Sidesteps

Tashlich ("sending") is a practice of release between Rosh HaShanah (Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). Traditionally, we cast bread or other objects into flowing water as a way of symbolically casting away what we no longer want to carry. In this meditation, you’ll be invited again and again to bring something to mind—and let it go. A sin you regret. A transgression you haven’t made right. Procrastination. Guilt. Shame. Disappointment. A harsh word. A missed opportunity. Something you wish you had done differently. You don’t have to justify it, solve it, or punish yourself for it. Simply bring it into awareness. Acknowledge it. Then imagine placing it in the current and watching it drift away. Again and again, we practice the same movement: remember, release, return. Not forgetting what happened, but loosening its grip—making room for what comes next.

As the Jewish new year of Rosh Hashanah approaches, take a quiet journey through the year’s changing seasons. Begin in autumn, when the world turns inward and the leaves let go. Remember what you began, what you carried, and what you were ready to release. Move through winter’s stillness, spring’s awakening, and summer’s fullness. Along the way, reflect on the people, places, choices, and moments that shaped you. What brought you joy? What asked more of you than you expected? What remains unfinished, and what can you finally set down? Let each season offer its own wisdom, without judgment. As the year turns, make room for gratitude, forgiveness, and possibility. You do not need to carry everything forward. Some things can be released, so that you can enter the new year with greater clarity, openness, and hope.

What if the guidance you’re looking for is already available to you? In this episode of Sidesteps, Rabbi Alon Ferency talks with Cindy Anderson of Soul Epiphany about spirit guides, intuition, creativity, and the surprising wisdom that can emerge when we quiet the noise around us. Cindy shares her journey from corporate marketing executive and real estate investor to spiritual entrepreneur—and the midlife realization that checking all the boxes doesn’t necessarily lead to fulfillment. She describes her relationship with her spirit guide, Helios, and her mission to make spiritual guidance accessible without the hierarchy, mystery, or “guru” culture that can surround it. The conversation moves from meditation and grounding to creativity, AI, imposter syndrome, midlife transitions, grief, and the courage to make confident decisions. Along the way, Cindy shares stories of clients who learned to slow down, trust themselves, and finally make choices they had been postponing for years. At the heart of the conversation is a simple idea: spirituality doesn’t have to be complicated or reserved for people who already know the answers. Sometimes it’s as practical as asking, “What do I need to do on a Tuesday morning?” A conversation about finding your own guidance, loosening the knots that hold you back, and taking the next step.

What if the wisdom you’re searching for isn’t somewhere far away? Inspired by Deuteronomy 30:11-15, this meditation invites you to stop reaching—for the distant answer, the perfect insight, the next spiritual breakthrough—and return to what is already here. Through breath, sensation, and stillness, we notice the parts of ourselves that are always seeking: the traveler who wants to go farther, the climber who wants to go higher, the mind convinced that the answer must be somewhere else. We don’t judge these impulses. We simply notice them, welcome them, and return. You don’t have to cross the sea or climb to the heavens to find what you need. Some wisdom is already within reach. Breathe. Listen. Feel. Return to yourself. What you seek may not be far away. It may be waiting quietly at your center.

A meditation Deuteronomy 28, inspired by the Scripture’s warning that we can lose our way when we fail to serve life with joy and gladness. We begin by acknowledging the precariousness of being alive: our mortality, our incompleteness, the fragility of health, safety, love, and everything we cannot control. Rather than turning away from melancholy or grief, we breathe into the mystery and vastness of existence, cultivating a sense of awe. From that awe comes a surprising shift: the recognition that simply being here, knowing, loving, and experiencing this life is itself extraordinary. This practice invites us to hold fear and wonder, sorrow and gratitude, precariousness and gladness together—and to discover joy not by escaping life’s uncertainty, but by becoming more fully present to the gift of being alive.

A gentle nighttime meditation inspired by the ancient Jewish practice of preparing the soul for sleep. This ritual invites you to close the day with softness, honesty, and gratitude — releasing tension, reviewing the moments that shaped you, and returning to yourself with compassion. Through calming breath, reflection, and quiet awareness, you’ll create space to let go of unfinished thoughts and settle the nervous system before rest. Rather than striving to “sleep perfectly,” this practice treats bedtime as sacred threshold: a crossing from effort into trust, from noise into stillness. Ideal for evenings when the mind is crowded, the heart is tender, or the body needs help unwinding. Come as you are — weary, grateful, restless, hopeful — and allow the day to gently loosen its grip.

Fear is a natural response to threat. When we feel afraid, the body releases cortisol and other stress hormones, preparing us to respond. Anxiety and worry can keep that alarm activated even when the danger is uncertain, distant, or imagined. In this meditation, we begin by acknowledging fear rather than fighting it. Notice its sensations, its thoughts, and the reasons it has come. You don’t have to dismiss or judge them; your fear may have good reasons for being there. Then, through mindful attention and breath, practice creating some space between fear and yourself. Imagine placing the fear outside your body—nearby, perhaps, but not inside you. You can see it, listen to it, and honor what it is trying to tell you without allowing it to take over. The fear can be present without becoming your whole experience.

A restful guided meditation for ending the day with greater peace, clarity, and self-compassion. Instead of carrying the day’s unfinished business into bed, this practice invites you to pause, reflect, and let go. Through calming breath, gentle reflection, gratitude, and quiet, you’ll release some of the day’s tension and make room for deep, restorative rest. Bedtime becomes more than simply falling asleep. It becomes a small ritual of returning to yourself—acknowledging what the day held, accepting what you couldn’t finish, and trusting that tomorrow will come in its own time. Whether your mind is busy, your body is tired, or you simply want a more intentional way to close the day, this meditation offers a gentle transition from doing to being, from the demands of the day to the possibility of rest.

What do we really need? And once our needs are met, what is it that we desire? In this meditation on "Bal Tashchit," the Jewish teaching against needless destruction, rooted in Deuteronomy 20:19, we’ll slow down and notice the difference between need and want. From there, we’ll consider a third possibility: taking less. Less food, less stuff, less energy, less attention, less of the world’s finite resources. Not as punishment or deprivation, but as a practice of discernment: enough is enough. We’ll make space to ask what truly sustains us, what simply satisfies an impulse, and where choosing less might become an act of care for ourselves, our communities, and the living world.

A gentle nighttime meditation inspired by the ancient Jewish practice of preparing the soul for sleep. This ritual invites you to close the day with softness, honesty, and gratitude — releasing tension, reviewing the moments that shaped you, and returning to yourself with compassion. Through calming breath, reflection, and quiet awareness, you’ll create space to let go of unfinished thoughts and settle the nervous system before rest. Rather than striving to “sleep perfectly,” this practice treats bedtime as sacred threshold: a crossing from effort into trust, from noise into stillness. Ideal for evenings when the mind is crowded, the heart is tender, or the body needs help unwinding. Come as you are — weary, grateful, restless, hopeful — and allow the day to gently loosen its grip.