Hello.
I am Dr.
Shaniqua Walker-Barnes.
Today,
I am going to lead us through a practice for anchoring ourselves in hard times.
Whether it is because of personal crisis or political turmoil,
Many of us find ourselves in a season where we feel under siege.
A season where we vacillate between anger,
Fear,
Terror,
And grief.
A season where we dread whatever's coming next because it feels like bad news is the only thing that is coming.
There are two practices that can aid us and that I have found helpful when we're in this type of season.
Anchoring in the present moment and recalling our gifts for survival.
The practice that I'm going to lead us through today is one of recall.
You can do this practice as a sitting meditation,
Or if you want,
You can take out a journal and use this as a guided journaling practice.
Let's begin by settling into our bodies.
Taking a moment to settle into your sitting posture.
Even if you're going to journal through this practice,
Just take a moment here to breathe.
Gently closing your eyes and then finding a place in your body that helps you to feel grounded and centered.
Maybe that is the heart space in the center of the chest.
Maybe it's your hands or your feet,
Your seat,
Your breath.
Whatever it is,
Allow your attention to settle into that space.
Breathing into it.
Connecting to the sense of aliveness that is here.
Continue to settle into that space as I read these words from Lucille Clifton's poem,
Won't You Celebrate With Me.
Won't you celebrate with me what I have shaped into a kind of life.
I had no model,
Born in Babylon,
Both non-white and woman.
What did I see to be except myself?
I made it up here on the bridge between starshine and clay.
My one hand holding tight my other hand.
Come,
Celebrate with me that every day something has tried to kill me and has failed.
As you sit here breathing,
Anchored and grounded in your body,
Anchored and grounded in this moment.
Remember what has failed at killing you.
This may be something that has threatened literal death or injuries such as a serious illness,
An accident,
A history of abuse or violence.
It could also be psychological or spiritual death or injury.
A relationship or situation that has tried to silence you,
To dismiss you,
To make you doubt your worth,
To make you hate yourself,
To make you forget who you are and who you are meant to be.
See if you can bring this to mind without being carried away with the story or stories,
If it's more than one thing.
We don't want to relive the trauma and pain of it.
Instead,
We want to focus on our survival.
We want to celebrate that something or someone tried to destroy us and failed.
As you bring these things to mind,
Notice too what arises in your body.
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Physical sensations,
What comes up for you.
See if you can turn to that with kindness and curiosity.
If at any point this recall becomes overwhelming,
Returning back to your place of centering,
That place in your body where you feel secure and grounded.
The things that have tried to destroy us have failed,
Not necessarily because they weren't strong enough,
But because our gift for survival is stronger.
What has enabled your survival?
See if you can bring to mind the gifts that you have for surviving and thriving,
Despite hardship.
This might be characteristics you possess,
Internal characteristics such as your perseverance,
Your flexibility,
Your optimism.
It could be behaviors such as your self-care practices.
It could be other resources that you have,
Including relationships with people who have supported you through crisis and hardship.
It could be the gifts and wisdom passed to you from your ancestors and your elders.
Spend a few moments now recalling the characteristics,
The resources,
The relationships,
And the inheritances that have enabled your survival and thriving in hard times.
Again,
You're not trying to get caught up in the story.
Rather,
You're trying to allow these things to arise almost as snapshots.
That simply remind you of the gifts that you have and have had.
As you recall these gifts,
Notice how it feels in your body.
What feelings and sensations arise as you bring to mind the things that have enabled your survival?
Notice how it feels in your body to reclaim these gifts,
Even now as you are sitting here,
To reclaim them as your own,
Knowing that they are always with you,
Knowing that no matter what comes,
No matter what you face in this day,
In the days ahead,
You have the capacity to survive,
But to do more than survive,
To thrive,
To flourish in spite of difficulty.
So go into this day taking this feeling with you.
Sensing to it now as I close us by reading Eve L.
Ewing's poem,
Affirmation.
Speak this to yourself until you know it is true.
I believe that I woke up today and my lungs were working miraculously.
My voice can sing and murmur and ask miraculously.
My hands may shake,
But they can hold me or another.
My blood still carries the gifts of the air from my heart to my brain miraculously.
Put a finger to my wrist or my temple and feel it.
I am magic.
Life in all its good and bad and ugly things,
Scary things which I would like to forget,
Beautiful things which I would like to remember,
The whole messy,
Lovely,
True story of myself pulses within me.
I believe that the sun shines,
If not here,
Then somewhere.
Somewhere it rains and things will grow green and wonderful.
Sometimes my insides rain from the inside out and then I know I am alive.
I am alive.
I am alive.
As you go forward into this day,
May you celebrate and remember your aliveness.
Thank you for practicing with me.
