 Hey everyone, welcome. My name is Julio Rivera and I'm the founder and CEO of Liberate, a meditation app for black, indigenous and people of color. So if you were like me, you were up all night thinking about what can we do more for our communities, thinking that everything that I did today wasn't enough. And so to break out of those that ruminating in my head, I have a practice that I'd like for us to do. So we're going to jump right into the guided meditation of today. So if you can sit upright in your chair, and I'd like to say not uptight. So alert and letting your shoulders relax. And I invite you to close your eyes. And we're going to take three big deep breaths together, inhaling through the nose and exhaling out of the mouth, inhaling through the nose and exhaling out of the mouth. Second time inhaling through the nose and exhaling out of the mouth. Last one, letting out a big sigh, inhaling through the nose, out in that mouth. And now just letting your breath return to its natural rhythm, bringing our attention to the physical sensation of the breath moving in and out of the nose. Bringing our attention to the breath as our mind wanders off naturally. This is the practice, the back and forth returning to the breath. Now I invite you to visualize an ancestor, someone who has loved you and supported you in you being here that has transitioned. And for me, that's my great grandmother, who I can remember vividly every time I walked into the room, she would just have being ecstatic joy. Because I don't speak fluent Spanish, she reminds me no matter what I do and no matter what I don't do, I'm loved. So who is that for you? And as you bring this ancestor into awareness, really feeling their presence right next to you, right with you, those loving words, that loving gaze, something that makes you feel and experience their presence. And as you bring them into your awareness, and as you feel their loving presence, I invite you to place your hand on your heart and affirm to yourself that my ancestor, my great grandmother, loved me and supported me in being here. And so I have the capacity to love myself in this way. If this isn't resonating or connecting with you, know that that is okay, because there are many layers to expressing self-love. As we bring this meditation to a close, I invite you to come back into the space, noticing your feet on the ground, your butt on the cushion, or the seat supporting you, wiggling your toes and your fingers, and opening your eyes when you're ready. So this is a practice that I use to keep coming back to my worthiness and knowing that I'm enough, and it has taken me many, many years to even get to this place where I am at in this moment. So my journey began in September of 2015 when I was 26 years old. I was promoted to Senior Software Engineer. I was leading a team of engineers. We were building an app for a major retail brand. I was making six figures. I had an apartment on Wall Street, and I was in a long-term relationship. On the outside, I had it all, and yet on the inside, I was drowning from a voice that reminded me how unhappy and unfulfilled I was. For 15 years, I had a passion for programming, and for the first time in my life, I wanted to have nothing to do with it. Have you ever woken up every day feeling like asking yourself, do I have a purpose? What am I here for? This constant questioning of that every day started ignited stress and anxiety that overwhelmed me. And to fill this deep void inside, I resorted to alcohol and drugs. And then there was one day when I looked in the mirror and discussed and said to myself, your failure to your parents, your grandparents, and your siblings. It was in that moment that I said to myself, to get over this, I'm going to need a new compassionate, loving voice. So I did what most millennials are doing these days and downloaded an app called Headspace. It was when I committed every day to meditating with Headspace that I started to notice that my stress and anxiety levels were reduced. But I got stuck. And so I tried different meditation communities within New York City that were predominantly white. And there was one in particular that really just changed the game for me. It was a meditation community dedicated only for people of color. I remember walking into the room, seeing all these beautiful black and brown faces. And as an Afro Latino, it made me feel at home and at ease. And when I meditated, I was very, very relaxed and calm. And I was able to be vulnerable about my challenges as being the child of an immigrant. As growing up, hearing their stories of suffering and wanting to prove to them that all their suffering wasn't in vain. I was their American dream and yet I felt like I was a failure. And so it was in this vulnerability and in this community that I was able to build a more compassionate voice. It became my second home. Then I couldn't attend anymore because of scheduling conflict. And so I looked online for resources for people of color. And I was shocked when I didn't find anything related to meditation. And I was also shocked that when I talked to other people, they were in the same boat as me. And then a light bulb came off. I could use my background in mobile development to create a solution to not only my meditation practice, but others. So I built the first version of Liberate back in January. And we launched privately to 20 people with only just three meditations on the app. A week later, I went to check the data and the metrics. And I was shocked when I found that 150 people were signed up for me only telling 20 people. I got on the phone with all of them, all of the new people using the app. And the story was consistent. I'm a black woman. I work in a predominantly white workspace and the constant comments of my hair, the way I show up, the way I talk, the way I speak results in me constantly questioning if I belong here, if I'm worthy of being here. As an empath hearing that on the other line, I grew angry and also sad that people experience this every day of their lives. We're going through enough suffering as it is and only to pile on onto that, that constant questioning. Because of the actions of someone else. And so from this, we launched officially in May with a category of meditations addressing microaggressions. And it was the first time anybody had seen this. And so we got a lot of PR. And so sometimes I would check the comments around what people were saying around Liberate. And there was one question that really triggered me. Why do black, why do people of color need their own meditation app? Still does a little. But it was a good opportunity for me to pause and reflect. Well, why do we need this meditation app? And I got that answer a month later in June. I attended a conference around how racial trauma was impacting black communities. And I listened to a talk on white fragility. And at the end of this talk, I noticed that my body was shaking. I took a few breaths and noticed my throat start to tighten and my chest start to tighten. And felt like there was something that needed to come out of me. So as I was trembling, I grabbed the mic and I shared in front of 200 people that I felt so much shame and guilt. For walking through most of my life feeling superior to other black, indigenous and people of color. That because of my access to wealth and education, I felt like I was better than everyone. I was cutting people off because it didn't help me proceed in my career or it didn't help me move along in life. And in fact, by hanging out with them, jeopardize the communities that I, the white groups that I so desperately wanted to be a part of. And I was sick and tired of cutting people off. Have you ever let out of such a good cry that it completely changed your life? You felt like a completely new being? That was my experience in that moment when I was sharing. I noticed three things about myself that changed after that moment. First, I noticed when the thoughts of superiority arose and I was able to habituate a new way of being, something more open-hearted and kind. Second, I was just learning to discover more about my African ancestry and saw that the path for me was healing my own anti-blackness that I was conditioned with. And last, I was much more aware of a door that was caged, that caged my heart, also known as racism. And that this door, the hinges blew off and I was much more empathetic afterwards towards the suffering of black communities, my community. And then throughout that process of healing for myself, I really began to come back to this question, why do we need our own meditation up? And then the answers came to me. Or rather the questions, what if black communities could look at themselves in the mirror and see the divine and the beauty in themselves? What if black indigenous and people of color could remember their ancestors and that they have an entire global community at the palm of their hands when they're experiencing suffering and microaggressions? And last, what if our community shifted our conversations around shared suffering to what our lives look like in the midst of thriving financially, politically, emotionally, economically and spiritually? I believe this future of liberation for our communities is possible. I believe it's possible by starting a small yet powerful practice of meditating five minutes a day. Yes, with liberate. I also believe that it's going to take not only liberate to get there, but a community, all of us supporting each other, all of us doing this inner work of healing ourselves, opening our, not only opening our heart to ourselves, but also opening our heart to others. As Audrey Lord said, without community, there is no liberation. Thank you.