Empowering the Masses & Healing

The week before last we focused on empowering women between MLK day and the Denver Women's March. Last week we hit the other side of the spectrum and focused on my students who identify with masculine energy. I feel that in this class it can sometimes be challenging for the boys to express how they feel, whether that be with their mentee/mentor, with the class, or even in writing. Getting in touch with their emotions has been an uphill battle so before getting into the curriculum I wanted to lay a foundation of empowerment for girls, boys, everyone in between, and even for anyone who does not identify with either gender.

I did this by showing a 30 minute episode of a show I found called We Are Man Enough. On this show is a panel of self-identified men who eat dinner while discussing issues related to the current and traditional idea of masculinity. They discuss what it means to be a "real man" vs. a "good man" and as the episodes progress, they discuss issues with body image, mental health, the pressure to display aggression outwardly, and continued subjection of women or sexual violence and other forms of abuse. It is a well rounded panel of straight, gay, transgender, white, black, and brown men of all ages who contribute to the conversation, it is super raw and definitely engaging! The discussions that we had around gender roles, the media, and our environment was really telling considering their own ideas of masculinity and femininity. We talked about why showing emotions can be seen as being weak or giving away power as a male and how it can be quite the opposite for women- empowering. We discussed how we can change that narrative and related it to past and upcoming lessons (Apple Pie, Belief Systems). It was a great segue into this week's lesson as well.

Episode one (PG) can be found here:
http://www.wearemanenough.com/
P.S- Prince EA is one the panel! He is the inspirational spoken word poet on youtube who is shown for a lot of our lessons.

Our week 2 of guided meditation went amazing, more students are becoming comfortable with meditating in the traditional way - sitting facing up with hands resting on their thighs, straight spine, and eyes closed. We meditated on emotional and physical healing which talked us through picturing the painful area and imagining it becoming lighter, releasing toxic negative tension with each exhale, and eventually healing itself.

Healing meditation script found here:
http://www.innerhealthstudio.com/healing-relaxation.html

Until next week,
Ms. Castro