The Mindful Activist
BY HALEY TODD
Haley is a Social Work student at Auburn University, an Enneagram 1w2, and an obsessive eater of sweet potatoes. She loves writing words that help others believe more in Love, Goodness, and themselves. Someday, she wants to work in sustainable international development and help end the global migration crisis. For right now, she's interning at a refugee resettlement agency, learning to speak Arabic, and spending all her money on new tattoos.
It seems like mindfulness and meditation are all the rage right now. Ask any mental health professional, and they’ll probably tell you about a recent study regaling the benefits of meditating for X amount of minutes per day. There are a plethora of meditation apps to choose from. I even came across the book, A Sloth’s Guide to Mindfulness, in Barnes & Noble a few weeks ago. Once you start looking, you’ll see that it’s out there: we’ve got a bit of a mindfulness craze on our hands.
As I met regularly with a counselor last spring, I too was interested in exploring mindfulness. I wanted to add it to my mental health toolbox, which I had been stocking with healthy coping mechanisms for my anxiety and OCD. I tried out some guided meditation apps for a while, used meditations to help me fall asleep, and picked up a well-known book on mindfulness, Wherever You Go There You Are, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, to learn more.
I discovered that mindfulness is so much more than downloading the best meditation apps, doing yoga every once in a while, and trying really hard to focus on your breathing for five minutes. Mindfulness, according to Kabat-Zinn, is “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.”
It’s “the art of conscious living,” “a practical way to be more in touch with the fullness of your being through a systematic process of self-observation, self-inquiry, and mindful action.” It’s not about trying or doing, but being. The essence of mindfulness is to be present in the moment. Like our fearless founder Hannah Brencher says: “Be where your feet are.”
Sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? But that lofty ideal is where I started to struggle with this whole mindfulness thing. To put it succinctly, I’ll quote Miles from the phenomenal movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse: “I’m in the moment. It’s a terrible moment!”
See, I’m a social work student. I spent the summer working with resettled refugees in Atlanta. One of my favorite podcasts is Outrage & Optimism, which talks about action in the climate crisis. In my spare time, I knit Welcome Blankets for newly arrived refugees and asylum-seekers in the United States. I love the documentary Poverty, Inc., which takes a critical look at the global compassion industry. I care about so many social issues, and try to engage with many of them, even if it’s just in small ways because I’m only one tiny human with a finite amount of time, resources, and energy.
As I got more into the heart of mindfulness, I found myself thinking, Why would I want to be in this moment? The people and planet I care about are hurting, even dying. All I want to do is change the present moment, not be in it!
I found myself at a crossroads: How can I be a mindful activist? The essence of mindfulness is being here now; the essence of activism is doing something to change the here and now. Is it possible to bring them both together?
I struggled with this question for a while, especially as I went back to school and started neglecting my meditation habit. I was calling my representatives, posting on my social media in support of refugees, writing a short story about the border crisis, and generally doing activism in a very un-mindful way. Every day in class, I was reminded of different social issues and motivated to do something, anything, about them.
I began reasoning that I don’t have time to meditate, to breathe, to just exist, when racism, the climate crisis, forced displacement, all of these big problems also exist. If I had to choose between advocacy and meditation, I would choose advocacy, no doubt about it.
But then one day, the simplest of realizations hit me like a ton of bricks: I can’t change the here and now without first being in the here and now.
We learn all about this in social work school. You can’t jump right into “fixing” a problem; first, you have to assess the situation and all its intricate little pieces, sit with the client wherever they are, empathize with their emotions, take some time to just be there before doing anything. And don’t we all know that this is the best way to be any sort of helper? Don’t we feel so much better when someone says, “Wow, that sounds really hard,” instead of, “Here’s my foolproof four-step solution”? By refusing to simply be in the present moment, I was actually neglecting the most vital ingredient to effective activism and advocacy.
I have learned now that mindfulness and activism are a both-and, not an either-or. I have to be here now before I can do anything about the here and now. Because when we’re fully living in the present moment, we are able to truly understand it and the ways it needs to change. But not only do we become aware of the needs of the present moment: we are also able to see its beauty, the worthwhileness, the why behind our fight for justice. Rose from Star Wars: The Last Jedi puts it like this: “That’s how we’re gonna win. Not fighting what we hate--saving what we love.” Mindfulness allows us to discover what we love, right here, right now, wherever we are; activism, then, is the work we need to do to save it. We can’t have one without the other.
As we mindful activists work to make the world a better place, let’s remember to pause every once in a while. Take a moment to just be in the moment. And then, we can make all our moments better for it.