Walking Each Other Home
Through mindfulness practices, focusing on antiracism, we increase our emotional resilience, recognize our biases, and make real our common humanity. "Walking Each Other Home" is a guided embodied meditation practice. Recorded - Feb 9, 2023
Transcript
Welcome to Walking Each Other Home,
Embodied anti-racism practice.
Actually,
It's a mindfulness practice.
I'm Reverend Kelly Isla,
Co-founder of Project Sanctus.
And every time I hear myself use the word mindfulness,
What I hear in my head is that in any moment I can start again,
That in every moment I can begin anew.
And that's really what mindfulness is.
I think sometimes,
I know for me,
I can kind of get caught up in mindfulness as something really special or something to attain,
When really it's just the practice of,
Oh,
I've wandered away,
No shame,
No blame,
Nothing wrong with that,
And I can start anew.
And in starting anew,
What might that look like?
How might I want to be?
How might I want to change my words?
How might I want to soften myself physically,
Emotionally?
Just keep in mind that idea.
Oh,
Like,
Yay,
It's a gift,
It's a present,
I get to unwrap it.
Not,
Oh,
Shoot,
There I go again,
Wandering off.
But mindfulness is the opportunity,
The gift to just start over in that moment,
Knowing that there are infinite possibilities.
And I get to choose.
At the core of it,
It really is a practice,
It is a self-care practice.
And embodied anti-racism work always has within the self-care,
Caring for the self.
And when I care for the self,
It supports me in moving out into the world and being in difficult conversations.
So this mindfulness practice is a caring for self practice,
So that when I do start over,
I'm coming more from a place of being centered and grounded and settled,
A place of connection rather than disconnect.
So this is the practice I'm going to do today is a racial awareness practice,
An embodied racial awareness practice that is a version inspired by Rhonda McGee,
Who wrote The Inner Work of Social Justice,
Which if you haven't read,
You need to read it,
Because it's a book for everyone.
And it's a way to learn to do our own individual work so that we also embody collective care.
Just notice if at some point you really,
It's not about,
You might feel uncomfortable,
You might feel unsettled.
That's fine.
That's what we want,
Because that's,
We need to know how to be in the discomfort.
And then it can cross the line into really being overwhelmed and really just triggered.
And so we don't want that.
So give yourself permission to step away if that occurs.
We want to start by consciously sitting in a way that supports you.
Could have your eyes open,
Could be closed.
You could be lying down on a bed on the floor,
Sitting in a comfy chair.
Whatever you consciously choose to sit,
Wherever and however,
You want to do it in a way that supports you in having a sense of your own dignity.
Right?
And a sense of your own dignity is a sense of your enoughness.
Right?
And enough is not a measure of something.
It's a consciousness.
It's a sense of your own dignity is a sense of,
I'm doing the best I can today and nobody gets to measure what my best is.
No one gets to discern or define my best.
And if you're thinking to yourself,
Well,
My best wasn't good enough.
Now we're into the scarcity thinking.
You know,
Our culture is built on separation,
Supremacy and scarcity.
So you want to sit in a way that gives you a sense of your own dignity,
Of enoughness,
Of I'm good just as I am.
There's no such thing as perfection.
I'm good.
Right?
Maybe put your hand on your chest.
Give yourself large doses of grace.
Put your feet flat on the floor to feel that support from the ground beneath you.
And take a few deep breaths and just focus on that sensation of breathing in and exhaling in and out.
And just notice the way that simply breathing,
Right?
Notice that by paying attention to breathing in and breathing out,
It provides life.
You can appreciate the support that exists for you right now.
Not just the chair or the bed or the floor,
But maybe something else comes to mind that supports you in this moment.
As we just sit and breathe,
We're going to bring our attention back to the breath again and again.
And then just allow yourself to turn toward what you have personally experienced around race and racism.
This is not a zero-sum game.
Every person is harmed by racism.
