possibility of riding the waves of life as they pulse through us. We remember how to trust our deeper intelligence, how to climb out of habits and ruts of own making. We remember how to shine.
And maybe, just maybe, for at least a few moments, we’ll even tap into the profound wisdom of the Zen masters, who taught that in the end “everything flows, nothing remains.” Enjoy!
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I’ve fallen in love with the haiku of Kobayashi Issa, a Japanese poet who was born in 1763 and wrote more than 10,000 haiku over the course of his life. The two poems that have lodged themselves into my brain describe snails. The first is the sweetest four-word poem I know:
Snail
always at home
And the second has become my inspiration to tackle seemingly impossible tasks, or to at least get started with faithfulness and grace:
Oh, snail,
climb Mt. Fuji,
but slowly, slowly
My offering today - 25-minute reclined movement practice - takes its inspiration from Issa and his snails. We move slowly, in no particular hurry, enjoying every sensation along the way. And we breathe and rest in the faithful knowing that whatever we do and wherever we go, we are already home.
If you’d like to head down a rabbit hole of haiku, perhaps you’d like to (slowly) wander over to this lovely site, home of thousands of Issa’s poems. You can even search on a particular word, or pull up a random haiku. Enjoy!
And if you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional essays about slowing down and savoring each moment, including this essay about the joy of focusing on one task at a time. 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. If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
Get full access to At Home in the World at claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Through much of the pandemic, my primary practice has been befriending the earth. I’ve spent a lot of time on my back, resting in savasana, practicing the deep meditation of yoga nidra, and sliding and gliding through quiet, earthy stretches and movements. In the midst of so many challenges in the greater world, settling back into the arms of Mother Earth has been a true balm.
I’ve learned that as we settle happily into the ground, the earth not only holds us close, but she also somehow magically buoys us upward again into the arms of the great blue sky. Earth and sky… they are good friends and they are good teachers, too.
Lucky for us, we don’t have to choose one over the other. In fact, we can’t really choose one or another. We are invited to be as steady and faithful as the earth beneath us. And, in the very same breath, we are invited to be as clear and spacious as the sky above.
This 13-minute guided meditation explores just that possibility. We are invited to melt into the earth, we are invited to bloom into the sky, and then we consider the possibility of embracing both in the very same breath.
If you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional ways of cultivating ease and wellbeing, including this essay about how befriending the earth saves my soul daily. Enjoy!
Get full access to At Home in the World at claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Would you like to restore your spirit and save your soul, right here and right now? Here’s an idea: Turn off your computer for a little while. Turn away from the news of the day for just a bit. Bury your phone underneath a pile of pillows in the farthest reaches of the house.
Settle down and settle in, perhaps on the floor or a bed or even your favorite easy chair. Exhale deeply and turn your gaze inward. Notice the gentle drumming of your heart. Watch the wave-like rise and fall of your breath. Shift out of doing mode for just a little while, and enjoy the possibility of settling into a deep state of being.
Pay attention and be amazed, as poet Mary Oliver once advised. You have a body! You have a heart! You have tender thoughts and emotions. You care, you love, you are.
Just rest in the sensations of being alive, maybe even moving a little bit from time to time, when the spirit moves you. While you do this, know you are resting in the sensations of being alive. Be aware of your awareness, and be amazed by that, too.
If you need a little help, feel free to rest and breathe and move along with my words and suggestions in this 19-minute restful flow. The movements are simple - a little spinal undulation on the back, and then a little rocking and rolling on the side - and the instructions are gentle and welcoming. You don’t need me to guide the way - you know the way back home inside - but sometimes it’s nice to travel with a friend.
Not much has to happen, it turns out, to soften and to settle, to return us to our sane and steady self. To refuel and recharge. To just be present.
And then, after a little while, my hunch is that you will rise back up and out into the world again feeling just a little bit clearer, a little bit shinier, a little more whole.
If you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional ways of cultivating ease and wellbeing, including this essay about how befriending the earthsaves my soul daily. 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. If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
Get full access to At Home in the World at claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe
Would you like to restore your spirit and save your soul, right here and right now? Here’s an idea: Turn off your computer for a little while. Turn away from the news of the day for just a bit. Bury your phone underneath a pile of pillows in the farthest reaches of the house.
Settle down and settle in, perhaps on the floor or a bed or even your favorite easy chair. Exhale deeply and turn your gaze inward. Notice the gentle drumming of your heart. Watch the wave-like rise and fall of your breath. Shift out of doing mode for just a little while, and enjoy the possibility of settling into a deep state of being.
Pay attention and be amazed, as poet Mary Oliver once advised. You have a body! You have a heart! You have tender thoughts and emotions. You care, you love, you are.
Just rest in the sensations of being alive, maybe even moving a little bit from time to time, when the spirit moves you. While you do this, know you are resting in the sensations of being alive. Be aware of your awareness, and be amazed by that, too.
If you need a little help, feel free to rest and breathe and move along with my words and suggestions in this 19-minute restful flow. The movements are simple - a little spinal undulation on the back, and then a little rocking and rolling on the side - and the instructions are gentle and welcoming. You don’t need me to guide the way - you know the way back home inside - but sometimes it’s nice to travel with a friend.
Not much has to happen, it turns out, to soften and to settle, to return us to our sane and steady self. To refuel and recharge. To just be present.
And then, after a little while, my hunch is that you will rise back up and out into the world again feeling just a little bit clearer, a little bit shinier, a little more whole.
If you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional ways of cultivating ease and wellbeing, including this essay about how befriending the earth saves my soul daily. Enjoy!
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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. And if you’ve already done so, a million miles of thanks!
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Once upon a time I relished traveling to the far ends of the earth. I loved pushing the boundaries, seeing just how far my body and brain could go. I found sweet medicine in setting goals that seemed beyond my abilities and then somehow - through drive, grit, or sheer luck - finding ways to overcome the impossible.
Obviously, I was young.
I doubt that I’m alone in finding that with age comes a renewed interest in the middle way. Heading off into far-away worlds can wake us up to possibility and adventure, for sure. But day by day and year by year, the sweet relief of coming home feels more like the balm we need.
We warm to the possibility that we already have everything we need. We notice that we don’t have to travel far from home in order to feel content. We consider the possibility that less is sometimes more. And blessedly, our expectations of ourselves and the world begin to soften just a bit, and in a good way. Sometimes - in a pandemic, for instance - we even embrace the possibility that good enough might just be, well, good enough.
Committing to these possibilities requires relinquishing some long-held beliefs and welcoming some new ones. It asks us to forsake the “no pain, no gain” mentality of our younger days. It requires a certain flexibility in spirit and in soul. As the poet Louise Gluck once wrote, “The extremes are easy. Only the middle is a puzzle.”
The SATYA movement practices of Tias Little feel to me like the perfect exploration of the middle way. SATYA explorations are soft and gentle, with rocking, sliding and gliding movements that can offer profound relief to the body, breath and mind. They are akin to the fluid movements of qigong, but they are done while lying close to the ground. And they offer the same feelings of renewal as restorative yoga, even though gentle movement is involved. I’ve never not felt better when I’ve emerged from a SATYA practice.
This 35-minute gentle movement sequence is an introduction to SATYA practice. It embodies the possibility that we don’t have to reach to far extremes in order to cultivate balance and wellbeing. Lying on our backs, close to the ground, we commit ourselves to soft, easy, pain-free movement. I hope you enjoy SATYA as much as I do.
You can explore this practice and all of my other guided practices any time at our At Home in the World website. If you enjoy what you find 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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Some practices are simple and straightforward: We practice yoga asana or we practice qigong or we practice mindfulness meditation. Others take a meandering path, dipping into a variety of awareness practices as we slip easily downstream.
Breathing With Heart is the second sort of practice. In this 30-minute session, we start out with a breathing practice designed to help cultivate balance and steadiness. Then we let go of shaping the breath and simply watch it as a form of meditation. And then - as often happens for me - the breath meditation awakens a quiet light in the heart and we find ourselves slipping toward lovingkindness meditation. That makes this session either a mutt of a practice, or perhaps just an improvisatory one!
My friends sometimes tell me that if I get tired of teaching yoga and meditation, I should go into business offering practices for insomnia, since sometimes my sessions put them right to sleep. Breathing With Heart, I think, would be a good one for such a project. I’ve left lots of quiet space nestled in between the words here. So if you find yourself up in the middle of the night and would like a little companionship until you drift off to sleep again, this one might do the trick.
My home website includes many more explorations and quite a few articles that dive into the power of cultivating deep and clear awareness in the world. This article shares some of my favorite meditation resources, and this one shares a few of my favorite breathing practices. If you’ve ever studied with me in person, you likely know them well.
And although subscribers to At Home in the World receive emails only when new practices are released, the website hosts dozens of guided practices that are available to you any time. And if you enjoy what you find 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.) Thank you!
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In yoga philosophy there is a belief that life - at its most basic level - is comprised of an endless flow of subtle vibrations. All of creation is said to hum with pulsation, with a wavelike alternation of rising and falling, of reaching and returning, of becoming and being. The flow of these subtle vibrations is called spanda in yoga philosophy, and much of our practice is about settling into these waves of life with an ever deepening clarity and ease.
This 27-minute reclined movement practice explores the magnificent way that life is expressed through us, as we move and breathe and rest. We explore the possibility of rooting, of reaching and of returning, all in ways that key us into the springy and wavelike flow of movement both within and beyond us.
