Meditation: The POWER Tool

Looking back on the last few years I realized I allowed other people to predict my mood and happiness. I would wake up in the morning with a smile on my face and one negative call from my daughter’s father and poof my whole day was ruined. One rude comment from a client and my blood was boiling. If things didn’t turn out the way I planned I felt defeated. I felt anxious about the unknown. I was a walking roller coaster, up and down with emotions. One day I got tired of living like that and just said enough is enough. I decided to take control of my life, create my own happiness and protect my energy. One of the tools that helped me to do this was and still is meditation.

I always heard the word meditation but I never really knew what it was until my big sister introduced me to, Deepak Chopra who is a guru of meditation. She told me about this free 21 day meditation that he does in conjunction with Ophra Winfrey. When I heard Ophra’s name I knew it must be legit. I vowed to research meditation and try their meditation experience. After looking into their meditation program, I realized it was only offered at certain times. I had to wait three weeks before the next free session started so I decided to use my time to research meditation.

Weeks later when the mediation sessions started I was ready, or so I thought. I had my candles going, my yoga mat on the floor and my speaker ready. When the meditation started I just felt weird, like I was doing it all wrong. My mind was wondering about how my day went and the things I had to do. It was difficult for me to concentrate and just focus my attention on that single moment in time. As the days passed I found myself not having time to really sit and do the meditation. My day was filled with a long commute back and forth to work, homework and quality time with my daughter, cooking, cleaning laundry and the list goes on. I started to listen to the mindful message and mantra of the daily meditations on my drive to work. While I couldn’t fully meditate, I listened to the message and tried to incorporate it throughout my day. 

As I approached the final week, I started to realize my mindset was the problem that haunted me all of this time. I was giving all of my power away by blaming others as well as uncontrollable circumstances for my stress and unhappiness. I repeatedly sung the “only if” song. Only if he didn’t do that to me or only if this didn’t happen that way, I would be fine. The fact of the matter is I could be fine, but only if I choose to be. Meditation helped me realize this. It is a tool you can use to help transform your mind long-term. It’s technically a training to learn mindfulness which leads to awareness, accountability and getting a healthy sense of perspective.

Mindfulness is something you can incorporate in your everyday life to lessen stress. As women of color, we are expected to be strong and handle a lot because we are naturally resilient and thrive despite the odds, but sometimes those responsibilities and expectations can cause us stress, depression and hypertension. Life is sometimes difficult and while we can’t control what’s expected of us or what situations arise, we do have the potential to transform the way in which we relate and react to those experiences. Whether we’re feeling challenged by circumstances or exhausted by everyday responsibilities, meditation can be your reset button to getting everything on track. It is a proven fact that meditation heightens levels of happiness, patience, acceptance, and compassion, while decreasing levels of stress, frustration, depression and pain.

Once I started looking at meditation as a tool, I began to wake up in the morning with a smile on my face and go to bed at night with that same smile. I still received those annoying calls from my daughter’s father, clients are still rude, things still don’t turn out the way I plan and I constantly face the unknown but I don’t let that consume me. Meditation has inspired me to change my approach, my response and my level of fucks given in uncontrollable situations. I am not saying I never feel stressed but I can say that I am stressed less often. I look at my life overall and I can honestly say I am happy. This is my journey of exploring with meditation. Meditation provides a different experience for everyone because it’s apart of what you personally need and what you take from it. If you never tried mediation I urge you to give it a chance and use it as a tool to get where you need to be mentally. Mental health and wellness is very important, especially for black women. Below are a few meditation resources created for women of color by women of color.

Resources:

Black Zen

BLACK ZEN was specifically created to remove the social and financial barriers that restrict black and brown communities from discovering the benefits of meditation, and allow our community to feel included in wellness-based practices.

https://www.blackzen.co/

Black Gurl Zen

Black Gurl Zen: Meditation for Black Women. Spiritual Training for Stressed Black Women.  Sharing a vision for a world where meditation and the skills of self-care like meditation, self-love and peace are available to all.  This is a time of great change, shifts in mindset and a time for planetary evolution.  This is my offering to teach the skills of mindfulness meditation. 

www.blackgurlzen.com/

Black Lives Matter Meditation

This project is one of my contributions to the Movement for Black Lives. They focus on using meditation for healing racial trauma. Racial trauma exacts a psychological and physiological toll on people of color, and those involved in the Movement for Black Lives are especially vulnerable to hourly personal, emotional, and physical racist attacks. Guided meditation is one way to assist in calming a heightened state of distress, affirming one’s value and humanity, and re-centering with love for Black people.

http://drcandicenicole.com/2016/07/black-lives-matter-meditation/

EatThriftLove

EatThriftLove is a minimalist lifestyle brand with a mission to simplify wellness holistically. Created by Ashley Dominique, they are bound by collaborative efforts that produce movement towards progressive behavioral influence, encouraging people of color to live a more simple and intentional lifestyle. Essentially, they are a catalyst for connecting spirituality to success.

https://www.eatthriftlove.com/

Check out this essence article that tells you about 6 applications you can use for meditationhttps://www.essence.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/6-meditations-apps-help-you-silence-your-mind/#106599