June 2020 TDM
The Black/Pride issue
Welcome to the June 2020 issue of The Daily Meditator ✌🏾This is your monthly resource for fun, quirky, interesting, and noteworthy happenings in and around the worldwide meditation community—created by author and meditator teacher, Light Watkins. Written and edited by Jordan Pletzer, Kristen Vandivier, Emerson Wolfe, and Light (see our bios at the bottom).
Our mission is simple: to help broaden the horizon of what a daily meditator looks like while providing you with relevant information and timely inspiration for staying committed to your daily practice.
The Black / Pride issue: The United States is seeing a Great Awakening when it comes to comes to black- and brown- bodied experiences. Coupled with the fact that June is Pride Month, we've decided to highlight some marginalized voices within meditation and beyond. You'll also find some celebrity meditation mentions. Let us know what you think!
[ MEDITATION & NEWS ]
Meet the man who recently emerged from a 75-day meditation retreat and found out about this crazy virus... called racism
“What did I miss?” Ahem... Mid-March feels like a lifetime ago, but when Daniel Thorson entered his 75-day Vermont Vipassana retreat, he wasn't expecting to Rip Van Winkle his way into a revolution.
When Thorson returned to the world in early June, he innocently tweeted, "so what did I miss?" and was flooded with pandemic news, racial tensions, and a modern day apocalypse. We expect to leave a silent retreat feeling personally transformed, but I don't think he expected a cultural timewarp when he re-entered reality.
To help him with his re-entry, we decided to focus on some of the wins achieved by activists who have been working tirelessly for this watershed moment:.
The officer who shot Breonna Taylor was fired from duty. He has not yet been charged for murdering an innocent woman in her own home, but we have hope.
The three men who shot Ahmaud Arbery have been indicted on felony murder charges. This should seem like a no-brainer, but Trayvon Martin's death taught us that charges don't always mean conviction
The Supreme Court has upheld DACA. Now, 700,000 migrant youth are safe from deportation.
The Supreme Court also ruled LGBT workers are protected under Civil Rights Act of 1974, which means 8 million workers are now protected from being fired based on someone else's bigotry.
An entire culture is waking up to the effects of violent policing. Some departments are already shifting to restorative justice and radical mental health support models to keep their communities safe.
Bottom line: If you fell asleep at the beginning of 2020 and woke up now, you’d be in a completely different world. And as meditators, we’re here for it. There’s no going back now.
[ MEDITATION & LIFESTYLE ]
Need a little breathing room?
Health and wellness is thankfully no longer simply the domain of white women thanks to pioneers like Jasmine Marie who started Black Girls Breathing, a community space for Black womxn to actively take care of their mental health through meditational breathwork.
Marie didn’t get much traction with yoga studios when presenting the concept of meditation practices catering to Black women, so she did it on her own, hosting meet-ups in cities across the US and creating her own online virtual breathwork series.
Black Girls Breathing creates a safe, accessible and comfortable space that addresses the high levels of stress and causes of stress within the Black community. She makes the point that “Societally and generationally, it’s not been engrained in us to take care of ourselves. We’ve always been in survival mode.”
Bottom line: Here’s to Jasmine Marie for taking her students from surviving to thriving!
[ MEDITATION & ACTIVISM ]
Guided practices for Black Lives
Sometimes you need an extra practice to build resilience, so here is a list of guided meditations by and for marginalized people, from Black Lives Matter meditations to meditations by Black womxn.
Black Lives Matter. Perhaps the most popular Black Lives Matter meditations, Dr. Candice Nicole Hargon's 2017 series helps heal racial trauma. If you're white, be sure to check out the ally + accomplice meditation for cultivating an anti-racist mindset.
Still Lake Meditation. Our friend Tracee Stanley offers a beautiful still Lake meditation to calm the emotional waters within.
Breathwork for challenging emotions. Regina Rocke has a short routine to help manage challenging emotions.
The Modern Therapist leads a 20-minute “mass healing” meditation for justice workers.
Meditation for black women. Monet Marshall and Nia Wilson offer this beautiful 15 minute practice for black womanhood.
10 minute guided meditation for beginners. Clear your thoughts with the phenomenal Jessamyn Stanley.
Daily tools for the revolution. Emotional Freedom Coach Bianca Gabrielle is leading black activists through different tools for increasing resilience.
Teachings for Uncertain Times by Tricycle Mag features teachers of color talking about their experiences in meditation.
Finally, check out Liberate App - a meditation app for/by BIPOC community.
Bottom line: While you can meditate anywhere, anytime, we think it's important to support black teachers.
[ MEDITATION & POP CULTURE ]
Celebs are introducing their kids to meditation during quarantine
The new time out? This month, pop culture is abuzz with meditation mentions about celebs who’ve been taking advantage of the down time to get their kids meditating:
B2K singer Omarion posted the cutest video of his kids meditating for Earth Day back in April. He’s also been teaching them how to do the Wim Hof Method and preaching gratitude toward the earth.
Halle Berry dishes to Womens Health how meditation has been changing her life for the last 20 years. She credits a little dose in the morning with helping her find peace and be an excellent role model for her kids. She also notes how meditation can ripple out into the world and help change the collective energy, and we're feeling that.
