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 2, 2023
Transcript
Welcome to Project Sanctus' Embodied Anti-Racism Mindfulness Practice.
Right,
Every Thursday morning we go live.
So it's Thursday morning where I am,
And we don't know when you're watching or participating,
But this is our,
We call it walking each other home,
Because our,
In doing our embodied practices,
Embodied mindfulness practices,
We we just learn to be able to be in challenges and difficult conversations and experiences in,
As an anti-racist,
As actively dismantling systems of oppression.
So let's start with just breathing.
I want to start there.
Follow the natural rhythm of your breath.
Inhale,
And I exhale.
And then I want to move into actually intentionally slowing it down and taking the breath deeper,
Like breathing into the belly.
Maybe you put your hand on your belly and feel,
You know,
Your belly rise and fall.
So just gently slow the breath.
With each exhale,
Drop your shoulders a little bit more,
Just so your spine is just a little straighter.
Don't have to sit ramrod straight,
But just so we're not kind of hunched.
We want to push the shoulders back just a little bit to open the chest,
To open the heart,
To open the breathing,
Open ourselves to being a little bit braver,
Open ourselves to regulate our own emotional state,
And open ourselves to support others in regulating their emotions,
In regulating their angst.
So together we regulate our challenges.
And by regulate,
I mean,
You know,
Unhook the amygdala,
Come back into the body,
And move into the world from a place of strength,
From a place of a non-anxious presence,
A place that has no urgency,
No perfection.
Take a few more breaths.
See if you can take it just a little bit deeper.
And can you find yourself slowing down just a little bit?
In today's practice is to dream with our ancestors,
To dream with our ancestors.
And I wanted to focus on this because we are a couple days into Black History Month,
And I know a lot of people are focusing on that,
And posting memes,
And perhaps having conversations.
And I want to dream with our ancestors because it's all of our ancestors that brought us to where we are today.
And rather than just one month of focusing on Black history,
We can focus every day because that is American history.
So focus every day on our ancestors,
Connecting with them,
Having intentional time with them.
Locked within our ancestors is a great deal of knowledge and wisdom.
And we are bound to our ancestors,
Whether one generation away or five.
And there are some people who can go back 10,
11,
12 generations.
But our lives are bound with them.
The things that make us who we are,
Our personalities,
Our strengths,
Our weaknesses,
We've inherited.
Of course,
Some are taught,
But largely we've inherited.
Maybe we see them in a dream.
Sometimes we dream about them,
And in the dreams,
We are given love,
We are given deeper understanding of our life today.
Sometimes I daydream,
Or sometimes I'm reading about ancestors.
And I remember and I feel that bond with the past,
And I can sit with that and imagine what my ancestors are bringing to me.
What are they telling me?
And also to remind me that I will be somebody's ancestor.
And maybe somewhere down the road,
Someone will be doing what I'm doing,
Imagining,
Dreaming.
I can be in someone's dream someday.
And when we can see our place in this,
In our lineage,
Right,
It's a chain that goes back generations,
Whether you can see the generations or not,
Or have actual paperwork,
We can still recognize and see and honor how fundamental it is to connect to our ancestors.
Because we are not,
We don't do this alone.
I'm not alone.
I just didn't pop out of nowhere.
I come from many places from many people,
And they have paved the way to bring me right here,
Where I can be with my body,
Heal my trauma,
Learn my place in the world,
Have an understanding of justice,
Of liberation.
So take a couple more breaths and bring your attention to your feet and feel your feet or see them in your imagination as though they are roots moving into earth and feel earth reaching back to you.
And just breathe as you imagine your feet as roots into earth.
See the roots moving.
They don't just move down into earth,
But they move to the left,
To the right,
In every direction,
Roots move.
As a reminder that I am not alone,
As I'm bathed in this earth,
In this earth energy,
As I see roots spreading,
It reminds me that I am not alone,
That my liberation is tied to yours.
Your liberation is only possible because of mine.
So I need you.
We need each other.
Let's take a couple more deep breaths.
And in our imagination,
Moving our attention from our feet and our roots and earth,
Let's move our attention upward to sky,
To sunlight,
To light coming down through the top of your head,
To light moving into your spine.
Breathe a little bit slower as you imagine that light coming into the head and down your spine.
Imagine the shoulders dropping a little bit more from the light.
And as the earth energy was moving into your feet and now move that slowly up the legs,
Imagine the sunlight moving down into your torso.
And these energies meet and they swirl around and they connect.
They remind us that we are connected to all life.
And because we are connected to all life,
Everything is possible.
Take another deep breath,
Inhale,
And a big exhale and feel your body expanding.
Feel the edges of your body,
Your hands,
Your arms,
Your feet,
Your legs.
Feel the edges moving out as you become more and more connected to all life.
Take another big inhale and with the exhale,
Feel yourself still expanding a little bit more.
And in that place of expansion,
In that place of connection with all life,
Imagine a safe place.
It's a place that is not in time or space,
But it's a place where you connect to your ancestral loved ones.
It's a place where there's only love.
Take a moment and see yourself connecting to your loved ones.
Even if you don't even know who they are,
Just imagine connecting back one generation,
Two generations,
Four,
Five,
Just imagine what they might look like.
They're ready to meet you.
They're ready to be in conversation with you about freedom.
They're ready to be in conversation about how to care and love for you.
They're ready to be in conversation to care and love for you.
You so that you can care and love for others.
And then gently ask them if they have a message for you.
Ask them if they have a message.
Have a conversation.
Let them know your desire for liberation.
Let them know your desire to,
Let them know your desire to,
To dismantle to dismantle the system of supremacy within you.
If you're a white body,
Let them know of your desire to dismantle a system of racism that lives as oppression and dehumanization.
If you are a non-white body,
Focus on the breath to slow yourself down,
To take your time.
Don't rush.
Just sit,
Ponder,
Wait,
Listen.
This is a place beyond time or any particular place.
Just listen.
Ask them if they have a message for you.
Maybe they would like to share their own pain from their past.
Perhaps they offer an image of what they hope for and what they hope for for you.
Whatever form that connection comes in,
Just be patient,
Empathy,
Love,
Relationship,
And just continue to breathe.
Maybe put your hand on your heart and ask,
What would you like to talk about?
Don't rush.
And know that if there isn't anything specific that that comes forward for you,
You can return to this place.
You can return to this safe space anytime of any day.
And when you're ready,
Say thank you.
Say thank you to the ancestors.
Take a breath.
Imagine being your ancestor's wildest dream.
So we settle back into our space right here and right now.
Maybe look around your room to orient yourself to being right here and right now.
All possibilities are stand right before each one of us individually and collectively.
So bring our attention to the breath again.
Back to the movement of our body as you breathe in and out.
And then gently when you're ready,
You can open your eyes and know that you are already loved.
You already belong.
And the path to your freedom,
A path to our collective liberation,
Is clear.
And we affirm that as we take another deep breath and move through the rest of our day.
