Black People Breathe - by Zee Clarke (Hardcover)

About the Book

This practical guide features thirty-three mindfulness exercises centered on healing for the Black community, each focusing on the systemic challenges that people of color face and designed to deal with the emotions these experiences create.

Book Synopsis

A thoughtful, inclusive, and vividly illustrated guide to help Black people--and all people of color--heal from racial trauma using vital tools from an expert in mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork.

It is your right to survive. It is your right to thrive. Mindfulness and breathwork will help you do just that.

Racism is more than just an interpersonal experience. It is a systemic injustice that affects the lives of Black people, and all people of color, in countless ways. Doctors and psychologists have discovered the wide-ranging--and often devastating--effects of racism on one's emotional, physical, and mental health, from high blood pressure and heart problems to anxiety and depression. Yet studies show that mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork can significantly reduce these issues. This is where Zee Clarke comes in.

In this powerful book, Clarke draws on her professional expertise and her lived experience as a Black woman to share mindfulness exercises, breathwork practices, and meditative tools centered on healing from and surviving racial trauma. Filled with deeply personal stories highlighting the many systemic challenges that people of color face, this mixture of guide and memoir offers thirty-three practical techniques based on the emotions elicited from these experiences. Whether you are coping with police brutality, racial profiling, microaggressions, or even imposter syndrome, Black People Breathe gives you the tools to process these complex feelings physically, mentally, and emotionally. Though this collection was created to facilitate healing for communities of color, it also offers allies insight into the discrimination and inequity that these communities face, creating a space for deeper empathy and the inspiration to drive change.

Beautifully designed with gorgeous, vibrant illustrations, Black People Breathe takes a radically inclusive approach to mindfulness, allowing communities of color the opportunity to embark on a journey towards racial healing.

Review Quotes

"Zee Clarke's beautifully illustrated book, Black People Breathe, is a go-to reference book for every Black person, People of Color, and ally to understand the devastating health consequences of ongoing systemic racism, microaggressions, and other struggles. Black People Breathe will become a go-to manual, charting a course toward how we can heal ourselves with breathwork and mindfulness so we don't just survive, but thrive."--Dr. Corey Yeager, author of How Am I Doing: 40 Conversations to Have with Yourself, Detroit Pistons life coach & psychotherapist

"In Black People Breathe, Zee Clarke captures how we can all be more aware, empathetic, and supportive as allies. She has opened my eyes wider to issues I've been aware of and discussing for several years. The magic with this book is that Zee's personal touch completely expands my awareness and gives me a new perspective that will propel me in my work moving forward. And I plan to implement the breathing techniques into my own life. I am grateful to Zee for her honesty, vulnerability, and strength. I am recommending this book to all of my friends and colleagues, as we will all learn and grow by reading Black People Breathe."--Shelley Zalis, CEO, The Female Quotient

About the Author

Founder of Reclaiming Flow, Zee Clarke leverages her toolkit of meditation, breathwork, yoga, and much more, to teach people of color how mindfulness can improve their well-being at work. She has trained Black employees at leading brands like Facebook and The North Face, and she teaches Black people across the nation who have never meditated before how to use mindfulness tools to heal from microaggressions, racism, and the anxiety, fear, and self-doubt that often can occur as a result.