“The times are urgent, let us slow down” - Dr. Bayo Akomolafe
Lots of intensity and anxiety out there ahead of next Tuesday’s midterm elections in the US. Real worry about the future of the country, about the rising cost of living, about ICE detentions and deportations and the war in Iran and the environmental toll of unregulated AI data centres and on and on. And that’s just the US – imagine living in Gaza, or the Ukraine, or the Sudan, where a steady rate of drone strikes kills innocent citizens.
What practices can help us handle all of this? How do we think about the line between supporting ourselves and supporting others? Too much of one, and we risk quietism and self-involvement. Too much of the other risks burnout and escalation.
This is the subject of a profound conversation Tasha Schumann and I had on our latest episode of The Mind Bod Adventure Pod, with the activist and nonviolence educator Kazu Haga.
This week on Home Base I’m featuring Kazu’s 13-minute guided practice from that episode, because it is so good, and so needed. It’s about getting below the urgencies of the mind to be with the wisdom of the body, which communicates via sensations and intuitions. And it’s about recognizing our own capacity to stay with challenging situations, so we then have more resources for our work in the world, including the critical work of social change.
I encourage you to listen to the full episode, which spirals into deeper and broader themes as it progresses, from individual practice all the way to collective movement. The Mind Bod Adventure Pod is intended to be a different kind of experience. We take listeners into specific short practices, and then afterwards we model how practice changes the conversation. Listeners have their own experiences and learning.
This is particularly relevant for a conversation about practice and social change. The “slow down” Dr. Bayo Akomolafe refers to in his opening quote is “not a function of speed,” but “of deepening our awareness and noticing who’s in the room.” It helps us know where to direct our attention and energy in the face of so many clamouring inputs.
My takeaway for all activists and caregivers: slow down, get humble, and find your school of fish.
Good luck this week friends, wherever in the wide world you find yourself. Grateful for this community, and grateful for the work of Kazu Haga and his peers. More and more educators and practitioners are living at the intersection of nonviolent activism and personal practice. This movement gives me hope.
Love,
Jeff
PS - Each week we also make extended versions of the meditations. If you’ve never tried one and want a bit more time to drop in and down, click below.
A few quick notes—
The next Do Nothing Project (DNP) live meditation is Sunday, November 1 at 8pm EDT. Link here. Live DNPs are for paid subscribers three times a month, and free for everyone the first Sunday of the month. Numberless scholarships are available at info@jeffwarren.org. All replays are archived Monday mornings and available free on Home Base and YouTube.
New to Home Base? We have over 100 free guided meditations in our audio library, over 80 extended meditations, over 365 meditations on YouTube, and a growing number of community practice videos. New writing, new audio meditations, and new DNP live community practice sessions happen every week.
Did you find me on Calm or Happier? While the meditations I made for the apps live on in perpetuity, I no longer 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!
THIS WEEK ON THE MIND BOD ADVENTURE POD
This week we’re hanging with Kazu Haga, a nonviolence trainer, restorative justice practitioner, and author of Healing Resistance and Fierce Vulnerability. Kazu’s work weaves together spiritual practice, healing, and social change. It’s work that lives between two truths. There is real injustice in the world, and it has to be stopped. And the people causing it still belong to us. Kazu advocates for both truths, and has a refreshingly broad sense of what counts as activism: a movement as varied as an ecosystem, where singing, parenting, and teaching people to breathe all have their place.
Where Meditation Leads, In-Person Toronto Event
Northern District Library, 40 Orchard View Blvd - and online too
November 29, 2026, 1 - 4pm
For my Toronto friends, I’m doing a rare in-person afternoon event on Sunday November 19 from 1 - 4pm. Would love to see you there. It’s a fundraiser for The Consciousness Explorers Club, a not-for-profit with the mission of making meditation and personal growth practices accessible to all. The event is being offered on a “pay what you’re able to” model; you can also join online via zoom.
Our subject: Where does meditation practice lead? Over the course of this three-hour session, I’ll lead practices and discussion about the different ways meditation can help us drop under the turbulent surface layer of mind and circumstance, into the deeper stream of respectful relationship and right action.
