Empowering Youth Through Mindfulness
As part of Impact Hub Baltimore’s #RestFest2020, we’re sharing in-depth stories and thought leadership from visionary humans from within our network. Read more on how they promote wellbeing in Baltimore; their thinking on why giving ourselves permission to rest and recharge matters; as well as their go-to practices for grounding and self-care.
On multiple occasions, I’ve witnessed firsthand Lydell Hills disappear into the woods with a camera in hand and a visible eagerness to explore. He eventually returns, calm and collected as ever, sharing that he’s yet again taken some great photos.
Photography is one vital way Lydell practices self-care. It’s an art form that, alongside other creative mediums, allows him to reflect and reconnect with his inner voice. Knowing what works well for him means he’s better able to impart these tools to his students and empower them to exercise more self-care.
Through his organization Truth to Power, Lydell aims to “create more pathways to success for Baltimore youth.” In November 2020, they launched their Virtual Community Center which offers opportunities for students to reflect through art and music, as well as platforms for youth advocacy and more.
The growth of this virtual space comes after months of reestablishing trust with students, families, and schools amid the blur of the pandemic. “A big part of the work and building relationships is continuing to show up,” Lydell emphasized.
It was an especially important process for Lydell because when COVID-19 restrictions first heightened, Truth to Power had been operating for less than two years. A lot of relationship-building previously took place in-person and after school. And in some ways, his success rate with strengthening these ties over the pandemic largely determined his ability to reach and engage with more of the city’s students moving forward.
Over this period, Lydell rapidly gained entrepreneurial knowledge and developed new systems for parent communication and feedback. Despite enduring new challenges as a social entrepreneur, Lydell remains just as committed to empowering youth. He thoughtfully retraces his motivations and experiences this year with me.
“The work can be emotionally heavy, but after a certain point, you no longer want to [contribute to] band-aiding the issue. You want to get to the root cause.”
Asked what motivates him to keep going, Lydell explains that this work is deeply personal. As a self-described “community organizer, artivist and game-changer,” Lydell has worked with diverse communities including third-graders back home in Brooklyn, New York, and incarcerated men via the Baltimore Community Mediation Center.
“I started thinking about the school-to-prison pipeline,” Lydell starts. “You start seeing patterns when you talk to so many different people.” He also shares that during high school, he wasn’t made aware of grants and opportunities intended to expand students’ horizons. Reflecting on these experiences prompted him to dedicate his life work to “creating more pathways to success in our neighborhoods and for our kids to have better outcomes.”
And for him, the wellness space made the most sense to carry out his personal mission. When developing Truth to Power, a mentor advised him to embody what he seeks to facilitate. This universal truth continues to inform Lydell’s self-care practices and approaches to mindfulness work with youth.
What self-care really comes down to is “a recentering of our humanity.”
“So many times, our energies are everywhere else — other people, things, etc. They pull our thoughts in different directions,” Lydell says. “It hurts to have our energy strained so much. Allowing ourselves to take up space is healing in itself.”
Lydell also finds that when he’s actively modeling self-care in front of his students, it gives them permission to do the same. At some point in our conversation, Lydell even shares that one student relayed an instance where practicing mindful breathing dissolved his impulse to react to someone that had provoked him.
Hearing this story reminds me of the power of intentional pause. I wrap up our talk feeling hopeful and excited. With a generation of more mindful leaders in the making — as embodied in this student and with the support of visionaries like Lydell — our world feels as though it’s moving towards a stronger place.
Lydell’s self-care practices:
- Art | Drawing, photography, poetry, music among others
- At home | “Burning incense and creating an ambience that bring him joy
- Work productivity | Planning and making an agenda for the week boosts his sense of self-determination
- Meditative space |Carving time to meditate and reflect, which in turn helps his facilitation practices with youth
- Being with nature | Going on walks and wandering to keep his body active and his thoughts flowing
