Hi everyone, and welcome to episode 3 of the peaceful loving vibrant podcast. I'm your host Andy Kia Nelson. And today I am so excited to share with you this conversation. I had with Julio Rivera. He's the founder of liberate a company started to support the black indigenous and POC community on our path of collective healing the first step in fulfilling. Their mission is a free meditation app that features.Meditations and talks from some of the most profound teachers in the United States Julio started attending meditation communities dedicated for people of color and found that the sense of safety in the room provided a deeper calming experience where he could just be himself this allowed him to develop self compassion, which helped with his challenges with self-worth after he could no longer attend these meditation communities due to a conflict. T' he looked online for meditation related resources for people of color and was surprised when he couldn't find much Julio's background is in building apps. So he saw this as a calling to be of service. He believes in the possibility where black indigenous and people of color can move through racism thriving in life radiating love for themselves and love for their broader POC Community to get there. He believes we need Safer spaces to heal with meditation. I'm so excited to share this conversation with you. Hey, my name is Hui on the founder of liberate based in Connecticut. And yeah, I'm 29 years old male cisgender. Yeah, trying to trying to make it in the world. Yeah, I was just saying to you before we got started that it's kind of surreal that we are recording this episode together because I came across your app in the Huffington Post article. And here we are. So the power of social media. Yes. Yeah. Yeah the power of technology which I think is so incredible because you know right before this we met at a coffee shop with another. Sin, who uses liberate in the Atlanta area? And so yeah, I'm just so so grateful for the support that liberates gotten so far and I'm particularly excited to have you on the podcast because one of the the missions of liber8 is to make meditation accessible, right which is exactly what I'm trying to do with this podcast. This is great so to get started The way that I named the peaceful loving vibrant podcast is based on the three words that describe how I want to show up in the world peaceful loving and vibrant. Hmm. So I like to ask my guests not question what three words would you say Define how you want to show up in the world? so the first word that comes to mind is vulnerable and I love that word because feels it's showing kind of what's really going on under the hood, which we don't as a society like to talk about and so, you know in my journey through meditation, one of the things that I've always tried to make a point of is to be vulnerable about some of the challenges that I've had with with my own Mental Health And you know, sometimes it takes somebody to start the conversation for that conversation to exist. So I also like vulnerable because you know, this this journey of building this company has just been has brought a lot of challenges and a lot of sacrifices and you know, I want when I kind of move and act in the world, I want people to know that I don't have it all figured out more than I don't have it figured out and so I and I think that that it's important as people as Leaders to move about in that kind of humble kind of way, you know, like things that I'm very vulnerable about right now is that with liber8 growing so does my fear and anxiety fear of rejection fear of failure and I think it's important to acknowledge that and share that because Because you know one of my my thoughts and my opinions about accepting ourselves accepting myself is sitting with the things that maybe I don't want to sit with it. And when I say sit with Amin experience and my meditation practice and when I move about in the world so vulnerable is the first word that comes to mind. another word that comes to mind is I don't know. I can't seem to put this in one word. But it's I think it's being true to myself like authentic authentic. There you go. I love that and I like the word authentic because They're especially when so liber8 is a meditation up for black indigenous and people of color. And now I find myself very often in conversations about race and about, you know conversations about racial inequities. You know, how just we as a community are pressed and the systems that are oppressing us currently. So like fear comes up, right because these conversations aren't comfortable. You know, they bring a lot of pain they bring a lot of Shame and shame for me speaking to my own personal experience shame comes up a lot because I'm very much being confronted with my own internalized oppression, you know ways in which I've acted where I've separated myself from my own Community because I thought I was Superior to Sirs, and I've grown up with the CERN economic and educational privilege. And so I've kind of internalized when I'm in spaces with other, you know by POC like sometimes I feel Superior and so the first time that that came up for me a lot of Shame came about and I was just felt so guilty. Like wow, like I've just separated myself from others and block people off even loved ones, right because I just felt like Like they weren't serving, you know the path that I was on and being around them was. not healthy and not