Harrell - Meditation with Soul presentation

MEDITATION WITH “SOUL”:
SOULFULNESS AS CONNECTEDNESS,
CONSCIOUSNESS, CALLING, COURAGE,
AND CREATIVITY
Presented by Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.
The 50th Annual Convention of the Association of Black Psychologists
June 30, 2018, Oakland, CA

SOUL ROOTS
• Detroit in the 1960s-70s
• “Soul Music”: Expresses and Touches the Soul
• Music as Expression and Transmission of Culture
• Connectedness to Human Experience across Time and Place
• Resonance and Identification (shared experience, not alone)
• Experiencing- Emotion, Body (Movement), Immersion(Flow)
• Wisdom: Messages and Meanings of Lived Experience
• Processing and Working Through (listening to a song over and over)
• Healing and Transformation
• Music is where I discovered meditative processes
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“SUPERBAD” – JAMES BROWN
• I got somethin’ that makes me wanna shout
(I have an inner aliveness that is compelled into expression.)
• I got somethin’ that tells me what its all about
(I have an inner wisdom and knowingness that centers me and helps me understand
my life experience.)
• I got soul
(I am connected to my deepest experiencing.)
• And I’m superbad
(I am an amazing person with gifts and I know my value and worth.)
3

“ALL ABOUT LOVE” – EARTH, WIND, & FIRE
• Talking to yourself is fine, makes you feel much better
(Importance of having a relationship with your inner experience, being in dialogue with
yourself)
• Now, I want you to stop, whatever you're doing, Just stop
(Importance of pausing from the activity of daily life)
• So now, hey, y'all, I'm trying to tell you, You gotta love YOU.
And learn all the beautiful things around you, the trees and the birds
And if there ain't no beauty, You gotta MAKE some beauty
Have mercy Listen to me, y'all
(Encouragement to connect with self and surroundings in ways infused with appreciation
and love; capacity to access our power to create and transform)
(EWF also counsel us to “Open Our Eyes”, “Keep Your Head to the Sky”,
and to “Open your heart, feel the touch of “Devotion”)
4

“EVERYBODY LOVES THE SUNSHINE”
ROY AYERS
• Sunshine, everybody loves the sunshine
(Importance of shared experience)
• Sunshine, folks get down in the sunshine; Sunshine, folks get 'round in the sunshine
(Authentic and joyful expression, brings people together in communal gathering)
• Just bees and things and flowers
(The power of just “being”, noticing and appreciating surroundings, nature, LIFE!)
• Feel what I feel, when I feel, what I feel when I'm feelin', in the sunshine
(Affirmation of being in the “now” of one’s emotional experiencing; acceptance of the
experience that is happening)
5

MORE MUSIC…
• Aretha Franklin
• Spirit in the Dark
• Rock Steady
• Young, Gifted and Black
• Nina Simone
• Everything Must Change
• Feelin’ Good
• Isley Brothers
• Summer Breeze
• Harvest for the World
• More
• What’s Goin’ On (Marvin Gaye)
• Under the Moon and Over the Stars (Angie Bofill)
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THE AFRICAN CONTEXT OF MEDITATION
• Ancient Khemetic healing practices involved
alteration of consciousness through chanting and
other methodologies; depiction of “poses” of
Egyptian gods and goddesses
• Communal and Ritual practices throughout the
African continent involve opportunities to connect
deeply to self, others, and Spirit through music
(drumming), dance, rites of passage challenges
requiring the individual to “dig deep” and involving
periods of isolation
Copyright 2018. Shelly P. Harrell7

 In a world infused with assumptions of African and Black
inferiority, sources of stress are invariably linked to
ongoing dehumanization and cultural violence.
Historical, transgenerational, and contemporary trauma
are threats to the health and well-being of Black persons.
 Managing stress is about accessing the cultural wisdom
within to reclaim our humanity, restore our knowledge
and dignity, affirm our existence, and manifest our
highest potentialities.
 We have to first learn to “BE” with OURSELVES.
 Meditation opens space to BE.
THE STRUGGLE TO “BE” AS A SOURCE OF STRESS
8
Copyright 2018. Shelly P. Harrell

