White Awareness Guided Meditation: Awareness Is Understanding Is Love

Hi there,

Welcome to this meditation.

My name is Joe Holtway,

I'm a singer-songwriter from England.

My interest in writing and recording songs and meditations is with a social view and moved by the recent public protests that I was a part of around George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.

I decided to make a meditation recording inspired by some reading I've been doing on the subject of racial awareness and white skin awareness.

So this session will be about 30 minutes and we'll start with a body scan and then we'll move on to look at the organ of the skin and look at the whys and the what,

The science of skin colour and then the ideas of racism and then from that look at what privileges there are with white skin.

The info and the statistics and the quotes during the meditation come mostly from an article I read in the National Geographic and also Healthline website and some writers Roxanne Gay and Resmaa Mannequin who write on racial awareness.

My wish in doing this meditation is to continue an ongoing journey for myself and share it with you and the spirit of it I feel is summed up by someone I often quote,

Tick that hand,

Who says that awareness is understanding is love.

Okay so my invitation to begin this meditation is to find a quiet place where you're going to be undisturbed for about 20 to 30 minutes and when you're there just allow yourself to rest into the chair or if you're lying down onto the floor or the bed and begin to feel your whole body and we'll take three breaths in and out together and I'll give you just give you 30 seconds to find that place.

I can also tell you that as a songwriter,

As I do with all my recordings,

I include the song at the end and this today's song is called This Skin and it's a song of my own inspired by my recent experiences and observations and learnings and involvements with the unfolding situation over the last few weeks.

Okay so let's take three breaths in and out together,

So taking a nice deep breath into the lungs and then feel you may be used to this already but breathing into the belly so you're allowing your lower abdomen to rise which brings more oxygen into the system so feeling your belly rising and falling awareness on that area.

Okay so breathing in,

Hold the breath and breathe out and breathing in into the belly holding and releasing in last one into the belly and breathing out.

Okay now we're just gonna run a quick body scan so we're of the weight and shape of the belly,

Feeling the contact points if you're sitting your buttocks,

Your feet,

If you're lying you'll have your back,

Your buttocks and your legs,

Calves and heels and however you're positioned feeling the contact points and just move through the body and see if there's any tension held anywhere.

I sometimes find there's tension in my shoulders,

You might want to just move them a little bit just to ease the body and allow it to relax maybe in the hips or the knees just find a comfortable position and be in touch with the wonder of the body,

This expression of life that allows us to do so much,

Allows us to move and to create,

To play and in this moment resting,

Relaxing.

At this point you'll be aware that your breath has just come to a natural rhythm so whether that's however long or deep or shallow or short that is,

Allowing the breath to be as it is in this moment as we concentrate on the breath we're able to maybe make it a bit slower to calm ourselves down but don't force it just allow that natural rhythm and as you relax your body naturally the breath will get deeper and then moving around the outline of the body and having just a general awareness of our skin,

The skin and the soles of the feet,

The legs,

The wonder of skin,

Belly,

Back,

Chest,

Face.

So some science for you,

Three layers of the skin and some scientific names,

The outer layer is the epidermis,

Quite a lot of dead skin particles there but also a proteinous mixture very similar to nails or hair,

It's a waterproof layer which allows us to swim,

Protects the organs from elements outside.

The next time we have the dermis layer and this layer allows us to stretch,

There's elasticity because of that layer,

Allows the skin to stretch as we move and then one layer down again is called the subcutis layer and where there's fat and there's cushioning,

Also temperature regulation happens there in the skin,

So the wonder of the skin,

Able to protect,

Able to stretch,

Able to regulate temperature.

So again a journey around the body with that awareness of those layers and maybe a renewed sense of wonder for what surrounds your body,

With a nice few deep breaths in and out and then move on to introduce the idea of skin colour.

So the colour of our skin which you may already know is determined by the amount of melanin in the skin,

The more melanin in the skin,

The darker is the shade of skin and the purpose of that is to protect the skin from UV rays of the sun so where there is more of a contact with that UV,

Of the UV of the sun,

The skin is darker and that is something that you see based on the evolution of life in different parts of the world and this is of course something that's taken place over thousands of years of ancestry which is present in your skin colour.

So taking a deep breath and aware of the shade of your own skin with your eyes open or your eyes closed and the story of ancestry that's present in that colour.

Okay so a few deep breaths and then we move on to talk about the idea of racism.

So quoting from a recent article in the National Geographic the headline is there is no scientific basis for race it is a made up label.

And another quote from the writer Resma Menakin,

Race doesn't exist but racism does so we need to talk about it.

So why does racism exist?

Complex and many layered topic but I just wanted to introduce the ideas that came in this National Geographic article that talks about some of the history of racism and someone called Samuel Morton who was a scientist in America in the first half of the 19th century.

Someone who studied people and studied bodies and Samuel Morton held the belief that there were five races and quoting the article quoting Samuel Morton's writings these five races were five separate acts of creation.

And each of these five had their place in a divinely created hierarchy.

So hearing those words difficult to hear and breathing with that and breathing with where that puts you in that hierarchy.

Samuel Morton's beliefs were that the Caucasian body,

The white body from some examples that he found had a bigger brain space and so he was Caucasian himself puts the white body at the top of the hierarchy and let you look up and read more about that writing.

But at the time of writing the ideas were promoted by those in support of the slave trade.

And the influence of that is of course to shape history.

The stats and stories will show that proportionally within areas of wealth and ownership opportunities the white privilege is something that continues to prevail.

And I'd like to bring in a quote here by Roxanne Gay who talks about privilege again breathing into the body and being with these words and if anything feels difficult to hear or it's causing tension be with the tension and breathe with it and pause the meditation if you feel you need to.

Roxanne Gay you don't have to do anything when you acknowledge your privilege you don't have to apologize for it you just need to understand the extent of your privilege and remain aware that there are people who are different from you move through and experience the world in ways you might never know anything about.

That's from Roxanne Gay.

Returning again to the writer Resmaa Menakin and these quotes of Resmaa Menakin come from a book called My Grandmother's Hands.

You can contact me for any follow up to any of these writers or articles.

Going on the theme again of this not being our fault but our responsibility to respond to.

Menakin says there is a way out of this mess and it requires each of us to begin with our own body.

You and your body are important parts of the solution.

Our bodies change the status quo.

So taking a moment to feel our position in the world.

And allowing ourselves to be with the feelings that that brings up.

So play the guitar for another 30 seconds or so and then I'll sing you this song.

In influence by these writings the song ends with the lines this skin I will learn to look within in and out again again and again.

And it references the history,

Our shared history of slavery.

This skin scared of the edges born into power and privileges.

Inerative.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

Land owner I was a slave owner I have steered the ships.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

Cast and counted watching wealth amounting.

Taken my split.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

This skin scared of the edges born into power and privileges.

Inerative.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

Separated,

Segregated,

Profited from it.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

Punishment permitted,

Acquitted I still hear the whips.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

This skin scared of the edges born into power and privileges.

Inerative.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

Oh this skin,

Oh this skin.

Oh this skin.

I will learn to look within,

In and out again and again and again.

Oh this skin,

I will learn to look within,

In and out again and again and again.

Oh this skin,

I will learn to look within,

In and out again and again and again.

Some nice deep breaths into the body and I'd love to hear from you and how was that for you.

I'll send you my best wishes today and for the rest of your day however long is left and take care.