At Home in the World

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 25-minute movement practice takes its inspiration from Issa and his snails. We move slowly, in no partic...

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...

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 dee...

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, afte...

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 her...

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 i...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 mi...

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, w...

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 pla...

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 prepa...

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...

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 be...

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...

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 w...

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 feelin...

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 ou...

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-an...

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 l...

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 respo...

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 a...

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...