Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Best Self Magazine

    Mindfulness and Race: Bearing Witness to Our Racial Distress

    by Ruth King May 14, 2018 5 minutes
    Racial distress, racism, Mindfulness and Race by Ruth King, photograph of birds by Adrian Kirkegaard
    Photograph by Adrian Kirkegaard

    Mindfulness doesn’t erase the reality of racial distress; however, it allows us to explore the question of whether we are contributing to suffering or to freedom

    —

    If we turn our attention inward, we often feel the soreness, tenderness, and vulnerability from the habitual ways we have met the rough edges of racial distress, and it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Although these feelings may be difficult to metabolize, it is possible to do so. Our thoughts and feelings are not permanent states; rather, they are crucial experiences to attend to, and it begins with understanding our minds. This is the role of mindfulness meditation.

    Mindfulness has its roots in the 2,600-year-old tradition of Buddhism.

    The practice of mindfulness meditation supports us in experiencing more mental ease and harmony. It does not help us get rid of racial ignorance or ill will, nor will

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from Best Self Magazine

    Best Self Magazine6 min read
    Navigating Grief with Ayurvedic Principles: A Q&A with Sweta Vikram
    Estimated reading time: 9 minutes — In this Q&A, Bill Miles, Co-Founder and Creative Director of Best Self Magazine, puts forth questions for Dr. Sweta Vikram, inspired by her new book, The Loss that Binds Us: 108 Tips on Coping with Grief and Loss.
    Best Self Magazine5 min read
    Balancing Act: What I Learned from Letting Go of a Lifetime of Accumulated Possessions
    Estimated reading time: 7 minutes — When my wife passed away in 2017, I needed to downsize from a house to an apartment. I was too overwhelmed by grief and the complications of life to think clearly about much of anything. So I filled three storage
    Best Self Magazine7 min read
    How I Left: Reflections on My Journey into Marriage…and Out
    Estimated reading time: 10 minutes — My grandmother was fourteen when a man in her Southern Italian village asked to marry her. He was twenty-eight, a stranger to Gramma. She said, No! But her mother told her, “Marry him. He’ll take you to America.”

    Related Books & Audiobooks