Joyfully Together : Nourishing Resilience

ALL WELCOME

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To honour and cherish Black History USA and LGBTQIA+ Month , we welcome Dr Ayo Yetunde, Bodhilia Young and Thor Rain. They share Buddhist and Mindfulness philosophy, contemplative practices and lived experience to nourish our resilience through self-care. Music by Aneesa Chaudhry.

As activists, people of colour and those living within marginalized bodies, it is important to take time to nourish ourselves from the daily trauma that we face in our daily lives. Nourishing ourselves is not an indulgence, self-care is a necessity for our survival and a living embodiment of our resilience. We hear how this trauma manifests in our thoughts, feelings and actions as well as how to take care of ourselves holistically (body, mind and emotions).

Pamela Ayo Yetunde, Th.D. is a Community Dharma Leader (Insight Meditation) and Zen student. She is the co-editor of “Black & Buddhist: What Buddhism Can Teach Us about Race, Resilience, Transformation & Freedom” and her other books about Buddhism and womanist theology are "Buddhist-Christian Dialogue, U.S. Law and Womanist Theology for Transgender Spiritual Care" and “Object Relations, Buddhism, and Relationality in Womanist Practical Theology” She has contributed to Buddhadharma and Lion's Roar magazines and is co-founder of Center of the Heart (www.centeroftheheart.org).

Ayo is a pastoral counselor with Center of the Heart (www.centeroftheheart.org) and teaches pastoral care and counseling, and Buddhist chaplaincy at Upaya Zen Center.

Bodhilila Young has been meditating and practising mindfulness for 27 years in the Triratna tradition. She is a fully accredited Breathworks mindfulness trainer as well as a qualified counsellor, teacher and massage therapist. She worked for many years as a classical musician and more recently as a nursery manager. She is currently Chair of the West London Buddhist Centre (WLBC), where she has been teaching meditation, mindfulness and Buddhism, as well as helping to run the Centre, since 2012. She regularly leads retreats for the WLBC and at Taraloka women’s retreat centre. She is chair on executive of the Triratna European Chairs Assembly. She is a member of the Triratna BIPOC/ BAME leadership and teaching team for the monthly Welcoming Liberation online space and part of a group of Triratna POC Order members and mitras based in London running retreats, days and other events for POC in a partnership between the London Buddhist Centre and the West London Buddhist Centre.

Thor Rain : Health Activist | Trainer |Pain and Fatigue specialist. Founder of the Helpful Clinic, Thor is dedicated to compassion and a no-nonsense approach to your wellbeing and health. Thor has MA (hons) Dip.Clin.Hyp.NLP.Coach.EFT.

For over a decade, Thor has helped hundreds of people to deal with stress and manage and improve their physical, mental and social health. They are uniquely qualified to do so, having themselves recovered from ME/CFS and fibromyalgia, diagnoses given by their doctor in 2003, along with the prognosis that they would never get well.

Thor did get well. It took seven years. They subsequently trained in a range of complementary therapies, including clinical hypnosis, neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and emotional freedom technique (EFT). This clinical experience, harnessed to academic training and years working in film production and project management, enabled them to pioneer a practical and easy-to-use approach to support health and wellbeing: First Aid for Feelings. Galvanised by patients’ successes, Thor set up a social enterprise, The Helpful Clinic in 2015 (www.thehelpfulclinic.com).

Aneesa Chaudry: A popular singer on the jazz and world music scene Aneesa performs with a variety of bands including Jazz duo - 5 piece ensembles, the 9 piece Aneesa Chaudhry Mini Big Band, with several full big band (up to 20 players), with her Eastern Flavours Band including Uruguan percussionist and Latin Jazz pianist, her Eastern European & Asian influenced trio of piano and flute, BLISS ART and as an accomplished solo artist too. Her music can be found on www.aneesachaudhry.com