Envision A World Centered In Justice

20:45

Envision A World Centered In Justice

Rated

5

Type

talks

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

11

Explore what a world without oppression would feel like in your body. Move through short reflections on economic, racial, and gender justice, noticing what would not be there anymore and what would take its place. Feel into more time, more ease, less fear walking to your car at night. Be strong. Stay inspired. We don't have to limit ourselves to the world as it is. We can work towards something that's so much better.

Feminism Visualization Community Support Mental Health Visualization Technique

Meet your Teacher

Halifax Canada

Meet your Teacher

Halifax Canada

Transcript

What is it that's creating that feeling of hypervigilance? That's part of what we're gonna look at today from a social justice lens. I've been an activist for many, Many decades. Really understand through experience and contemplation and activism how a lot of these things work. Organizing feminist activism. I had a lot of rage. I couldn't understand why the systemic oppression continued to exist. I still have a lot of rage about that at times. It's wrong. And we feel helpless. And one way to work with that is to get together with other people. Another way is to work with it internally. One of the things that I got deep fatigue with in feminist organizing was we were fighting against the patriarchy. Against systemic oppression, Sexism, Violence against women and children. There was a lot of things we were fighting against, But what were we working for? And so I think that's one of the reasons why we get kind of discouraged is because there are all of these things that we need to be active around and get together with other people and change. And some of those things have certainly changed and some of them haven't. Not as much as we would like. These things are quite intractable, Racism, Sexism, Patriarchy, Capitalism, Financial oppression, Those kinds of things. So having said all of that, Which is all kind of the difficult side of that. What are you inspired to do? What kind of a world would we live in? Why are you inspired to work for social justice? So we can look at that in a big picture, What comes to mind, What does it feel like in your heart? Really waking up to privilege and oppression and the environment. And have a lot of passion and a lot of overwhelm in some ways. Why is this so bad? And how did it get this way? What can we do? Those are questions that we work with on an ongoing basis. And also I think it's very helpful to understand a long-term work that we need to do around social justice. And there are a lot of people doing it. Let's set that aside now and go into some visualizations around what would be our world if it was centered in justice. As you're going through these, If something feels a bit too intense, You can always open your eyes, You can look around. For the next several minutes, We're really working with envisioning a world without oppression. Envisioning a world centered in justice. So feel that in your body and we'll get more specific because the more specific the better with something like this. So if this world was centered in justice, What would be something that you challenge right now that wouldn't be here anymore? So it might be a government making decisions about the environment that aren't good for people or the land or the animals. What would not be here anymore? And then what would be in its place? Might be a world where we had more say. The common people had more say, Not just the people with a lot of money. What would be something that you currently feel pretty strongly about, You feel that you need to challenge, But that it would not be there, And then what would be in its place? So many elements to this. If there was economic justice, What would your life be like and what would the life be for other people as well? So a lot of people, Especially in the last few years, Are working more than one job or working a lot of hours just to try and put groceries on the table and make the rent. And that might be your situation. You might have a bit more room there. You might have a bit more ease. But we care. A lot of us are very angry at the concentration of wealth in the 1%. So if we had economic justice, What would our social media feed look like, For instance? Let yourself feel that in your body. Working that hard and feeling pressure, Feeling stress, Has a huge impact on our physical health, Our mental, Emotional health. Our relationships, There's enough wealth in the world now for people to work a few days a week, If we had economic justice. What would that be like for you if you were working two or three days a week at a job that you enjoyed? A lot of people would do more community service. Be more people volunteering because we'd have more time, We'd feel more connected. What would you use that time for? In Ireland, They've just passed something that says that if you're an artist, You can have a guaranteed income. And so if you're an artist, What would it be like to have a guaranteed income? Or even if you don't consider yourself an artist, Maybe you would explore music more. Or you would paint. Or you would help your neighbors. What would your life be like two or three days a week of work if we wanted to work? And if there's thoughts coming into your mind about, Well, These lazy people, Just let that go. It's just cultural conditioning. It's not accurate. Most people, If we have health, Physical, Mental, Emotional health, Want to work and contribute to something meaningful. What would that be for you? A couple of days a week and then the rest of your time, What would you do? Notice your body and your breath. Let yourself bring that into your heart, Your mind in some detail. If I wasn't worried about money, If I wasn't working all the time, Wasn't stressed, What would open up? One thing that would happen is that people wouldn't be in a survival response. So when we're thinking about economic justice, Sometimes we're thinking about people at lower and middle income levels are kind of scrambling for the scraps. But in fact, The problem is the concentration of wealth at the top. Trickle-down economics might be something they say in politics, But in fact it never works. It just concentrates wealth at the top. If you weren't economically stressed, If we had enough, We had enough for shelter and food. And for some fun. We had time. Let's take that for another minute or so. What would that be like? And this is possible. We have the resources for it. We don't have the political will for it. What would your life be like? Notice if your body softens. If your mind goes into some, Ooh, Yeah, What would I do with my time? We're going to do this as a series of short reflections and inquiries. Is something you can certainly come back to. Sometimes envisioning what's on the other side, What would happen if there was justice in that area, Gives us the opportunity to be more inspired to work for that as well. So let's let the economic justice move to the side. What about racial justice? If there was no racism. If people were not judged by their color of their skin. The ethnic group, Race that they are. What would change for you and for people who are other than you, Different than you? I'm white, I'm white settler. So one of the things that would change for me would be that I would have the satisfaction of knowing that there was equality. There wouldn't be white guilt. There wouldn't be guilt around the colonization and what happened with indigenous people, What happened with slavery. A lot of that has to do with money and power, Of course. Also, When