conducive and right like with self love there is boundaries, but I think there's that dance like So yeah, that dance is I think important acknowledging like am I? Am I saying no to people because I think I'm higher than them or or just because they're kind of, you know sucking the energy out of me and so it's important to be aware of that for me. So I think it's a coming back to authentic. It's making sure that I'm moving about like when I notice that fear is present like what will what's really true for me and the values that I hold for myself, right? And It's moving with compassion. And I think it's also speaking up. So I think when I get face with that fear, it's like making sure that I speak up for what's happening to our community and it's uncomfortable. so third how do I want to show up? I think it's another area where I can't seem to find out what nice one word, but I think it's important that I do my own inner work and I am coming from a place of He like I am doing my own healing so that I can show up and hold space for others and be a resource for others. And and I think that's important for many for many different reasons. I think. You know for us as a community, you know that the buzz word that you hear a lot right now is solidarity so us coming together as a community as a bipod community and can you define byproducts are yeah, so black indigenous and people of color so identifies an afro Latino. So, you know, I like to acknowledge that the black and Indigenous experience is very different from you know, the other, you know, Latin X Asian. South Asian, even you know, it's important to even acknowledge South Asian because they've been marred very marginalized in many many different ways. So, you know, I think it's important to acknowledge everybody's experience that it's different and we are oppressed in many different ways and not carrying trauma because of these different experiences that we have so yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean there's a lot there's a lot there area. Are you familiar with? Bernie Browns work on vulnerability. Yes. Yeah, I just Turn Netflix special a couple months ago and was blown away about how she talked about the connection between being vulnerable and having courage how traditionally were taught that you're not supposed to be vulnerable. You're putting on a brave face and not showing that fear but in her research, she actually found the opposite that people who show up and are brave enough to be vulnerable. They're actually courageous which it sounds like there's a lot of that weaved into what you said in terms of holding space for people of color having those uncomfortable conversations. It just it does take a lot of courage to do that. Okay, so you talked a lot about acknowledging difficult emotions like fear and shame how has your meditation practice helped you do that, right? so I think one of the things that particular I've heard a lot of teachers of color really talk about is really sitting with the emotions that show up or the feelings in the physical Sensations that show up in the body. And so as we as I do it a lot of my meditation practices is somatic which is basically kind of doing a body scan and really sitting with the physical. Is that show up in the body? And one of the things that always shows up for me is tension in the face. And so I what that emotion is when I really sit into that tension in the face is fear. And so I am very present to the fear that's always present in my life. And and at one point in time during my meditation practice, I would always do this. Body skin and always feel the fear and I actually developed strangely enough of fear around the fear itself because I would always be like is this fear ever going to go away? Am I just going to always sit with this intention in my face? And so I looked for resources out there that really helped me deal with this situation and I found that in particular from a teacher named 7/8 who you can find on the liberate app, you know. That when we come from a place of really accepting and loving that fear that we can develop a new relationship with it. So I started to incorporate in my meditation practice like instead of fearing that fear that I would feel in my meted would feel in the tension in my face. I would just accept it and love it and be like, okay. It's okay for you to be their fear and giving it permission her giving yourself permission, I guess. Yes. Yeah, giving giving the fear myself permission to experience that and be okay and remember that I'm okay. You know that I am I have support I have people in my life who really love me I'm healthy and I mean there's a bunch of different resources that you could use to support yourself. And I think when that I bring into my practice when I'm experiencing that fear, so In accepting and loving that fear. I can move in my day to day without having to escape from that fear which is you know, using things like for me I quit drinking a while ago, but how I kind of how I see myself trying to escape from the fear is sugar sweets and Technology, you know, I'm single right now and so flicking through day. Apps right like, you know, I see that I kind of use those kind of things as it was way of kind of running away from from the fear and experiencing it. And your meditation I'm guessing has helped you realize that connection between the the substances or the technology and your fear. Yes. Yes exactly. So using