Like waves, we aren’t meant to only rise or only fall. We aren’t meant to only reach out and never return home. Our lives are expression of the beautiful play of ebb and flow, of movement and stillness, of giving and receiving, of self and other. What a relief to know that life is ever-changing. We are verbs just as surely as we are nouns!
If you’d like to learn more about cultivating this gentle exploration of spanda and other practices, please visit my website.
Paid Memberships
Most of my offerings are freely offered, with deep appreciation for those who choose to offer financial support. I truly believe in the power of slowing down, of moving gently, of breathing freely, and of listening deeply to the song of the universe. This is the best way I know to return to a state of wholeness and peace, and this is what I hope to offer here.
I feel both humbled and honored by the generosity of those who are supporting the site with a paid membership. If you are inclined to join these benefactors, you can subscribe to a paid membership by visiting the At Home in the World site and clicking the subscribe button or selecting My Account in the dropdown menu. Thank for your support!
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One of the great gifts of contemplative practice is the ability to simply drop into the experience of the moment without demanding that it be anything other than it is. With this open-hearted attitude, we are able to rest in the greater flow of life and savor the experience of simply being here in the moment to enjoy the passing show of life.
This experience is deeply restorative and helps us to connect to something far larger than our own small egos and our own small lives.
This 18-minute practice offers a taste of this experience. I hope you’ll be able to settle into the moment and savor the experience of resting deeply in the experience of being alive. I hope you find this exploration as soothing and healing as I do.
If you’d like to learn more about cultivating this gentle experience of presence, please visit my website for more resources and practices. You might like to start with this essay about savoring the first few moments of the day simply by listening to the greater world.
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In this session of At Home in the World, I share one of my very favorite breathing practices. It is an ages-old yoga pranayama practice called bhramari breath, or buzzing bee breath. It is simple, portable, and deeply steadying. When the magic happens, this breathing practice also fills the heart with a sense of quiet joy and contentment.
Best of all, if you know how to hum then you already know how to practice bhramari breath! Sit upright (or if you’re tired, lie down). Close your lips gently, and relax the jaw. Inhale normally through the nose, and then exhale through the nose while making a gentle humming sound.
In the beginning, you may like to take a few easy breaths between each humming exhalation. Once you feel comfortable, you can hum all the way through each exhalation for several rounds of breath. If you're like me, a few minutes of this practice will soothe and settle the mind while offering a gentle buzz of uplift and delight.
I hope you enjoy bhramari breath as much as I do, and I hope you’ll experiment with creative ways to integrate it into your life. Next time you need to hit the pause button on the world’s stresses and strains, give it a try and see what happens.
Please visit my website to find additional resources about bhramari breath and other breathing practices. Here’s an essay I wrote about the the joy of humming like a bee, and here’s an exploration of some other favorite breathing practices.
I am so happy for each visitor to At Home in the World and I hope the offerings nurture happiness and ease. Enjoy!
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The sages of ancient China envisioned a world comprised of two complementary and interconnected types of energy. Yang energy is bright and uplifting, while yin energy is cool and steady. Yang sometimes is described as the sunny side of the mountain where the light shines brightly, while yin is offered as the shady side of the mountain where the air is moist and cool.
In our culture, we are often primed to embrace the bold energy of yang, while perhaps steering clear of yin’s darkness and depth. But the ancient sages taught us that yin and yang can’t exist without each other. We need to nurture both, they taught, in order for our lives to flow with true vitality and health.
Everyone needs this healthy balance of yin and yang in their lives. It is said that women in particular - and especially women as we age - need to nurture strong reserves of quiet, cool, nurturing energy in our lives.
This 28-minute movement practice - done in a reclined position close to the ground (or perhaps nestled in bed) - offers a taste of the quiet and restorative energy of yin. The movements are slow and gentle and almost liquid in quality. The emphasis is on yielding, allowing and harmonizing, with no feeling of aggression or ambition or heat.
Many of the movements in this sequence are inspired by Tias Little’s method of SATYA, or Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Atunement. These practices fuse yoga, meditation, Feldenkrais and other somatic disciplines into a rich and fortifying exploration of inner ease and wholeness.
Yin isn’t weak or static, but rather flows like the current of a river deep beneath the surface - with quiet strength and steady purpose. In the heat of summer, this watery coolness might feel especially delicious. I hope you’ll enjoy this way of being in the world as much as I do.
All of the practices I teach are fundamentally about ways we ride the vital energies of life into full fruition. You can learn more about these practices by visiting my website. In particular, you might enjoy this essay I wrote about my introduction to Chinese medicine through the mindful movement practice of qigong. I hope I can entice you to welcome qigong into you life, if you haven’t already given it a try.
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Hatha yoga classes traditionally end with a guided relaxation called savasana, or corpse pose. After having moved the body and freed up the breath, we rest in stillness. Within this quiet space, we cultivate a steady, rich awareness that helps us feel deeply alive in the moment and utterly at home in the world.
In many ways, the entire session leading up to the last few minutes of yoga class is preparation for savasana. In the more active portion of class, we move and breathe and release tension, so that when we come to stillness at the end of class, we are primed to open to the clarity and tenderness deep within.
I like to think of savasana as dessert, as the sweetness that follows the nourishment of rest of the meal. These few quiet moments feel like a balm and a gift, especially amid the din of our busy world.
This 10-minute guided relaxation is, in fact, a savasana from one of the yoga classes I offer each week. (It even includes a little birdsong and a gentle rain shower.) I hope it gives you a taste of contentment, even if you haven’t enjoyed a session of mindful movement beforehand. Or, better yet, stand up and move gently for a few moments, and then settle onto the ground for what I hope will be a tasty dessert.
Please visit my website for additional offerings designed to help cultivate ease, clarity and loving awareness. And please join us for a yoga or meditation class to experience savasana together. I offer sessions on Zoom for both local and long-distance students. (This summer I am also leading outdoor pop-up classes for local friends). All are welcome!
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Sages teach that the secret to living happily is to rest with ease in each moment, with a sense of openness and freedom. This is easier said than done, of course, but with practice we can nudge our minds in that direction.
This 20-minute guided practice offers an opportunity to settle into the moment, to let go of excess tension, and to offer goodwill toward ourselves and the world around us. We learn to befriend what is - in our bodies, our breath, our mind and our world.
The practice is explored in a reclined position, so you can really settle into the earth and completely let go of stress and strain. It could also be explored seated, or even standing up.
My website includes lots of essays and practices to help us remember how to meet each moment with friendliness and equanimity. I wrote this short piece to remind myself of the possibility of living with ease, no matter how challenging the outer world. Perhaps you, too, have your own image or muse to help you find your way.
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Taoist sages long ago created beautiful and evocative maps of our inner worlds to help us cultivate deep wakefulness and profound ease. Their imagery was poetic and profound. Their visions offered a path inward, in ways designed to help us find our way back home to wholeness and peace.
This 19-minute meditation (with a little bit of movement) explores what Taoist masters called the three heavens within us. These heavens, sometimes called fields of elixir, are said to serve as reservoirs of potent energy and vital essence. By nurturing and nourishing the energy flowing through these three heavens, Taoist masters taught, we can cultivate strength, peace, longevity and love.
Whether or not you believe that heaven is within you (not to mention three heavens!), exploring these three regions of the body can be both soothing and enlivening. Sometimes by simply placing our hands on our bellies we can sense some inner ease or unease, some sense of being settled or a little off. Sometimes when we place our hands on our hearts we can sense warmth or coolness, bouyancy or depletion, lushness or a sense of being parched. And when we rest our hands on our brow, we might sense congestion or thickness or deep blue peace.
More and more I find myself astounded by the natural intelligence that seems to flow not just within us but throughout the entire universe. There are ways of knowing and being, I’m learning, that are bigger and wiser than our small and passing thoughts. We short-change ourselves when we are lulled into believing that our brains are the source of the highest form of intelligence there is. Maybe we would be wise to widen our vision just a little bit.
Perhaps there’s a good reason that we instinctively place our hands on our bellies when we have a stomach ache. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised when we touch our hands to our chests when we are deeply moved. And any parent knows that there is something big going when we rest a cool hand on the warm brow of an ailing child. Maybe those old masters were on to something, after all.
Mostly, it seems, we just have to make room for this wise presence in the world to let it flow in fullest form. We need only pause, grow quiet and listen for the song of life to reveal itself to us, note by note.
I hope this gentle meditation and movement sequence will deepen your curiosity about the vitality that flows through each of us. I hope it will convince you that there is something more going on here than just a body serving as a house of thoughts. I hope you sense a deeper intelligence that is already within and all around. I hope you are amazed by all you find.
You can find many more resources at my home website. If you’d like to learn more about qigong, a movement practice rooted in Taoist philosophy, this essay offers a primer. And feel free to join us for a Zoom class, where we explore our natural intelligence in all of our movement and stillness sessions.
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. If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
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Life has a way of leaving us a little bent out of shape from time to time, a bit less clear and whole than we might like to feel. Sometimes we need a little help finding our way back to easy peace. Just a few moments of quiet presence can bring us right back home to our selves, reminding us who we are and how we want to be in the world.
This gentle 14-minute movement practice offers just such an opportunity. It is practiced on the ground, lying on the back, although a cozy bed might work just fine, too. A little lying around, a bit of easy breathing, and a small helping of gentle movement helps us shed tension and reclaim ease. I hope that you, too, find that these few moments of grounded presence can reshape the contours of your day and your life.