I'm friends with somebody, I would be able to just be friends with someone and they could just be friends with me. Racism, The impact of racism, The damage of racism, The microaggressions, The conditioning wouldn't be here. So let yourself take a bit of time with this. A world without racial oppression, Without systemic injustice around race. Let yourself feel that in your body as well. Be as specific as you can. You might bring up a memory of a time when you felt awkward around something or where you could really feel a person of color was being harmed and you did speak up, You didn't speak up. There's so much of our social interactions are influenced by the color of our skin. Certainly the amount of privilege that we have is very highly influenced by that. As well as economics. So I'm not doing these in any particular order, Just looking at some of the main systems of injustice. Racial injustice, If there was no suppression, Oppression, Around race. What would be different. And one of the things that we notice when we're working with a variety of topics around justice is the intersectionality of all of this. Racism environment, How much we work, Economic injustice. They're all linked. They're all part of a system. Patriarchy, Capitalism, Domination. Yes, Neighborhoods would be more integrated, There'd be less segregation. We would have an opportunity without all that cultural conditioning that we have. We wouldn't have so much fear or anger towards people as a race. One of the things that we get to realize when we have interactions with people is that race is one component, And we're talking about real people. We're not talking about structure, Even though we're highly influenced by the structures. So let's set aside that for a moment and bring in gender. In particular, To get more specific perhaps, As a woman or as a child, So we're talking about powerlessness partly. If we talk about sexism, Systemic oppression by gender, One of the things that comes to mind right away is violence against women and children. Another thing is the economic oppression. In the 80s, The statistic was women earned 60% of what men make. And that has changed a little, But it hasn't changed. It's not 100%, That's for sure. That economic suppression means that we're not as powerful, We don't have as many choices. It would be interesting to see if we all had enough economic security, Would we stay in these relationships that are abusive? That's not the only reason people stay, But it's one of them. So what would your life be like, Whether you're male, Female, Non-binary, Trans, However you identify? What would the world be like and what would your world be like? If there was no oppression based on gender. So for someone in a woman's body, Part of that is I would not be so scared. There's a fear that all women have. We don't know which men in particular are going to be violent towards us, But we know that some of them are and are capable of that and do that. We know that many women are beaten and killed. If you're in a male body, You have a different experience. There's a lot of things you never have to think about. You walk to your car at night. Most men don't give it a second thought. All women do. What would be not there? What would it be like to live in a world where you weren't scared of gendered violence? And just saying that, I can feel the activation in my body thinking about that. So take a few breaths perhaps, Big inhale. Release that out of your body. Move around a little. What would it be like to not be scared of someone who's in a male body or a more powerful body? There are nuances to this. It's not all men. It's not only men. Overall, That is the pattern that we are living with. So if I wasn't scared to speak up. To be who I wanted to be. I wasn't scared to walk outside at night. What would life be like? There be more ease. What if I wasn't afraid all the time? And then feel that in your body. If someone says something to me that I disagree with, I can just say, Well, You know, This is how I feel about that. And we wouldn't be scared of the consequences. And also, If there was more economic justice based on gender, I would have more options. When we look at fawning, For instance, As one of the survivor responses. Women generally fawn to men more than men fawn to women because men generally have more power. And fawning happens from the lowest to the highest. What would change? It might be the way that you interact with people. There's so many things. And so in these little snippets of inquiry, Pick one, And let's take a minute or so just to feel into that. Bring it to mind. Maybe it's an image of you walking freely back to your car, Not worrying about something, Or whatever it is for you. And just feel it in your body for a moment. So as we're moving towards the end of the inquiry, In a world without oppression, We would certainly be less stressed. We'd have more comfort, More power. We can feel more connected. Maybe our decisions around the world would be made with counsels of people in the community that are most affected, Not just by the people who have the most money. So what would that be like? We're free from oppression. Let yourself feel into that for a moment. I'm not stressed anymore, I have enough time. I have enough money for my basic needs. I'm not worried about being old and on the street. We would have a health care system that took care of people physically, Mentally. We have social structures that we're healthy. And if people were not in a fight, Flight, Freeze, Or fawn response so much. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And whether it's ourselves or other people, If our nervous systems felt safe. Everything would change. Deep, Double inhale through the nose. Long exhale like you're breathing out through a straw. Do that a couple of times. And if you're inspired, Come back to this once in a while. When we're in a system, It feels like that's the only way that it could ever be. 80s, I'm not sure the exact year, But when the Berlin Wall came down. It had been years of organizing and struggle for that. And all of a sudden, It seemed to the people in the West, It seemed like, Whoa, What happened there? And all of a sudden people from East Germany and West Germany who'd perhaps been separated for decades. We're able to visit each other again. And so something that seemed like that's going to be the way it is forever, All of a sudden it's not that way. So when we envision a world with justice instead of injustice, So many things are gonna be different. Our school systems, The way we interact in communities. We shouldn't lose hope for this. I believe that there's so much good heartedness and so much goodwill. And I also know that so many of us are struggling with our nervous systems. And struggling with our circumstances. These are real-life high-stakes situations that we're in. Coming back into some kind of truth that we're not necessarily stuck in these systems. They might be hard to work with. We might have to really band together. If you're in a democracy, You can vote, Even though there's problems with that. But we have power as a whole. As individuals getting together, We have a lot of power that we don't have individually. That we might kind of forget about sometimes. So this is just a random day of inspiration in this inquiry. I'd be interested in doing more around different forms of oppression and injustice. How we can support ourselves doing that kind of work. Just the acknowledgement that we're not alone in this I think is also very helpful. Be kind. Be patient. And be strong. We don't have to limit ourselves to the world as it is. We can work towards something that's so much better.