● African existentialism is a helpful perspective in its
emphasis on the struggle to express one’s authentic
self and to simply “BE” within contexts that actively
work against validation and affirmation of Black
persons and communities.
● African existential thought brings the notion of
“being in the world” to the forefront by considering:
○ What it means to be human.
○ The degradation of humanity and dehumanization of persons.
○ The meaning of freedom and liberation.
AFRICAN EXISTENTIALISM
9

African wisdom traditions, embedded in
African cosmologies (such as Ancient
Khemetic, Yoruba, and Akan) provide us with
insights into “ways of being” that are wellness-
promoting and affirming of our humanity, and
that we can apply in contexts of oppression.
HOW SHOULD WE “BE” IN THE WORLD?
10

SO… WHAT IS MEDITATION?
• A DEFINITION OF MEDITATION: Meditation is the intentional
creation of temporal, mental, and emotional space to
practice being fully present; it involves the sustained focusing
of attention and energy that allows for expanded awareness,
deep listening, concentration, attunement, exploration,
reflection, discovery, and dialogue in the service of enhancing
consciousness and connectedness with experience
(intrapersonal, interpersonal, communal, spiritual), and thus
generating the conditions for healing, wholeness,
transformation, and optimal well-being to develop.
• (create space, open channels)
• (direct energy)
• (tune in)
• (strengthen connection)

MINDFULNESS:
ONE FORM OF MEDITATION
• An intentional way of experiencing life through here-
and-now, compassionate awareness of whatever is
happening in your mind, body, heart, and surrounding
environment (Kabat-Zinn; Kornfield; Brach; Salzberg, UC
Berkeley Greater Good Science Center; and more).
• It is being fully and authentically present in the present, in the
ebb and flow of your moment-to-moment experiencing.
• It is being “woke” to “what is”, awareness of what’s going on
in yourself, your relationships, and the world.

MY 7 PRINCIPLES OF MEDITATION
#1. “RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW” (present moment “BE”ingness without striving
to “do”, acquire, or accomplish; consciousness of what is happening in the NOW.)
#2. “FREE YOUR MIND” (release and let go; not being shackled by or entangled
with illusions of ego or internalized oppression; toward a reflective, flexible, open, curious
LIBERATED mind.)
#3. “BEARING WITNESS” (being a completely tuned in and conscious observer of
experience; deeply listening and attuned to your own testimony and the testimony of others.)
#4. “KEEPIN’ IT REAL” (willingness to wake up and SEE, courage to face what is
really going on; telling the truth about your experience without distortion or denial.)
#5. “THIS TOO SHALL PASS” (the wisdom and understanding that everything
changes, evolves, shifts, ends; realization and acceptance of the inevitable ebb and flow of
experience, the seasons and cycles of life.)
#6. “PEACE BE WITH YOU” (finding that inner place of stillness, serenity and
wisdom; not being at war with yourself or your own thoughts and feelings.)
#7. “ALL ABOUT LOVE” (recognition of the power of love and the reality of our
interconnectedness; infusion of the consciousness of agape love and deep honoring of the
dignity and humanity of all people; compassion for self and others.)

WHAT’S MISSING FROM “MCMINDFULNESS”?
HEART AND SOUL!
• The soul has been taken out of meditation in psychology
through the commercialization of “McMindfulness” and
the colonizing practices of CBT (and the acronym
therapies) that separate the “mind” from the whole
person
• But authentic mindfulness practices recognize that the
mind is inseparable from the heart and soul!
• “Heartfulness” has been offered and compassion is
receiving more emphasis (Kabat-Zinn; Neff; Shapiro;
Murphy-Shigematsu; Brach; and more)
• There isn’t much focused attention on “SOUL” in much
of the current mindfulness literature in psychology!
(“McMindfulness is a term used by Purser & Loy (2013) in a blog on The Huffington Post)
14