practice and so a lot of people listening may never have meditated or maybe very new to the concept. So one of the things that you said that I thought was really interesting is how you connected the tension in your face to actually naming the emotion of fear. So what is that experience like so sitting in a body scan or doing the body scan? How do you go from the physical sensation to actually naming the emotion you talked about that? Yeah that has taken a lot of time. So I yeah, I think how do you get to that place? And I think it's really really sitting with it. It takes time just with even developing the skill with recognizing that there's a physical sensation happening in your body and how you do that is by really slowing down. So sometimes even going to the body scanning directly that type of meditation may not suit certain people, right? It may be just like I'll start with the breath and I will slow down. My day-to-day life over some period of time just using the breath and then I'll move from paying attention to the breath repeatedly to moving to the body skin and it's hard for me to really point to how I made that distinction that this tension in my face was fear. I think I do a lot of men's work and holding and being in space with other men allows me to kind of really make that distinction that What is this emotion that this tension? It's almost like we have this skill. And neatly we just need to be in we need to have the certain conditions around us in a certain environment allow us to be in a vulnerable place to experience it and sometimes these answers just come kind of like organically. It's like what did I just really say that does that is that coming from me? But it's I mean I meet with a men's group every week and so we and meditation This is like the first thing that we do in our in our group and then we moved to kind of vulnerable sharing. And so that setting helps me really make that distinction. So I think the meditation practices help is a helpful tool and then also being in safe spaces where I can really share from a vulnerable space. What's really happening in my body. That is really cool. And this is one thing that we were talking about before when we met up with the the other liberate community members is the importance of sharing in those safe spaces. Can you talk more about how what that experience has been for you building that Community finding that group of men to commune with? Hmm? Yeah, so they're they're two different I think directions that I'd love to just or two. Points, I love to talk about that. So so first like the reason why I even started liber8 was because of my first experience sitting in communities with other people of color. So I remember going to New York Insight Meditation Center and they have a POC song of that meets the first and third Monday of every month and I remember going the first time that I went, you know, I predominantly meditated and spaces with white white people. And this experience was completely different. I say that the community and the teachings really touched me in a profound way the and I attribute that to the safety that I felt in the room, you know, there were people in the room that I could resonate with even just by by physical appearances and then just the way people talked and just the the warmth in the room. It was it was like I was with family again and so being in that space. Where I felt safe, I let my guard down and you know, I really got vulnerable with other people and so, you know, especially like I was living in New York City at the time and it's very often that we move within the city feeling very disconnected and so feeling like I wasn't the only one going through my suffering and powered me almost to continue this path, which can be very difficult like difficulties that may arise. You're starting a meditation practice is doing it every day. Yeah, keeping that consistency. So knowing that there were others going through this suffering and this journey as I was empowered me to do that every day. So that that saves space helped me in that was really helpful. And so when I started liberate, you know, one of the feelings that I want people to leave with when they go to the meditation app is is feeling seen feeling heard feeling really valued. and knowing that they aren't the only one and so it's almost like you know only technology can go so far with creating these kind of safe spaces, but I think it's like a first step and so one of the areas that we were really want to move to with liberators is creating kind of virtual safe spaces for folks and then creating a platform for people to self organize so that they can create their own safe spaces because I know there might be people out listening right now that that Have that connection and and haven't had that experience with meditating or just being in a safe space with other people of color. Yeah, and don't even know how to get started. Home sells. Yeah, exactly exactly. So then the other area that I wanted it to touch was the Men's Work the men's group that I have. I think in particular as men we Harbor a lot of emotions because of the way Society has conditioned us to you know, not feel and experience certain things and I think you know if you trauma and is such as I think a Hot Topic right now because we're seeing really the impact of physical the spiritual the emotional the mental impacts of holding trauma. How holding trauma has you know the