Political Strategist Reggie Hubbard On 5 Steps That Each Of Us Can Take To Proactively Help Heal Our Country
…We are all in this together, whether we like it or not — the sooner we consistently practice awareness of and connection to the bond we all share in this human experience — the sooner we will begin to build the muscle memory of community. All of the problems we face — we have one another in common. All of us experience grief and loss. All of us experience disappointment and frustration. All of us want safety, security and a chance for success. Some of us know that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable, and we have to remind those of us who have forgotten this by creating a vision so compelling they cannot help but join us…. Or create critical mass so that our sheer numbers drown out a vision not rooted in our mutual thriving and well-being…
As part of our series about 5 Steps That Each Of Us Can Take To Proactively Help Heal Our Country, I had the pleasure of interviewing Reggie Hubbard. Reggie is a senior political strategist, certified yoga and meditation teacher, and influential changemaker who is paving the way toward a more conscious world by sharing techniques that cultivate peace and ease as a foundation, rather than an afterthought, with Members of Congress, congressional staff, major labor unions, educational institutions, progressive organizations, and individuals from all walks of life.
His mission is to help activists find balance while inspiring the wellness community to become more engaged, socially conscious citizens. He believes that when inner peace aligns with civic responsibility, it creates the foundation for meaningful, transformative change.
Reggie is a trailblazer with a wealth of experience in senior strategic and logistical roles across global marketing, digital and community organizing, government relations, international education, and presidential campaigning. He earned his B.A. in philosophy from Yale University and holds an M.B.A. in international strategy from the Vlerick Business School in Belgium. His professional journey led him to seek tools for resilience and balance, beginning his yoga practice in November 2014 as a way to navigate and alchemize extreme professional adversity. Through disciplined practice, unwavering focus, and a commitment to inner peace, he embraced the yogic path.
Now a certified yoga and meditation teacher, he has studied extensively with renowned teachers such as Faith Hunter, Amy Ippoliti, Yogarupa Rod Stryker, Sri Dharma Mittra, Roshi Joan Halifax, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach and many other inspiring mentors he’s encountered along the way. Reggie is the founder/chief serving officer of Active Peace Yoga, a practice whose mission is to make the practice of yoga and living the yogic lifestyle accessible to all, regardless of race, gender, body type or practice level. The practice also has Prince and Jimi Hendrix as cultural/spiritual influences — unapologetic black male creatives who inspired change, love and togetherness through their art. Whether through asana, breathwork, meditation, lectures, workshops, or conscious conversations rooted in radical presence, honesty, and compassion, his goal is to create a space for individual healing and collective transformation. He is a healer, sonic artist and wisdom steward. His contemplative practices have been the foundation of his healing journey of stroke recovery, demonstrating the deepest level of practice in his life thus far as he has built back from this injury.
He also advises yoga and meditation communities, studios, teachers, and the broader wellness industry on the importance of diversity and inclusion, helping to make the practice accessible to all by eliminating exclusionary cultures and habits. His teaching style is designed for all levels and lifestyles, with the only requirement being an open mind.
Reggie is deeply committed to giving back to the community through Active Peace, regularly supporting impactful organizations such as the The BRO Experience, Food Education Fund, Black Boys Om, Juxtaposition Arts Center, and The Food Group. He is a featured speaker/thought leader on political strategy, new consciousness, wellbeing, social justice, and civic engagement for leading publications, podcasts and platforms including: Be Here Now Network, Kripalu, Mind and Life Institute, Omega Institute, SoundsTrue Foundation, Upaya Zen Center, Wanderlust, The Wellbeing Project, Yoga Alliance, and Yoga Journal.
Reggie currently resides in Maryland.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you. Can you tell us a bit about how you grew up?
I am the oldest of three children. I am the son of parents (Reginald Hubbard and Gwendette Scott Hubbard) that left the rural mountain South to find economic opportunity in the North. I grew up very active in my church and in my family life. My mother ran a daycare center for our neighborhood so in many ways that was my job too as the oldest child. I spent summers in the southwest Virginia mountains that are the roots of my parents and many generations prior to them, so I am equally connected to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Washington DC metro area.
