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!

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!

Get full access to At Home in the World at claudiacummins.substack.com/subscribe

Movement and stillness practices for vitality and ease, with Claudia Cummins. Learn more at www.ClaudiaCummins.com.

Movement and stillness practices for vitality and ease, with Claudia Cummins. Learn more at www.ClaudiaCummins.com.

Movement and stillness practices for vitality and ease, with Claudia Cummins. Learn more at www.ClaudiaCummins.com.

Movement and stillness practices for vitality and ease, with Claudia Cummins. Learn more at www.ClaudiaCummins.com.

Movement and stillness practices for vitality and ease, with Claudia Cummins. Learn more at www.ClaudiaCummins.com.