Walking Each Other Home - July 14, 2022

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.

Transcript

Welcome to our weekly walking each other home embodied anti-racism mindfulness practices where we spend maybe 20 minutes,

30 at the most,

20 minutes mostly online and then we may talk in our little Zoom room privately for a few minutes.

But it's the practice of,

You know,

Mindfulness practices remind us to come home to ourselves,

Come home to our bodies,

Come home to all of ourselves.

You know,

When we are activated,

When we are triggered,

You know,

We react.

And you know,

Some of it's biology and science and some of it then is also learned behavior and we can become defensive or angry or,

You know,

We just sort of shrink in within ourselves and go quiet.

So the embodied practices are really to encourage us and invite us to come home,

To,

You know,

Build our ability to be in difficult conversations,

To do our own healing work.

You know,

Mindfulness practice is paying attention to life as it unfolds,

Grounded in the body,

Grounded in the breath,

And allowing that awareness to settle our mind,

To increase our presence,

You know,

Increase our awareness of our presence with others and our presence with ourselves,

As well as to increase,

You know,

Our consciousness of understanding how interconnected we are.

So we come to this space to build the practice of embodied anti-racism because it's not just all out here and doing this and reading this book and going to this workshop and these practices.

It also is an internal.

We build resilience.

We build our ability to stay in conversations to deepen our community because things are tough and they're probably going to get tougher before they get any easier.

But we individually and collectively get to learn how to be in what's hard and what's tough.

So I wanted to talk about,

Today I wanted to talk about and kind of focus on the getting over ourselves.

So let's just,

Before I kind of lead into that and be mindful about,

You know,

Getting over myself,

Let's just pause as we always do and begin with the breath.

I call it a collective act of solidarity where we take a big breath in and exhale.

And just do a few of those,

Just do a few of the breaths with each inhale,

Bring the breath a little bit lower into the body.

You don't have to change the pace of it.

It's always about what's comfortable for you,

Not what you think it's supposed to be like or how somebody else says it should be,

But how it's comfortable for you.

So let's just take a minute and do that.

And again,

Just move the breath a little bit lower into the belly,

Into the hips,

Down the legs.

And while I've focused on this topic before,

The getting over ourself,

I just wanted to practice more with that in terms of locating myself as part of something bigger.

So we pause for a moment and let's reflect on what is going on in the outside world.

What's going on in the outside world that may be causing some anxiety,

Discomfort?

What's going on outside of my body,

Outside of my home,

Maybe at work,

Maybe just what we see on the news in your town,

Country,

Another country?

Anything that comes up where you feel the tension,

You feel the discomfort,

You feel the urge to run away.

What are the urges that come up as you reflect on what's going on in the outside world?

And allow that tension and contraction or discomfort,

Just give it space.

Allow it a place right here.

Whatever space you're at,

Just allow it to have a space.

And you don't even have to bring all of it,

Just a little nibbling.

Just nibble,

Nibbling,

Not gorging.

So what is going on in the outside world that leaves me lost,

Confused,

Numb,

Disappointed,

Hopeless?

And if it feels really big,

Just take a little nibble,

Just a little piece and bring it to the table.

With that little piece at the table,

With that little piece kind of in front of you,

What's your relationship to that?

What does it have to do with you?

What images come to mind about it?

Do you see colors?

Shapes?

And what thoughts arise?

What story do you have about this little thing in front of you?

What's the meaning that you've given it?

How have you kept yourself to yourself?

How have we kept ourselves kind of by ourselves so that I don't have to even acknowledge that this little nibble that I've brought into my space even exists or even exists as something much larger?

Have I kept myself isolated from it or separate from it?

And if so,

How?

Have I chosen to just go watch a movie or TV?

Have I chosen to get on social media or play a game?

Have I chosen to just go read a book,

To go eat,

Go shopping?

Maybe I've just chosen to go to bed and pull a blanket over my head.

I've chosen to not talk about how I feel with others.

Have I chosen to ignore how it impacts my body?

Take a deep breath.

What has been the cost?

What's been the cost of keeping myself away from this little nibble?

What has been the cost to me by keeping myself isolated?

What has been the cost of keeping myself what I've labeled as safe?

What has been the cost of keeping myself away from this little nibble?

And how can I move myself from just the self,

Kind of get over myself and move from the isolation or move from the blinders I have about this little nibble that I have invited into my space this morning?

What's a way that I can move from isolation to connecting to it and then connecting to the larger whole from which I took that nibble?

What is something that's uniquely you?

Because there is power and glory and joy and aliveness in ourself as a unique individual.

But how do I embrace that?

How can I move from moments when I'm in a vacuum to being part of that larger what's going on out in the world?

So let's return to that little nibble.

We're not gorging on the big things that are so traumatic,

That are difficult,

That are harmful,

That are violent,

That are,

That stress,

That numb,

That confuse,

Right?

That overwhelm.

We're just,

We're not going to gorge on all of it.

We take a little nibble that we brought into our space this morning.

Now how do we,

How do we bridge to that nibble?

How do we eat that little nibble,

So to speak?

Because it is a part of us.

We are a part of it.

So in this space right here and right now,

How do I metabolize that little nibble?

How do I take that in so that I might heal me as well as that little piece?

What is it gifting me?

I'm just going to be in the quiet for a moment and you imagine taking in that little piece and seeing where it goes in the body,

Feeling the energy and imagining yourself healing it and bringing it home.

Or it is always an unlived and unloved piece of ourselves.

So we bring it home,

We nourish it,

We transform it,

And we move back into the world in ways that are more compassionate,

With greater kindness,

With greater strength.

So let's just be silent for a moment and imagine taking in that little nibble and you participating in its metamorphosis.

Great.

Okay.

Let's do our collective act of solidarity,

Which is a big breath in.

And a gentle,

Healthy exhale.

And give ourselves permission to dream to heal.

Move beyond the imagination that we've inherited.

To imagine a world of love,

Justice,

And liberation for all.

Because we are the first responders on the front lines of our future.

We can imagine a better world.

And we can imagine a world of peace and love.

And a world of happiness and joy that we all deserve.

And so with each little nibble that we take from what goes on in our world that needs our attention,

Needs our healing,

We can begin to move beyond the imagination that we've inherited.

And we do this individually,

And we do this collectively.

Thank you for joining us once again.

On walking each other home,

Our embodied anti-racism mindfulness practice.

And take care.