impacts on us and so creating safe spaces for that trauma to arise in really speak to it is I think the point in which healing occurs. I'm a very emotional man. I own that and so it's not it's very often when I'm in my men's group that a lot of things arise a lot of traumatic experiences that I've had in my life seen past relationships. With past partners with past loved ones and so giving that experience the the safety to arise and just cry about it. It's such a healing experience. But first we have to come to a place of just like allowing that that feeling to arise and that comes from I think paying attention being aware to what's happening in our body and then just having that permission to experience that. It sounds like you're at a place now where you have your Petit and you feel comfortable sharing those vulnerable emotions, but I imagine for someone who's just getting started that might feel intimidating. If you've never given yourself permission to cry or feel sadness or feel fear. What advice would you have for people who are dealing with these emotions and want to express them but are having trouble making that first step. It's a great question, I think. For me I've been able to be more vulnerable. Amongst other people when I've in a way been vulnerable with myself. So, you know as I spoke to before just being able to give myself permission to experience certain emotions or certain feelings. Like it's very easy for me to cry with with the other men in the group or release kind of emotions anger shame guilt, but even starting from a place I can't do that with myself, but I haven't quite developed that skill yet, but I think Just being able to sit with the tension and you know doing a body scan and just sitting with it and my meditation has helped me. So by accepting that emotion I can go out and share that with others. I think also it's important in community and by creating a safe space that there's agreements And so with you know in our men's group we have agreements one is confidentiality to it's not giving personal advice really just people owning their experience and you know also acknowledging that this isn't therapy or counseling and and also there's another agreement that we have is just no domination. So just letting everyone speak and be heard so I think you know having those agreements in place and everybody agreeing to those agreements is important because then it's a starting point that we're on the same page and I think then that safety starts to this the environment the safe environment starts to be created and then I think it's just like taking the leap of faith after that point, you know, it's very very fearful and being vulnerable is very scary. Yeah, and I think it's just like even that even even just acknowledging that within the group I think is a starting point, you know, it's just like, you know, we don't do this normally and it's very scary. So let's just see what happens and I think being vulnerable is also very uncertain. So I think it's just like being as a group being open to knowing that we have no idea what's going to happen and and all of that is, okay. So I think this is a skill that you build with other for me. It's like it's always a skill that I've built with other people so I would find maybe somebody close to you and maybe let's just, you know, it's a muscle to so it's something that you work too. So maybe just like once a week finding somebody close to you and saying, you know, I'd like to share something with you that I haven't told everybody anybody else and what do you want to agree to some agreements that that Would help me share this so I think that may be a good starting point. Nice. As you were talking it reminded me of what you said about doing your inner work first before you go outside and then I love the idea of agreeing to the terms right for the group. So I think it makes me want to go out and make my own group. Yeah, I highly highly recommend it. So I do want to dive into the app more but I have one more question is sort of more on a personal level. What are some myths about meditation that you want to dispel especially for folks who are brand new to the practice. One of the myths that I'd like to talk about is that I often hear from people who are just starting to meditate is that meditation is about Having no thoughts. I think that comes up very very often and what I what I like to share is that and I actually came to meditation practice with kind of the same expectation. So did I and I think that the challenge with that is that will one we enter the practice with expectations like this is what I'm going to experience or this is what's going to happen after 5 to 15 minutes of sitting down. But what I've seen over time is that actually you know, having thoughts is such a healthy sign of the brain. The brain is functioning as it as it should be and so we're not going to be able to slow door have no thoughts. Right that's getting a getting in a fight with the mind which only actually makes things made things worse for me in my own meditation practice. So what I found just over time and you know having a teacher was very And for me was built, like what ends up happening over time is that you're building a relationship to your thoughts in your mind. You're actually creating the space between what you're thinking and you so what I say, it's a very abstract concept which is like in meditation. You may hear that, you know, you are