THE SOULFULNESS APPROACH
• Effort to center “soul” into contemplative practices
• Practices that facilitate making contact with SOUL of
the person, SOUL of living, SOUL of the world
• SOUL of the Person: deepest core of being, authenticity,
truth, divinity, spiritness
• SOUL of Living: the how of living-- the quality of living
soulfully with feeling, experiencing and expressing
personal and collective truths
• SOUL of the World: moral imperative emerging from our
interconnectedness that demands liberation and justice

EMPHASES OF MINDFULNESS,
HEARTFULNESS & SOULFULNESS
Mindfulness = EQUANIMITY and NON-ATTACHMENT
Heartfulness = LOVINGKINDNESS and COMPASSION
Soulfulness = ALIVENESS and CONNECTION
*Authentic mindfulness practice encompasses heart and soul
and these three terms could be argued to be interchangeable
with respect to foundational elements; it may be that the
emphases resonate more or less in different cultural contexts
16

SPIRIT AND SOUL
Spirit- Force, energy, or power that enlivens and
connects everything (Nobles, 2018)
Soul- the eternal part of us that connects our human
experiencing and our spiritual essence
It is the place where our spiritness and humanness converge
It is both collective and personal
Because it’s Spirit it holds the ALL and the ONE throughout time
and space
Because soul is within us, it is also a reflection of the unique
expressions and lived experience of our individual manifestation
as a particular human being in a particular constellation of
historical, cultural, familial, and personal experiences; this is
what is expressed in “Soul Music” and its African-Americanness

THE “SOUL” OF SOULFULNESS
-The quality of having “soul” is a quality of deep
feeling and experiencing, of “realness”; it is a
profound connection to the truth of our lived
experience that is felt deep within our souls and
expressed in a way is felt by and resonates with
others
-Soul-to-Soul connection: Connecting to the soul of
another, deep resonance of shared human
experience

SOUL QUOTES
• The only possibility of stability for the person, is to establish an
Island of Peace within one’s own soul.
-Howard Thurman, African American theologian
• I’ve got peace like a river in my soul, I’ve got a river in my soul,
I’ve got joy like a fountain in my soul, I’ve got a fountain in my
soul. -African American Spiritual
• Well, I think soul is certainly a feeling that is transmitted in one
way or another...It’s something that’s very empathetic- and
it’s deep. Soul is deep. ~Aretha Franklin
• What is soul? It's like electricity — we don't really know what it
is, but it's a force that can light a room. ~Ray Charles

SOUL QUOTES
• “I am moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak
from the burnings of my own heart”. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
• "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but
people will never forget how you made them feel." ~ Maya Angelou
• There's something which impels us to show our inner souls. The more
courageous we are, the more we succeed in explaining what we
know. -Maya Angelou
• Nothing can dim the light that shines within. –Maya Angelou
• I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than
the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like
the rivers. -Langston Hughes
• Don't gain the world and lose your soul; wisdom is better than silver or
gold. -Bob Marley

• One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene
in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Struggling souls
catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. ~
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
• There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated
through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of
time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist
through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It
is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor
how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours
clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. ~Martha Graham,
dancer and choreographer
• Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's
weather to all who can read it. -Martha Graham, dancer and
choreographer
• Rhythm is our universal mother tongue. It's the language of the soul. -
Gabrielle Roth (musician and dancer)
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SOUL QUOTES FROM RUMI
o “When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
o “The soul has been given its own ears, to hear things the mind does not understand.”
o “Do not feel lonely, the entire Universe is inside you.”
o “The inspiration you seek is already within you. Be silent and listen.”
o “The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.”
o “Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s Soul heal.”
o “From deep inside my soul cries out: Do not wait, surrender for the sake of Love”
o “There was a dawn when my soul heard something from your soul. I drank water from your
spring and felt the current take me.”
o "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the
soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about."
o “My soul is my guide, for my soul is of that abode. I will not speak of the earthly. I am of the
unknown.”

