Meditation for Everyone: Why Accessibility Is Important

Accessibility in the Wellness World

Today, I will discuss something fundamental to my core mission: accessibility in the wellness world. We all know by now how exclusive these spaces can be, and it’s not solely the attitudes that some carry (attitudes usually totally antithetical to the philosophies behind these practices, but I digress) that are responsible for the gatekeeping: it is also very much the price that these services charge. Wellness and health in general seem only to be for the rich these days. Take a second to think about that: in this world of infinite technology and everything from liposuction to IV bars, 37 million people are cut off from essential services that could greatly improve their mental and physical health and make their lives easier and more meaningful. In my opinion, it’s pretty messed up on a lot of levels.

 It concerns me that practices such as yoga and meditation are inaccessible to those who could use them the most, by which I mean those in high-stress situations: working-class folks, those below the poverty line, those who have been through serious traumas and/or struggle with their mental health, parents in general, and those in recovery or active addiction.

For these people, meditation and yoga are difficult to access for many reasons including long work hours, insufficient funds, lack of awareness or education on the benefits, inability to afford or acquire childcare so that they can attend classes, and the classism that runs rampant through studios, where the pressure is to be able to attend frequent classes, and have the latest in lululemons or something that has nothing to do with mental, spiritual, or physical wellness.

 These are the people who could benefit from meditation and yoga the most, and that is why accessibility is central to my mission at Little Bit of Dharma. Yoga and meditation helped to heal me from several severe traumas that left me feeling as if my brain were hardly functioning at times. Let me share how:

 

The Link Between Poverty and Mental Health

First, let’s look at some statistics:

According to census.gov, 11.1% (36.8 million people) are below the poverty line. In Pennsylvania, 12% are below the poverty line, and in Philadelphia itself, that number nearly doubles to 20. 3%. That’s A LOT.

According to ADAA.org, living in poverty is distressing enough to lead to mental illness, child abuse, and neglect – especially when there are no systems in place to help parents and other adults struggling to cope. There are few services in place providing stressed people in poverty with coping mechanisms or any means to self-understanding, self-harmony, or self-acceptance.

Statista.com published these findings:

“Those with lower incomes or who are living in poverty are at higher risk for chronic diseases, mental illness, and mortality, and experience lower rates of health insurance and access to medical care than wealthier individuals. A survey of U.S. adults from 2022 found that while only 14 percent of those with an annual income of 100,000 U.S. dollars or more rated their physical or emotional wellbeing as fair or poor, around 41 percent of those with an annual income of less than 40,000 U.S. dollars stated their physical or emotional wellbeing was fair or poor.”

 Poorer people struggling with mental health are thrown into the psychiatric pill-mill, told it’s their fault, that their brain is fundamentally flawed, and that it can only be corrected with medication, and maybe therapy. While there are obviously cases when a patient may benefit from medication, this approach is very victim-blamey and suffices to undermine already fragile self-confidence and exploit patients for money by getting them to agree to try drug after drug, to accept awful side effects which often compound problems, and effectively forces patients into playing guinea pig and paying for it. (What they don’t tell you is that you DO have the power to change your brain without medication. More on that later; first, I want to show you some statistics.)

 

The link between poor mental health, poverty, and substance abuse is even more shocking. In fact, according to the 2023 United States National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH):

-48.5 million (16.7%) of Americans aged 12+ battled a substance abuse disorder that year

-20.2% had an alcohol use disorder

-27.2 million (9.7%) reported battling drug use disorder

-7.5 million (2.7%) struggled with BOTH alcohol and substance abuse disorders simultaneously, and

-20.4 million American adults suffered from both a mental health disorder and substance abuse disorder, or co-occurring disorders in the past year (Americanaddictioncenters.org)

 

People in addiction, with mental health issues, and who are under the poverty line face many everyday stressors about which those who do not struggle with these things may not be aware, including:

-Job insecurity, low wages, long hours

-Food insecurity, poor nutrition (leading to even more cell damage/health problems)

-Unstable housing or homelessness

-Chronic exposure to environmental stressors such as noise, pollution, unsafe neighborhoods)

I know I have struggled with most of these throughout my life. It’s not fun to not be able to feed yourself while working 12-hour days or to struggle to afford rent in a neighborhood where you have to worry about being assaulted. That’s life for a lot of people, and a lot of folks don’t get that. That’s partially where the disconnect comes from.

 

Neuroplasticity: How Yoga and Meditation Can Change the Brain

Now we’re finally getting to that whole “change your brain without meds” thing. It sounds like bs, until you realize that you change your brain all the time: you learn new skills, follow new schedules, unlearn habits that don’t serve you, and learn new habits that do. This is all due to a phenomenon called Neuroplasticity.

Neuroplasticity is “the ability to form and reorganize synaptic connection, especially in response to learning or experience or following injury” (Oxford Languages).

In other words, neuroplasticity is your brain’s proven ability to reform connections, to bounce back, to be trained to operate in a different way – and meditation and yoga are scientifically verified actions you can take to heal in this way.