not your thoughts. But what does that actually mean and that for me? It's like if I told you who's listening, right? Think about a red car and you visualize a red car. If you could visualize the red car then how are you the thought of the red car and so like as we're moving in our day to day lives, we have a lot of thoughts and we attach ourselves to them and so meditation creates the spaciousness between you and your thought where it's like. Oh, I noticed that I'm being very self-critical about myself. I don't actually have to pay attention to that. I can notice that it's there and not add any meaning to it. You know, one of the durazo Williams a favorite teacher And she says often. Pain something I'm paraphrasing here, but pain is not optional and suffering is optional. So suffering being the thing that we add to the pain which is all the additional kind of, you know, thoughts and emotions that we bring to the pain that we're experiencing. But suffering is real though. I want to acknowledge that so kind of back to the myth is that you know what? We're not what we're trying to do in meditation is not stop thinking it's to develop a new relationship to our thoughts so that we can be with them. We can accept them. We can accept the parts that we don't really like about ourselves and in that we can bring more self-care more self-love into our lives. Yeah, I mean that is a myth that I held onto for a long time. Probably even up to this morning in my own meditation practice. I was seeking that quiet that Stillness and it doesn't really come until you just let yourself be right. Okay, so I really want to dive into the Livery app and you talked a lot about different teachers you had which not a lot of us have access to in person is these amazing teachers and it seems like the app could help with that. So can you tell us about what inspired you to create liberate app and how how you see people benefiting from it? Yeah, so I started liberate because of my own. Experiences with sitting and communities with other teachers of meditation teachers of color and so, you know, I really had a profound spiritual experiences where I just felt really empowered that I could change the relationship to my suffering and you know, I took on a commitment that no longer allowed me to go to this one meditation community in particular. And so I looked online for other resources, you know, just to leave me with that same feeling that I felt that like again I could change the relationship to my suffering in that all wasn't hopeless right? And so which is typical of the my of the thoughts that arise in the mind were when we were really experiencing overwhelming amounts of stress anxiety and depression, really? and so after looking online for resources to leave me with the same feeling that I felt when I would leave this community in particular at New York Insight Meditation Center. I didn't really find any other resources out there. So my background is in app development. So what I studied in school and what I did professionally for eight plus years. and so I started an app basically that got a few meditations and talks from some of my favorite meditation teachers one being seven a Selassie Ruth King and enjoying a hearty some of these teachers who've been kind of doing this work of making meditation resources more accessible for folks of color for a while and and it's been just amazing to see growth and the opportunity that liberate has provided for folks and what I really want people to leave with when they walk away from using the app is feeling like they've been seen in their herd and they're valued and that the experiences that they're going through in a day to day when they experience microaggressions for example, and they feel like they're not enough that they come to liberate and they feel that they are enough because they see see other teachers of color that they resonate with talking about these exact issues that we're experiencing on a day-to-day basis that maybe other people aren't So what I really see for liberate moving forward is that we're really providing safe spaces for people of color to heal because there's not enough safe spaces out there for us. We're constantly right when we walk out into the world, you know, we're constantly being hit with micro aggressions and even maybe even in our own household, you know, we're experiencing that from from people within our own community. So You know, yeah, I really hope that liberate can be that support for people and their journeys of healing. Yeah, and I think you're doing just that I shared with you a few weeks ago that I introduce my sister to delivery app and she expressed just feeling a lot more comfortable with the guided meditations there versus the app. She was using before and she made the jump ha ha ha that's awesome is there and it's coming to life. Where can people find deliberate app? Yeah, so the website our website is deliberate meditation.com. We're on Facebook and Instagram as well. You can also search the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store for liber8 meditation and hopefully it's one of the first things that come up. Yeah, and you mentioned microaggressions or medications that help people deal with my sessions, which I don't think we would find elsewhere. Right? Right. Yeah, so you won't yeah, so we try to touch on really the experiences of people of color what they're experiencing on a day-to-day. I think also