My website includes many more opportunities to return to a fuller sense of being, to a sense of clarity and ease in each moment. This exploration lies at the heart of my many years of exploration of body, mind and spirit, which began nearly 30 years ago when I wandered into a yoga class in Washington, DC. This long-ago essay tells the story of how yoga captured my mind and my heart. I hope you smile in recognition as you read, and maybe will be even lured into joining me on this never-ending adventure of embodied presence in the world.
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Meditation can be an ally and a good friend as we navigate the ups and downs of life. The practice is simple: we train our mind to behave in wholesome and supportive ways. Refining the practice can be a lifetime’s journey.
In this 19-minute guided meditation, we’ll explore the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation. We’ll settle into the body, steady the mind and then spread our awareness outwards into the world around us. We’ll watch what happens when we rest with loving awareness in the embodied experience of life as it passes through.
There are lots of ways to meditate, and it’s worth exploring a range of approaches until you find one that works well for you. Typically, I begin with an anchoring practice - a deep focus on just one thing - until I sense my mind growing calmer and steadier. On good days, I am then able to relinquish my mind’s hold on my chosen anchor and allow my awareness to spread outward in all directions, awash in the vitality and vibrancy of the here-and-now.
An anchor can be any object of awareness that holds your mind’s focus: the breath, sounds, a mantra or phrase, and more. The classic meditation anchor is the breath, but it’s just one of many possibilities. Consider your anchoring meditation to be like a chew toy for the restless puppy dog of the mind: It keeps the mind occupied with a more wholesome activity than it might otherwise engage in. After a while, the anchor coaxes the mind to settle enough that we can see more clearly and rest with ease among the vicissitudes of life.
This guided practice can be practiced in any position you might like. You may hear some rhythmic rumbling sounds toward the end of the practice. That’s when my cat - a meditation master for sure - settled into my lap and began purring. So, feel free to purr right along!
My website includes lots more about meditation. This is my landing spot for those wanting to learn more. And here’s the story of how I finally got the meditation habit to stick.
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Welcome to another guided audio session that I hope will leave us all feeling a little calmer, a litter clearer, and a little bit happier, too. As you have likely experienced in these sessions and in others, the breath holds many secrets to living with ease and peace.
This 14-minute practice - first recorded for my long-ago CD Mindful Breathing - explores the power of smoothing out the breath. As we nudge the breath into a clean, clear and even pattern, we will likely find our brains growing a little clearer and smoother, too. It’s a little bit like filing our nails so that we run into fewer snags as we move about our day.
This centering practice can be explored in any quiet position, so take your pick. As always when working with the breath, if any suggestions cause unrest or feel inappropriate, then skip them altogether or modify the practice in any way that brings a smile to your face.
My website includes many more breathing explorations and quite a few articles that dive into detail about the manifold powers of mindful breathing. This long ago article written for Yoga Journal offers a primer on what relaxed breathing might look and feel like. And this piece shares a few of my favorite breathing practices. If you’ve ever studied with me in person, you likely know them well.
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Here’s another opportunity to settle down close to the earth, to discharge tension, and to reclaim your inner balance. These moments of quiet tenderness can help each day flow just a little more smoothly, leading us in the direction of wholeness and wellbeing. They can teach us to live with a little less fear in our bones and a little more ease in our hearts.
This 22-minute practice - practiced on the ground on the back - offers a few gentle movements, a little bit of quiet, and an opportunity to rest deeply. The movements in this sequence are again inspired by SATYA yoga as pioneered by yoga and meditation teacher Tias Little.
As always, I hope you enjoy what you find here. Please let me know if you have any questions, requests or recommendations. I appreciate your input!
As always, my home website offers many more opportunities to practice ease and peace. You might enjoy this essay about growing as tension free as we can be. Enjoy!
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Here’s another opportunity to settle down and settle in, to enjoy resting in the peaceful pause of the present moment for just a little while. Perhaps this practice will help smooth out the wrinkles of your day and bring you a little rest and restoration.
In our go-go modern world, our nervous systems are easily thrust into overdrive, causing stress and unease. Downshifting into a quieter mode can offer calm, balance and peace. Practices like this 12-minute guided relaxation can help nudge us in that direction.
So lie down, settle into the here-and-now, and invite your mind to rest. Perhaps you, too, will discover the manifold gifts hidden in the folds of the present moment. All that is required is that you show up with an open mind and a tender heart.
I have lots more to share on my website in the here-and-now department. This essayoffers a little insight into the lovely ways the present moment can nurture happiness in our lives. And I wrote his essay when my kids were young, when I finally realized that sometimes the only way to find peace in the moment is in small, secret sips . Enjoy!
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In recent years I’ve fallen in love with the qigong, a Chinese movement practice that is sometimes called Taoist yoga. The practice is gentle and rhythmic and guided by the breath. It seeks to cultivate harmony and balance, as practitioners explore movements that are sometimes more yang - sunny and stimulating - and sometimes more yin - quiet and grounding.
This spring I have been craving the slow, deep, fluid movements of yin. These movements feel like quiet moon-lit nights and cool, cleansing calm. They are refreshing and restorative, and they nudge us back to a soft and settled way being. They feel like the perfect antidote to our loud, fast and over-caffeinated world.
I’ve found the qualities of yin slipping into my yoga practice, too, as I nestle onto the ground, exhale deeply, and rest in the quiet of pure being. My thoughts slow down, my belly relaxes, and my breath returns to its babylike freshness and ease. I feel drawn back home to my most steady and faithful self.
This 20-minute movement practice isn’t qigong, but it embodies the quiet and fluid qualities that feel like yin to me. In fact, all of these slow and earth-bound sessions are - in one way or another - explorations of slow, flowing yin. I hope you find them as soothing and restorative as I do.
You can learn more about all the many energies of embodied practice at my home website. If you’d like to learn more about qigong, this essay offers a primer, and this one offers a little more detail about the classic qigong practice of the Eight Silken Brocades. And feel free to join us for a Zoom class, where we incorporate qigong into our almost all of our mindful movement sessions.
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. If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
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Amid the busy-ness of life, we all need reminders to take occasional time outs, so that we can give our minds and our bodies an opportunity to return to the healing balm of the present moment.
Whether meditating on your cushion, practicing savasana at the end of a yoga session, or just settling into a cozy chair, a few moments of peace and calm can help us return to our more balanced and steady selves. And when we grow quieter within, we are able to see more clearly the truths of our lives. And that, in turn, allows us to act in the world from a place of deeper love.
In this 10-minute guided relaxation, we’ll take a beautiful time out. Or, as some like to call it, a time in. Just settle into a comfortable position, exhale deeply, and just let everything go. Let the world spin off as it likes, as you practice self calm and self care.
If you’re looking for additional resources in the peace and calm department, please visit my website. If you practice yoga, you might enjoy this essay about the ways we can grow “as tension free as we can be,” as yoga teacher Erich Schiffmann says. Or, perhaps you’d like to let go while resting in one of my very favorite yoga poses, viparita karani, or legs-up-the-wall pose, as offered here.
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Every spiritual practice, one way or another, eventually brings us back to our own good hearts and to the love the shines forth from within. We may not join a yoga class because we want to soften our hearts. We may not begin meditating because we want to cultivate goodwill. But in some lovely and mysterious bit of spiritual magic, practitioners often end up saying that the greatest gift of their practice has been the way it has transformed them into kinder, more compassionate human beings.
The Buddhist practice of lovingkindness, or metta meditation, offers an explicit pathway to cultivating good heart. In lovingkindness meditation, we call up images of people, creatures and even places we know, and then we send wishes for happiness and wellbeing in their direction. We may not know for sure whether these wishes change others, but we very quickly learn that they can change us in profound ways.
In this 19-minute guided practice, we’ll explore a variation of the traditional Buddhist practice of lovingkindness meditation. This contemplation is a little more improvisatory and free-form than the traditional practice, but I hope it brings a smile to your face nonetheless.
So sit or lie down, and settle into your own good heart. Rest and breathe and be. And then follow along as we befriend the world, one heart to another.
I’ve written lots about the gifts of lovingkindness on my website, and I hope you’ll find something there that deepens your understanding of the practice. Several years ago, I wrote this essay about how metta helped me through a hard parenting moment. And nearly two years ago, just a few months into the pandemic, I wrote this this letter to my friends sharing how lovingkindness can serve as a secret superpower, during the pandemic and beyond. I hope it rings true, for you, even now.
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The promise of spiritual practice is that it will help us find our way toward a deep and lasting sense of peace in ourselves and the world. Call it enlightenment or nirvana or wholeness or simply wellbeing. The hopeful proposition is that there is a way of being in the world that embodies profound wakefulness and also deep equanimity, even in the very same breath.
Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh called this inner sense of deep wellbeing the “island of self,” and he urged his students to return to this quiet refuge every day.
“If you don’t go home to yourself, you continue to lose yourself,” he wrote. “You destroy yourself and you destroy people around you, even if you have goodwill and want to do something to help. That is why the practice of going home to the island of self is so important. No one can take your true home away.”
Many different paths will lead us there. I find gentle movement, easy breathing, and a return to the experience of the here-and-now to be reliable friends as we continue to cultivate balance and equanimity within. These experiences nudge us in the direction of a little less confusion and a little more clarity. Sometimes that’s all it takes to shift the course of a day.
