EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Kimberly McClam Fisher: Brown Girls Meditate
Kimberly Fisher created Brown Girls Meditate with a mission to help black and brown women realize their full potential through meditation.
Life is hard. Navigating through life’s twists and turns is equally as difficult, if not more so. Any given day is full of responsibilities to tackle, obligations to meet, and unexpected moments to absorb. Life can be overwhelming, painful, and energy-sucking. Life is also wonderful. It can be packed with moments of bliss and joy. There are times full of smiles, laughter, and unabated feelings of glee. Life is a journey. And so many times during that journey we as humans forget to take care of ourselves, we lose our way and don’t take the time to check in with and look at what our minds and bodies need at any given moment. When this happens, meditation and mindfulness are tools that can help you refocus on you.
Kimberly McClam Fisher discovered this. Not only did she discover this, but she realized that meditation has the potential to help unlock so much more. Now she is giving back by teaching other individuals to embrace meditation and mindfulness and harness the power that it can provide. She is showing individuals how to then use that power to not only field whatever curveball life may throw at them, but also use that power to fully realize the life that they deserve and can absolutely achieve. And while Kim is striving to help every person from every walk of life to uncover the benefits mindfulness and mediation can imbue, she created Brown Girls Meditate to specifically help black and brown women realize their full potentials through meditation. Learn all about Kim’s mission to help black and brown women “unlock and unblock” to “create the life they deserve.”
KIM’S JOURNEY
Kim’s journey toward her discovery of meditation and ultimately the creation of the Brown Girls Mediate community was not a linear one. Much like life, it was full of a multitude of twists and turns. It all started back in 2012. Kim shared that back then life had really flung some difficult curveballs in her direction. All at once, Kim found herself juggling getting divorced after seven years of marriage, being a single mom for the first time, and completely uncertain of a career direction to embark on. All of this just as she was about to celebrate her 30th birthday. For Kim, life’s idea of a birthday present did not have nice wrapping or a pretty bow. She said this left her in a “whirlwind,” unsure of what she was going to do next.
At first, she gave into the whirlwind that she had been suddenly thrust into. Kim says she started going out, partying, drinking, and hooking up. “I was doing all these things to try and cover the pain of feeling lost,” said Fisher. That is until she experienced one sleepless night.
Unable to go to sleep Kim did what anyone would do to try and find a solution. She took to the internet. “I couldn’t go to sleep so I decided to start scrolling on YouTube.” While searching on YouTube she came across a guided meditation. Desperate to get some sleep, she decided to give it a try. She had nothing to lose. It worked. Kim was out like a light in no time flat.
Guided meditations before bed became a ritual for Kim. Along the way, she discovered other types of meditations, too. Then, Kim started to notice something. She noticed that she “…started to gain more clarity on what I wanted to do next. I felt more patient with my kids.” Meditation helped Kim to step out of the whirlwind that she had been unwillingly thrown into.
Though meditation and mindfulness had become a big part of Kim’s life, they had not yet evolved to the point where she was teaching them and using them to help others. That wouldn’t occur until a little thing called the pandemic happened.
BROWN GIRLS MEDITATE
After her discovery of meditation and subsequent utilization of it, Kim found that she would often embrace it, as she put it, in waves. However, the pandemic served as the catalyst to solidify Kim’s relationship with meditation and mindfulness. Suddenly, Kim found herself living in a tiny apartment with her new husband and two young boys, all the while she was trying to run a business from home. That is a lot, and that’s putting it lightly. Consequently, Kim dove headfirst back into meditation and mindfulness.
However, this time she took it a step further. This time Kim created the Brown Girls Meditate social media community. Thus, the evolution of Kim’s connection to meditation and mindfulness was birthed. Kim says that at first, she created the social community to help herself stay accountable. But very quickly she noticed that people wanted to learn about what she was doing. People were asking her to teach them to practice meditation and mindfulness. That’s what inspired Kim to go“…ahead and get a certification to be a better resource for those looking to add meditation to their lives.”
