Meditation Isn’t New to Our Cultures — We Just Forgot

If meditation has ever felt “not for you,” you’re not alone.

A lot of us were introduced to meditation through a very specific doorway: apps with soothing voices, minimalist studios with expensive memberships, and wellness language that can feel… unfamiliar. Sometimes it’s framed like a trendy self-improvement tool. Sometimes it’s presented as something you need to learn from scratch, like you missed the memo.

But here’s a gentler truth:

Meditation isn’t new to our cultures.
For many of us, it’s not something we have to “adopt.”
It’s something we can remember.

At Asians Who Meditate, we hold space for that remembering—slowly, respectfully, and without making it heavy. Our mission is to create culturally resonant places for Asian and Asian American communities to breathe, rest, and heal together.

 

When Meditation Feels Foreign, It’s Often Because of How It’s Been Packaged

A lot of modern wellness spaces present meditation as:

• individual and private (something you do alone to “fix yourself”)
• performance-based (long sits, perfect posture, calm mind)
• stripped of culture (as if it dropped from the sky in the last decade)

If you grew up in an immigrant household or a diaspora community, you might also carry a different kind of distance:

• You saw spiritual or ritual practices growing up, but they weren’t translated.
• You felt cultural pressure around productivity and responsibility, leaving little room for stillness.
• You learned to keep going—because stopping didn’t feel safe or allowed.

So when someone says, “Just sit and breathe,” it can land in a body that’s been trained to brace.

None of this means meditation isn’t for you.

It just means the version you were shown might not have been made with you in mind.

 

Our Ancestors Practiced Stillness in Many Forms

Across Asian cultures and lineages, stillness has existed for a long time—sometimes in formal meditation, and sometimes in practices that don’t get labeled that way.

Depending on your background, you might recognize pieces of contemplative practice in things like:

• chanting, prayer, or recitation
• bowing, kneeling, or devotional rhythm
• sitting quietly at temples, shrines, or altars
• walking slowly, intentionally, in nature or around sacred spaces
• breath-centered practices and internal arts
• rituals that invite reverence—lighting incense, offering food, remembering those who came before

Even if you didn’t grow up calling it “meditation,” many of us grew up around ritual attention—the act of slowing down and being with what’s here.

And some of our healing lineages have always understood the body and spirit as connected. In our nonprofit DNA, we name roots like Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture as part of the broader ancestral context we honor—while still keeping our offerings accessible and modern.

Remembering doesn’t mean romanticizing the past. It just means we don’t have to treat stillness like a foreign import.

 

Forgetting Can Be Protective

If meditation is part of our cultural inheritance, why does it feel so far away?

Sometimes, forgetting isn’t a failure. Sometimes it’s what helped our families survive.

Many Asian diaspora stories include:

• displacement, war, migration, colonization, or poverty
• pressure to “make it” in a new country
• trauma that taught the body to stay alert
• generational messages like: don’t complain, don’t rest, keep going

In that context, stillness can feel like a threat. Not because you’re doing it wrong—because the nervous system learned that slowing down meant becoming vulnerable.

So if meditation feels uncomfortable, you don’t need to push through. You can approach it the way you’d approach anything tender: with consent, with pacing, with care.

At AWM, we return to a simple idea: practice, not perfection—and a deep respect for the fact that your body has a history.

 

Reclaiming Meditation Can Be an Act of Cultural Repair

For many of us, reclaiming meditation isn’t about becoming “more spiritual” or performing calm.

It’s about coming back to something that was always ours:

• the right to pause
• the right to feel
• the right to be human without earning it

In a world that rewards urgency, reclaiming stillness can be a quiet form of resistance.

Not loud. Not dramatic. Just true.

And because so many of us were shaped in community—family, collectivism, responsibility—our healing often wants community too. That’s why AWM emphasizes community care over self-improvement and presence over performance.

 

A Gentle Practice: “Remembering” Instead of “Trying”

If meditation has felt like something you have to do “correctly,” you might try this instead—no special posture required.

Remembering Practice (2–5 minutes)

1. Get comfortable.
   Sitting, lying down, leaning against a wall—anything that feels supportive.
   
   
2. Place a hand somewhere grounding.
   Chest, belly, or over your heart (or don’t—your choice).
   
   
3. Take one slower breath.
   No need to change it much. Just notice it.
   
   
4. Ask quietly:
   

• • What would it feel like to return to myself—just a little?
  • What would it feel like to remember stillness as familiar?

    5. Notice one small sensation.

• • warmth in your hands
  • weight of your body
  • sound in the room
  • breath moving in and out

    6. End with a soft phrase (optional):

• • “I’m allowed to go slowly.”
  • “This belongs here.”
  • “I can return, one breath at a time.”

That’s it. No achievement required.

 

You Don’t Need to Choose Between Culture and Accessibility

Sometimes, reclaiming gets misunderstood as “going back” or doing things exactly the way previous generations did.

But remembering can also look like:

• learning in modern language
• practicing in ways that fit your life now
• finding teachers and spaces that feel safe
• holding both respect and flexibility

We can honor what came before without turning it into a performance.

We can be rooted without being rigid.

That’s the kind of practice we’re building—gentle, culturally aware, beginner-friendly, and real.

 

A Soft Closing

If meditation has felt like something you’re late to, behind on, or “not built for”—consider this a reminder:

You’re not late.
You’re not outside the circle.
You’re not starting from nothing.

You might just be returning.

If you want to practice in a space that’s grounded, welcoming, and culturally resonant, you’re welcome to sit with us. Explore our free or low-cost community meditation circles and upcoming gatherings—no pressure, no perfection, just presence.