The ultimate teaching, of course, is that peace is already here, that we don’t need to go out searching for it. Making sense of this koan is advanced practice, for sure. How is it possible that the very thing we are seeking is already nestled deep within us, just waiting to be found?
My hope is that this 22-minute reclined practice will nudge us toward an answer, as we slip in the direction of wholeness and wellbeing. As always, please use my words as suggestions rather than instructions, and take care to feed your own body and breath in the best way you know. I hope you feel both soothed and enlivened by the practice. Thank you for sharing this time with me!
If you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional essays about cultivating ease and peace, including this article about seeking refuge in the classic yoga posture child’s pose. 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. If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
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Gravity is our friend. And yet so many of us spend so much of our lives fighting this primordial pull toward the earth. In this fight we miss the opportunity to cultivate deep connection, soul-satisfying rest, and a slow and unshakeable sense of vitality.
In this 22-minute practice we’ll explore the possibility of befriending the earth in ways that help us both release tension and cultivate renewed energy. This practice of befriending the earth can help nurture feelings of balance, well-being and ease.
The earth receives us and holds us. It offers us a place of deep rest and steadiness. By settling into its arms we are invited to let tension melt off of our bodies so that we may soften and settle into ease.
The earth also has the power to gentle energize us, to offer us slow and steady vitality that can buoy us upward and outward into the world in a calm and balanced way.
And somehow, magically, with just a little nudging from us, the earth knows just what we need in order to slip toward a more balanced way of being in the world.
I wrote about befriending the earth in this essay about one of my very favorite survival strategies. And you can find many more articles about the power of connecting with earth energy on my website. I hope you find something in these offerings that brings you happiness and inspiration!
New Delivery Option
Substack, the platform that hosts At Home in the World, has just launched an iPhone app, making it easy to access and enjoy these guided practices on your phone. It’s a convenient way to keep any practices you like close at hand, instead of searching through your email inbox or looking for them on the website.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS, and an Android app should be available soon.
At Home in the World guided practices are also available in podcast format. Open your favorite podcast app, search for either At Home in the World or my name, hit subscribe, and a selection of guided practices should pop up as podcast episodes. Enjoy!
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Look outside your window. What’s the weather like right now?
Now, look inside yourself. What’s the weather like within? Are you running hot or cold? Is the sun shining within or is this a rainy day? Are your thoughts stormy or serene? And is your heart shining brightly or hiding behind a few clouds?
In this 14-minute guided relaxation session, we’ll consider our inner weather patterns. We’ll let our bodies befriend the earth, and then we’ll watch the energetic weather pass through us. We’ll sharpen our powers of perception to see more clearly the sensations, feelings, thoughts and energies are passing through the inner world of our beings.
At heart, this is an awareness practice, helping us see more clearly what is true in our lives. Seeing clearly helps us to make wise decisions about how to respond appropriately - how to tend to the world with both intelligence and tenderness.
For example, when we know the sun is shining within us - when we are brimming with bright and clear energy - we might choose to tackle the to-do list and take on the world. And when we sense that our inner weather is a little unsettled, we might decide this is the perfect day to tend to quieter pursuits, to not tangle with others, to wait out the rainstorm at home.
Most of the wisdom teachings, as far as I can tell, are at heart about cultivating awareness both within and without, so that we may live and act out of wisdom and love. I love exploring the many shapes and colors of this understanding, and most of what I share on my website touches upon awareness one way or another. If you’re interested, here’s one short essay to get you started.
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Lately I’ve fallen in love with the haiku of Kobayashi Issa, a Japanese poet who was born in 1763 and wrote more than 10,000 haiku over the course of his life. The two poems that have lodged themselves into my brain describe snails. And that somehow feels just right in this oh-so-slow season.
The first is the sweetest four-word poem I know:
Snail
always at home
And the second has become my inspiration to tackle seemingly impossible tasks, or to at least get started with faithfulness and grace:
Oh, snail,
climb Mt. Fuji,
but slowly, slowly
My offering today - 25-minute reclined movement practice - takes its inspiration from Issa and his snails. We move slowly, in no particular hurry, enjoying every sensation along the way. And we breathe and rest in the faithful knowing that whatever we do and wherever we go, we are already home.
If you’d like to head down a rabbit hole of haiku, perhaps you’d like to (slowly) wander over to this lovely site, home of thousands of Issa’s poems. You can even search on a particular word, or pull up a random haiku. Enjoy!
And if you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional essays about slowing down and savoring each moment, including this essay about the joy of focusing on one task at a time. 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. If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
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One of my very favorite instructions is to move like water. I love to soften the sharp edges of my being and let my body shift and slip and swirl in soft and liquid ways. I love to bob and sink on the ebb and flow of the breath, as if I were floating on my back in the deep blue Sea. I love to watch life ripple through the energetic rivers within me. Somehow this quiet and yielding movement convinces my mind to grow a little softer and easier, too.
In this 25-minute guided practice, we’ll stay close to the ground and invite the body to unravel and undulate in soft and gentle ways. We’ll let this liquid movement erode away our harsher beings, leaving us softer and perhaps a little more receptive. And perhaps we’ll re-emerge feeling restored and rinsed clean.
This quiet, reclined practice is inspired by the brilliant and blissful movements of SATYA, or Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Atunement, offered by yoga teacher Tias Little. These practices fuse yoga, meditation, Feldenkrais and other somatic disciplines into a rich and fortifying exploration of inner ease and wholeness. I highly recommend them!
I have more practices on my website that speak to the healing power of fluid movement. This practice article written long ago offers a structured way to move like water in a few familiar yoga poses. It’s still one of my favorite watery body prayers. And fluid movement makes an appearance in this long-ago essay that was written while gazing at my very favorite body of water in the world, the Caribbean Sea.
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Throughout the pandemic, my primary practice has been befriending the earth. I’ve spent a lot of time on my back, resting in savasana, practicing the deep meditation of yoga nidra, and sliding and gliding through quiet, earthy stretches and movements. In the midst of so many challenges in the greater world, settling back into the arms of Mother Earth has been a true balm.
I’ve learned, as I’ve become so happily earthbound, that the earth not only willingly holds us close, but she also somehow magically buoys us upward again into the arms of the great blue sky. Earth and sky… they are good friends and they are good teachers, too.
Lucky for us, we don’t have to choose one over the other. In fact, we can’t really choose one or another. We get to be friends with both. We are invited to be as steady and faithful as the earth beneath us. And, in the very same breath, we are invited to be as clear and spacious as the sky above.
This 13-minute guided meditation explores just that possibility. We are invited to melt into the earth, we are invited to bloom into the sky, and then we consider the possibility of embracing both in the very same breath. The recording quality isn’t quite as clear as usual, and my apologies for that. I’ve been exploring different ways of recording these audios and am still finding my way. I hope you enjoy the exploration nonetheless.
If you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional ways of cultivating ease and wellbeing, including this essay about how befriending the earth saves my soul daily. 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.) If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
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Thank you for joining me for another guided practice. My hope is that each of these sessions will shine a little light on ways we can live in greater steadiness and peace. Life can sometimes be filled with bumpy roads, and we all need strategies and skills that help us smooth out those paths as best we can.
This session offers one more survival strategy to help steady frazzled nerves and calm the nervous system: using the breath to ground and soothe us, to bring us right back down to earth.
This 16-minute practice - first recorded for my long-ago CD Mindful Breathing - explores the power of lengthening the exhalation. This breathing pattern typically calms and quiets the nervous system. Just a few moments of long, smooth exhalations can, quite literally, change our minds.
This session is guided from a belly-down position, which can help foster a long and steady exhalation. If lying prone isn’t your cup of tea, feel free to rest belly up, or to sit in a chair, or even to climb into bed. As always, if any suggestions cause unrest or feel inappropriate, then skip them altogether or modify the practice in any way that brings a smile to your face.
My website includes lots of information about the power of the breath to keep us steady and bright. It includes this magazine article I wrote years ago that introduces this calming breath as part of a general introduction to yoga breathing practices.
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Would you like to restore your spirit and save your soul, right here and right now? Here’s an idea: Turn off your computer for a little while. Turn away from the news of the day for just a bit. Bury your phone underneath a pile of pillows in the farthest reaches of the house.
Settle down and settle in, perhaps on the floor or a bed or even your favorite easy chair. Exhale deeply and turn your gaze inward. Notice the gentle drumming of your heart. Watch the wave-like rise and fall of your breath. Shift out of doing mode for just a little while, and enjoy the possibility of settling into a deep state of being.
Pay attention and be amazed, as poet Mary Oliver once advised. You have a body! You have a heart! You have tender thoughts and emotions. You care, you love, you are.
Just rest in the sensations of being alive, maybe even moving a little bit from time to time, when the spirit moves you. While you do this, know you are resting in the sensations of being alive. Be aware of your awareness, and be amazed by that, too.
If you need a little help, feel free to rest and breathe and move along with my words and suggestions in this 19-minute restful flow. The movements are simple - a little spinal undulation on the back, and then a little rocking and rolling on the side - and the instructions are gentle and welcoming. You don’t need me to guide the way - you know the way back home inside - but sometimes it’s nice to travel with a friend.
Not much has to happen, it turns out, to soften and to settle, to return us to our sane and steady self. To refuel and recharge. To just be present.
And then, after a little while, my hunch is that you will rise back up and out into the world again feeling just a little bit clearer, a little bit shinier, a little more whole.