what you'll see that a lot of white meditation teachers aren't touching on his ancestors. So we have you know, that bringing ancestors into our meditation our spiritual practice. We have meditations around that which I think is unique to other meditation apps that are out there right now and we plan on really talking to many other different topics that are unique to our community such as some of the things that will be coming out with the next month or two is you know, why is it tough for men of color to be vulnerable and experience experience these emotions as well as you know building relationships with other men and sharing that gratitude for the relationships that we have in our lives. So there's a lot of I think different areas that we can really take this and I think that's that's the power of this really is that there's no institutions know any no rules to this, you know, really so we can really come out with content that's really catered to the experiences that we face as a community and there's no one telling us Not to do that. I mean that is so powerful. Yeah, so you mentioned bringing in ancestors and I feel like this is something that's been coming up for me over and over again in different spaces is the concept of bringing in ancestors ancestral healing. I'm hearing it in a lot of different spaces, so it's probably for me but what is that and how is it beneficial for a meditation practice? This is also something new to me. I'll preface this with this answer with that. But for me, it's really bringing in the people that have come before me that allowed to allowed me to experience what the freedom The Liberation the support the joy the gratitude that I'm experiencing today. So, you know one of the one of the guided meditations that we have on liberate by a teacher Pamela, oh you Tandy she is the name of the meditation is unveiling your deepest goodness and this this meditation in particular strong for black women because during the meditation she brings into the practice ancestors that have helped her. Let's be where she's at right now. So one of them being Harriet Tubman and so, you know, I think it's very powerful that I see the feedback that I get is that a lot of women have particularly profound experiences because when you get to slow down and you get to visualize that these people are around us these people that have helped us get to where we're at today. We can feel supported we can feel we can feel grounded we can feel centered and we can move throughout our day. knowing that these ancestors are with us, you know, I mean, I don't I think it also depends where you're at in your spiritual practice and what you believe and what you don't believe but you know in particular like I believe that Spirits are always with us and it might and particularly my my ancestors are always with me and so when fear arises and I can really tap into the ancestors that are always with me I can move Move with with more power. I can move with more vulnerability and authenticity and be the person that I want to be and also know that there's faith that there's faith in that I am going to get out of this dark hole that I may be in right now and experience Joy experience freedom and Liberation from the society this systems of Oppression that we live in WoW. What was the name of that? That unveiling your deepest goodness making a note of that for hahaha really powerful. Yeah. So that's an area. I think I'd love to touch on more with liber8 and Explorer in my own spiritual practice for sure. Yeah. So a couple more questions about the app, so you mentioned by POC and you mention the variety of experiences that people of color have that even in the community. Each person's experience may be different. How are you planning to incorporate that in the app? So that different types of people of color feel represented very very good question challenge, right? It's certainly a challenge. One of the things that I do want to implement in the app as after you sign up. To be a part of the app, which is optional that we're asking you questions about how you identify. So are you black are you Latin? Are you South Asian, you know, are you a male? Are you a female or you non-binary? Are you trans Are You Queer and so assembling these answers in a profile about the person we can then Target specific guided meditations, and I think first off its Us being very intentional about seeking out teachers who represent those specific communities. So for pride month, you know, I really set the intention of like, okay. I'm going to make sure I put energy and focus into getting teachers who identify as queer or non-binary or you know lesbian queer to Spirit, you know, it makes me make sure I I personally do the education on my own part and then seek the teachers out. Who identify with these communities so I think liberate in particular and and I think the community has just been so great with this because I want to be the first to acknowledge that I have so much education to do around this but people have been vocal like, you know, Julio, I love what you're doing. Why isn't why isn't there more I got an email recently? Why isn't there more South Asian teachers on the on the platform went there Indian teachers on the platform and So that has been a really learning point for me like oh wow like yeah. I haven't really spent the time to really seek out these teachers. Why is that? Okay and then also now I know to be more aware