#003: Does meditating, doing yoga, and practicing self-care make the world better?

[Disclaimer: Harriet and Max are pro-meditation, pro-yoga, and pro- self-care! And want listeners to think about these practices within a broader sociopolitical context.]

The mental health counselor duo guide listeners through a mock meditation that makes rent strikes, labor exploitation, climate change, and all bad-vibes-in-general, completely vanish through deep breathing. Both share thoughts on whether class unconscious loving-kindness meditations and sweaty yoga classes can end imperialism and world hunger (both disclose that they like meditation and yoga, by the way). Max explores the idea of meditation teachers and therapists being helicoptered into the 1800s to calm down abolitionists and suffragists as a means to "help." Harriet clarifies what the women's liberation movement meant by 'the personal is political,' and shares how self-care can help strengthen our collective resolve to build an economy based more on care than exploitation.

Readings that inspired this episode:

Tell Me It’s Going to be OK: Self-care and social retreat under neoliberalism, Miya Tokumitsu

A History of Self-Care: From its radical roots to its yuppie-driven middle age to its election-inspired resurgence, Aisha Harris

Remembering the Origins of the Self-Care Movement, Sarah Boyle

‘Self-care’: how a radical feminist idea was stripped of politics for the mass market, André Spicer

McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality, Ronald Purser

Extreme Makeover: Yoga in the British Empire from Decolonizing Yoga, Melissa Heather

Meditation background music in this episode by Dmitriy Samoylenko - Old Forms Must Die.

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ATTENTION! This is a Boring Dystopia/Obligatory 'don't sue us' message: This podcast provides numerous different perspectives and criticisms of the mental health space, however, it should not be considered medical advice. Please consult your medical professional with regards to any health decisions or management.