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. 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
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23:57
Resting, Breathing, Loving
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. 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
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21:09
The Joy of Movement
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. 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
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24:38
Exhaling into Calm
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. 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
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12:18
Island of the Self
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
New Zealand