of that and I love getting on calls with people and understanding, you know, why is this even being vocalized and what tends to happen is that I learn and I feel the experience that they're going through about, you know constantly being in spaces in meditation spaces around ocean where you know kind of the roots of these practices aren't being acknowledged and so it's just I just love when the community points it out and it is vocal about it, you know again and I think you know as I be vulnerable as a leader, I think hopefully people feel permission to just keep calling me out. Yeah and liberate out as a whole. Why are you touching on this content? Because it's so important so I just If you're listening call it call me out on it. Thank you for doing this. It really doesn't Exist Elsewhere and when I read that article. Interview, I was just so overwhelmed with gratitude that you were out there creating this space for us. Thank you for doing that. No problem. How can our listeners support your effort? Downloading the app sharing it with your friends and family and that's certainly it. You know, we're trying to get the word out. So, you know, if you know any writers or anybody in PR or you know, I think there's this concept in Buddhism called Donna. So, you know, one form of Donna is financial support. I think there are other forms of generosity, which is yours. I'm your effort. If you want to volunteer to help out, you know, we don't charge for the app and I think the app is has been growing a lot recently. So, you know having that volunteers volunteers to help out has been very critical. So if you see a way of helping out certainly reach out, my email is Julio ju L IO at liberate meditation.com, you know, I answer all my e-mails personally and make sure I spend the time to do that. So if you email me I will certainly reply back - so downloading the app sharing it and reaching out with ideas for volunteering. Yes. Yeah, and where else can we find you apart from your email or you on social media? Yeah, so I have a personal account liber8 has a Instagram account at liberate meditation. I have a personal account at Julio dot a DOT Rivera. If you ever want to just DM and just like chat I'm down. For meeting folks. I love just meeting people 101 and just learning about their experience and just connecting on you know, what is it to be a person of color living in this world today not just in the u.s. Because I think in every country there's forms of Oppression. There are ways that anti-blackness shows up. Yeah for sure absolutely is the Facebook group. Also, oh, yes, thank you for mentioning a a Facebook group is also a way we don't have a link to it on the website. But if you sign up for the app a day later, we send an email I think also if you check our Facebook page you can there's a tab for our group which you can find. So maybe you can link that and yeah, I'll put all of that information in the show notes. I also want to put some vulnerability resources. That's a really good conversation about that. Alright. Well, thank you so much Julio. We had a really great conversation today. Thanks again. And I would love if you could guide our listeners through a meditation. I guess we can start out with you. Just telling us what to expect in terms of how long it's going to be whether you have a theme and then I'll let you just Dive Right In. Yeah, so this meditation I'll be doing is around 5 to 8 minutes potentially 10 minutes and it will be a body scan. So really what we're doing in this meditation practice is bringing our awareness our attention to the different areas of our body and as we do that noticing any areas of tension looseness. tightness pain and if you notice that during the meditation and it becomes overwhelming, you know try to sit with it and bring your bring a sense of curiosity and acceptance to it. And if it if it is overwhelming feel free to open your eyes and stop. So as you get comfortable in your chair, it is important to have an upright posture. pasture that brings alertness and energy into the practice. So with sitting in your posture your upright posture, let's just start off with taking three big deep breaths. So inhaling through the nose. And exhaling out the mouth. two more times inhaling through the nose And exhaling out of the mouth. one last time in through the nose and exhaling out of their mouth. and just bringing your attention to your breath. the inhale through the nose And the exhale out of the nose. Now I invite you to bring your attention. to your feet your feet against the floor against your shoes just bringing your awareness to whatever is supporting your feet. Now I invite you to bring your awareness from your feet. up to your shins and your ankles bring a sense of curiosity. to how this shins and your Cavs and even your knees how they feel right now. and then moving your attention to your hands they may be on your knees or thighs. Or on the support of a chair. just bringing a sense of curiosity and attention to whatever supporting your hands right now. If your mind wanders off. and to thought just bring your attention back to the physical sensation. Whatever's supporting your hands and your arms right now. Next I invite you too. Bring your attention to your glutes. Bring your and bringing your attention specifically to. Whatever chair cushion Matt you're sitting on currently just feeling that support. Feeling uncomfortable. Lower back is in pain. It's