If you’re inclined, please visit my home website to explore additional ways of cultivating ease and wellbeing, including this essay about how befriending the earth saves my soul daily. 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.) If you’ve already contributed, deep thanks to you. I am humbled by your generosity and your faith in these offerings.
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Even the Dalai Lama agrees that the purpose of life is to be happy. But what exactly does that mean? What constitutes happiness, and how do we find our way there?
Does happiness come from savoring a fresh raspberry as it bursts on the tongue? Does it come from a sense of mission in one’s broader life? Or does it come from sensing a deep and radiant connection between our small self and the vast Self of the world? Yes, yes and yes!
In this 19-minute practice, we’ll explore three important pillars of happiness: pleasure, purpose and peace. This is a restful and meditative practice that could be explored sitting upright or perhaps tucked into a cozy chair with a cup of tea.
Spending a little time contemplating the experiences, actions and relationships that bring us alive can incline our minds toward a deeply embodied sense of happiness and wellbeing. This sort of contemplation can also cultivate clarity about aspects of our lives that might need a little tending and care. My hope is that returning to this practice from time to time might shine new light on the pillars of happiness in your own life.
I consider all that I share, in some way, to be an investigation into the ways we can cultivate happiness in our lives. Perhaps you’ll find a few more glimmerings of happiness on my website. While there, you’ll also find my very favorite essay about happiness - an experience picking blueberries with my sons. Enjoy!
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As we enter the new year, starting off with a little rest and restoration sounds like a good idea to me. We might give ourselves the opportunity to relinquish the year behind us. And we might open ourselves to a sense of calm and quiet possibility as we slip into the year ahead.
That’s just what I hope to offer in this 22-minute reclined practice. The exploration is simple and sweet and restful and spacious. We move a little, we breathe a little and, of course, we do a whole lot of nothing. We settle into slower rhythms, we wait patiently, and we trust the process of deep rest.
I hope you enjoy these gentle movement practices as much as I do. They feel like magic to me. Not much seems to happen as we gently slip this way and then slide that way. But by the end we feel like we’ve sloughed off our tired old skin and are somehow born anew. What a gift!
This exploration is inspired by the SATYA (Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Atunement) practices of master teacher Tias Little. I am so thankful for the wisdom and expertise with which he has developed this lovely hybrid approach inspired by yoga, meditation, Feldenkrais, Hanna somatics and more.
Please visit my home website to explore a range of articles and essays that I hope will help us move toward greater calm and quiet in the year ahead. 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.) If you’ve already done so, a million miles of thanks!
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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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Once upon a time I relished traveling to the far ends of the earth. I loved pushing the boundaries, seeing just how far my body and brain could go. I found sweet medicine in setting goals that seemed beyond my abilities and then somehow - through drive, grit, or sheer luck - finding ways to overcome the impossible.
Obviously, I was young.
I doubt that I’m alone in finding that with age comes a renewed interest in the middle way. Heading off into far-away worlds can wake us up to possibility and adventure, for sure. But day by day and year by year, the sweet relief of coming home feels more like the balm we need.
We warm to the possibility that we already have everything we need. We notice that we don’t have to travel far from home in order to feel content. We consider the possibility that less is sometimes more. And blessedly, our expectations of ourselves and the world begin to soften just a bit, and in a good way. Sometimes - in a pandemic, for instance - we even embrace the possibility that good enough might just be, well, good enough.
Committing to these possibilities requires relinquishing some long-held beliefs and welcoming some new ones. It asks us to forsake the “no pain, no gain” mentality of our younger days. It requires a certain flexibility in spirit and in soul. As the poet Louise Gluck once wrote, “The extremes are easy. Only the middle is a puzzle.”
The SATYA movement practices of Tias Little feel to me like the perfect exploration of the middle way. SATYA explorations are soft and gentle, with rocking, sliding and gliding movements that can offer profound relief to the body, breath and mind. They are akin to the fluid movements of qigong, but they are done while lying close to the ground. And they offer the same feelings of renewal as restorative yoga, even though gentle movement is involved. I’ve never not felt better when I’ve emerged from a SATYA practice.
This 35-minute gentle movement sequence is an introduction to SATYA practice. It embodies the possibility that we don’t have to reach to far extremes in order to cultivate balance and wellbeing. Lying on our backs, close to the ground, we commit ourselves to soft, easy, pain-free movement. I hope you enjoy SATYA as much as I do.
You can explore this practice and all of my other guided practices any time at our At Home in the World website. If you enjoy what you find 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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As I write this, we are settling into the heart of fall. The world is growing quieter - and, perhaps, so are we. We sense a stilling within, a settling of our energies inward.
And yet, we’re not quite ready for hibernation. We still feel life stirring and we still feel a need to move and stretch ourselves out into the world. In this lovely space we are invited to inhabit the middle ground, the place where movement and stillness meet, where doing settles into being, and then being rises back into movement. And on and on and on.
Enjoy Being, a 15-minute reclined movement practice explores these various energies, and the possibilities of saying yes to them all. We explore possibility of settling in and down, while still maintaining a sense of inner agency and freedom. We say yes with one possibility without saying no to the other. We affirm the possibility of simply enjoying the sensations of being alive, right here and now.
The 15-minute practice is explored on our backs close to the ground. As always, though, feel free to vary the practice in ways that work best for you.
Many more practices are available for you to explore any time at our At Home in the World site. If you enjoy what you find 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, thank you for your generosity!
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Some practices are simple and straightforward: We practice yoga asana or we practice qigong or we practice mindfulness meditation. Others take a meandering path, dipping into a variety of awareness practices as we slip easily downstream.
Breathing With Heart is the second sort of practice. In this 30-minute session, we start out with a breathing practice designed to help cultivate balance and steadiness. Then we let go of shaping the breath and simply watch it as a form of meditation. And then - as often happens for me - the breath meditation awakens a quiet light in the heart and we find ourselves slipping toward lovingkindness meditation. That makes this session either a mutt of a practice, or perhaps just an improvisatory one!
My friends sometimes tell me that if I get tired of teaching yoga and meditation, I should go into business offering practices for insomnia, since sometimes my sessions put them right to sleep. Breathing With Heart, I think, would be a good one for such a project. I’ve left lots of quiet space nestled in between the words here. So if you find yourself up in the middle of the night and would like a little companionship until you drift off to sleep again, this one might do the trick.
My home website includes many more explorations and quite a few articles that dive into the power of cultivating deep and clear awareness in the world. This article shares some of my favorite meditation resources, and this one shares a few of my favorite breathing practices. If you’ve ever studied with me in person, you likely know them well.
And although subscribers to At Home in the World receive emails only when new practices are released, the website hosts dozens of guided practices that are available to you any time. And if you enjoy what you find 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.) Thank you!
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In yoga philosophy there is a belief that life - at its most basic level - is comprised of an endless flow of subtle vibrations. All of creation is said to hum with pulsation, with a wavelike alternation of rising and falling, of reaching and returning, of becoming and being. The flow of these subtle vibrations is called spanda in yoga philosophy, and much of our practice is about settling into these waves of life with an ever deepening clarity and ease.
This 27-minute reclined movement practice explores the magnificent way that life is expressed through us, as we move and breathe and rest. We explore the possibility of rooting, of reaching and of returning, all in ways that key us into the springy and wavelike flow of movement both within and beyond us.
Like waves, we aren’t meant to only rise or only fall. We aren’t meant to only reach out and never return home. Our lives are expression of the beautiful play of ebb and flow, of movement and stillness, of giving and receiving, of self and other. What a relief to know that life is ever-changing. We are verbs just as surely as we are nouns!
If you’d like to learn more about cultivating this gentle exploration of spanda and other practices, please visit my website.
Paid Memberships
Most of my offerings are freely offered, with deep appreciation for those who choose to offer financial support. I feel both humbled and honored by the generosity of those who are supporting the site with a paid membership. I truly believe in the power of slowing down, of moving gently, of breathing freely, and of listening deeply to the song of the universe. This is the best way I know to return to a state of wholeness and peace, and this is what I hope to offer here.
At Home in the World’s hosting platform (Substack) manages all payments via credit card, and the paid subscription options I’ve established are $6/month or $60/year. (There is also a Generous Patron option of up to $100 a year, but only because the hosting site wouldn’t allow me not to!) You can subscribe to a paid membership by visiting the At Home in the World site and clicking the subscribe button or selecting My Account in the dropdown menu. Thank for your support!
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One of the great gifts of contemplative practice is the ability to simply drop into the experience of the moment without demanding that it be anything other than it is. With this open-hearted attitude, we are able to rest in the greater flow of life and savor the experience of simply being here in the moment to enjoy the passing show of life.
This experience is deeply restorative and helps us to connect to something far larger than our own small egos and our own small lives.
This 18-minute practice offers a taste of this experience. I hope you’ll be able to settle into the moment and savor the experience of resting deeply in the experience of being alive. I hope you find this exploration as soothing and healing as I do.
If you’d like to learn more about cultivating this gentle experience of presence, please visit my website for more resources and practices. You might like to start with this essay about savoring the first few moments of the day simply by listening to the greater world.
Paid Memberships
Jus a reminder that I’ve added a new paid subscription option for those who are moved to financially support this programming. At Home in the World’s hosting platform (Substack) manages all payments via credit card, and the paid subscription options I’ve established are $6/month or $60/year. (There is also a Generous Patron option of up to $100 a year, but only because the hosting site wouldn’t allow me not to!) You can subscribe to a paid membership by visiting the At Home in the World site and clicking the subscribe button or selecting My Account in the dropdown menu. Thank for your support!