 “Self-regulation depends on having a friendly relationship with your body. Without it, you have to rely on external regulation- from medication, drugs like alcohol, constant reassurance, or compulsive compliance with the wishes of others.” (Van der Kolk)

 

How Stress and Trauma Shape the Brain

When a human being is exposed to any event or continuation of events perceived by the individual to be traumatizing, the brain kicks into action. The amygdala becomes overactive, making it difficult to regulate emotions and heightening the fight-or-flight response with its oversensitivity by signaling the hypothalamus to pump out unnecessary amounts of cortisol, the “stress hormone”. The hippocampus then suffers cell damage due to over-exposure to stress hormones, affecting memory and spatial awareness (no, being clumsy and forgetful is NOT another one of your faults- it is a direct result of a lifetime of stress or trauma). As the hippocampus takes on that cell damage, it actually physically shrinks, as shown on brain scans, and becomes less powerful and healthy in general.

 Next, the body naturally tightens in places, tensing up involuntarily as a protective measure- commonly leading to tight hips, lower back and shoulder pain, and a continuously clenched jaw, among other issues. This I can confirm from both sides, having been in a body rigid with trauma and having assisted clients with these exact issues. I can also tell you that it doesn’t end there: being clenched up all the time can lead to injury and chronic pain, even further compounding the problem (and making you ripe for another type of doctor to start making a buck off of you by prescribing you pain pills now).

Aside from causing cell damage, literally shrinking the brain, and leading to chronic pain, and issues with memory and spatial awareness, stress and trauma can also cause difficulty with impulse control, according to a 2016 study done by the University of Michigan.  The study found that adults who had experienced trauma in their childhood had significantly more difficulty with impulse control than adults who had not. The scientists had set out to study impulse control in cases of bipolar disorder but instead found a link to impulse control issues in those with a common history of trauma regardless of their bipolar diagnoses.

Essentially, trauma changes our brain because our brain becomes used to responding to trauma. To undo this, we need to give our brains a new habit, teach it to be still again, teach it patience, observance, and non-action. This does not mean that we should not listen to our feelings or our bodies, au contraire- that is precisely what we need to do for step one.

But, as Lavar Burton was fond of saying, “Don’t take my word for it.”

How Meditation and Self-Awareness Fight Trauma-Responses and Heal the Brain

Bessel Van der Kolk, the premier study of PTSD and how trauma affects the brain. In his world-renowned book, The Body Keeps the Score, writes:

“In order to change, people need to become aware of their sensations and the way that their bodies interact with the world around them.”

What he is talking about here is mindfulness. Mindfulness is about being fully present in your body, at this moment in time, in this place, with whomever you are with.

Have you ever felt like you were so distracted that the day just flew by? Or like you don’t quite remember what you were doing a second ago, or this morning? A lot of this is because we humans are generally not fully present. We are on our phones, thinking about our jobs (in which we are trained to “multi-task”), thinking about what our kids need (this second, this week, this stage of life), our bills, our friends, our projects, our health, our sex lives, our dramas. Then there are the constant visual distractions- other people, traffic lights, our phones buzzing, our watches beeping. How can we remember where we were and what we were doing when we weren’t there, at least not mentally?

 We are bombarded with digital and social distractions and trying hard to exist in a world that demands that we work, plan and calculate constantly. No wonder we have trouble calming down our buzzing minds.

It's really gotten out of hand.

Being immersed in thoughts like these in every waking moment 24/7 is not good for your brain. Constantly thinking like this without a break only reinforces these thought patterns. You can use meditation to train your brain and take advantage of the neuroplastic abilities of your brain.

 

What Meditation Involves and How It Helps Rewire Your Brain

“Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than fear, everything shifts.” -Bessel Van der Kolk

We already know that repeated experiences reinforce neural pathways (so what you do and how often you do it matters).

Meditation is like giving your brain a break from all the thinking- it deserves it. Meditation is scientifically proven to:

·         Calm the nervous system

·         Decrease levels of the stress hormone cortisol, and

·         Promote better mood, better sleep, and better social interaction.

This revelation helped save me, y’all! I used to feel like I was at war with my own brain- I couldn’t control my emotions, my memory, and I was clumsy and a total mess at times. My relationships suffered, and I was ripe for taking advantage of by poorly-intentioned individuals and institutions. Meditation helped turn all of that back around and put me back in control of my life; now, my brain is my friend!

During the meditation classes I teach, we learn different techniques to gain more control over our brains. With mental illnesses like anxiety, OCD, depression, and PTSD, we can experience a range of problems that make it difficult to control our thoughts, which can often spiral out of control in people who are struggling with illnesses such as these.

 

 Meditation Techniques for PTSD, Depression, & Anxiety/Anxiety Disorders such as OCD

Bessel Van der Kolk also wrote that “The greatest source of suffering are the lies we tell ourselves…as long as you keep secrets and suppress information, you are fundamentally at war with yourself. The critical issue is allowing yourself to know what you know. That takes an enormous amount of courage.”

