Day Twenty-two
DAY 22: Dr Elise Bialylew interviews Rhonda magee
In this video, you’ll learn:
- How mindfulness can help us heal ourselves and transform our communities
- What is race
- How mindfulness can support us in working through racial injustice
- What is a micro-aggression and how to manage it mindfully
Rhonda V. Magee is a Professor of Law at the University of San Francisco and an internationally-recognized thought and practice leader focused on integrating mindfulness into higher education, law and social change work. A student of a variety of Buddhist and other wisdom teachers, including Norman Fischer, Joan Halifax and Jon Kabat Zinn, she trained as a mindfulness teacher through the Oasis Teacher Training Institute of the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness. A former President of the board of the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, Professor Magee is a Fellow of the Mind and Life Institute, where she recently completed a two-year term on its steering council. She is a member of the board of advisors of the University of Massachusetts Center for Mindfulness and the board of directors for the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute. She sees embodied mindfulness meditation and the allied disciplines of study and community engagement as keys to personal, interpersonal, and collective transformation in the face of the challenges and opportunities of our time. Her first book is, The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness.Prefer to listen, rather than watch? Click the play button below.
[accessally_missing_any_tag tag_id='895' comment='MLP22']Want to read the transcript from this interview? Mind Life Project members receive access to interview transcripts and 6 months of mindfulness support, live meditations, and more
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[accessally_has_any_tag tag_id='895' comment='MLP22']Mind Life Project Bonus Content:
Click here to download the transcript of Dr Elise Bialylew's interview with Rhonda Magee[/accessally_has_any_tag]
Your meditation for today
Compassion Meditation with Elise BIalylew
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LEARNING TO BE KINDER TO YOURSELF
How kind are you to yourself?
What attitudes, expectations or demands do you have for yourself that you could let go of a little in order to be gentler and kinder to yourself?
As we start to pay attention to our own inner dialogues, it can be quite disturbing to discover how self-critical we are. Through increased self-awareness, cultivated through mindfulness, it’s possible to shift the quality of this self-talk and move towards a more loving accepting relationship with ourselves.
Our minds are intimately connected to our bodies, and the kind of thoughts we have impact our physiology. Take a moment to bring to mind something you love: maybe it’s an image of a beautiful beach, or someone you care about. You may notice how just thinking about this image calms and relaxes your body, perhaps lowering your heart rate and slowing your breath. Similarly, when you remember something that upset you in the past, you can feel the impact of that thought on your emotional state and in your body – your stomach churning, or perhaps a tightening in your throat.
When we have self-critical thoughts, we actually trigger areas of the brain that are associated with stress. If we do this over a long time, it leads to high levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) in the body. In contrast to that, self-compassion is associated with a different system, the “tend-and-befriend” system. When we practice self-compassion, we’re caring for ourselves like a mother cares for a distressed baby, activating this tend-and-befriend system and releasing oxytocin (the love molecule), which reduces the level of cortisol in the body.
A SELF-COMPASSION EXERCISE
If you find yourself in a difficult situation where you’re angry, disappointed or anxious, or things just haven’t gone the way you wanted, take a moment to actually put your hand on your heart as a way of actively caring for yourself (touch is a powerful way to self-soothe and activate the tend-and-befriend system).
You can also add soothing words such as, “This feels really hard”, “I’m not alone – imagine all the humans that are suffering in this moment”, and “May I be kind to myself”.
Let the MIM community know that you did the practice - that's what the community is here for, to help you stay connected and on track!
Come on over to the Facebook community where lots of conversations are being had and share your reflections from today's exercise and meditation.
stay on track
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