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Years ago I created a guided yoga CD called Mindful Breathing. This one-hour audio offers a quiet introduction to the breath's mysterious ability to nurture wellbeing in body, mind and spirit. The CD includes four guided breathing sessions, all of which are now available here on At Home in the World.
The CD’s four breathing practices are the mindful breath, the calming breath, the centering breath and this offering, the healing breath. There are many, many more ways of breathing, of course, but these practices offer a guided tour of the power of the breath to keep us steady, strong and spacious, even in the face of life’s many challenges.
The healing breath is an 18-minute practice that can be practiced in any comfortable upright or reclined position. It shines the spotlight on the deeper flow of life within us, and on the ways we can ally ourself with that vitality so that we feel ever more at ease and at home in every cell of our body.
My favorite definition of healing is restoration of a sense of wholeness through our entire being. And my favorite definition of wholeness is a sense of communion with all that is, both within and beyond us. Or, as some sages say, “no part left out.” How does settling into the breath reveal this sense of wholeness? It remains a beautiful mystery to me, but I sense the connection each time I practice. I hope you do, too.
My website includes many more breathing explorations and quite a few articles that dive into detail about the manifold powers of mindful breathing. This article offers some tips on getting started with a breathing practices. And this piece shares a few of my favorite breathing practices. If you’ve ever studied with me in person, you likely know them well.
New Paid Membership Option
Just a quick update about this site... I have enjoyed the adventure of developing enjoyable, accessible content that helps cultivate happiness and ease. I am so happy to have crossed paths - even in this strange and virtual way - with every visitor to this site. My plan is to continue adding guided audios that I hope will enrich and inspire the lives of At Home in the World subscribers.
I have added a new paid subscription option for those who are moved to financially support this programming. At Home in the World’s hosting platform (Substack) manages all payments via credit card, and the paid subscription options I’ve established are $6/month or $60/year. (There is also a Generous Patron option of up to $100 a year, but only because the hosting site wouldn’t allow me not to!) You can subscribe to a paid membership by visiting the At Home in the World site and clicking the subscribe button or selecting My Account in the dropdown menu.
For now, free subscribers continue to have the same access as paid subscribers. Eventually my plan is to offer full access to the entire archive of practices to those with paid memberships, and to continue to offer a smaller selection of practices for all visitors to the site. When that happens, if you are not in a position to pay for the full archives but would still like access, please contact me and we’ll see what we can work out.
I am so happy for each visitor to At Home in the World and I hope the offerings nurture happiness and ease. Enjoy!
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In this session of At Home in the World, I share one of my very favorite breathing practices. It is an ages-old yoga pranayama practice called bhramari breath, or buzzing bee breath. It is simple, portable, and deeply steadying. When the magic happens, this breathing practice also fills the heart with a sense of quiet joy and contentment.
Best of all, if you know how to hum then you already know how to practice bhramari breath! Sit upright (or if you’re tired, lie down). Close your lips gently, and relax the jaw. Inhale normally through the nose, and then exhale through the nose while making a gentle humming sound.
In the beginning, you may like to take a few easy breaths between each humming exhalation. Once you feel comfortable, you can hum all the way through each exhalation for several rounds of breath. If you're like me, a few minutes of this practice will soothe and settle the mind while offering a gentle buzz of uplift and delight.
I hope you enjoy bhramari breath as much as I do, and I hope you’ll experiment with creative ways to integrate it into your life. Next time you need to hit the pause button on the world’s stresses and strains, give it a try and see what happens.
Please visit my website to find additional resources about bhramari breath and other breathing practices. Here’s an essay I wrote about the the joy of humming like a bee, and here’s an exploration of some other favorite breathing practices.
I am so happy for each visitor to At Home in the World and I hope the offerings nurture happiness and ease. Enjoy!
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The sages of ancient China envisioned a world comprised of two complementary and interconnected types of energy. Yang energy is bright and uplifting, while yin energy is cool and steady. Yang sometimes is described as the sunny side of the mountain where the light shines brightly, while yin is offered as the shady side of the mountain where the air is moist and cool.
In our culture, we are often primed to embrace the bold energy of yang, while perhaps steering clear of yin’s darkness and depth. But the ancient sages taught us that yin and yang can’t exist without each other. We need to nurture both, they taught, in order for our lives to flow with true vitality and health.
Everyone needs this healthy balance of yin and yang in their lives. It is said that women in particular - and especially women as we age - need to nurture strong reserves of quiet, cool, nurturing energy in our lives.
This 28-minute movement practice - done in a reclined position close to the ground (or perhaps nestled in bed) - offers a taste of the quiet and restorative energy of yin. The movements are slow and gentle and almost liquid in quality. The emphasis is on yielding, allowing and harmonizing, with no feeling of aggression or ambition or heat.
Many of the movements in this sequence are inspired by Tias Little’s method of SATYA, or Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Atunement. These practices fuse yoga, meditation, Feldenkrais and other somatic disciplines into a rich and fortifying exploration of inner ease and wholeness.
Yin isn’t weak or static, but rather flows like the current of a river deep beneath the surface - with quiet strength and steady purpose. In the heat of summer, this watery coolness might feel especially delicious. I hope you’ll enjoy this way of being in the world as much as I do.
All of the practices I teach are fundamentally about ways we ride the vital energies of life into full fruition. You can learn more about these practices by visiting my website. In particular, you might enjoy this essay I wrote about my introduction to Chinese medicine through the mindful movement practice of qigong. I hope I can entice you to welcome qigong into you life, if you haven’t already given it a try.
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Hatha yoga classes traditionally end with a guided relaxation called savasana, or corpse pose. After having moved the body and freed up the breath, we rest in stillness. Within this quiet space, we cultivate a steady, rich awareness that helps us feel deeply alive in the moment and utterly at home in the world.
In many ways, the entire session leading up to the last few minutes of yoga class is preparation for savasana. In the more active portion of class, we move and breathe and release tension, so that when we come to stillness at the end of class, we are primed to open to the clarity and tenderness deep within.
I like to think of savasana as dessert, as the sweetness that follows the nourishment of rest of the meal. These few quiet moments feel like a balm and a gift, especially amid the din of our busy world.
This 10-minute guided relaxation is, in fact, a savasana from one of the yoga classes I offer each week. (It even includes a little birdsong and a gentle rain shower.) I hope it gives you a taste of contentment, even if you haven’t enjoyed a session of mindful movement beforehand. Or, better yet, stand up and move gently for a few moments, and then settle onto the ground for what I hope will be a tasty dessert.
Please visit my website for additional offerings designed to help cultivate ease, clarity and loving awareness. Or, better yet, join us for a yoga or meditation class to experience savasana together. I offer sessions on Zoom for both local and long-distance students. (This summer I am also leading outdoor pop-up classes for local friends). All are welcome!
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Sages teach that the secret to living happily is to rest with ease in each moment, with a sense of openness and freedom. This is easier said than done, of course, but with practice we can nudge our minds in that direction.
This 20-minute guided practice offers an opportunity to settle into the moment, to let go of excess tension, and to offer goodwill toward ourselves and the world around us. We learn to befriend what is, in our bodies, our breath, our mind and our world.
The practice is explored in a reclined position, so you can really settle into the earth and let go of stress and strain. It could also be explored seated, or even standing up.
My website includes lots of essays and practices to help us remember how to meet each moment with friendliness and equanimity. I wrote this short piece to remind myself of the possibility of living with ease, no matter how challenging the outer world. Perhaps you, too, have your own image or muse to help you find your way. If not, keep on the look out for one to appear!
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Life has a way of leaving us a little bent out of shape from time to time, a bit less clear and whole than we might like to feel. Sometimes we need a little help finding our way back to easy peace. Just a few moments of quiet presence can bring us right back home to our selves, reminding us who we are and how we want to be in the world.
This gentle 14-minute movement practice offers just such an opportunity. It is practiced on the ground, lying on the back, although a cozy bed might work just fine, too. A little lying around, a bit of easy breathing, and a small helping of gentle movement helps us shed tension and reclaim ease. I hope that you, too, find that these few moments of grounded presence can reshape the contours of your day and your life.
My website includes many more opportunities to return to a fuller sense of being, to a sense of clarity and ease in each moment. This exploration lies at the heart of my many years of exploration of body, mind and spirit, which began nearly 30 years ago when I wandered into a yoga class in Washington, DC. This long-ago essay tells the story of how yoga captured my mind and my heart. I hope you smile in recognition as you read, and maybe will be even lured into joining me on this never-ending adventure of embodied presence in the world.
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Meditation can be an ally and a good friend as we navigate the ups and downs of life. The practice is simple: we train our mind to behave in wholesome and supportive ways. Refining the practice can be a lifetime’s journey.
In this 19-minute guided meditation, we’ll explore the fundamentals of mindfulness meditation. We’ll settle into the body, steady the mind and then spread our awareness outwards into the world around us. We’ll watch what happens when we rest with loving awareness in the embodied experience of life as it passes through.
There are lots of ways to meditate, and it’s worth exploring a range of approaches until you find one that works well for you. Typically, I begin with an anchoring practice - a deep focus on just one thing - until I sense my mind growing calmer and steadier. On good days, I am then able to relinquish my mind’s hold on my chosen anchor and allow my awareness to spread outward in all directions, awash in the vitality and vibrancy of the here-and-now.