So turn toward what you've personally experienced around race and racism and go slowly,
Go slowly.
What memories emerge?
What have you not spoken about in years or maybe ever?
Something that conveys what you've learned about race could be experiences from many,
Many years ago to maybe last week.
Now expand your awareness to notice the sensations in your body.
Where as you have these memories,
These personal experiences around race and racism and the memories you still carry around that,
Notice where in your body,
The sensations in your body and the thoughts that are arising and the emotions.
And as best you can,
Allow yourself to feel the full measure of your emotions.
Maybe sorrow,
Confusion,
Anger,
Rage,
And just experience as much of your feelings as you can without becoming overwhelmed.
But experience as much as your feelings as you can just in this moment and reflect on what you know deep in your bones about race and its intersection with other aspects of your lived experience,
Your gender,
Your class,
Your religion,
Your language,
Your lineage,
Sexual orientation.
For any of us,
This could be something difficult to do.
How race intersects with these other aspects of our lived experience,
Of how we identify ourselves.
And for those that are not black,
Mainly white bodies,
You may have been shielded from the ways in which your lived experience bears the marks of America's ongoing race wars.
You know,
Experiences that white bodies travel with are often very subtle.
I often hear people tell me that they don't really have anything to reflect on here,
But you do.
You know,
Every racialized group,
Asian,
Multiracial,
Indigenous,
Latinx,
Every racialized group that we've created in the United States is really made up of people from various cultural heritage groups,
Unique stories and histories.
So there's complexity and there's pain and denial that's woven into our experience of race.
So let's pause for a moment,
Take a breath in and breathe out.
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
Bring your attention back to the support that exists right now for you.
Very simply,
The chair that you're sitting on,
The feet on the floor,
Maybe you're lying down on a sofa or a bed.
Just keep breathing.
Notice the sensations in your body from reflecting on how you have personally experienced race and racism.
Notice where in your body you have sensations.
And again,
It could just be numb,
Numbness.
Nothing is a sensation.
And then think about how the spaces where you spend your time these days at work,
With friends,
By yourself at home,
With family,
Maybe a spiritual community.
So think about your days and how you spend your time,
The spaces that you're in and notice,
Notice the space in your mind's eye,
You can bring it to life.
And as you kind of look around at the spaces,
They may be thought of as having a racial character or feeling about them.
What about the spaces where you spend your time might be difficult or challenging or even unwelcoming,
Which is largely unconscious.
But for people who are raced differently than you are,
Are there ways you can readily imagine alleviating that difficulty?
There is something to do for each one of us to alleviate that difficulty.
And it is for each one of us to discern.
As we turn toward closing our practice this morning,
Come back to the breath,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
As you move through the day,
If this practice sort of pops into your consciousness,
Consider what you have come to think about these various ways of labeling people in terms of race.
Notice your level of comfort or discomfort.
Stay present to the body.
Right,
That's the mindfulness piece.
Oh,
I can do this again.
I can start anew.
I can start over right here.
Breathe in,
Breathe out.
Notice the pain or the suffering,
The discomfort.
And if there are ways you can alleviate that for yourself,
And maybe for another.
Sense into the suffering that you are experiencing in this moment.
Tell yourself,
I give myself large doses of grace.
I give myself large doses of grace.
Which is another way to practice self-compassion.
Self-compassion,
Which includes the aspect of common humanity.
And I want to mention that as our closing,
To remind us that each one of us is a part of all humanity,
All sentient beings.
Suffering is a part of being alive.
So allow yourself a few moments of kind attention.
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
And if you're experiencing discomfort or suffering,
Or even numbness or confusion or anger,
How does that connect you to the rest of humanity?
How is that an experience that is common through humanity?
And how does that connect you to all sentient life?
So we'll take a couple more breaths.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Inhale,
Exhale.
Remembering that mindfulness is the gift of being able to start over right where you are,
Any way that we choose.
Thank you again for joining us.
And may you know peace.
May you know connection.
