Rested Root Welcome & Grounding Offerings Video Transcripts 🌿
​Welcome, Beloveds.
This welcome video and grounding practices were created by Rested Root to support Brown Boi Project’s community survey process.
We know that reflecting on BBP’s past, present, and future can bring up emotion, memory, clarity, or even tenderness.
The welcome video and guided practices are here to help you arrive, orient, breathe, and root yourself in care as you move through the survey at your own pace.
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Below you’ll find the videos and the full transcripts for accessibility.
Take what you need, move slowly, and return to these practices anytime.
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1. Welcome Video and Mini Grounding Practice
A short practice used in the survey intro video.
Watch the Video
Transcript
[amani speaking] Peace Brown Bois — I’m amani and i use they, them, stardust and beloved pronouns. I’m a member of Rested Root, a Black, Queer, and Trans worker-owned cooperative that does liberatory education and consulting — rooted in rest.
[damaris speaking] Hey y’all! My name is damaris, it rhymes with glamorous *snaps* and i use they / them pronouns. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to describe this time that Brown Boi is in and the way that makes the most sense to me is thinking about it like a gender journey.
When i think about my own gender journey, it started with me realizing there was a disconnect between how i was feeling inside and being perceived and moving in the world and it was like mmhm this isn’t fitting, there’s a disconnect here. So i started to experiment, you know, started to try out different ways of expressing myself, different ways of moving, until i found a way that was more authentic to myself. And you know i’m still figuring that out, honestly every day.
So even though this isn’t necessarily a gender journey that Brown Boi is going through, i feel like in so many ways it is a transition. Brown Boi is in a place of recognizing that there is a disconnect between how it feels inside and how it wants to move in the world. So we’re starting this time - Rested Root is supporting Brown Boi in discovering what that could look like. What could a more authentic expression of this organization mean? And that’s where you come in! We see you as a part of Brown Boi. You are a part of this community, you make up what this organization is, you’ve been a part of this organization, and you’ve experienced the magic that it has to offer. So we are really hoping to get your insight and your guidance as we think about what this next chapter could look like.
[amani speaking] Facts Fam! What I really love about what they shared is that it reminds us that transformation, whether it’s personal, collective, organizational, global, is often about our relationship to truth and our ability to honor it.
At Rested Root we see this work, this moment of transformation as an opportunity for sacred practice really. A chance to listen, doula, learn, wait for what is already right there waiting to emerge.
BBP is kind of in that moment now. This survey is part of that practice of listening and gaining wisdom from those who have loved this work, who have shaped this work and been shaped by this work - that’s you. Your reflections will help ground this next chapter in care, clarity, and possibility.
And chile listennnn— we get it. We know surveys ain’t always it. *laughs* They don’t always feel exciting or nourishing.
We get it. So we've done a lot of thinking on how to make this one feel accessible and worth your time.
[damaris speaking] Here's some things to know. We started with 30 questions, y'all, which was really extensive and expansive and also overwhelming as fuck. So, we have narrowed it down to nine questions that we feel like are really essential to helping us to identify Brown Boi's mission, vision, and strategic direction. In addition to that, we have some demographic questions so we can understand different patterns that might be arising. And there's also a sprinkle of optional questions if you have capacity or interest in giving us a little more information. And we've tried to make a mix of multiple choice and open response questions. And for the open response questions, they all have the option of giving a text response and or including a voice note option, which you can just record right in JotForm.
[amani speaking] PSST. Your responses are anonymous. Only our Rested Root team will see them and we'll compile everything into a collective report for Brown Boi Project. You will have the opportunity if you'd like to go into a deeper conversation with us to join a focus group. Sign up for that at the end.
[damaris speaking] We want to be transparent that we can't promise like on Rested Root’s side that everything that's shared in the survey or in the focus groups is automatically going to become a new program or policy or is going to explicitly show up in the report that - in the plan that comes out of this process. At the same time, we can promise that we will read and listen and really carefully consider everything you say because we really do value what you're going to share with us. We really honor the fact that you've taken this time to give this input into Brown Boi and we don't take that for granted. We know there's so many things right now that are pulling our attention. There's so many demands on our time and so we want you to know that we see you, we value you and we will definitely include what you share with us in the report that we give to Brown Boi that will be used to shape the visioning and mission and strategic direction for this next chapter.