FEEL WHAT’S REAL: SOULFULNESS AND EMOTION
Experiencing and expressing emotion is central to Soulfulness!
● Soulfulness is about FEELING
○ Refers to our “real”, truest, deepest, experience-congruent emotion
○ It is not about what we see but what we FEEL, SENSE, INTUIT
○ Emotion that emerges from soulfulness is a wisdom- and truth- infused emotion.
○ There is wisdom in emotion and emotion is part of the path to wisdom;
● Emotion is valuable for our survival and optimal functioning
○ Emotion signals us to pay attention and provides a compass to move toward or
away; it communicates something important about our experiences in the world
and how to navigate them
○ Some people are taught to be afraid of emotion, to see it as the enemy. But
emotion evolved in the human species for survival to facilitate adaptation and
relational connectedness.
● Being Soulful is not the same as dysregulated emotionality.
○ Uncontrolled emotion can sometimes feel like inner chaos, disorganizing. This is not
the same as experiencing raw painful emotion which is part of the human
experience
○ Emotion must be processed and brought into balance with body, mind, and spirit.

SOULFULNESS & ACTION
Soulfulness is about connecting deeply with the soul of
who we are so that we can express it authentically
and meaningfully in how we live
Meditation is to see deeply into things, to see how we can change, how
we can transform our situation. –Thich Nhat Hanh
Meditation is not to escape from society, but to come back to ourselves
and see what is going on. Once there is seeing, there must be acting. –
Thich Nhat Hanh
Meditation is the life of the soul: action, the soul of meditation, and honor,
the reward of action. –Sir Francis Quarles

A DEFINITION OF SOULFULNESS
Inspired and informed by ancient wisdom, diverse
spiritual traditions, African-American cultural
expressions, and contemporary science, Soulfulness is
a contemplative approach to optimal human
functioning that emphasizes awakening, nurturing,
illuminating, and manifesting experiences and
expressions of “SOUL” in the service of healing,
wellness, transformation, and liberation.

AFRICAN-CENTERED AND CULTURALLY- RESONANT
CONCEPTS INFORMING SOULFULNESS
Spirituality / Spiritness
Interconnectedness / Interdependence
Communalism / Relationality
Harmony and Alignment
Truth and Authenticity
Inner Knowing/Wisdom
Emotional Experiencing / Feeling
Expressiveness and Creativity
Liberation and Emancipation

LIVING SOULFULLY IS ABOUT…
• ALIVENESS: feeling the power of the life force within us and everywhere; engaging
and embracing life; living life fully; experiencing the full range of emotion
• REALNESS: the truth of our lived experience, contacting authentic experience
(#feelwhatsreal)
• DEEPNESS: contacting the essence of our being; beneath and beyond the
superficial appearance or reaction
• CONNECTEDNESS: being in a state of profound connection intrapersonally,
interpersonally, collectively, spiritually
• KNOWINGNESS: accessing inner wisdom, resonance with cultural and spiritual
wisdom
• EXPRESSIVENESS: the inspired and creative expression of lived experience
• JOYFULNESS: the exuberant experience of the life force within and around us

INTEGRATIVE CONCEPTUALIZATION
The core of soulfulness is about experiencing and expressing the fullness of
life in a profoundly connected and connecting way. Soulfulness is an
enlivened inner attunement that illuminates lived experience and radiates
authentically into outer expression. It is a soulful aliveness-- a deeply felt,
interconnected, life-affirming aliveness that reflects congruence,
experiential wisdom, and truths of our shared humanity. Soulfulness is often
experienced as a resonating, liberating, life-enhancing, spiritually-infused
energy of deep connectivity and inspired expression. Soulfulness involves
being in ongoing contact with the depths of your being and listening to its
authentic truths from which healing, transformation, growth, and fulfillment of
your highest potentialities manifest and take form in your life.

