Trying to foster mindfulness among Occupiers leads meditation expert Caroline Contillo to reconsider her own views on political activism.
------------------------------------------------------------more info---------------------------------------------------------------
Some of this leaderless movement's most dramatic moments involve pepper spray and police barricades - and that's exactly what meditation expert Caroline Contillo is hoping to prevent.
After joining New York City's Occupy Wall Street, she realized that a large group of people with differing views could be a recipe for hostility. Add a few dozen police officers to the mix - and well, she had to do something.
"One of the problems I definitely see in [Occupy] is marches and actions - when people get completely out of touch with their body and all in their head, and are acting on these emotions and frustrations and anger," Caroline explains. "So, we start with feeling yourself in your body, being in your body, asking questions about intention, and then ending with following your breath and stilling your mind."
Caroline is part of a meditation-working group, a small sub-committee within Occupy Wall Street that aims to foster mindfulness through meditation. At the beginning of most general Occupy meetings, a group member leads a "grounding," a three-minute reflection asking activists to consider their intentions and actions.
At the invitation of a co-worker, Caroline spent her first night at Occupy Wall Street not long after it started, in September. It was the simple kindness of strangers that got her hooked, and since then, she devotes as much free time to the movement as possible.
When she's not at Occupy, Caroline is probably at the Interdependence Project, an organization devoted to teaching and practicing Buddhist meditation. For now she handles publicity and outreach, but she's in the process of training to become a meditation teacher.
------------------------------------------------------behind the scenes-----------------------------------------------------------
Buddhist witch.
(Insert intrigued eyebrow raise here).
Before my colleague, Jackie Snow, introduced me to Caroline, the only thing that I knew about her was that she practiced Buddhist meditation and did magic on the side. Because these two hobbies are relatively unique - even in a city of 8 million people who all seem to have unique hobbies - my immediate reaction was, 'score! great story.'
The more that I got to know about Caroline, however, the more I realized that Buddhism and witchcraft had nothing to do with the story at all. Sure, to catch a viewer's attention, I could mention those two descriptors in the title or the first ten seconds. I probably would have even gotten the intrigued eyebrow raise once or twice. But the after spending time with Caroline both at her studio and at Occupy, I learned that those practices were just minor details of her motivation. Meditation might be her personal contribution to the movement, but it's not the only reason why she's there.
And while I don't know if my personal opinions on Occupy Wall Street have changed, I know that my understanding of the people who take part in it has.
------------------------------------------------------------transcript-------------------------------------------------------------
It's like sometimes I feel like I've been drawn to this, and like, my place in this world is kind of to destroy people's preconceived notions about who meditates. I feel like there's a lot of - people think it's just like a peace, love, relaxation thing. I mean it can be for people. But that's not exactly what it's about for me.
I'd been really politically active when I was in high school and then in my early 20s, and, I'd always - I always ended up getting burned out. I didn't necessarily feel like part of a community. I felt like an angry person who met up with other angry people and we occasionally tried to get stuff done. Occupy was a completely different experience for me.
One of the things that you learn meditating and practicing Buddhism is that compassion can't just be this thing that you sit here and intend good things to happen. There has to be action involved.
My name is Caroline. And I don't want to call this a meditation. I want to call it a grounding. And I would like us all to get on the same page, checking in about why we occupy. So let's take three minutes to occupy our bodies and check-in with our minds.
I don't know if the movement at large necessarily sees what we're doing as worthwhile, but I think something that I'm taking away from it is the way that it's a constant process. And it kind of - it opened me back up to the idea that - I don't know how to say this without sounding really trite. It just kind of opened my heart back up to political action.
I had gotten pretty frustrated, and just seeing that there are so many people willing to actually participate in the process, even when it seems like it's faltering - that's really heartening. And I think that gives me, kind of, faith, maybe not in my lifetime that the whole ship's going to turn around, but we're at least engaged in the process of starting that.
---------------------------------------------------------more resources----------------------------------------------------------
The Interdependence project - where Caroline works and meditates: theidproject.org/
Occupy Wall Street - official website: occupywallst.org/
How and why meditation can de-stress just about anyone: mayoclinic.com/health/meditation/HQ01070