I also want to name that doing this survey, reflecting on your experiences with Brown Boi could bring up a lot of different things. It could bring up joyful things. It could bring up tender things. It could bring up hard things. And we want to support you in that. So in Rested Root we always incorporate grounding practices into everything that we do because we feel like liberation has to start and end with our connection with the body. You know, there's so many things happening right now that are designed to activate us, to bring us out of our bodies, to keep us in a state of dysregulation. And so, we feel like if we're trying to do this liberation work or if we're trying to get free, we got to get free in our bodies. And so, for that, we have included a couple of offerings at the end of this video. There's just going to be a short maybe like two minute grounding practice just to help you to get back in your body. And then also we've created a longer one that will be between sections two and three of the survey. Again totally optional,
[amani speaking] Just an opportunity to check in with yourself and your needs before moving forward. And with that y'all we are extremely extremely grateful for your time, your truths, your care. Your reflections are a gift to the Brown Boi Project and to the larger movement that we are all a part of. Thank you for helping dream up a more sustainable, liberated future for the Brown Boi Project.
[damaris speaking] If you want to join us in a short grounding practice, we invite you to take a moment to see if there's anything you could do for your body to make yourself a little more eased, present. Maybe check out this altar that we built for Brown Boi featuring an illustration from Matice, corn and tobacco from my garden, this pin that says “Imagine love-filled, abundant, sustainable TGMC futures” as well as other affirmations and crystals.
When you're ready, we'll take three breaths together:
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Breathing in through the nose if that's comfortable, feeling the pressure build up in our stomach and then exhaling through the mouth.
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This next breath, breathing in however you want to, exhaling with a hissing sound, imagining any pressure in our body being released through our pores.
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This third breath making it the deepest inhale of your day. Exhaling with a sigh.
Now breathing at your own pace. Running back any of those breaths if you want to spend more time with them. Just bringing your awareness to the ground beneath you and around you. Your benevolent ancestors and spirit guides supporting you and the brilliance, creativity and wisdom that courses through you.
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2. Mid-Survey Grounding Practice
A slightly longer grounding placed between Sections 2 and 3 of the survey.
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Watch the Video
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Transcript
Hey yall,
Welcome back thank you for making it to this place in the survey
Here is another guided meditation, grounding practice to support you
Maybe beginning by checking back in with your body, seeing if there’s any needs that have risen
Maybe taking a moment to honor this altar that we have created specifically to honor Brown Boi Project and the incredible liberatory work of this organization and this community.
As we’re settling into this practice we might see if there is any way we can make our bodies more comfortable.
Bringing our attention to the seat beneath us, the ground beneath it.
We’ll bring back the three breaths that we started with
but we’ll just do one of each.
So inhaling through the nose if that’s comfortable
Feeling the pressure build up in our stomach
And then exhaling through the mouth
Next breath inhaling however you want to
Exhaling with a hissing sound.
And for this third breath, breathing in,
Imagining the breath coming from the earth beneath our feet,
traveling up our legs, our body, all the way to the top of our head.
Exhaling from the top of our head
All the way back down to the earth.
If you will,
Imagine roots growing from you
reaching down, out, and across
connecting you to the Earth,
to some ancestors who feel safe,
to community seen and unseen.
Perhaps noticing what sensations arise in our body
as we allow ourselves to be held.
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Remembering we're never alone in this existence.
Seeing what we can release to this supportive presence of the earth,
our benevolent ancestors, and our loving community.
If it feels right, offer quiet thanks to the plantcestors
to the trees, herbs, and medicines that have collaborated on our people’s breath through time.
Now take a moment to honor the land beneath you
the original stewards of this place,
and the stories of resistance, resilience, and truth
that still live here.
With this next breath calling into our bodies,
the knowing that there have always been many ways to be,
many ways to love,
many ways to embody freedom
Express gender
Be expansive in your expression of all beautiful things such as liberatory masculinity
Sit with that. Be with that.
Staying present with your breath and these truths.
And as we breathe here together, may this reflection serve our collective healing.
May we trust our own intuition and value our voice.
May we come home to ourselves and offer medicine drawn from our own experience.
May we stay present with the earth beneath and around us, holding us with each inhale and exhale.
Let this be an invitation.
Continue to stay with your breath.
Again,
Checking in with your body’s needs,
Seeing if there's anything you can do to offer yourself
to bring a little more ease, a little more care, a little more support
before continuing on with the rest of this survey.
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