A Call to Presence

I served as a Guided Teacher for a community struggling with issues around race, misogyny and hierarchy. Through doing Ruth's training we had to open up to tough conversations and realities and dig in. Ruth King's work has been life changing to me and the communities I serve. 

Ruth's work offers us healing medicine for the suffering of racism. She not only helps us understand the complexity of our great racial divide, but she also offers core practices, reflections, and actions that give us hope for transformation.

The training was very well received. I found some of your lessons rather profound… In particular, the insight into dominant and subordinate group dynamics is incredible. In addition, your book is one of the best I've read on the work needed to transform racism, and I find myself underlining passages and reading things back to my wife regularly, and I heard from many others on the team who really appreciated it.

The Brave Space core teachings are powerful. And as an organization that is at the intersection of racial equity work and mindfulness, the approach that you brought was a powerful pairing for folks at Ten Percent Happier.

If you’re considering this exploration, it’s worth your while and your time to dedicate the 12 months to unpacking what it is to be a racialized being and to bring mindfulness to it.

One of the hard truths of reading Ruth’s book was learning that I was partially colorblind, but in a bad way. I could not see my own whiteness. Coming from a small town in Indiana and ending up on Wall street, I never felt I had any advantages. But I did! I now understand white privilege within me and our industry. This is why I invited Ruth to support us in having this conversation.

In our year together, Ruth did a great job drawing the connection between mindfulness and race equity work, and showing us how to remain grounded, strategic, and systemic while doing this important work.