Overwhelm is the unhealthy terrain that feeds our ongoing social conditioning into racial-bias. When we operate primarily from stress hormones, we become vulnerable.

Yet, you can breathe yourself out of overwhelm. Practiced breath becomes a remedy for vulnerability and increases our resilience.

My husband, Maketa Born – a lifetime meditator – says “you cannot change your mind with your mind, only your breath can do that.”

Since overwhelm is perpetuated by the mind, the intellect, we cannot think ourselves out of it. But we can use conscious breath as a preventive measure to keep overwhelm from landing in the body and increasing our susceptibility to the lie of racial hierarchy.

In this way, breath practice is an essential anti-racist tool.