S3 Xtra 5: "Box Breathing" Meditation

In early January, educator, facilitator and applied theater practitioner, Channie Waites, led a remarkable Hollaback! Resilience workshop  to help people process the compound traumas of the Jan 6 attempted coup by White Supremacists. 

Hear Channie share generously of her own wisdom about our nation’s illness of racism and the necessity of truth telling, reconciliation and joy. She unpacks many steps toward healing, drawing on her years of work in Rwanda, as well as personal experiences of grief, racial trauma, and resilience. 

In this bonus episode to conclude Season 3 of our #HealMeToo #AtHome series, Channie dives deeply into:

• The nature of racism
• The ways trauma and resilience can take shape within us
• The imperative of facing “what is” and then telling our stories
• How inhabiting our bodies and our power of choice help build resilience
• Why joy belongs at the heart of every step, even in grief or other painful feelings
• Why our culture cannot heal until we tell all the truths of White Supremacy, facing and feeling the ways racism infects us, and impairs our connections 
• A joyful movement practice to shake it all out, inspire the giggles, and help shift stuckness in the body
• And so much more

Learn more about Channie and Hollaback!, and find links to resources on our episode page at bit.ly/hm2pod0311.

Subscribe now and catch new episodes of the #HealMeToo Podcast in 2021 on Apple and all the usual podcast platforms as well as on our YouTube channel — for insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now.

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019. 

Music Credits:
Lead vocal: Jovan Martinez sampling "It's a Love Thing" by The Whispers. 
Choral Improvisation recorded live at a #HealMeToo Festival & Podcast event, led by: Katie Down, Bonita Oliver, Jessica Lurie & Vanessa Marie.

The final episode of 2020 and the concluding episode of Season 3: #HealMeToo #AtHome centers the needs (and the extraordinary resilience) of young people experiencing unprecedented isolation and many forms of trauma.

As we enter a new year, with many young people resuming remote learning, we're sharing an interview recorded in early fall, with insights, guidance and practical tips from Ashleigh Anderson, a Relationship Abuse Prevention Program coordinator at NYC's Edward R. Murrow High School, working with Day One, a nonprofit that partners with youth to end dating abuse and domestic violence through community education, supportive services & legal advocacy. 

In this episode, learn about:

• Teen and middle-schoolers specific vulnerabilities to tech abuse in this time
• Creating boundaries when we're at home and everyone's connected 24/7
• Why helping our kids can be tricky when we adults are enduring the same traumas, too
• A deeper take on self-care (it's not just taking baths)
• How adults sometimes gloss over the impact of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter Movement for young people
• Ways to normalize the way kids and teens are feeling
• Tips for recognizing and helping address some symptoms of PTSD  

Learn more about Ashleigh and Day One, and find links to resources on our episode page at bit.ly/hm2pod0310.

Subscribe now and catch new episodes of the #HealMeToo Podcast in 2021 on Apple and all the usual podcast platforms as well as on our YouTube channel — for insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now. 

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019. 

Music Credits:
Lead vocal: Jovan Martinez sampling "It's a Love Thing" by The Whispers. 
Choral Improvisation recorded live at a #HealMeToo Festival & Podcast event, led by: Katie Down, Bonita Oliver, Jessica Lurie & Vanessa Marie.

In this Podcast Extra, Hollaback! Deputy Director and bystander intervention trainer, Jorge Arteaga, leads listeners in a short grounding practice called "Box Breathing." This practice is used by the military and you may find it comes in handy to help de-escalate every other type of stress too.

Learn more about using Box Breathing to keep steady when witnessing and intervening in harassment and other harmful situations during the full interview with Jorge in S3 E9: Bystander Intervention for Racism, Police Violence & Ending Harassment in All Its Forms. Or, watch the Video Podcast on our YouTube channel.

Join us throughout 2020 for new episodes on all your favorite podcast platforms as well as on YouTube as we wrap up Season 3: #HealMeToo At-Home--focused on the needs of now.

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted by Hope Singsen--the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019. 

Edited by Hope Singsen
Opening & closing music: "Love Is Rising" written by Vanessa Marie Milanesi & Helga Kaefer, performed by Vanessa Marie (@vanessamariemusic)

After a hiatus to organize and lead election activist events 7-days-a-week, we’re back! 