okay to move. But as you move just bringing a real sense of attention and awareness, too. moving and making yourself comfortable as we bring our attention up the body just bringing your awareness in your attention to the chest area. Just bringing your attention to how the chest expands and contracts with every inhale. and with every exhale as we move up the body bringing your attention to your neck. And your shoulders too. You may have noticed tension or tightness. And the chest area and we may also. Notice it here, too. May feel the pressure. Of always having to perform and be perfect. moving up the body now to the face. Being bringing your attention to the jaw. Where a lot of tension is held from stress anxiety. You may be feeling it here because it's very common. It's a very common place of tension. So just bringing a sense of curiosity and acceptance to it. That I'm feeling this. And it's okay. and as we move up the body and bringing our attention slowly from the drop to the lips. and the nose cheeks and your forehead And again if the mind wanders off it's okay. Just bring your attention back to the physical Sensations on your face. So we before we end this meditation. You know, we could be sitting with a lot right now is people of color. We experienced a lot we have to deal with a lot. and so feeling into the emotions the tension the looseness the tightness that we may experience be experiencing right now. I invite you to bring in. Anybody in your life? any ancestors who have come before you to who is responsible for you being here? Could be family members. could be other people of color who have fought for our rights to exist today I'm really feeling that they're here with you. That they're sending you. wishes of love gratitude and acceptance for not only you but for what you're experiencing right now. If your mind wanders off. And it's difficult to visualize some of your ancestors. Just bring your attention to physical sensation in the body that's most present for you right now. The mine will come up with thoughts to disconnect you from what you're experiencing in your body, and that's totally natural. Now I invite you to start to wiggle your toes and your fingers and shrilly as you do this bring your attention to what it feels like to move these. muscles and when you're ready, you can open your eyes. Thank you. Thanks everyone for tuning into the peaceful loving vibrant podcast head to the show notes to see all the resources that we discussed and join the plv squad on Facebook @ FB dot me slash P LV podcast. You can follow us on Instagram. We are at peaceful loving by Brent podcast and also you can send me an email peaceful. Living vibrant podcast at gmail.com. I want to hear what you thought of this episode what resonated what questions you have and what you want to hear next also. Have you started meditating? Let me know how it's going and keep listening for more.
On this episode, I interview Julio Rivera, the Afro-Latino founder of the Liberate meditation app for Black Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC). Julio shares so much about his personal journey in overcoming the fears associated with being an entrepreneur and confronting his own internalized oppression. We discuss:   Vulnerability as an essential part of Julio’s personal journey and his role in holding space for people of color;  The role of his meditation practice in helping him acknowledge difficult emotions like fear and shame, and managing his inner critic;  The connection between physical sensations (like muscle tension) and emotions, and how body scan meditations have helped him make that connection;  Building a community of men who support each other in their meditation practices and provide a safe space for each other to share vulnerable emotions;    Creating virtual safe spaces for people of color to heal through meditation and community;   How meditation helps us develop a healthy relationship with our thoughts;   Including our ancestors in our meditation practice; and more! At the end of the episode, Julio leads us through a 10 minute body scan. This type of meditation is a powerful way to practice being present to the physical sensations happening in your body, and may help you identify areas where you are holding emotions in your physical body. Resources from this episode:    Liberate Meditation website: https://liberatemeditation.com    Liberate Meditation App in the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/liberate-meditation/id1451620569    Liberate Meditation App on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zencompass.liberate&hl=en_US    Liberate on Instagram: @liberatemeditation    Guided Meditation - Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness with Pamela Ayo Yetunde on the Liberate Meditation App: https://liberate.app.link/liBgX2mwPW    Liberate Meditation BIPOC Community on Facebook: Liberate Meditation BIPOC Community   Email julio@liberatemeditation.com if you’d like to volunteer to help with the Liberate Meditation App    Julio on Instagram: @julio.a.rivera     New York Insight Meditation Center People of Color Sangha: https://www.nyimc.org/event/people-of-color-sangha/    The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown: https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare   Join the #PLVsquad:    Email me: peacefullovingvibrantpodcast@gmail.com   Facebook: fb.me/PLVpodcast   Instagram: @peacefullovingvibrantpodcast 