“[Nonviolence] is not a medicine or a solution so much as a healing process. It is the active spiritual immune system of humanity.” – Marianne Williamson
Where does the energy want to go?
You can feel it in the air, an urgency, a building demand for action and change.
When I left my job as a journalist almost 20 years ago, I made a commitment to stop obsessively following the news cycle. It had taken too great a toll on my mental health – the stream of tragedy was too concentrated, too all-consuming. But tragedy has a way of pulling you back. Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, I’ve found myself unable to look away. The unfolding horrors there re-sensitized me to ongoing conflicts in Sudan and in Myanmar. Then came the October 7 attacks on Israeli citizens, the cruelty and brutality. And now Gaza, 11,000 children killed and counting, no operating hospitals, grandparents praying over the bodies of their dead grandchildren. It’s an apocalypse of the heart.
Where does the energy want to go?
The heart of meditation is peace. It’s the pause in the action, the clearing in the forest, the pure clear signal that wants to be heard under the noise. It’s not passive. It’s receptive. Whatever else may be happening, we also sit to listen.
Where does the energy want to go?
The energy of life wants to go somewhere. It wants to be expressed, it wants to make change. It wants to move you, to take you apart, to rebuild you and rebuild the world.
Where does the energy want to go?
It’s not a simple question, because we have competing impulses inside us. We have both our trauma and our wisdom. We have our brutalized parts – the parts that have been hurt and want to hurt in turn. The parts that want to freeze or hide or protect. The parts that want to fawn or perform, appease or cast out. And we have deeper parts too, that want to learn and connect, create and care for. Nonviolent at our core, say the meditators. I believe them.
Where does your energy want to go, at this moment in life, at this moment in history?
We have local impulses: start a new project, reinvest in a relationship, deliberately focus on taking better care of ourselves and others. And we have global impulses: contribute to a children’s aid fund, push for a ceasefire in Gaza, speak out against rising antisemitism and Islamophobia.
“Action is the antidote to despair.” - Joan Baez
Our actions are important. So is knowing where we’re acting from.
In this week’s meditation, we slow down and let the earth regulate us. We make space for everything that’s here. We make space because space is peace. And then we see where the energy wants to go.
Jeff
PS - David Kantrowitz created this week’s beautiful illustration. And Joe Mazza signed on to help edit our weekly meditation audio. Thank you David and Joe. I’m grateful for this generous community.
THIS WEEK ON THE MIND BOD ADVENTURE POD
There are many ways meditation can support our activism. In this week’s episode of
, Lama Rod Owens guides a powerful practice that first connects us to our sources of support, and then asks us to explore what lies under our discomfort when we’re faced with change. Is it fear, or trauma, or maybe a desire to maintain the status quo, to not rock the boat? Layer by layer, we peel back the mysteries of the mind and the heart.
Where Does the Energy Want to Go?