THE 7 “C”S: QUALITIES OF SOULFULNESS
The 7 C’s are the qualities we emphasize and seek to nurture,
illuminate, and strengthen through Soulfulness Practices
Connectedness
Consciousness
Calling
Courage
Coexistence
Congruence
Creativity

#1. Connectedness (The CENTRAL Quality of Soulfulness!)
• Refers to being in relationship with multiple dimensions of self, embodied experience, persons, community, places,
nature, animals, Spirit, etc.
• Being in relationship with the center of one’s being, with one’s inner voice of truth and wisdom; processes of centering
and re-centering;
• Full presence and attunement; connecting via multiple senses; focused attention, deep listening, engaged observation
• Discovering, identifying, establishing, nurturing, maintaining, strengthening, deepening, and transforming connections;
processes of RE-connection when valued connections are threatened, disrupted, or broken
• Moving “with” (vs against) the ebb and flow of experiencing, with the inevitability of change and the dynamic nature of
phenomena
• Allowing oneself to “be moved” and deeply touched by experiences in the world
• Groundedness, sense of roots and rootedness; strong identity and sense of knowing who I am and where I come from;
connection to what has come before
• Attuned and meaningful relating and dialogue with others; “I see you “ / “I feel you” / “I-Thou” sensibility; willingness to
be known and seen
• Sense of belonging and community; intragroup relatedness; togetherness
• Identification and resonance with shared experience; sense of our shared humanity with all of its vulnerabilities and
struggles; feeling and expressing empathy, understanding, and compassion
• Experience of interconnectedness and Oneness; feeling commonalities across differences; sense of connection beyond
the visible;
• Perceiving connectedness and interaction between phenomena; thinking relationally and systemically
THE 7 C’S: CONNECTEDNESS
30

#2. Consciousness
• Enhanced awareness at multiple levels of experience including being fully awake to
what’s going on in the here-and now
• Includes multiple aspects of awareness: interoceptive, somatic, emotional,
cognitive, interpersonal, environmental, and transpersonal
• Contextualized “inner-outer” awareness (experience-in-context, self-in-context;
sociopolitical/critical consciousness)
• “Flow” states of consciousness where one is intensely immersed in an activity losing
sense of time and place
• Collective consciousness, shared awareness
• Contact with preconscious and subconscious activity, as well as “altered” and
higher or transcendent states of consciousness (can be experienced through music,
dance, various spiritual processes and rituals).
THE 7 C’S: CONSCIOUSNESS
31

THE 7 C’S: CALLING
#3. Calling
• Listening to the stirrings of the soul, the call of the deepest core
of being, where personal, collective, and spiritual truths can be
found
• Willingness to be guided by the inner voice of wisdom
• Identification of one’s gifts, passion, and purpose
• Movement towards meaningful and intentional living
• Paying attention to intuition, experiential knowing, and spiritual
channels of communication
• Openness to revelatory insights

#4. Courage
• Willingness to face and engage with emotional experience and life’s
challenges including the inevitable disappointments, sorrows, conflicts,
unpleasant and unwanted experiences
• Willingness to risk, to move toward passion, joy, fulfillment; willingness to claim
and express one’s strengths and highest potential
• The practice of “staying with”– decreased attempts to avoid or escape
change, pain, discomfort, the unknown, uncertainties, etc.
• A discerning persistence toward valued goals despite experiences of anxiety
or aversion
• Empowerment, willingness to be seen, to stand in one’s truth and use one’s
voice and gifts in the service of higher purposes (e.g., justice, love)
THE 7 C’S: COURAGE
33

#5. Co-existence
• Embracing the “both-and” nature of reality; diunital logic,
dialectic tolerating and holding of apparent opposites,
contradiction, and paradox
• Sense of layers of perception and experience that co-exist
• Recognition of the plurality, complexity, intersectionality,
multidimensionality, expansiveness, and simultaneity of
phenomena
• Movement toward wholeness and away from fragmentation,
embracing the fullness of human experience
THE 7 C’S: CO-EXISTENCE
34