Our guest this week: Jorge Arteaga, the Director of Operations for Hollaback!—an incredible FREE bystander intervention training org whose mission began with stopping street sexual harassment and has expanded, to stop harassment in all its forms.

Jorge is also the originator of their training in Bystander Intervention to Stop Police Sponsored Violence and Anti-Black Racist Harassment, which he previews during our interview. 

In this episode:

• Hear Jorge’s powerful personal story
• Learn techniques to safely practice the 5 Ds of Bystander Intervention (Distract, Delegate, Delay, Document & Direct intervention), especially in the presence of police violence. 
• Find out about all the empowering free trainings Hollaback! offers 
• Practice a meditative exercise called Box Breathing, which can help reduce the stress and even trauma when performing bystander interventions. (We’ll also share this practice as a Podcast Extra you can tap into any time you need a reminder or a moment of Zen!)

If you don't know Hollaback! you'll love this org and their excellent trainings, which offer ways each one of us, whatever our identities, can show up as allies for others in trouble. Hollaback! has dedicated training modules to help intervene to stop workplace sexual harassment, LGBTQ+ harassment, street sexual harassment, online trolling, COVID-related Asian/American and xenophobic harassment and this fall they added a training in stopping voter intimidation at the polls! 

Hollaback! also offers advanced techniques for conflict de-escalation, a training to help examine and shift our implicit biases, and a beautiful training to strengthen our resilience to start healing from all 2020 has entailed. 

Learn more about Jorge and find links to resources on our episode page at bit.ly/hm2pod0309.

Subscribe now and catch the 10th episode of the #HealMeToo #AtHome Season 3 later this month on Apple and all the usual podcast platforms as well as on our YouTube channel — for insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now. 

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019. 

Music Credits:
Lead vocal: Jovan Martinez sampling "It's a Love Thing" by The Whispers. 
Choral Improvisation recorded live at a #HealMeToo Festival & Podcast event, led by: Katie Down, Bonita Oliver, Jessica Lurie & Vanessa Marie.

In this episode, we changed up the format to #KeepSharingtheMic with Jovan Martinez and Cassity Yeye of the STEPS to End Family Violence Early Relationship Abuse Prevention Program, who graced the stage at a #HealMeToo Festival pop up event earlier this year, A Love Thing, recorded for Season 2 of the podcast. Jovan’s beautiful lead singing at that event also graces the opening and closing credits of each episode in Season 3, sampling The Whispers.

We're so grateful that Jovan and Cassity returned to the platform to have a conversation about their work, about the intersections of so many types of stress & trauma at all times and especially right now for survivors of color, about how they're managing in 2020, and what wisdom they could share about how to heal.

About the #ShareTheMicNow and #KeepSharingtheMic Campaign
In June, four badass women and Instagram luminaries founded the #ShareTheMicNow campaign. Bo-zoma Saint John, Luvvie Adjaii Jones, Glennon Doyle and Stacey Bendet worked together to center Black women’s voices on White women’s platforms. As they wrote: 

"When the world listens to women, it listens to white women. For far too long, Black women’s voices have gone unheard, even though they’ve been using their voices loudly for centuries to enact change. Today, more than ever, it is NECESSARY that we create a unifying action to center Black women’s lives, stories, and calls to action. We need to listen to Black women."

 Later they invited all of us to #KeepSharingtheMic. They wrote:

"This campaign was born out of relationships. We invite other black and white women in relationship to recreate this action in their own spaces."

Learn more about Jovan and Cassity on our episode page at bit.ly/hm2pod0308

Subscribe now and join us throughout the summer and fall for new #HealMeToo #AtHome episodes on Apple and all the usual podcast platforms as well as on our new YouTube channel as we continue Season 3: #HealMeToo At-Home—insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now.

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019. 

Music Credits:
Lead vocal: Jovan Martinez sampling "It's a Love Thing" by The Whispers. 
Choral Improvisation recorded live at a #HealMeToo Festival & Podcast event, led by: Katie Down, Bonita Oliver, Jessica Lurie & Vanessa Marie.

