Hi friends,
This is Joe, Jeff’s Production Manager here at Home Base. Jeff’s taking some very well-earned time away to rest and so that means … COMMUNITY TAKEOVER!! All of us are going to lead this, because in the Democratization of Mental Health, there is no leader!
In Jeff’s recent post Release The Amateurs, he made a pretty audacious claim:
“…you don’t need to be an expert meditation teacher to share a simple practice any more than you need to be an expert cook to show someone how to boil an egg.”
Honestly, I wondered if that was true. But when I thought about how I first began my own practice — while in a place of deep anxiety and a noisy nervous system — all I needed was a simple prompt to pause and notice the space around my thoughts. A prompt (and permission) to offer some self-compassion. Simple, boiling-an-egg-level nourishment that really could come from almost anyone.
And while there’s only one Jeff, there are thousands of us. That’s the real magic of this community.
A week ago, we lost the Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard. Glen was an Academy Award winner, starred in two great films and was known the world over. And he was often found busking on the street or sitting in a pub with his guitar. Not on a stage, just playing songs and singing with people, spreading good music and good medicine.
So for the next few weeks, in honor of Jeff’s challenge (and if you like in honor of Glen), welcome to Meditation Open Mic Night. I’m kicking it off with a guided practice in this post, and now each of you is invited to take the mic.
How to step up to the mic:
Find a practice: Write one from where you are, or use Jeff’s Community Practice Activation Kit, or use a practice from here on Home Base - there’s a great ready to go practice in Release the Amateurs. It doesn’t matter if ten people pick the same one. Each will be unique.
Record it (10 mins max): Click this link on your phone or computer to record directly to us. Say your first name, offer any brief framing, and just go for it. (Note: If you’d rather use a phone voice memo app or send in an audio file you recorded a different way, just DM me here on Substack and I’ll give you an email address to send it to).
Don’t overthink it: Don’t do ten takes. Don’t worry about perfect audio. Just be you, sharing a simple practice with a friend who needs it.
What will Home Base do with these?
Great question! We’ll organize them into a shared Dropbox folder and share a link with you in upcoming posts so the whole community can access them. We may publish a few in the upcoming posts too. That means if you send a guided practice to us, you’re agreeing to allow us to use it in this way.
You’re up next, friends. Grab the mic! (Click that link to record)
A few quick notes—
The next Do Nothing Project (DNP) live meditation is Sunday, August 9 at 8pm EDT. Link here. Replays are archived Monday mornings on Home Base and YouTube.
New to Home Base? We have over 80 free guided meditations in our audio library, over 65 extended meditations, over 365 meditations on YouTube, and a growing number of community practice videos. New writing, new audio meditations, and new live community gatherings happen every week.
Home Base is best experienced on a web browser (laptop or mobile), NOT the Substack app. To manage Substack emails and notifications, read this.
Did you find me on Calm or Happier? While the meditations I made for the apps live on in perpetuity, I’m not paid to record new meditations for them. My latest work happens here; becoming a paid subscriber is the best way to support that work. If you found this meditation and post helpful, but becoming a paid subscriber isn’t an option, you can also …
Many thanks!
Practice Enlightenment - CEC Meditation
St Stephen-in-the-Fields, 103 Bellevue Ave and online via zoom
August 10, 7:30pmET
In this meditation on nothing happening, nothing much happens. A few pauses. A bit of something. Back to nothing. Long long waiting for something to happen, then we realize waiting for something to happen is actually nothing, which is where we want to be. This week at the Consciousness Explorers Club, we practice enlightenment, and irreverence, and irreverent enlightenment.