An anchor can be any object of awareness that holds your mind’s focus: the breath, sounds, a mantra or phrase, and more. The classic meditation anchor is the breath, but it’s just one of many possibilities. Consider your anchoring meditation to be like a chew toy for the restless puppy dog of the mind: It keeps the mind occupied with a more wholesome activity than it might otherwise engage in. After a while, the anchor coaxes the mind to quiet enough that we can see more clearly and rest with ease among the vicissitudes of life.
This guided practice can be practiced in any position you might like. You may hear some rhythmic rumbling sounds toward the end of the practice. That’s when my cat - a meditation master for sure - settled into my lap and began purring. So, feel free to purr right along!
My website includes lots more about meditation. This is my landing spot for those wanting to learn more. And here’s the story of how I finally got the meditation habit to stick.
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Welcome to another guided audio session that I hope will leave us all feeling a little calmer, a litter clearer, and a little bit happier, too. As you have likely experienced in these sessions and in others, the breath holds many secrets to living with ease and peace.
This 14-minute practice - first recorded for my long-ago CD Mindful Breathing - explores the power of smoothing out the breath. As we nudge the breath into a clean, clear and even pattern, we will likely find our brains growing a little clearer and smoother, too. It’s a little bit like filing our nails so that we run into fewer snags as we move about our days.
This centering practice can be explored in any quiet position, so take your pick. As always when working with the breath, if any suggestions cause unrest or feel inappropriate, then skip them altogether or modify the practice in any way that brings a smile to your face.
My website includes many more breathing explorations and quite a few articles that dive into detail about the manifold powers of mindful breathing. This long ago article written for Yoga Journal offers a primer on what relaxed breathing might look and feel like. And this piece shares a few of my favorite breathing practices. If you’ve ever studied with me in person, you likely know them well.
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Here’s another opportunity to settle down close to the earth, to discharge tension and to reclaim your inner balance and ease. These moments of quiet tenderness can help each day flow just a little more smoothly, leading us in the direction of wholeness and wellbeing.
This 22-minute practice - practiced on the ground on the back - offers a few gentle movements, a little bit of quiet, and an opportunity to rest deeply. The movements in this sequence are again inspired by SATYA yoga as pioneered by yoga and meditation teacher Tias Little.
As always, I hope you enjoy what you find here. Please let me know if you have any questions, requests or recommendations. I appreciate your input!
My website offers many more opportunities to practice ease and peace. A friend just reminded me of this essay, an offering to the season of summer. Enjoy!
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Here’s another opportunity to settle down and settle in, to enjoy resting in the peaceful pause of the present moment for just a little while. Perhaps this practice will help smooth out the wrinkles of your day and bring you a little rest and restoration.
In our go-go modern world, our nervous systems are easily thrust into overdrive, causing stress and unease. Downshifting into a quieter mode can offer calm, balance and peace. Practices like this 12-minute guided relaxation can help nudge us in that direction.
So lie down, settle into the here-and-now, and invite your mind to rest. Perhaps you, too, will discover the manifold gifts hidden in the folds of the present moment. All that is required is that you show up with an open mind and a tender heart.
I have lots more to share on my website in the here-and-now department. This essay offers a little insight into the lovely ways the present moment can nurture happiness in our lives. And I wrote his essay when my kids were young, when I finally realized that sometimes the only way to find peace in the moment is in small, secret sips . Enjoy!
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One of my very favorite instructions is to move like water. I love to soften the sharp edges of my being and let my body shift and slip and swirl in soft and liquid ways. I love to bob and sink on the ebb and flow of the breath, as if I were floating on my back in the deep, blue Caribbean Sea. I love to watch life ripple through the energetic rivers within me. Somehow this quiet and yielding movement convinces my mind to grow a little softer and easier, too.
In this 25-minute guided practice, we’ll stay close to the ground and invite the body to unravel and undulate in soft and gentle ways. We’ll let this liquid movement erode away our harsher beings, leaving us softer and perhaps a little more receptive. And perhaps we’ll re-emerge feeling restored and rinsed clean.
This quiet, reclined practice is inspired by the brilliant and blissful movements of SATYA, or Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Atunement, offered by master teacher Tias Little. These practices fuse yoga, meditation, Feldenkrais and other somatic disciplines into a rich and fortifying exploration of inner ease and wholeness. I highly recommend them!
I have more practices on my website that speak to the healing power of fluid movement. This practice article written long ago offers a structured way to move like water in a few familiar yoga poses. It’s still one of my favorite watery body prayers. And fluid movement makes an appearance in this long-ago essay that was written while gazing at my very favorite body of water in the world, the Caribbean Sea.
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Amid the busy-ness of life, we all need reminders to take occasional time outs, so that we can give our minds and our bodies an opportunity to return to the healing balm of the present moment.
Whether meditating on your cushion, practicing savasana at the end of a yoga session, or just settling into a cozy chair, a few moments of peace and calm can help us return to our more balanced and steady selves. And when we grow quieter within, we are able to see more clearly the truths of our lives. And that, in turn, allows us to act in the world from a place of deeper love.
In this 10-minute guided relaxation, we’ll take a beautiful time out. Or, as some like to call it, a time in. Just settle into a comfortable position, exhale deeply, and just let everything go. Let the world spin off as it likes, as you practice self calm and self care.
If you’re looking for additional resources in the peace and calm department, please visit my website. If you practice yoga, you might enjoy this essay about the ways we can grow “as tension free as we can be,” as yoga teacher Erich Schiffmann says. Or, perhaps you’d like to let go while resting in one of my very favorite yoga poses, viparita karani, or legs-up-the-wall pose, as offered here.
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Every spiritual practice, one way or another, eventually brings us back to our own good hearts and to the love the shines forth from within. We may not join a yoga class because we want to soften our hearts. We may not begin meditating because we want to cultivate goodwill. But in some lovely and mysterious bit of spiritual magic, practitioners often end up saying that the greatest gift of their practice has been the lovely ways it has transformed them into kinder, more compassionate human beings.
The Buddhist practice of lovingkindness, or metta meditation, offers an explicit pathway to cultivating good heart. In lovingkindness meditation, we call up images of people, creatures and even places we know, and then we send wishes for happiness and wellbeing in their direction. We may not know for sure whether these wishes change others, but we very quickly learn that they can change us in profound ways.
In this 19-minute guided practice, we’ll explore a variation of the traditional Buddhist practice of lovingkindness meditation. This contemplation is a little more improvisatory and free-form than the traditional practice, but I hope it brings a smile to your face nonetheless.
So sit or lie down, and settle into your own good heart. Rest and breathe and be. And then follow along as we befriending the world, one heart to another.
I’ve written lots about the gifts of lovingkindness on my website, and I hope you’ll find something there that deepens your understanding of the practice. Several years ago, I wrote this essay about how metta helped me through a hard parenting moment. And this essay offers a gentle reminder of ways we can live each moment from a place of tenderness. And finally, this letter to my friends shares how lovingkindness can serve as a secret superpower, during the pandemic and beyond.
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Gravity is our friend. And yet so many of us spend so much of our lives fighting this primordial pull toward the earth. In this fight we miss the opportunity to cultivate deep connection, soul-satisfying rest, and a slow and unshakeable sense of vitality.
In this 22-minute practice we’ll explore the possibility of befriending the earth in ways that help us both release tension and cultivate renewed energy. This practice of befriending the earth can help nurture feelings of balance, well-being and ease.
The earth receives us and holds us. It offers us a place of deep rest and steadiness. By settling into its arms we are invited to let tension melt off of our bodies so that we may soften and settle into ease.
The earth also has the power to gentle energize us, to offer us slow and steady vitality that can buoy us upward and outward into the world in a calm and balanced way.
And somehow, magically, with just a little nudging from us, the earth knows just what we need in order to slip toward a more balanced way of being in the world.
I wrote about befriending the earth in this essay about one of my very favorite survival strategies. And you can find many more articles about the power of connecting with earth energy on my website. I hope you find something in these offerings that brings you happiness and inspiration!
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Look outside your window. What’s the weather like right now?
Now, look inside yourself. What’s the weather like in there right now? Are you running hot or cold? Is the sun shining within or is this a rainy day? Are your thoughts stormy or serene? And is your heart shining brightly or hiding behind a few clouds?
In this 14-minute guided relaxation session, we’ll consider our inner weather patterns. We’ll let our bodies become the earth, and then we’ll watch the energetic weather pass through us. We’ll sharpen our powers of perception to see more clearly the sensations, feelings, thoughts and energies are passing through the inner world of our beings.
At heart, this is an awareness practice, helping us see more clearly what is true in our lives. Seeing clearly helps us to make wise decisions about how to respond appropriately - how to tend to the world with both intelligence and tenderness.
For example, when we know the sun is shining within us - when we are brimming with bright and clear energy - we might choose to tackle the to-do list and take on the world. And when we sense that our inner weather is a little unsettled, we might decide this is the perfect day to tend to quieter pursuits, to not tangle with others, to wait out the rainstorm at home.
Most of the wisdom teachings, as far as I can tell, are at heart about cultivating awareness both within and without, so that we may live and act out of wisdom and love. I love exploring the many shapes and colors of this understanding, and most of what I share on my website touches upon awareness one way or another. If you’re interested, here’s one short essay to get you started.