#6. Congruence
• Foundational authenticity of being and living in one’s truth
• Alignment between centered experience and action in the
world; between beliefs/values, what is spoken, and behavior;
“walking one’s talk”
• Experiences of synchronicity
• Experiencing and cultivating harmony among the diverse
aspects of experience
• Balancing of life forces and energies
THE 7 C’S: CONGRUENCE
35

#7: Creativity
• Inspiration toward expression of emergent experience
• Openness, flexibility, curiosity, discovery, imagination, visualization
• Innovative, inventive processes; generation of ideas; willingness to
experiment, to try different ways of being, behaving, moving, thinking, etc.
• Personal and collective expressions of the life of the soul through various art
forms (music, dance, visual art, creative writing, acting/drama/theater, etc.),
as well in contexts such as athletics, teaching, healing, problem-solving,
cooking, gardening, homemaking, and many more
• Engagement in co-creative processes and recognition of the potential for
synergy (the emergence of something new from the energies of two or more
entities interacting)
THE 7 C’S: CREATIVITY
36

MODALITIES OF SOULFULNESS
• WAYS OF MAKING CONTACT WITH THE SOUL OF THE PERSON, THE SOUL OF LIVING,
AND THE SOUL OF THE WORLD
• MEDITATION – Focusing on and exploring inner experience; enhancing and
elevating consciousness
• MUSIC – Optimizing the power of music for healing, connection, and expression
• MOTION/MOVEMENT – Moving the body to facilitate healing and expression
• MEETING – Interacting with others, facilitating soul-to-soul dialogue and
connection
• MEANING, MESSAGE & MISSION – Identifying inner wisdom, one’s truths;
exploring purpose, calling, values, vision, goals
• MAKING/MANIFESTING- Creative and authentic expression of one’s lived
experience
***Most Soulfulness Practices are combinations of two or more of these***
37

SOME SOULFULNESS PRACTICES
• Soulfulness Music Meditations
• SoulWord Meditations – Using Focus Words and Mantras
• SOULitude - Creating Space for “Quietude with the Soul”
• SOULitations – Meditative Rituals
• Communal and Personal
• Three Phases: SoulPrep, SoulFocus, SoulFlow
• Wisdom of the Soul – Proverbs, Quotes, Passages
• Collective Wisdom Emergence (CWE/”See-We”; Harrell,
2017)
38

SOULFULNESS MUSIC MEDITATION
• Song Selection
• Attention to words and music that touch the soul
• The Process
• SOUL “PREP”: Introduce and play song, invite movement
• SOUL “FOCUS”: Reflection and Contemplation
• Repeat song
• Pass out lyrics; Silent reflection
• Prompt Questions for Journaling
• SOUL “FLOW”: Expression and Manifestation
• Dialogue re Message and Meanings
• Sharing, Connections to Lived Experience; “Giving Testimony and Bearing Witness”
• Creativity (Art, Dance, Writing additional lyrics, etc.)
• Action in the world, Choices in one’s life, Behavioral Commitments
• Sample Song: “Color” by Mary J Blige (from the film “Precious”)
39

THERAPEUTIC IMPLICATIONS
• Congruent with African-Centered therapies and practices
• NTU (Phillips)
• Ubuntu (Washington)
• Belief Systems Analysis (Myers)
• Emotional Emancipation (EE) Circles (Assn of Black Psychologists)
• Consistent with Humanistic-Existential-Experiential Therapies
• Consistent with Liberation Psychology, Multicultural and Feminist
Therapies
• Relational-Cultural Psychotherapy
• Empowerment Psychotherapy
• Consistent with Mindfulness and Acceptance-based
therapeutic approaches
• Integrates well into Stress Management interventions
• Recommended for groups but appropriate for individual
intervention

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