In such traumatic times, and especially in light of the Movement for Black Lives against systemic racism, as well as the dangers, lost lives and lost incomes in the pandemic, right now our workplaces and work relationships are pressed to become more centered in care. But how can each of us, as workers or employers, adjust our practices to do this?

Akia Squitieri is an award-winning Producer, Director, Arts Administrator, and Anti-Harassment Advocate. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Rising Sun Performance Company and Co-Executive Director for the Innovative Theatre Foundation & New York Innovative Theatre Awards. She’s also the founder of Creating Safe Spaces, which offers anti-harassment training for theatrical environments.
 
Akia coined the term "Culture of Care" to describe the shift in culture needed now, and joined Hope for a conversation delving into the challenges and opportunities for transformation of our shared spaces. 

• Ideas and strategies for employers to self-assess and level up their support for workers
• Questions and practices that may help White folks acknowledge and check our privilege,  acknowledge our participation in the system of White Supremacy, and change our behavior
• The accountability facilitated by call-out and cancel culture, at their best

Learn more about Akia and find links to resources on our episode page at bit.ly/hm2pod0307.

Subscribe now and join us throughout the summer and fall for new #HealMeToo #AtHome episodes on Apple and all the usual podcast platforms as well as on our new YouTube channel as we continue Season 3: #HealMeToo At-Home—insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now. 

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019. 

Music Credits:
Lead vocal: Jovan Martinez sampling "It's a Love Thing" by The Whispers. 
Choral Improvisation recorded live at a #HealMeToo Festival & Podcast event, led by: Katie Down, Bonita Oliver, Jessica Lurie & Vanessa Marie.

Meet Jennifer Ruiz Diaz and Lorraine Correa, two amazing advocates and counselors from the Sexual Violence Project at Violence Intervention Program (VIP) in New York City, a community-based, non-profit organization partnering with Latinx and immigrant communities to end domestic, intimate partner and sexual violence.

Jennifer and Lorraine share an update on how Latinx survivors are doing, who VIP Executive Director, Margarita Guzmán, recently described as hunted by abusive partners, abusive governments, and now by this deadly virus.

You'll hear ways we all can step up to support Latinx communities with and without status, who heroically perform a disproportionate share of the essential labor the rest of us depend on, and are bearing a disproportionate burden of Covid and economic losses.

Learn more about VIP and find links to their resources on our episode page at bit.ly/hm2pod0306.

Subscribe now and join us throughout the summer for new #HealMeToo #AtHome episodes on Apple at bit.ly/hm2pod and all the usual podcast platforms as well as on our new YouTube channel at bit.ly/hm2youtube as we continue Season 3: #HealMeToo At-Home—insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now. 

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019.

Music Credits:
Lead vocal: Jovan Martinez sampling "It's a Love Thing" by The Whispers. 
Choral Improvisation recorded live at a #HealMeToo Festival & Podcast event, led by: Katie Down, Bonita Oliver, Jessica Lurie & Vanessa Marie.

The #HealMeToo Podcast & Festival have always offered insights, art, and activism to change our culture. And today, we’re taking a break from our usual format, to focus on that third part: activism -- what each of us can do to help change the culture and meet the urgent needs of now.  

As you may have heard before from #HealMeToo Podcast host, Hope Singsen, she's led an electoral activist group since early 2017 called Swing Left Target 2020 NYC. You can learn more about that group at bit.ly/slt20.

Last week, we recorded their full group meeting, where Hope shared the plan to help Democrats Win Everything in 100 Days, and then asked each one of us to make our personal plan of action. 

Because if we want to stop the murderous lies and hate violence of the GOP toward all the vulnerable populations in our country, including survivors of sexual, gender-based and intimate partner violence, then we need to take back ALL the houses -- by winning control of the White House, the Senate, and every State House where the GOP has drawn undemocratic gerrymanders that disempower Black and Brown voters, and all Democrats. 

But to take back all the Houses, it’s going to take all of us doing everything we can. 

In this recorded meeting, you’ll learn the Swing Left strategy to #WinEverything, and you’ll get to know the candidates in Swing States that Hope's group has adopted as their very own. You’ll hear about a ton of different ways you can get active, and you’ll get a chance to make your plan of action too. 

