Stay Calm as a production of I Heart Radio. Hi. I'm Bob Roth, and I've been teaching people to meditate for fifty years, helping them to stay calm under pressure, reboot and re energize their lives, and basically be a happier, healthier version of themselves. And now I want to help you do the same. Welcome to Stay Calm, your daily
dose of calmness. Every weekday morning, I'll share a meditation story, offer a simple practical tip about how you or loved going can stay a bit calmer in your life, and then we'll end each episode together with a moment of gratitude. My hope is that I can share what I know to anyone who needs it. Ready, sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths, and let's begin today's journey. So, how's day umpteen of shelter and place kids? Getting on your nerves?
Home schooling, working from home, never getting outside can be pretty stressful, can be pretty frustrating, counting the days. I want to take a moment, though, and talk about some people who are in similar situations. But it's not just frustrating, it's dangerous. These are people who are survivors and living with the threat and the reality of domestic violence. For these people, the ability to stay calm is not just a nice option. It can be the matter between life
and death. I entered this world several years ago when the David Lynch Foundation began working with the Family Justice Centers of New York. This is an organization that serves as a portal for women and children and some men, most of whom are homeless, who visit the Family Justice Centers to get advice on healthcare, on education, guidance on jobs, get legal assistance, and now to learn t sinental meditation
for free. And I met Andrea and her ten year old son, Abraheim through the Family Justice Centers, and I heard their story and took notes. I'm not going to summarize her experience. I'm going to read these notes to you, and I want you to just take a moment to listen to them. They're not notes for a television script. They're not made up, exaggerated. This is the reality of four million women in America every year who are victims of domestic violence. I'm trying to keep my family together.
I'm trying to convince myself with a million different reasons why I should stay, and one of the main reasons is I want my child to live with his father. But his father is a very, very violent man. It's hard to defend myself from him. When I look back to all that I went through, it's truly a miracle that I'm alive. But my child, Ibraheim, developed severe symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. He had a lot of
hospitalizations that prevented me from working, so I became homeless. Fortunately, I was invited to the Family Justice Center, where I was offered help. They have been wonderful. While I was there. I learned transcendental meditation and it has been a completely life changing experience. I now have a tool to give myself deep rest, even deeper than sleep. It creates a calm after meditation that it's hard for me to overreact now or get into confrontations. I asked Ibrahim how he
liked his meditation. He said, anger and stress is something that I feel has been corrupting my life because it makes my temper extremely short and it makes me feel unhappy all the time. But with my meditation, it takes away so much of the anger and stress, and I just feel happy. Andrea told me after his first meditation, Abraheim said those were the best ten minutes of my life. Andrew concluded by saying, I now feel hopeful life that has been gray for so long has been back to colors.
I wish everybody had the opportunity to learn this. It will have such an impact in their lives. What kind of a tip could I possibly give after reading that? If you know someone who is a victim of such assault, you must get them help. They're going to be afraid to leave. Just get them to make a call in your community. You can google domestic violence and there's hotlines. Please do that. What can you do for your friend
who you suspect is a victim of assault? You're not a therapist, don't even venture there, but spend time with your friend. Take them out, take them to a yoga class, kickboxing, spend time with them. And if it's you in this situation, you make that call, You'll google you find out where to go. The situation doesn't go away by itself. Trauma doesn't go away by itself. Now, I like to share a quote that I think it's particularly relevant to this conversation,
and the quote is anonymous, but so beautiful. Stop trying to calm the storm. Calm yourself and the storm will pass. I'm going to read that again, stop trying to calm the storm. Calm yourself and the storm will pass. All right, Let's end this time together doing something that I think should be a few each of our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break, just take a moment.
It turns out when we do that, it's good for our health as well. I'll be right back all right. Thank you for joining. This is Bob Roth. Keep calm, Thanks for listening today. I hope you heard something that inspires, that uplifts you and that you can incorporate into your own life. Until next time, remember, meditate, be kind, and be true to yourself. Hey, all of you out there, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your stories, your questions, or anything else on your mind.
Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com. I look forward to hearing from you.