ENLIGHTEN UP! a blogSelf-awareness stories: lighting our way to clarity, contentment and resilience in a complicated world.
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 “Clarity and focus doesn't always come from God or inspirational quotes. Usually, it takes your mother to slap the reality back into you.” - Shannon L. Alder Now that you’ve had a sorely needed laugh, let’s get serious about clarity. When we bring clarity to an issue, we see what is happening, correctly assess the situation and consciously choose to take right action. How do we get clear on what’s happening in America today? Our country’s lofty values of equality, democracy and opportunity for all, live side-by-side with a pre-existing condition we’ve suffered from for centuries – systemic racism, and prejudice, the main causes of social, legal and economic injustice. Some symptoms are; the decimation of indigenous peoples, enslavement of Africans and legal segregation through Jim Crow laws, internment of Japanese American citizens during world War II, and the separation and internment of South American migrant children from their families at the southern border. The latest horror of police abuse, the public killing of George Floyd, an unarmed African American man, that we witnessed in real time on our digital devices is one more symptom of this country’s dis-ease that needs to be healed. We can start the healing with vidya – clear seeing. Vidya, is the opposite of avidya - clouded perception. Avidya results from an inability to see the larger picture of our lives, our world and how we move through them; personally, professionally, socially, and culturally. Here is what happens when clouded perceptions influence our thinking and behavior:
It’s most often the influence and power of our unconscious thoughts, and implicit biases that cloud our perceptions and prevent right action. However, if our perception is correct and we are clear in our understanding, right action will likely result even if the outcome is not what we expected or hoped for. To get clear about systemic racism, and prejudice, we start with svadhyaya – study, and self-knowledge, to learn about the onset of our country’s dis-ease, track the course of it, become aware of the symptoms, overt and subtle, before deciding what action we might be willing to take. Consider this:
That’s a long time to be dealing with a chronic dis-ease. The diagnosis is clear but the treatment is complicated. We can view the Civil Rights Act as an attempt to manage the symptoms, but it has not and cannot cure the dis-ease. When we accept the fact of the diagnosis and the truth of the condition, we can start the healing within ourselves to bring clarity to our own clouded perceptions, blind spots, prejudices and implicit biases (we all have them). Then we can: Face it. Sometimes we need to take a step back and examine the presence of diversity and inclusion in our own lives. How diverse are our schools? Neighborhoods? Places of work? Friends? Social settings? If they are not we need to ask ourselves why. Trace it. Understand how and why it exists, and how and why we may be ignoring or denying this reality. Embrace it. Accept that it is unpleasant, and upsetting. We will need to sit with this discomfort because it is our current reality. Replace it. Consciously take right action in whatever form we choose. This process starts with each of us. I recently joined a peaceful protest in my town. It looked like many that we see on television – large, diverse and calling for change. When asked what actions we could take to make a difference, the speaker said, “If you see something, say something, and then do something.” Here are three things we can do. 1. VOTE in November. The yoga community is doing its part to help. Find out more at: https://www.yoginsunited.com/vote 2. Do your research. You can donate to relevant organizations, join grass roots efforts or volunteer with programs that offer direct help. Here’s an excellent resource guide prepared by my colleague and friend Laura Kupperman (https://laurakupperman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AntiRacismResources_LKupperman.pdf ) 3. To increase mental clarity and openness to transformation, Joseph LePage’s book, Mudras for Healing and Transformation recommends Shunya Mudra. Shunya Mudra
Cautions: none.