Today Brown Girls Mediate has evolved into a full-fledged business that has helped and is helping black women, brown women, and allies everywhere to take on life, rediscover themselves, and realize their full potentials and purposes.
PROGRAMS, EVENTS, AND RESOURCES
The Brown Girls Mediate website is a wealth of knowledge and helpful resources for potential and existing clients. It facilitates Kim’s engagement with the community in a variety of different ways. Two of these ways include group events and one-on-one sessions.
There are group sessions available to both black and brown women exclusively and ones that are open to any and all looking to benefit from meditation and mindfulness. Each group event is dedicated to a specific topic, theme, and style of meditation. For instance, one upcoming event will be dedicated to using meditation to “activate your manifestations.” It aims to accomplish this by helping individuals to “get clear on their goals, let go of limiting beliefs, and walk away with some powerful mantras [to] carry in the tough times” so that they can begin to mold the “life they deserve.”
Kim’s one-on-one sessions are like her group events, but they take it one step further. One-on-one sessions, inherently, are more personal. Kim tailors these sessions to the individual. For instance, individual plans can be curated to both lifestyle and something that the individual is currently working through. A busy mom working through grief will have a plan that looks different than a single college student struggling with feelings of anxiety, or a working professional who is overwhelmed by responsibility.
For those curious to take their first steps on their meditation and mindfulness journey, Kim also has a free meditation that you can download straight from the Brown Girls Meditate website. It will give you a taste of the power and potential that meditating can endow you. And for those still teetering on the edge of embracing meditation and mindfulness, Kim says to ask yourself what is holding you back? And “if you are your best friend then why are you not giving yourself that same space and opportunity” that you would give to a best friend?
THE BOOK
Kim’s engagement with her meditation and mindfulness community does not begin and end in a digital space. She also authored a book to serve as a tangible “…resource for women starting this journey.” She created a resource where individuals “…can stay accountable and have little guides throughout.” The book itself is aptly titled Brown Girls Meditate Meditation Journal: A 30-Day Soulful Guide To Discover Meditation. It contains a plethora of inspiration, plenty of room for reflection, and motivational and foundational quotes that help the reader to commit to meditation and, in turn, connect to themselves in a deeper, meaningful, and more personal way.
The care, crafting, and artful design that went into the creation of this book is evident with every turn of a page. Kim partially credits its existence to a serendipitous moment of happenstance. Kim says that after writing it she wasn’t exactly sure what to do next then an old friend “came in like an angel and designed my cover, designed a lot of things inside and was like I don’t want a thing. I just believe in your mission and what you’re doing.” It’s something that Fisher said was “absolutely amazing.” Kim likens the whole experience to the universe-inspired philosophy of “inspire to action and the next step will come.” It’s what the book was born out of and it is what the book has the potential to absolutely awaken inside you.
CALLING ALL ALLIES!
Brown Girls Mediate’s primary mission is to help black and brown women realize the benefits that meditation and mindfulness can have for their lives. However, allies are welcome, too. Allies looking to help the community and spread the word can share the meditations that inspire them. They can also participate to shed and move past unwanted ideologies and perceptions. If they are financially able donations are also welcome. Donations will help black and brown women unable to afford Kim’s services or book to become a part of the community. Overall, though, it is about continuing to spread the overarching “message of peace and love”.
In the future, Fisher says she is planning to put further focus on diversity and inclusion. She is working on some fun ideas now. However, she did tease that in 2023 she’s working on another book geared towards spouses and couples. Kim says just “giver her some time.” I, for one, can’t wait to see what she has in store next!
THE TAKEAWAY
The big takeaway here is that meditating and being mindful can help you not only cope with what might be going on in your day-to-day life, but it could also allow you to unlock and unblock barriers that could be stopping you from realizing your full potential and manifesting your dreams. “I believe we all come here with a purpose. And I believe that meditation gives us the quiet and the clarity to reconnect back to who we really are.”
