Acknowledge and recognize your suffering rather than pretending it doesn’t exist, as internalizing it is dangerous and can lead to primitive, irrational responses when provoked. This recognition is the first step to healing and transformation.
Understand that healing unhealthy patterns within yourself contributes to healing the world, and similarly, creating healthy patterns in yourself generates healthy patterns in the world, due to the interconnectedness of all beings.
Train your mind as a real and important action, but ensure this training is embodied by acting on it and feeling it south of your head. This means allowing new patterns like kindness to become second nature, transforming your behavior and systems.
Make it a daily practice to allow your empathy to unfold, then transmute that empathy energy into compassion. This helps prevent burnout and is considered a fundamental foundation for society.
Care for yourself first, as you cannot effectively care for other people if you are overwhelmed or “a mess.” This self-care is crucial to prevent burnout, especially in emotionally demanding fields.
Learn to understand and respect the information your body is communicating to you. Developing this sensitivity expands your range of choices in how to respond to life’s challenges.
Cultivate sensitivity to your whole humanity and critically examine your thinking, speech, and actions. This practice is essential to avoid being hijacked by an unregulated nervous system or unexamined ideologies, thereby achieving true freedom from conditioning.
Learn how your mind has been constructed by your experiences and society, then identify the energies within it. Consciously choose which of these energies to give your attention to, rather than letting past habit patterns dictate your focus.
When experiencing trauma, shift your attention from your thoughts to the physical sensations two inches below your navel (tanden), holding your hands there if helpful. Focus on the rising and falling sensations to calm your nervous system, as the body holds the trauma while the mind thinks about it.
Engage in walking meditation by consciously letting go of harmful energy as you place your foot down, and then receiving the pure, equanimous energy from the earth as your foot touches it. Feel this energy enter your body for grounding and healing.
If seated meditation for trauma is insufficient, lie down on the earth to feel its energy radiating up, providing a sense of solidity, stability, and safety in your body.
Be cautious with deep meditation if you are processing trauma, as it can re-trigger or re-traumatize you if you don’t know how to care for the traumatic things that may arise. Consider starting with relaxation meditation.
To effectively process trauma, start with relaxation meditation and develop a strong sense of being grounded in your body, paying attention to its sensations. This somatic awareness is a crucial life skill for deeper practice.
Engage in daily meditation as a foundational practice for self-care and mental well-being.
Identify and deconstruct internalized “colonial mindsets” within yourself, which manifest as patriarchal views, an orientation towards status and material wealth, and a desire for power over others. Consciously choose to dismantle these patterns of thinking about being human and society.
Understand that deconstruction of old patterns is only part of the process; it must be immediately followed by conscious reconstruction. Focus your energy on building new, healthy ways of thinking, speaking, and acting.
Challenge the urge for “power over” others by shifting your approach to leadership. Instead of always taking charge or dictating, practice supporting processes, asking for others’ input, and supporting people, which can reduce your own stress.
If kindness is not your natural inclination, actively unpack any conditioning around cruelty or suppressed kindness. Begin to seek and experience what it is like to be kind, allowing this quality to become second nature.
Practice paying deep attention to the natural world during meditation to realize the powerful insight that “we are the planet.” This helps overcome the illusion of separateness and fosters a deeper connection to the world.
Spend time outside daily, ideally morning, noon, and night, to connect with the nonjudgmental equanimity of nature. This practice helps you rest, observe, and appreciate the natural world, reminding you of your place in a larger system.
Listen to music to help move stuck energy from your body, allowing you to process difficult emotions like pain and prevent getting lost in them. This can involve dancing, crying, or simply letting the sound wash over you.
Read or write poems as a way to engage with creative arts, which can be healing and energizing.
Embrace the exciting opportunity to rethink and reimagine fundamental societal systems, such as education, to move beyond old patterns of thought and create new, more just and caring ways of living together.
Recognize that caring for one another is the fundamental foundation of a society. Actively contribute to a culture where mutual care is prioritized.
Recognize that neutrality is not an option when addressing societal issues, as it perpetuates negative patterns and karma. Instead, actively choose to take a stance and contribute to positive change.
Corporations must profoundly help by embodying the change they wish to see, rather than just issuing statements. This means visibly demonstrating diversity and inclusion in their campus, workforce, and board to build trust and contribute to solutions.
During question and answer sessions, practice being open to whatever arises, rather than having preconceived notions or expectations.