One of the techniques I teach is body awareness, which can be especially helpful for those with PTSD and anxiety disorders who sometimes feel like they are disconnected or hovering above their bodies.

A key symptom of severe PTSD is depersonalization, in which the person suffering is keenly detached from their body as a survival measure. I suffered from this for years, repressing all my feelings. Sometimes our brains protect us by not giving us too much to deal with at once, and when you have a history of severe trauma, that’s going to mean a lot of painful and possibly disturbing memories, as well as complex, sometimes terrible feelings that are difficult to integrate, especially all at once. This is why I encourage people with PTSD to try a few types of meditation, in case they need to switch it up if one method were to get too intense. When you have been through so much, it is important to take it slow, but still important to fight back, feel your feelings, and face your past so that you can heal and reclaim your life. You DO NOT have to live like this forever, I swear.

 In meditation and yoga, we practice awareness of our physical bodies and our emotional states: what does it feel like to breathe? Is there any pain or stiffness in our bodies? What emotions arise for us? What happens if, instead of shutting the pain we feel away, we acknowledge it, validate it as part of our experience, as a valid part of ourselves, and sit with that pain for a little while? You may feel it feels good to validate yourself, even about the unpleasant things- you may discover that over time the pain lessens, and you can accept yourself and your feelings more easily when they arise in the future because you have practiced it, and developed it as a skill.

We also practice thought observation, a Zen technique that encourages you to see your thoughts as clouds passing across the sky of your mind. You watch them float past, acknowledging them but not engaging. This is great for folks with anxiety disorders.

I have found that my anxious thoughts don’t really hold up to scrutiny when said out loud, journaled and read back, or really looked at. When I practice thought observation in my personal meditation, I often remember the saying, “Don’t believe everything you read,” because it is also true that you should not believe everything you think.

We have a lot of thoughts. Many of them helpful, some of them not so much. Taking time to sit and observe your thoughts without judging them or acting upon them reinforces in your brain that just because you have a thought does not mean that you need to panic and do something about it right away, a thought process I fell into for years and which led to so much more anxiety and probably messed up a lot of things for me.

I find it truly empowering to be able to have a thought, look at the thought and just let it go. It is very freeing, and something I never thought possible in my early days of crippling anxiety.

 

Moments of Peace: Simple Meditation Techniques You Can Use Today

Meditation and yoga are tools that can help you:

·         Reduce cravings by reconstructing pathways in the brain

·         Decrease impulsivity

·         Increase self-awareness

·         Rebuild and heal the nervous system after being damaged by even long-term chronic drug use

·         Teach you healthy coping mechanisms that you can use off the mat and off the meditation cushion.

Practical Ways You Can Utilize Meditation and Yoga in Your Daily Life

You don’t need to take an hour-long class every day at an expensive studio or gym. You don’t need to turn into a monk or spend money and time that you don’t have to benefit from meditation and yoga.

Start practicing in little ways TODAY and see the benefits for yourself.

You can try:

·         Taking some deep, slow breaths when waiting in traffic or a stressful line at the grocery store

·         Practicing body awareness at work or in the car

·         Come back to the present during panic attacks by using grounding techniques

·         If you live in a city and walk to work or school, you could try having a walking meditation on the way to work.

Over time, utilizing these techniques can rewire your brain to handle stress more effectively in the long-term, improve memory, and decrease symptoms of depression and anxiety over time.

 

Who Shouldn’t Meditate?

You should take care that you do not do too much too soon. Do not force yourself to sit with painful memories that you are not ready to face. If you have experienced severe PTSD or childhood trauma, it is a good idea to have help from a therapist who is familiar with your diagnosis to help you through your meditation journey. If a therapist is out of the question, a journal can help you reflect on your thoughts and regain rationality when thoughts spiral or become overwhelming. This is about loving yourself and healing, so remember to be gentle and not to push yourself too hard.

If you do struggle with any severe mental illness, be sure to inform your instructor so that they may make necessary modifications or suggest an appropriate or supportive practice for you to start with.

 

Conclusion

Meditation and yoga should not be gatekept for the rich. It is time that the rest of us stood up and put a stop to health and wellness practices being considered luxuries.

If you feel that you could benefit from meditation or yoga and have found it difficult to access, please feel free to join me on Saturday mornings at 10 am ET for the weekly free mediation class I teach. Details, link, and passcode can be found on my main website, littlebitofdharma.ppcbrands.com

I am also developing low-priced and accessible yoga classes coming soon to my Patreon. For more information, join my mailing list at littlebitofdharma@gmail.com.

If you believe in my mission to provide free and accessibly priced meditation and yoga classes, as well as some amazing charities such as The Big Cats Initiative, Afripads Uganda, Farm Sanctuary, and Doctors Without Borders, please visit my Etsy shop etsy.com/shop/littlebitofdharma where you can support all this through the purchase of a Dharma Band, Mala, Book, or other offerings, or support us through Patreon.  

 

Now, I invite you to do a small act of kindness for yourself, just now, in this moment:

 Simply close your eyes

Pause,

And take

Three

Slow

Deep breaths.

<3 Kels