Mindful Chatter

I wrote this recently and recorded it alone.

Miss you Rachel!

Miss you Alain!

I miss you too!

- Fab

---

So many of us would like to pretend that we are different, that we wouldn’t stand by the same thing happening in “our” country, in “our” time, in “our” space.

Of course, it depends on what you mean by “our” which in my experience doesn’t include me, members of my family, or a number of individuals/groups that I call friends/mentors/guides/loves.

Evil doesn’t look like a caricature. It looks like you, it looks like me, it looks like apathy. It appears in the form of compliance to those who utilize hate-mongering for political ends. It shows itself through the fact it limits boundaries and borders but doesn’t extend protection to vulnerable populations. It refuses to acknowledge the trauma and hurt that it perpetuates. It doesn’t take responsibility for damages or how many lives are lost to accomplish an end.

No one is above this.

Start looking at others as your equal, as your reincarnated self. For a moment, remind yourself that you’re not “better” than anyone. You are just as guilty, like the rest of us. Imagine what you would want done to you. To your heart, to your family, to your arms and legs. Lay prone on the floor of your home and allow yourself the great suffering that has occupied our hearts and minds for so very long.

Then you’ll start to realize that everything that happens, isn’t about fault. It’s about responsibility. Sometimes, I wish that we could begin to internalize the experiences of the other as directly akin to ourselves. The hurt of a body, anybody, is a wound I’ve sustained.

Pain is information.

It tells us to change, to move, to grow and adapt.

Our country has been in pain for a significant time. All of us are feeling the impact, it manifests every day and within limitless form. Read between the lines of the opioid crisis, the rise in teenage suicide, the increase in mental health issues, fibromyalgia and other psychologically rooted symptoms.

We need to hold up a mirror and begin to direct our attention to those within our community who bruise the easiest. They are the canaries in the coal mine who tell us there isn’t enough air to breath.

I cannot show you this through logic. I cannot prove this to you through fact. I cannot bend your ear to me because you do not want to acknowledge that it exists. That I am a creation of this time, this place, this culture.

Oppressed or oppressor, we are all chained to this cycle of never-ending violence. The strongest want to protect themselves at the cost of the weak. They will sacrifice anyone to ensure they remain afloat at the top of the castle.

Come down from your ledge. Come down and meet me here, meet us here, see who we are. Come out from your safety, from your constantly chasing comfort. See the conflict for what it is.

It’s an opportunity. To start over. To begin again and create new lessons, new culture, new ways of being.

Empathy can only be gained through experience. Not just television. Not just some flat panel screen that renders our existence a prison of two dimension.

Look in the mirror of another person’s eyes. Tell me you don’t see a whole universe staring right back.

Episode 22 - Rachel, Fabrice, and Alain invite Lauren Jackson, therapist along as creator and Founder at Hey Mz. Lady. Together we relate experiences regarding how perception shapes what we think, feel and how we ultimately end up acting in the world.

Audio by:

@alainalexx www.soundcloud.com/cillianvibes

Check out his new single "Virgin" on Apple Music and Spotify!

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org

Episode 21 - Rachel and Fabrice break through the concept of boundaries. We discuss ways in which boundaries can improve relationships and foster self confidence.

Audio by:

@alainalexx www.soundcloud.com/cillianvibes

Check out his new single "Virgin" on Apple Music and Spotify!

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org

Episode 20 - Rachel and Fabrice discuss the sense of being overwhelmed by our current administration, the situation in Charlottesville, and learned helplessness. We explore how to utilize a sense of incremental changes can add up to significant improvements.

Audio by:

@alainalexx www.soundcloud.com/cillianvibes

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org

Episode 19 - Rachel and Fabrice approach the colossus. The sensation of love, a feeling that bares itself against impending demise and asks us to live. Love as political act, love as unifying theme, love as conscious responsibility.

Audio by:

@cillianvibes

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org

Episode 18 - Rachel and Fabrice weigh the feeling of judgement towards others and oneself.

Audio by:

@cillianvibes

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org

Episode 17 - Rachel and Fabrice collide with injuries both accidental and purposeful. We discuss the aftermath of physical injury and how it can impact us psychologically

Audio by:

http://www.soundcloud.com/cillianvibes

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org

Episode 16 - Rachel and Fabrice warm themselves in thoughtful conversation around the ways in which we numb.

Audio by:

http://www.soundcloud.com/cillianvibes

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org

Episode 15 - Rachel and Fabrice get all retro and look at the internet past/present implications.

Audio by:

http://www.soundcloud.com/cillianvibes

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org

Episode 14 - Rachel and Fabrice stop, look and go through the process of transitions.

Audio by:

http://www.soundcloud.com/cillianvibes

Checkout our website:

mindfulchatter.org