To follow along with the slides and see Hope's speaker notes with even more details, go to bit.ly/100dayplans. You can view the meeting Agenda here: bit.ly/slt20jul20. And we hope you'll complete the survey to make your personal Plan of Action here: bit.ly/100daysignups.

Feel free to share the slides, agenda, survey and this recording with anyone you know who might feel better if they started taking action to rout the GOP from EVERY House. 

One caveat about the recording – we didn’t expect to end up sharing it here. We've used still images from the slide deck to replace all footage of group members, to protect their privacy in the comforts of their homes.

Subscribe now and join us throughout the summer for new #HealMeToo #AtHome episodes on all the usual podcast platforms as well as on our new YouTube channel (bit.ly/hm2youtube) as we continue Season 3: #HealMeToo At-Home—insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now. 

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019. 

Music Credits:: "Love Is Rising" written by Vanessa Marie Milanesi & Helga Kaefer, performed by Vanessa Marie (@vanessamariemusic)

Settle in for a short chair yoga exploration with Julie Fernandez, lead trainer from Exhale to Inhale, a nonprofit that teaches trauma-informed yoga for free to survivors of domestic violence and sexual violence.

(And don't miss Julie's full episode: #HealMeToo Podcast S3 E4)

Learn more about Julie and find links to Exhale to Inhale's free online classes and more on our episode page.

Subscribe now and join us throughout the summer for new #HealMeToo #AtHome episodes on all the usual podcast platforms as well as here, on our new YouTube channel as we continue Season 3: #HealMeToo At-Home—insights, art and activism to meet the needs of now. 

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019. 

Music Credit: "Love Is Rising" written by Vanessa Marie Milanesi & Helga Kaefer, performed by Vanessa Marie (@vanessamariemusic)

Discover the amazing Exhale to Inhale, a nonprofit that teaches trauma-informed yoga for free to survivors of domestic violence and sexual violence, now available online for free to everyone experiencing stress and trauma! Our guest is Julie Fernandez, lead trainer at Exhale to Inhale, and the primary trauma therapist with the Hope Integrative Psychiatry team.

(You can also experience Julie's beautiful 15-minute chair yoga as #HealMeToo Podcast S3 Xtra 4!)

In this Season 3 Episode 4, you’ll hear about:

• Julie’s personal story of regaining comfort with her body and breath through yoga and embodied practices (after hating yoga to start with!) 
• The anxiety and insomnia Julie is observing in clients right now, whether that’s due to the menace of COVID or the long-suppressed racial trauma that is now surfacing in order to heal through the Movement for Black Lives and a deeper reckoning with White Supremacist culture.
• How body-based work can gradually help us feel more comfortable within discomfort, something so many people need in this time of disruption, danger and stress
• Why Exhale to Inhale is different from other yoga practices, from its welcoming affirmation of Black and Brown participants and every body shape, to its emphasis on the experience of choice for survivors that pervades every exercise 
• How yoga and other embodied work may help survivors to sit with and gradually lessen the discomfort and heal the disconnections between our body, emotions, heart and mind that can stem from trauma
• The research and theories that explain why embodied practices like Exhale to Inhale can help survivors reclaim their feelings of agency and power 
• Short movement and meditation practices led by Julie 
• How all of Julie’s work is intended to help clients feel safe in their bodies, comfortable in the world, and embodied, integrated and whole. 

Learn more about our guests and find links to Safe Horizon support resource links on our episode page.

Join us throughout the summer for new #HealMeToo #AtHome episodes on all the usual podcast platforms as well as our new YouTube channel as we continue Season 3: #HealMeToo At-Home—focused on the needs of now. 

Between episodes, you'll find us on all social media @healmetoofest and at healmetoopodcast.com.

The #HealMeToo Podcast is hosted and edited by Hope Singsen—the artist, creativity researcher and survivor-activist who founded the #HealMeToo Festival and Podcast in NYC in the Spring of 2019.

Music Credits:
Lead vocal: Jovan Martinez sampling "It's a Love Thing" by The Whispers. 
Choral Improvisation recorded live at a #HealMeToo Festival & Podcast event, led by: Katie Down, Bonita Oliver, Jessica Lurie & Vanessa Marie.