Five activists talk about staying centered

Making social change is demanding work; progress can be slow, and personal burnout is high. These inspirational activists have chosen to travel inward for sustenance. And in so doing, they've found that their spiritual practice, no matter what form it takes, isn't an escape from activism -- it's the wellspring.

Kyra Bobinet, 35, is the co-founder of Vision Youthz, a San Francisco nonprofit that helps at-risk youth build life skills and inner awareness, with programs based in schools, communities, and detention centers. A graduate of the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, Bobinet indefinitely postponed her research and medical career after she had a vision at the age of 24 that pushed her toward a life of service to youth.

Challenges: The biggest challenge for an activist is to be fully applied and yet not allow your effort to be fueled by negative emotions. You will burn out if you use rage, retaliation, or feelings of being the underdog to fuel your work. You need to be clean of vindication, because then you can say hard things to people in power without the extra spin of your own personal anger. For example, we work in the prison system and encounter dysfunction and disrespect from some of the staff, mostly because they are in pain themselves. I tell them when they are sabotaging our efforts to help the youth, but not with judgment or anger, because then they won't work with me. They'll make my life harder, my job harder, and they'll close down my access to the youth.

Daily spiritual practices: Because of the nature of my work and because I want to respect the youths' spirituality, I have adopted pretty much every spiritual practice there is. The most important things are silent meditation and daily mindfulness: watching my thoughts, watching my emotions pass through my body. I also do meditative walking, a toe-heel version of walking where the ball of your foot hits first, then the heel softly lands. There's a different neurostimulation that comes from this, and it's a softer way to walk. I'm half Native American, so it means a lot to me to have an awareness of the planet as I walk. I also pray, go on vision quests, read spiritual texts, and go to retreats and classes. You cannot be an activist without a spiritual base; without that, you wind up recreating the problem you were trying to solve.