Meditation

2/7/2025

Surviving the trump administration, A Daily Thread. Episode 16: Meditation

I have a love/hate relationship with meditation.

Actually, it’s more complicated than that. It’s more like an avoidance/rejection/force-myself-to-do-this-because-everyone-says-it’s-good-for-me/okay-maybe-this-isn’t-so-bad-but-I-refuse-to-jump-on-the-meditation-bandwagon relationship.

In other words, I don’t like it. But I do like it, sometimes. But I don’t like calling it “meditation.” The word intimidates me. So I avoid doing it. But I know it’s useful. But I actually do it more than I give myself credit for, in sort of nonconventional ways, because meditation doesn’t have to only mean sitting cross legged in complete silence in a darkened room and quieting my thoughts for an hour.

I go on walks almost every day, which can be meditative. Walking meditation is a thing! I’ll usually remember at some point during the walk to focus on my breathing – take deeper, slower breaths – and/or notice the plants and animals and sky, and/or check in with myself and have a little inner dialogue about how I’m feeling.

I also meditate in therapy! We do parts work, also known as IFS, which is basically a practice of getting to know all the younger childhood parts of myself and how they’re feeling and what they need. It’s a little hard to describe, but it’s an incredibly powerful practice of nurturing self-love and becoming a more whole, integrated version of myself. And it involves a lot of deep, focused inner reflection, as well as somatic practice (noticing sensations in my body).

I found an amazing kundalini yoga teacher during the pandemic who lives in Georgia! And we do private lessons once a week – this was one of the silver linings about that time for me: I never would have met her if the pandemic had not forced us all to explore more online connection. And she always leads me in various forms of meditation.

Sometimes, I also actually sit on the floor and meditate. Like, maybe once a month is a generous estimate. Today was one of those times, so I’ll just go ahead and give myself a giant pat on the back for that accomplishment! I played a guided meditation on YouTube, which helped me stay more focused on the task.

If you relate to any of this (or even if you don’t), here are some things I know about meditation: you can’t really do it wrong. It’s okay to struggle with it. Simply taking even ONE MINUTE to slow down and take a few deep breaths is meaningful and helpful – and even, perhaps, a way to take a radical stand (or, I guess, seat) against the hamster wheel of capitalism.

#survivingthetrumpadministration #fightfascism #notmypresident #standupspeakout #strongertogether