Mindfulness Meditation

WHEN YOU HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE AND YOU JUST CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE JUST CALM DOWN AND TAKE A DEEP BREATH. THEN RELEASE IT. THEN KEEP REPEATING. AND ANYTIME YOU START THINKING ABOUT WHAT GOT YOU TO THAT POINT, ACKNOWLEDGE THE THOUGHT AND THEN LET IT GO.

Eventually you’ll leave your CAPS LOCK mode.

Mindfulness meditation is a Western (European/American) take on an ancient meditation practice found in Buddhism. Appropriated so as to leave out its native spirituality, mindfulness meditation in this Mainstream/New Age context is centered around the Western values of efficiency and optimization–that is, living a better material life by proactively seeking that which gives us advantages competitively at work/school and mental peace in this digital age of “instant-everything-everywhere-ness.” Read More

Preventing Activist Burnout by Stepping Back

Have you ever felt like a plastic bag drifting through the wind wanting to start again? This analogy of activist burnout may be one of the only things Katy Perry got right in a long career of being a problematic attention seeker fave. From Tray Martin to Renisha McBride to “Jane Doe” to Veronica Bolina to Freddie Grey–it’s enough to make someone feel like nothing will change as it hasn’t for centuries. It’s enough to give anyone paying attention activist burnout. Read More