Liv Tyler credits her TM practice with helping her be a better mother and dealing with the stress-laden side effects of modern life.
Bottom line: Meditation will help calm the kiddo-chaos. For bonus silence, be sure to include the littles in your practice by challenging them to the quiet game.
[ MEDITATION & TECHNOLOGY ]
Looks like meditation has crossed over into the world of video games
Everyone needs a break, including video game characters. Geralt, the protagonist in the game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt treks around a massive continent on an epic quest to find his quasi-adopted daughter, so just like you and me, he needs to manage his health and stamina. Good thing he can meditate!
In the game, meditation has the same benefits as in real life–it completely restores health, removes any toxicity buildup and will replenish all potions (okay, almost the same).
Players can specify what hour they’d like Geralt to meditate until and for how long, so you can have your own virtual meditation buddy. It is worth noting Geralt cannot meditate while on his horse or in battle: good advice for us all.
Bottom line: If a video game character on an epic quest can find time to meditate, then anyone can!
[ REALITY CHECK ]
Sitting down to rise up
Are you meditating just to meditate? Don’t get us wrong—we love that you sit quietly for your meditation each day, but in addition to the practice, we have to ask ourselves if we are using our meditation to be the change we want to see in the world?
In other words, it’s not enough just to meditate with consistency and be nice to people. We must also use those wonderful benefits we get from meditation to do some good in the world, to stand up for injustice, to help those who don’t have as many resources or as much power in society.
If there’s turmoil in the world, if there’s suffering around us, it’s not a question of “should I help?” The answer is a resounding “Yes!” And the next question should be, “How can I use what I have to do what I can to help ease the suffering in my corner of the world?” And once the answer comes, perhaps in meditation, then get to work.
Bottom line: If you’re meditating, and you don’t feel called to help people on some level, you may need to try another meditation technique. Just saying :)
[ READ. WATCH. LISTEN. ]
Read: Transcending: Trans Buddhist Voices
Edited by two transgender individuals, Transcending brings together more than thirty contributors from both the Mahayana and Theravada traditions to present a vision for a truly inclusive trans Buddhist sangha in the twenty-first century. Shining a light on a new generation of Buddhist role models, this book gives voice to those who have long been marginalized within the Buddhist world and society at large. Read now
Watch: 13th
Meditation is about not ignoring the truth. And to that end, we highly recommend watching this 2016 documentary by Ava DuVernay. The film explores the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States. DuVernay frames the economic history of slavery and post-civil war racist legislation as systems of racial control that continue to disenfranchise black Americans to this day. If you're not sure what the Black Lives Matter movement is all about, watch this. Watch now on Netflix
Listen: At The End of the Tunnel
The Daily Meditator creator and co-editor Light Watkins brings us his new inspirational weekly podcast! At The End of the Tunnel is an interview show that dives deep into the experiences of regular folks who have navigated dark and uncertain times in order to help improve the lives others. Listen Now
[ REPORT FROM THE FIELD ]
What have you gotten from meditation?
Meditation has taught me the importance of getting my ass up off my meditation cushion, and taking brave, aligned actions—for my Self, my family, my community, my people, and the planet. It's taught me how very interconnected we actually are, and how each of us doing our internal work directly affects the whole.
Strangest meditation moment?
I remember when I first started meditating and teachers were trying to get me to do guided visualizations. But back then, I wasn't a visual meditator. So when someone said "imagine a river"... I literally couldn't. And I thought for years I was doing it all wrong—like something was wrong with me. Then I learned we can actually "imagine" with all of our senses. "Imagining" a river could be feeling the water against your skin, or smelling the scent of the fresh air, hearing the rushing water in your head, or tasting it, even. After that my entire practice opened up for me.
Most unexpected benefit of meditation?
Most people think that meditation is just about relaxing, but not to me. Meditation helps me become more alive—more connected to my passions, emotions, things that I care about and causes I believe in. If it weren't for meditation, I couldn't be a conscious activist. If it weren't for this practice, I would still be living someone else's dream.
[ WHO TO FOLLOW ]
Two inclusive IG accounts to
shake up your scroll
Nicole Cardoza
Nicole Cardoza (left) is a social entrepreneur making wellness accessible for everyone. She was on Forbes’ 2017 30 Under 30 and has slayed both the business and wellness worlds. On top of being a founder of Yoga Foster, a nonprofit that gives educators yoga and mindfulness tools for the classroom, she also has spoken to big names like Nike, lululemon, and Harvard University. Nicole is the founder of Reclamation Ventures, a fund that invests in underestimated entrepreneurs making wellness accessible. Follow her on IG @nicolecardoza
ThemsHealth
ThemsHealth is an Instagram-focused community founded by Nina Kassof (right) that brings wellness beyond the binary. Inspired by the names of Women’s Health and Men’s Health magazines, ThemsHealth strives to provide an all-gender inclusive space to talk about and explore health, minus the gendered rhetoric. ThemsHealth delivers in-depth professional advice by non-binary folks about all things health, identity, sexuality, nutrition, and fitness. Check 'em out on IG @ThemsHealth
“All great changes are preceded by chaos."
Deepak Chopra
Interested in receiving this monthly newsletter?
If so, just click the green button below.