At Home in the World

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...

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 gr...

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 g...

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 pr...

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 Sel...

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 -...

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...

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 t...

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 g...

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-n...

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...

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 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 w...

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 wel...

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 counti...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 we...

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 be...

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 p...

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 grou...

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 fro...