Episode 19: Breath and Presence with Zee Clarke
Author, breathworker, and equality catalyst Zee Clarke.
Sometimes one breath is the only gap between the self we might regret and the self we know we are – and want to be in the world.
Zee Clarke was following all of the maps to “success” with her Silicon Valley career – yet her body and spirit were paying a price.
Especially since she was working against the well-known headwinds of racial and gender “othering” (and beyond) so common in hard-driving corporate environments.
That’s when she took a “breath,” so to speak – one that changed her life.
Pausing from her professional path, she headed on a global journey: a quest for better ways of understanding, preventing, and dealing with the stress she’d felt and faced as a Black woman navigating life at these complex times.
Her travel, a pilgrimage of sorts, took her to ashrams in India, to shamans in Peru, through soulful paths in the American Southwest, and to other bright points on her inner – and the outer – landscapes.
What she found on this journey changed her world.
Like in the classic book The Alchemist, Zee’s multi-faceted adventures ultimately brought her back “home” – to her body and her breath. In this episode, she shares more of her story, highlights messages from her beautiful book Black People Breathe: A Mindfulness Guide to Racial Healing, and shares powerful reminders that everything in our experience begins with … us. And how the breath can help us show up as more of whom we want to be in the world.
Dive in to Zee’s work on her website: www.zeeclarke.com. You’ll find a ready-to-play menu of specific mindfulness and breath practices for emotional conditions including “Triggered,” “Angry,” Feeling Off,” and more at www.zeeclarke.com/resources – as well as downloadable discussion guides and toolkits.
Follow Zee on Instagram at @zeeclarkebreathes, here on LinkedIn, on Facebook, and on TikTok. You’ll find excellent exercises and reminders to help you expand your mindfulness and breath repertoire. Her YouTube Channel includes dozens of breathing exercises – a menu of purpose specific breath practices (for calming high blood pressure, releasing frustration, visualizing your future, and much more) guided by Zee’s caring, welcoming expertise.
Especially in these triggered, triggering times, you’ll find new paths to return to the self you really are – and the one you want to be – as Zee guides you to understand and practice the power of breath.
Images from Zee’s remarkable book.
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Look below for info on our beautiful theme song, used with permission from the artist.
Best, Ellen
ellen@thebrainandbeyond.com
I hope you enjoy the music I’ve arranged with artist Lucia Lilikoi to share on my podcast.
Here’s her website, lilikoimusic.com … and you can listen to the full version here, and follow her on Apple Music and Spotify. Her website links to a range listening platforms. Enjoy.
