Eco-Somatic Meditation For Abolition

Drop into your body with curiosity and compassion. Resource the energies that are always present. In this meditation, you will consider how white supremacy culture has frozen your spirit and be guided in melting toward wholeness, complexity, and abundance.

Transcript

Hi,

My name is Danielle Marie Jones and this is an eco-somatic meditation for abolition.

A definition from Resmaa Menakem on the idea of somatic abolitionism.

He says it is the resourcing of energies that are always present in your body,

In the collective body,

And in the world.

Somatic abolitionism is an emergent process.

Wherever you are,

I invite you to get settled in your chosen location.

You might take a moment to reach your shoulders up towards your ears and scrunch your face and take three rounds of breath.

And on your next exhale,

Softening your face,

Releasing your shoulders,

Letting them reach down your ribcage or settle into the earth.

And take a few rounds of breath,

Maybe a little bit deeper than normal.

With every exhale,

Settling in a little bit deeper into your skin and your muscles and your bones.

Sometimes in life we can get stuck and oftentimes fear is the impetus of that stuckness.

We feel we are stuck in thinking that things have to be the way they are right now.

Stuck in thinking and believing in scarcity.

That we are not enough,

That there is not enough,

Whatever enough is.

We get stuck in thinking that power over,

That dominance is the goal.

Dominance over each other,

Dominance over the planet.

We get stuck in othering,

In focusing on the ways that we are different and using those differences as a strategy for dominance,

For control,

For separation.

Throughout this meditation I invite you to notice the way that your body and your breath respond.

You do not have to change your reaction.

You can just notice and breathe and bring your attention back to the meditation.

Now I invite you to think about something or some place in your life where you've been stuck.

Again,

Stuck as in the ways that we have given up parts of ourselves to participate in these mental models,

These models of scarcity and dominance and othering.

Think about something in your life where you've been stuck.

Maybe you thought that your job equaled your worth.

Maybe you thought the more things the better.

Perhaps you believe that you knew best and use that as a reason to ignore the truths of others.

And even sometimes when we feel awakened,

When we come across a new truth that we're ready to embrace,

Something clicks and we're ready to let go of that old belief.

But sometimes we get so excited about this new truth that again it becomes the only one.

And in this excitement of this new truth,

This passion,

If you are trying to punish others in light of this truth,

That is not abolition.

If you are trying to punish others in the light of this new truth,

That is not abolition.

You might notice if there was one of those words that created a shift in your body.

You might repeat the word a few times,

And notice those sensations breathing in and around that location in your body,

In your spirit,

And then slowly letting your body settle back into the earth and letting go of that thought.

You can consider one specific belief that has made you stuck,

That has denied your wholeness or the wholeness of others,

Which in this interconnected world is also you.

This one belief,

It could be a specific scenario with a particular person.

Maybe it's broader,

A belief about a group of people or a belief about our earth home,

Our other relatives,

Our non-human,

Non-living world.

Think about one belief that has made you stuck.

Now we have all gotten to places of stuckness,

And it's not just a belief.

It's a belief that stuckness,

And it's not been out of nowhere.

It's been by steady drips,

Steady messaging.

Can you imagine a real place,

A branch of a tree in your yard or nearby park,

Or the ledge of your window?

Can you imagine this real place on a cold winter day with the sun shining?

If you are standing outside near this place,

Can you imagine how the temperature would feel on your skin,

The feel of the wind,

The sounds in this space?

Now coming back to this real place,

This branch,

This ledge,

We've just had a winter storm.

The sun is shining,

And as the sun shines,

Water starts to drip.

We can imagine messaging like drips of water.

Some drips release and fall to the ground,

But others solidify and freeze before the fall.

Can you see the sun melting,

The water dripping and freezing?

Over time,

We have an icicle forming,

And for the next few rounds of breath,

You might think about this belief that brought us to this space of stuckness and various messages that you received dripping,

Leading you to believe.

The messaging could be from school,

From your family,

From the media,

From how our neighborhoods and workplaces are designed,

Designed physically,

Designed to show who matters and who doesn't,

What activities are allowed and not.

And if you're having a hard time thinking of specific messaging or scenarios,

You can just focus on that image of a little drip of water rolling down a roof,

Down a branch,

And solidifying,

And another rolling down and freezing.

As you breathe and as you imagine,

This icicle slowly gets a little bit longer and a little bit longer.

Now,

Let's start to take a look at this icicle.

It's beautiful and sparkling,

Solid.

It's also able to harm.

I invite you to imagine wholeness,

Complexities,

Abundance,

Strengthening the power of the sun so that the temperature of the air rises,

The melting of the ice begins releasing.

I'm going to repeat an affirmation a few times,

And with each line,

You can imagine that part of your icicle starts to melt and starts to drip.

I am complex,

Valued,

And beautiful in my imperfections.

I can hold my experiences while honoring the experiences of others.

I will allow myself to melt and let go of what is no longer serving so that I and we can be whole.

I am complex,

Valued,

And beautiful in my imperfections.

I can hold my experiences while honoring the experiences of others.

I will allow myself to melt and let go of what is no longer serving so that I and we can be whole.

I am complex,

Valued,

Beautiful in my imperfections.

I can hold my experiences while honoring the experiences of others.

I will allow myself to melt and let go of what is no longer serving so that I and we can be whole.

I am complex,

Valued,

And beautiful in my imperfections.

I can hold my experiences while honoring the experiences of others.

I will allow myself to melt and let go of what is no longer serving so that I and we can be whole.

You can allow that icicle in your mind's eye to melt completely.

All of that water that transformed into hardness is now melting.

You can imagine yourself underneath that tree or underneath that ledge as the water melts,

Seeping,

Perhaps rolling across different parts of your skin,

Pulling in the creases of your elbows and your fingers.

You can imagine yourself with the creases of your elbows and the bags underneath your eyes,

Your belly button.

Allow it to seep through those pools,

Through your skin,

Through your muscles and bones,

Through your reservoir.

When you are tired,

Anxious,

Afraid,

Angry,

These past experiences,

Your ability to adapt with new information can nourish you.

I am complex,

Valued,

Beautiful in my imperfections.

I can hold my experiences while honoring the experiences of others.

I will allow myself to melt and let go of what is no longer serving so that I and we can be whole.

Thank you.

Reviews

It's been awhile since a meditation made me cry. Definitely putting this into my regular rotation.