Speaker 1: Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
Speaker 1: to Stay Calm, your daily dose of calmness. I'm Bob Roth,
Speaker 1: and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years,
Speaker 1: helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re
Speaker 1: energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version
Speaker 1: of themselves. And now I want to help you do
Speaker 1: the same. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths,
Speaker 1: and let's begin today's journey. What do you think Washington,
Speaker 1: d C? Would be like if ten thousand people, adults
Speaker 1: and kids incorporated a few minutes of a stress reducing
Speaker 1: meditation technique into their daily lives in much the same
Speaker 1: way as millions of people already incorporate a few minutes
Speaker 1: of physical exercise. What would happen to sickness rates, crime rates,
Speaker 1: trauma rates, graduation rates, rates of drug abuse? What would
Speaker 1: happen to the quality of life for the whole city?
Speaker 1: I raised the point because the idea of ten thousand
Speaker 1: people meditating in Washington, d C. May not be so
Speaker 1: theoretical or pie in the sky. In fact, it could
Speaker 1: happen sooner than you think. A demonstration project is now
Speaker 1: underway in the heart of the district's Ward eight, the
Speaker 1: area with the highest death rates from COVID nineteen and
Speaker 1: gun violence, and highest poverty levels in the city. The
Speaker 1: project is being led by a team of top meditation
Speaker 1: experts who are working with local government and community agencies
Speaker 1: to bring transcendental meditation for free two people in d
Speaker 1: C who may need it the most. Today, I want
Speaker 1: to tell you about a woman who is part of
Speaker 1: that team working to bring calm to an entire city.
Speaker 1: Meet a Dora iris Lee. A Dora was born and
Speaker 1: raised in Newark, New Jersey, in the nineteen fifties and sixties.
Speaker 1: Her activist parents encouraged her to be fully involved and
Speaker 1: engaged in social change. For a Dora, it was a
Speaker 1: moral imperative. She worked in the civil rights movement in
Speaker 1: the South in the early nineteen seventies, earned a master's
Speaker 1: degree in public health from Yale, and headed up the
Speaker 1: HIV AIDS Agency in Washington, d C. During the peak
Speaker 1: of the pandemic in the nineteen eighties. She also helped
Speaker 1: to write the landmark report on toxic waste and race
Speaker 1: that launched the environmental justice movement. A Door also found
Speaker 1: time to earn a second master's degree, this time and divinity,
Speaker 1: and become an ordained Christian minister. And she worked with
Speaker 1: elderly people who are dying of cancer and newborn children
Speaker 1: who weighed less than two pounds, who were fighting to
Speaker 1: stay alive. For most of us, that would be a
Speaker 1: full life, but not a Dora. She kept going, learning
Speaker 1: and serving. She spent years traveling and working throughout Africa,
Speaker 1: the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, implementing in a valuating
Speaker 1: programs for preventing HIV AIDS. Then, finally, five years ago,
Speaker 1: the Door thought she'd had enough. She returned to Washington
Speaker 1: and prepared for a life of retirement, which included some
Speaker 1: community work. But a Door said that even in retirement
Speaker 1: she felt tired. She started looking for something to center herself,
Speaker 1: to calm herself, to re energize herself. She sought out meditation,
Speaker 1: trying different practices. She liked them, but kept looking for
Speaker 1: something easier, something that might work just a little bit better. Coincidentally,
Speaker 1: if there are coincidences, just down the street from her
Speaker 1: house in Ward eight was an amazing community center called
Speaker 1: the Ark, which housed the meditation center. But Dora learned
Speaker 1: transcendental meditation there and loved the techniques ease and simplicity,
Speaker 1: and within a week she was working side by side
Speaker 1: with Rena Boone, executive director of the Meditations Center, and
Speaker 1: three other powerful women. Today, they are partnering with Children's
Speaker 1: National Health Care System, Howard University Hospital, and other health,
Speaker 1: community and government agencies to deliver the meditation as an
Speaker 1: antidote to the high crime, sickness, and poverty rates in
Speaker 1: that part of the city. Obviously, meditation won't make all
Speaker 1: the problems miraculously disappear, but a Door says, it will
Speaker 1: allow us to better handle our problems and find creative solutions,
Speaker 1: and that we all know is more than half the battle.
Speaker 1: Like everyone, a Door is deeply concerned about what's happening
Speaker 1: in the city and the whole country. She sees a
Speaker 1: lot of people advocating for change, in particular young people.
Speaker 1: Change has to come, a Door says, But to make
Speaker 1: the change real, to make it stick, it's going to
Speaker 1: take time. This is a marathon, not a sprint. The
Speaker 1: fact is, these young people need a tool to help
Speaker 1: them stay center, collected and calm so that they can
Speaker 1: go to the distance. Otherwise they're just going to burn out.
Speaker 1: It's a long journey, and I think these young people
Speaker 1: will find transcendental meditation a very helpful tool on that road.
Speaker 1: They will benefit, but so will our community and really
Speaker 1: the whole world. All right, let's end this time together
Speaker 1: doing something that I think should be a feature of
Speaker 1: our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's
Speaker 1: take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break,
Speaker 1: just take a moment. It turns out when we do that,
Speaker 1: it's good for our health as well. I'll be right back,
Speaker 1: all right. Thank you for joining me today. I hope
Speaker 1: you heard something that inspires, that uplifts you and that
Speaker 1: you can incorporate into your own life. This is Bob Roth.
Speaker 1: Stay calm, hey, all of you out there. I'd love
Speaker 1: to hear from you. You can send me your stories,
Speaker 1: your questions, or anything else on your mind. Just connect
Speaker 1: with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at meditation Bob.
Speaker 1: You can also send me an email at meditation Bob
Speaker 1: Roth at gmail dot com. I look forward to hearing
Speaker 1: from you.