PRACTICE
“Guided Breathwork Practice,” Kathy Cherry
Calling all listeners who want to give their busy thoughts a break and lie on their back! This two-part breath technique led by Insight Meditation teacher Kathy Cherry “allows us to quickly bypass the thinking mind” and return to the present moment (with extra tingles and feels). The practice also can help us release emotional baggage, but it is not recommended for those who are pregnant or living with acute medical conditions. This is a wonderful listen with encouraging prompts to transport you into the here and now.
kathycherry.com
PRACTICE
“Standing Meditation to Release Tension,” Won Buddhism Channel
This quick standing practice—it takes less than six minutes—will shake things up, literally. Reverend Sunghyun (Daesung) Song instructs you to shake loose tension in your body while standing up. A few minutes of this vigorous, vibrating movement—which is perhaps best performed in a private space where you can really let loose—is followed by several minutes of standing meditation. Together, the shaking and stillness help to release tension in the body and bring it into harmony with the mind. Perfect for a work-from-home break.
youtube.com
MUSIC
Yogetsu Akasaka’s channel, YouTube
Monks are having a moment on YouTube. Yogetsu Akasaka, 38, a beatboxer and live-looping artist who creates layered tracks with his voice, went viral last year with a rendition of the Heart Sutra. Akasaka’s videos and livestreams, sometimes set to psychedelic backgrounds, started as a pandemic project to make up for lost income performing funeral rites in Tokyo, according to Agence France-Presse. His music ranges from Buddhist chants to more general dance and meditation music (and sometimes a mash-up, such as his “Mandala Disco” series).
youtube.com
PODCAST
On Being, “Ross Gay: Tending Joy and Practicing Delight”
“To me, joy has nothing to do with ease. And joy has everything to do with the fact that we’re all going to die.” In this 2019 talk, poet and professor Ross Gay discusses cultivating “adult joy”— something that is accessible to everyone, whatever the intricacies of our daily life or of the world at large may be. Gay also discusses his experience as a gardener in Indiana with the Bloomington Community Orchard as well as his project to write an essay every day for a year about what delighted him (later published as The Book of Delights).
onbeing.org
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