40-Day meditation practice
40 Days of play
August 31-Oct 9, 2026
Live Via Zoom
6:30-7:00 am PDT
40 Days of play
Play as a Spiritual Practice
Our last 40-Day Meditation invited us to connect with our inner light—to remember the radiant presence that lives within each of us. We tended our inner flame. Now it's time to lighten up.
First we remembered our light.
Now we learn to play with it.
As summer in the Northern Hemisphere begins to wind down and summer begins elsewhere in the world, we are reminded of the gifts this season represents: play, joy, freedom, and abundance. Rather than letting that spirit fade with the changing seasons, let's carry it forward by embracing play as a spiritual practice in our next 40-Day Meditation.
Every day, we are bombarded by events that can pull us away from our centre. Our spiritual practices help guide us home again. Meditation, yoga, prayer, breath, and ritual all reconnect us with our deepest selves. This year, we invite you to add another practice to your spiritual toolkit: play.
The past year has stirred much within and around us—fear, anxiety, anger, grief, and uncertainty. We continue to witness absurdity, cruelty, and the unknown. In the midst of it all, we are offered a choice: to remain contracted by life's challenges, or to open ourselves to something that expands us.
Play invites us into joy, curiosity, freedom, presence, and the divine dance of life.
This practice is an invitation to loosen our grip on rigid expectations, constant productivity, and the need to always have everything figured out. Together, we'll lean into wonder, creativity, laughter, spontaneity, and the carefree expression of our authentic selves.
Play isn't frivolous. It is deeply restorative. It reconnects us with our aliveness, awakens our imagination, nourishes our nervous system, and opens the heart. It reminds us that joy is not something we earn—it is part of our birthright.
Over the years, our 40-Day practices have explored gratitude, hope, grace, flourishing, joy, unconditional love, calm, peace, and light. This year, we turn our attention to play, discovering how it can become a pathway to greater presence, resilience, connection, and delight.
For 40 days, we will gather as an intentional and supportive community. Through daily practice, shared learning, and meaningful connection, we'll create space to bring more joy, lightness, and love into our own lives—and into the lives of those around us.
Meditation remains one of the most powerful practices for human flourishing, supporting our well-being while deepening our capacity for compassion, gratitude, and love. Together, we will explore how play can become another daily practice that renews our spirits and enriches our everyday lives.
Within each of us is an innate capacity for renewal—our natural counterpart to the stress response. This renewal response is activated through practices that cultivate love, presence, joy, and connection. It begins with awareness: noticing what is happening within us, meeting ourselves with compassion, and consciously choosing how we respond. From this place, we become more resilient, more creative, and more available to life.
Play is one of the most powerful renewal practices we can cultivate.
The way we respond to both our inner and outer worlds creates a ripple effect that touches everyone around us. As we become lighter, more joyful, and more present, we naturally bring those qualities into our relationships, our communities, and our world.
We invite you to join us from the comfort of your own home for this active meditation practice. Together we'll explore meditation, movement, music, mantra, breath, and perhaps a few playful surprises along the way. Whether you are new to meditation or have practiced for years, a consistent daily practice offers an opportunity to cultivate greater ease, vitality, resilience, and joy.
Everyone is welcome—especially those who long to experience more lightness, laughter, connection, and play in their lives.
What to Expect
Each 30-minute practice begins with a brief teaching inspired by our theme of play, followed by a tuning-in mantra. We then move through five minutes of gentle yoga, mindful movement, breathwork, and simple postures before settling into an 11-minute meditation. Each session concludes with deep relaxation (savasana) and a closing blessing, poem, or reading.
Throughout our journey, we will draw inspiration from Deep Play by Diane Ackerman, allowing its wisdom to spark reflection and conversation. We will also learn from one another, sharing our own experiences and discoveries as we explore what it means to live more playfully.
Our practices are rooted in Kundalini Yoga, often called the Yoga of Awareness. This powerful tradition integrates movement, breath, meditation, and relaxation into a complete practice for body, mind, and spirit. Over the years, these teachings have been thoughtfully adapted to make them accessible, welcoming, and practical for people of all ages, abilities, and levels of experience.
Through conscious movement, rhythmic breathing, meditation, and deep relaxation, we strengthen and regulate the nervous system, building resilience, clarity, vitality, and inner steadiness. Together, we'll discover that play is not an escape from life—it is one of the ways we become more fully alive within it.
What’s included:
Daily meditation practice is offered via Zoom, creating a shared space for consistency, connection, and support.
Each morning includes a brief educational teaching, along with a follow-up email on most days to help deepen and integrate the practice into daily life.
Optional WhatsApp group to share photos, learnings, play practices and more with each other
Every session closes with an affirmation, quote, poem, or passage to support reflection and inner grounding.
The practice is supported by peaceful, soothing and uplifting music throughout.
On Saturday mornings, we offer Coffee Chat on the Mat—a relaxed 30-minute gathering after practice from 7:00–7:30 am PST for connection and conversation.
To support continuity, recorded practice videos will be available for days when you are unable to attend live.
This series is led by experienced facilitators Dori Howard and Nikki Robbins
A daily (or near-daily) follow-up email will be sent to your inbox, offering the quote or blessing of the day along with reflections to support continued connection to the practice and to yourself.
Details
Classes:
Daily August 31-Oct 9, 2026
Time: 6:30 am - 7:00 am PDT
Place: via zoom, in the comfort of your own home and comfy clothes
Register to receive your welcome package and Zoom Link
Investment
$130.00
what to bring
Create your own sacred space in your home with candles, incense, momentos, diffuser, etc. Lay out your mat, bring a shawl or blanket, light some candles, make yourself some tea and come to the mat ready for your journey inward. Purchase a bottle of bubbles…we will play with bubbles!
Writing and Wisdom Circle
For this 40-Day Meditation, we are also offering an optional writing circle. From Monday to Friday, we gather for 30 minutes after meditation to write, share, and connect in community.
We will close the 40-day journey with a Story Salon, offering a space to share a piece of writing and witness one another’s voices and reflections.
Weekdays during the practice for 30 minutes- (on Zoom Monday-Friday)
30 minutes / day: check-in , write x 8-12 minutes, share, check out
writing prompts posted in chat at the start of each daily session to motivate and inspire
develop 8-minute writing habit