Mindfulness and Racism
Over the past few days, I’ve been wondering how I can skillfully engage and take action against racism. I have begun having more conversations about it, educating and informing myself more, and signing petitions. I do believe though that the most powerful thing I can do is support others in learning about the nature of their mind - through coaching and meditation teachings. I recognize that every person receiving this email has a different experience, and want to acknowledge that. Whether you are a person of color who has lived within extremely harmful and racist power structures your whole life, or you have been an unintentional contributor or bystander of systemic racism, it is critical to go inward and dig deep to truly make change. Here’s why meditation and coaching can help in the fight against systemic racism.
Some people may view someone investing in a coach or taking on a meditation or yoga practice as selfish (especially during these times). Protesting, sharing resources, and informing oneself is paramount, but so is taking the time to look inward. We can protest all we want, but if we don’t do the internal work (which is oftentimes more uncomfortable) nothing truly will change over time.
In an article written by Sara Grossman at the Other & Belonging Institute at University of Berkeley writes in an article titled, “White people, let’s start by understanding our own biases”:
“The IAT, which tests for the strength of associations between concepts (like Black people or women) and evaluations or stereotypes (like good or aggressive), has found that of the millions of people who have taken the test, around 70 percent of white respondents have some sort of pro-white bias—despite the same percentage claiming to hold unbiased racial attitudes.”
We can’t change something we aren’t aware of. Meditation and mindfulness practices help us become aware of beliefs that are unconsciously guiding our behavior (sometimes in very harmful ways, like implicit bias). From there, we can act in ways that are more in accordance with our values. Meditation also strengthens the important skill of compassion, which helps us release self-judgment for our implicit biases (judging ourselves only makes it worse) and also have compassion for the stigmatized population, which drives us to take action rather than wallow in an untrue belief that we can’t control anything. Watch this short video on why meditation is the least selfish thing you can do for humanity.
These are just a few of the studies about how meditation can reduce (and even prevent) implicit bias:
One study in 2014 tested the effect of 6 weeks of training in lovingkindness meditation on improving implicit attitudes black people and homeless people. They had three groups: the lovingkindness practice group, a lovingkindness discussion group, and a waitlist control. The only group where there was a decrease in implicit bias against stigmatized groups was in the lovingkindness practice group (Gray et al, 2014).
In one experiment, students who were assigned to 8-min of lovingkindness meditation with either a stranger or a homeless person demonstrated reduced levels of intergroup anxiety toward homeless people than control participants, and greater intentions of future contact (Parks et al., 2014)
In one study, meditation was shown to lower implicit bias of stigmatized groups among healthcare providers (Greenwald et al., 2009)
Another study showed that practicing only one 10-minute mindfulness meditation recording (compared to a control audio recording), there was a decrease in age and race bias (Lueke & Gibson, 2014)
After listening to a 10-minute mindfulness meditation working, non-Black study participants trusted black individuals more with their money in a trust game (Lueke & Gibson, 2016)
Here is the article from Berkeley that I referenced in the paragraph earlier.
Just like how reading a book about how to long-jump won’t make you any better at long-jumping, you can’t read about meditation and get the benefits of it. So here are some practices you can do to reduce your implicit bias, strengthen your level of compassion for self and others, and begin to clear a path toward feeling good in your life regardless of how challenging things are right now.
Click here to practice a 15-min loving kindness meditation
Click here to practice a 5-min mindfulness meditation
Click here to practice a 12-min Tonglen meditation
And if you want to take a deep-dive into investigating your own thoughts and beliefs, to change not only your implicit biases, but other thoughts and beliefs that are (unconsciously or consciously) negatively affecting your life or the lives of others, this is what I do. My coaching helps clients feel good IN and ABOUT their lives, without things having to go their way, and without everything being perfect. My coaching is also helpful for people who are just feeling plain stressed out right now by everything.
After working with me, my clients express feeling calm amidst the chaos of life, more in tune with their bodies and their values, and more able to slow down and enjoy downtime.
Click here to schedule a free initial consultation with me to see if coaching would support you and the life you want to live. You can also shoot me an email at anne@annelowell.com to learn more about coaching or talk about what I’ve written regarding meditation / yoga and anti-racism.