Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Practice

In honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg (March 15, 1933 - September 18, 2020). In recognition of her fierce courageous work for women's rights, human rights and her love of justice for all. May her memory be a blessing.

Transcript

Something happens inside of us when we hear news of a passing of a great person,

Like Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

It's helpful to sit with that for a few minutes,

Just to see the images that come to mind and some of the quotes and how hard she fought to stay alive through this election cycle in particular.

Just the courage and persistence and commitment and her decades of service.

There is an instinct to honor a great person's passing with silence.

And then when it's somebody who's affected a wider group or the wider culture the way she has,

We have a common experience.

Notice what comes to mind when you think about her.

There's so many iconic pictures of her wearing her Supreme Court Justice robes and collar and her face.

She had a fierceness about her often in her pictures,

A seriousness.

Let's sit with the images for a little bit to see what's here for you as we honor the life and the legacy of a great person,

Someone with great courage.

And I imagine that for most of us there's a lot of different kinds of thoughts coming through.

Some of them are about Ruth.

There's probably some fear.

She improved our lives and helped us so much with her commitment to gender equality but also to fairness and justice.

She's a fierce social justice warrior and she had the power to really have a big impact.

Notice your breath.

Notice your body.

Stay grounded in this moment,

Especially as your mind might be going to other kinds of thoughts.

Is Trump going to ram through a really right-wing person into the court before election day?

What would the impact of that have?

Even for people who are not American U.

S.

Citizens,

We seem to have a lot at stake here.

So there could very well be fearful thoughts about what's going to happen in the election.

It tends to trigger all the related thoughts as well.

Let's work with that for a moment if there is that kind of distraction from the admiration and the grieving for Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

And if there is concern or fear,

Notice where you feel that in your body.

Notice the thoughts that might be coming up.

If you could stay present in your body right now in this moment,

We orient ourselves to the room we're in through looking around or touching,

Hold our hands or notice our feet,

Our seat.

And we very naturally look forward to the future as well.

It's not unreasonable that we have a fear response to something like this.

We've lost a champion of human rights.

We don't know what's going to happen next.

This is a really good place to use the tools of tapping or tracing.

If an image or words are persistent,

Tap on your forehead a little bit.

Take your attention into the sound and the sensation of the tapping.

Just notice that for a moment.

Open your eyes and put the images or the words on a sheet of paper on the other side of the room.

Put them in a frame.

Whenever we're really carried away into something,

A thought,

Words we hear,

Images we see,

That's a very useful tool.

And then as that kind of loosens a bit,

It fades a bit or it's not as intense.

And we can come back and notice what's going on in our body.

There might be an unsettledness.

There might be a clench in your gut,

Tension through your shoulders,

Your mouth.

Let's see if you could let that release for a little bit.

And then come back to whatever your favorite images or quotes or memories are of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The fear can distract us,

Can kind of pull us into something,

Because there's an urgency to that.

So as much as you can for the next several minutes,

Let's just focus back in on her life and our relationship with her,

Whatever that was.

Some people knew her personally,

Most of us knew her by her work and the media reporting on her work,

The memes and quotes over decades of her work with the Supreme Court and before she became a justice.

Let's sit with that.

You could bring your hand to your heart if you want,

Or just kind of be present in your own body as you remember this great person who has passed.

She really made her life count,

And we really admire someone with that kind of courage.

She had a strong foundation of ethics,

Principles.

She was fierce.

And she was also very human.

Some of the pictures that are flooding Facebook today are of Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a younger woman.

She was beautiful.

And pictures of her laughing,

Quite a contrast to the fierceness of her later years,

A lot of the pictures of her as a Supreme Court justice are more serious and fierce.

It really brings up the richness and complexity of a human life.

And for many of us,

She was a role model.

She is a role model as someone who speaks truth to power,

Who's authentic and real and passionate about justice.

One of the things that comes to mind as well is when I was reading her autobiography,

She was talking about how even though people on the Supreme Court had really different principles and ideals,

That they all got along and respected each other.

And I was thinking how difficult that must have been.

And yet they found a way,

And I would imagine that she was a role model for that,

To really connect as people and to have that respect for each other.

That's part of what we admire about her.

And as you continue to stay present in your own body,

Notice if there's anything that's distracting you from that.

It would be very likely that most of us would have some comparisons with her,

Her courage,

Her dedication and service to humanity.

She lived a big life.

She was on a big stage.

And if there's anything coming to mind,

Any shaming of yourself,

See if you could look at that and hold that with some compassion for yourself.

And also just some kind of realistic looking at that.

Not everybody has a life on that big of a stage.

And there might be some comparison too of her courage and our courage.

Times when we've stepped back from something,

We've been silent.

And there are such a lot of complex reasons for that trauma being one of them.

We all are different people and that was her thing.

She spoke truth to power.

She was fierce.

And so could we appreciate that in her and appreciate what is there in ourselves too.

We all have elements of that.

So to not get into some kind of a perfectionist thinking about this when it comes to ourselves,

Take a moment to really bring up and bring forward some times,

Some examples of times.

When you stood up for yourself,

You stood up for someone else.

You noticed a child that was suffering and reached out to them or made a donation or volunteered somewhere,

Spoke up at a party when there was a joke that wasn't funny.

Whatever it might be,

Take a moment to acknowledge to yourself that this is a continuum,

That there's a lot of complex reasons including trauma for where we are on this.

And can we admire someone like Ruth Bader Ginsburg without making ourselves wrong or deficient in any way?

Take a few deep breaths,

Relax your body,

And let yourself be present with what is,

With kindness and compassion.

And maybe even to look into being inspired by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her life and her courage.

If you could do something or make some small shift in the days ahead that would honor her,

What might that be?

Be aware of your body,

Your breath,

Stay in this moment and just let yourself imagine that for a moment.

What might you do?

What could you offer in the days ahead and through the rest of your life that would be in alignment with her courage,

Her commitment,

Her passion for justice?

Feel that in your body,

Feel that in your energy.

Stay connected with your breath.

And then coming back to honoring her long life,

Any loss or grief at her death.

Sit with that for a moment again of silence.

May her memory be a blessing.

Reviews

Wonderful. Thank you for acknowledging her. May her memory be a blessing. ✡️

Wow I’m thankful I discovered this one! Thank you for honoring The Honorable!

Thank you for creating the space to have an opportunity to honor her personally and to collectively share the greif of what this loss represents. 🙏

Thank you. How very helpful. I have let myself go into a tailspin after this news, and I feel that your gift of this meditation has helped me stabilize. I will return to this multiple times in the coming days and weeks, I suspect.

This exactly what I needed ; a way to work through the grief, the fear, the self comparison. Such a large life as hers allows the rest of us to live ours in smaller, yet impactful ways and to keep fighting for justice and equality. Thank you 🙏🏻

Thank you for this timely piece! RBG was a true champion and has inspired me to carry her torch. This was a wonderful meditation to allow me to focus on the positive in the world, not the fear.