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Thank you for joining me for another guided practice. My hope is that each of these sessions will shine a little light on ways we can live in greater steadiness and peace. Life can sometimes be filled with bumpy roads, and we all need strategies and skills that help us smooth out those paths as best we can.
This session offers one more survival strategy to help steady frazzled nerves and calm the nervous system: using the breath to ground and soothe us, to bring us right back down to earth.
This 16-minute practice - first recorded for my long-ago CD Mindful Breathing - explores the power of lengthening the exhalation. This breathing pattern typically calms and quiets the nervous system. Just a few moments of long, smooth exhalations can, quite literally, change our minds.
This session is guided from a belly-down position, which can help foster a long and steady exhalation. If lying prone isn’t your cup of tea, feel free to rest belly up, or to sit in a chair, or even to climb into bed. As always, if any suggestions cause unrest or feel inappropriate, then skip them altogether or modify the practice in any way that brings a smile to your face.
My website includes lots of information about the power of the breath to keep us steady and bright. It includes this magazine article I wrote years ago that introduces this calming breath as part of a general introduction to yoga breathing practices.
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Even the Dalai Lama agrees that the purpose of life is to be happy. But what exactly does that mean? What constitutes happiness, and how do we find our way there?
Does happiness come from savoring a fresh raspberry as it bursts on the tongue? Does it come from a sense of mission in one’s broader life? Or does it come from sensing a deep and radiant connection between our small self and the vast Self of the world? Yes, yes and yes!
In this 19-minute practice, we’ll explore three important pillars of happiness: pleasure, purpose and peace. This is a restful and meditative practice that could be explored sitting upright or perhaps tucked into a cozy chair with a cup of tea.
Spending a little time contemplating the experiences, actions and relationships that bring us alive can incline our minds toward a deeply embodied sense of happiness and wellbeing. This sort of contemplation can also cultivate clarity about aspects of our lives that might need a little tending and care. My hope is that returning to this practice from time to time might shine new light on the pillars of happiness in your own life.
I consider all that I share, in some way, to be an investigation into the ways we can cultivate happiness in our lives. Perhaps you’ll find a few more glimmerings of happiness on my website. While there, you’ll also find my very favorite essay about happiness - an experience picking blueberries with my sons. Enjoy!
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Thank you for joining me for another guided practice. This week, we’ll consider extending our sense of awareness beyond the skin of the body and out into the greater world. We’ll do this first in stillness, then with gentle and free-form movement, and then we’ll finish up in stillness once again.
This 14-minute session is offered as an upright, standing practice. It could easily be explored, though, while sitting down. As always, feel free to modify my suggestions in ways that work best for you.
I’ve explored this somatic “game” hundreds of times, and each time I find new ways of painting out into the world. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!
If you’d like to learn more about this exploration, you might enjoy this article I wrote several years ago that envisions yoga and movement practices not as exercises in mastering poses, but rather as explorations of the vital flow of energy that flows throughout all creation. One way or another, most of my offerings relate to this lovely and life-affirming possibility. Please visit my website to explore more.
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We spend so much of our lives looking outward to the world around us. Every once in a while it can be such a relief to turn our gaze inward instead for a little while. Closing the eyes and refocusing within can help us quiet the nervous system, recharge our batteries, and return us to what matters most in our lives.
In this 12-minute practice, we’ll consider the lovely possibility that we have a beautiful garden within where we can rest and savor the moment. We’ll call upon our powers of imagination and imagery to create a quiet oasis within us. Consider this a meditation, perhaps, or an opportunity to practice deep rest.
Sit upright if you like, or rest back in any comfortable position. You might even be able to do this while strolling through your favorite garden. Feel free to toss out any of the words or images that don’t ring true to you. And, of course, head off into your own inner journey any time you like.
I share many resources on my website that point us toward ways we can cultivate deeper calm and ease in our lives. I even have an essay there that I wrote long ago about the lovely ways that gardening helped me downshift into a quieter mode, both in a yoga practice and in a life.
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Thank you for joining me for another guided practice session with Claudia Cummins. This week’s offering dives into the body’s core, exploring gentle movements that help us cultivate a long and spacious spine.
Our inner bodies need space in order to move optimally and support us as we move out into the world around us. Alas, sometimes life conspires to leave us feeling constricted, as if there’s not enough room for the rivers of life to flow freely within us. Gentle and mindful movement can help!
This 21-minute session is practiced on the ground or some other supportive surface. We begin in “constructive rest” position, with the knees bent and the feet on the floor. Tuck a pillow under your head if you like, and adjust in any way that feels appropriate for you. As always, please stay within your comfort zone throughout our practice. If any movement causes strain or discomfort, please stop, and then move in a happier way.
Please visit my home website - claudiacummins.com - to explore additional offerings. If you’d like to learn more about back health, my site includes this article offering some of my favorite resources. Enjoy!
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Thank you for joining me here for another guided practice session with Claudia Cummins. In this session, we’ll explore the power of the breath to steady the mind, calm the body, and bring our awareness to the here-and-now. We’ll allow the breath to help us feel awake in the moment and at home in the world.
The breath has long been considered a potent gateway between our outer and inner worlds. Climbing into its rhythms can help us find our way back to deeper waves of life as they pass through us.
This 15-minute practice - first shared in my long-ago CD Mindful Breathing - offers a gentle introduction into basic breath awareness. It can be done seated in any comfortable position, or even lying down if you want to rest more deeply.
In this practice we use the breath as an anchor for the mind in a meditation practice. We aren’t trying to change the breath in any way - as we would in yogic pranayama practices. We allow it to flow naturally and without strain.
If you’d like to learn more about the power of the breath - as both a meditation tool and a yogic pranayama technique - please visit my home website for a host of resources, including this short primer on the breath,
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Thank you for joining me for another session of At Home in the World. In this guided movement practice, we explore the possibility of stretching our way into spaciousness and freedom, both in our bodies and in our lives.
This 27-minute exploration is done on the back, resting on the ground or another supportive surface, with a pillow or cushion for your head. As always, let my suggestions be invitations rather than instructions. Stay within your comfort zone and avoid movements that cause discomfort. Feel free to move in any way you like, carrying the practice into new and interesting ways that feel just right for you.
This practice introduces the Japanese concept of yutori, or tranquil spaciousness. By embracing this way of being, we make room for little pockets of quiet to nestle into the folds of our busy days. Yutori invites us to slow down, to listen deeply and to be fully present in our lives. My hope is that this entire guided practice will feel like one deep dive into the freedom and lightness of being evoked by the possibilities of yutori.
The movements in this practice have evolved out of the Feldenkrais method, an approach that fosters profound ease and clarity of movement. I’m especially grateful to yoga teacher Tias Little, who has synthesized his explorations of Feldenkrais and other somatic systems into a movement practice he calls Sensory Awareness Training for Yoga Attunement, or SATYA. I highly recommend it.
Please visit my home website - claudiacummins.com - to explore additional offerings, including this essay I wrote when my kids were young about discovering little pockets of peace amid the beautiful chaos of life. Enjoy!
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Sometimes we just need a break. The world has had its way with us, perhaps, and we need a little time to rest and recover from the challenges of the day. We need time to calm the nerves, quiet the breath, and warm the heart.
In this session, we’ll take a 15-minute time out. We’ll leave the busy world behind and settle into a quiet space within. We’ll expand our awareness beyond the thinking brain and toward the sensations of life as they pass through us. We’ll downshift the nervous system and rekindle a sense of presence and possibility.
So lie down onto the ground - or perhaps nestle into your favorite cozy chair - and let everything go and let everything be, for at least a little while. After just relaxing for a spell, my hope is that you will return the world’s beautiful chaos with a renewed sense of steadiness and calm.
I share many resources on my website designed to help us find our way back toward our calmer, gentler selves. I even have this short article sharing my favorite stress management strategies. Enjoy!
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Welcome! In this guided audio session we'll explore the joy of movement - the simple delight of moving the body in a free and easy way, with no agenda other than enjoying the sensations of life as they pass through us. We'll let our bodies out of their cages to roam the landscape with curiosity and freedom, and we'll observe how this exploration affects the mind, the mood, the body and the breath. And then we’ll carry this open and organic movement in a slightly more directed way into a gentle reclined twist.
This 30-minute practice is done while resting on the back - on the ground, on your bed, or even resting in a well-supported easy chair. Tuck a pillow or other support beneath your head if that feels more comfortable. Outstretch your legs so they rest on the ground, or, if you prefer, bend your knees and place the feet on the support several inches away from your hips.
This is a slow journey deep into the heart of movement. Don’t let the mind scare you away from moving at this restful, leisurely pace. Eventually your whole being will smile in relief, as you settle into a quieter, gentler way of being. Slow time is highly restorative!
The Joy of Movement is inspired teachers who dare to slip out of the box of prescriptive movement and into a more organic and joyful way of exploring embodied presence. In particular, my deep thanks to yoga teacher Angela Farmer, who has inspired so many to look inward for their own best teacher, and also to Movingness founder Peter Apfel, whose gentle suggestion that we simply move a hand in a pleasant way launched this whole exploration.
As always, please stay within your comfort zone throughout our practice. If any movement causes strain or discomfort, please stop, and then move in a happier way. Or simply rest for a few breaths. Remember, this is your practice. These explorations are merely suggestions - springboards for your own exploration into the joy of movement.
Please visit my home website - claudiacummins.com - to explore additional offerings. If you’d like to try a different sort of organic movement, enjoy this essay about the power of free-form dance to uplift the soul. Enjoy!
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