“Clarity affords focus.” — Thomas Leonard
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 Photo: krystle mikaere on unsplash “What is to give light must endure burning”. - Viktor Frankl Dear friends, especially those of us who believe ourselves to be white: Now is the time to sit in the fire. To do less talking and more listening. To seek out books and films and articles that raise up Black voices and their lived experiences of others. To lean into uncomfortable conversations. To give up the enterprise of being a good person by virtue of being nice and kind. To feel in our bones the weight and the trauma of collective and ancestral grief. We can choose love over safety. We can train ourselves to sit with discomfort. We can sit in the fire so our ignorance and complacency and privilege are illuminated and transformed. What would it mean to commit to being an antiracist? What if we acted to: actively promote policies that create a society where all groups are treated equally? exercise radical imagination about systems of public safety, public health, and public education? show up vulnerable and willing to learn from the mistakes we will absolutely make? (Do we want to be right or learn how to do it right?) There’s a new world busy being born. It’s around me and coming through me. Birth is hard and messy and there is no going back, no controlling the contractions, no guarantee of a healthy delivery. With power and love, we have to do our own work and participate in collective action. In many ways, this is a moment I have longed for, a reckoning long overdue. An animating principle of my work has been the notion that when we make our most important issues discussable, we can figure them out together. We need to face our history of slavery and anti-Blackness if we are to become a fair and inclusive society. Let’s stop asking Black people to explain things to us. Let’s commit to our own ongoing self-study and self-reflection. What new frameworks can change the lens through which we see? What history do we need to learn and unlearn? Whose stories will break open our hearts and minds and expand our sense of beloved community? I offer some resources below. If you have others, send them on. Steady and Ready In May, I wrote about warrior training during the quarantine restrictions and the loss and suffering around us. That grief and uncertainty continue and compound. Add to that: protests around the world with young people out in front demanding change, a hard-hit economy, and the 2020 election with voting rights and democracy under siege. We are called to stay vigilant, resilient, and engaged. We have to be disciplined in embodied practices that allow us to keep moving forward from a centered presence and to recover when we lose our balance. On the Mat Pranayama, the art and science of working with the breath, conscious prolongation of inhalation, retention and exhalation, is one of the 8 limbs of Yoga. In Light on Pranayama, Mr. Iyengar writes that "the practice of pranayama develops a steady mind, strong will power and sound judgment." Working with the breath is a powerful and simple way to calm the mind, train the attention, and strengthen our immune system. Bonus Feature: No gear or travel required! Calming Breath/4-4-8 Practice Sit comfortably with your spine erect and your knees over your ankles. Inhale gently to a count of 4, hold for 4, exhale for a count of 8. Do five rounds and return to normal breathing. Working with the breath trains our attention, and an exhalation longer than the inhalation activates our parasympathetic nervous system, triggering the rest and relax response. Take a minute/12 breath Practice Before you start a meeting or conversation, invite a moment (literally 60 seconds!) to come to stillness. Sit quietly with a vertical spine and breathe, gently following the breath as your chest expands on the inhalation and your belly receives the out-breath. Notice how interactions become more spacious. RESOURCES LP Picks: These resources have been valuable as I educate myself on how to be an antiracist. Podcasts The Ezra Klein Show - Why Ta-Nehisi Coates is hopeful (on Vox, or listen on Apple Podcasts) Unlocking Us - Brené Brown in conversation with Austin Channing Brown on I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness On Being - Krista Tippett writes movingly about the journey of coming to terms with white privilege and interviews Eula May Bliss. She also sits down with therapist and trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem. Fresh Air - Terry Gross in conversation with James Nestor, author of Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art Books Ibram X. Kendi - How to Be an Antiracist (the board book version, Antiracist Baby, dropped yesterday) Robin DiAngelo, PhD - White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism Film I Am Not Your Negro about the wise and beautiful James Baldwin Song Ella's Song - Lyrics and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon, sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock Link to this article on Laura’s website:
Let us stay strong and woke with love and rage. Let me know what you're reading and noticing at laurapeck.co
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AuthorBETH GIBBS started her yoga practice in 1968, four months after her son was born and she’s been practicing ever since. She currently teaches all levels therapeutic yoga classes for adults, and specialty classes for seniors in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Beth is a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists and is guest faculty at the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy. She writes for the blogs, Yoga for Healthy Aging, and Accessible Yoga. Her master’s degree from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA is in Yoga Therapy and Mind/Body Health. Categories |
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