Graphic inspired by Aharon Varady and and Lauren Deutsch on Open Siddur Project, inspired in turn by the teachings of Reb Zalman Schachter-Shalomi

As many of us have already been counting the days since the world entered this period of isolation, distancing, anxiety, and stress on the one hand … and self-sacrifice, community-care, and virtual connection on the other. Yoshi Silverstein, Founder and Executive Director of the Mitsui Collective, has created a daily wellness practice for counting the Omer, which he describes below...

The Omer — the 7 week / 49 day period from Passover to Shavuot — lends itself beautifully to numerous layers of interpretation and practice. This year in particular, as we cope and manage with the COVID-19 pandemic as best we can, it’s more critical than ever that we each do what we can to develop and/or maintain a wellness practice.

It’s the strange irony of this time that some folks are dealing with hours upon hours of unstructured time to fill while others are so busy working full time either from home or on the frontlines of healthcare and other essential services, while also caring for children and other family members whose normal school and care services are shut down, that it feels like there’s barely time to breathe.

That’s why we’ve started a daily seven minute wellness practice based on the Counting of the Omer. In this incredibly challenging time, we need opportunities for introspection and intentional focus on caring for ourselves, each other, and our environment, however brief.

Seven minutes is all we ask. Most of us can find seven minutes within even the busiest of days. 

We’re take inspiration from the mystical framework of the Sefirot (divine qualities) the Kabbalists layered upon the Omer to help organize our wellness practice. We hope you’ll try these practices on.  And for those with ample time, certainly feel free to use the seven minutes expansively — it isn’t meant as a limit, but as a bite-size starting point.

And for those for whom seven minutes is a stretch, we hope you’ll give this gift to yourself, and that these practices will serve to help you find more groundedness, comfort, joy, and nourishment to help sustain you through this time.

To join the practice, follow Mitsui Collective on Instagram or visit their site for daily prompts. Jump in at any time!