When I ran for class Vice-President in the 9th grade, my voice cracked for the first time during my election speech and six or seven other times — one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Two things that resulted from that: 1) I now have a very smooth deep voice that has been useful in my work as an organizer and wisdom steward; and, 2) I ran for class President the next year and won the final three years of high school.
I was the first in my family to attend college, and I received a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University because I enjoyed how thinking deeply about life made me curious about how things worked individually and collectively.
These vignettes illustrate the values of service, faith, hard work, community, family, discipline, dreaming, determination and connection played a crucial role in my upbringing and my life going forth.
Is there a particular book that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?
I remember reading Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison in my later teenage years, and the way Ellison articulated the systemic toxicity that leads to the erasure and the shrinking of black male identity in majority white constructs really resonated with me. It set the stage for the ways I have engaged in with spaces where I was one of few minorities that maintain my integrity but also my safety.
Do you have a favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Do you have a story about how that was relevant in your life or your work?
My grandfather, Robert Hubbard, used to always tell me, “Reggie, you can’t blame people for being human.” I would get so upset with people when they acted in a way I thought they should know better not to. And this simple phrase is rooted in compassion, caring and love rather than critique and judgement.
My grandfather also told me when I was preparing to enter high school about a time when he and several of his classmates taking courses on the GI Bill after WWII — they all received high marks, he receiving some of the highest scores in his class. One of his officers simply did not believe him, even saying, “Ain’t no way a n***er could be that smart….”. When he told me this, it awakened such a passion to push past other people’s ignorance, but also to take advantage of opportunities before me that my ancestors could not have simply because of the color of their skin. The stories of my elders have given me the foundation for personal wisdom, but also community care.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
When I set up my teaching practice as a formal entity, I remember being in the bank signing paperwork to set up accounts and such. And at the bottom it said, “Date”, “Signature” and “Title”. I remember being excited at the chance to speak about my role in my terms, not under any other title other than the one I chose….
So I chose, “Founder and Chief Serving Officer”….. Of all the definitions one could offer for leadership, I think the truest most enduring leadership has a servant’s heart, emerges from a place of compassion and discernment, and remembers that we own nothing, but are simply stewards of the gifts we are given for the time that we have them.
In life we come across many people, some who inspire us, some who change us and some who make us better people. Is there a person or people who have helped you get to where you are today? Can you share a story?
I mentioned earlier in my remarks about my connection to my ancestors, known and unknown, who form the foundation of my faith, my spiritual practice and my gratitude for all that I’ve been able to accomplish in my life. The courage, cunning and curiosity to navigate systemic racism and STILL hold hope, raise a family and believe in the possibility of a better life for their children and grandchildren…. I use this reservoir of inspiration and fuel to creatively dismantle systems of oppression — systemic or self-imposed — so that we all can have more healing, freedom, connection and mutual thriving.
Blood relatives, philosophical or spiritual kindreds (James Baldwin, Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King, June Jordan, bell hooks, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thich Nhat Hanh, James Lawson, Howard Thurman — among many others), cultural connections (Jimi Hendrix, Prince) — anyone with a legacy of using art as a means of imagining a better future while current circumstances offered no evidence of any surety of that being so. It is my prayer and hope that my actions are rooted in an awareness of the sacrifices of prior generations that informs courageous action in present circumstances to create conditions for wild dreams to come true (beyond even what I can imagine). As an activist, keeping the ability to dream out loud alive and share that ability with others is a key to healing of any sort — individual, cultural or societal.
Ok, thank you for all that. Now let’s move to the main focus of our interview. The United States is currently facing a series of unprecedented crises. So many of us see the news and ask how we can help. We’d love to talk about the steps that each of us can take to help heal our county, in our own way. Which particular crisis would you like to discuss with us today? Why does that resonate with you so much?
I am humbled and delighted to connect with you all about this. The crisis I want to speak to is what I believe to be a root cause — deeper than the manifold manifestations of crisis in our present day. There are many thoughts about the Constitutional crisis, the societal crisis, the climate crisis, the racial crisis, the threat of pestilence as well as crises of grief, sadness, anger, frustration and a lack of hope.
Our most pressing crisis is a spiritual one. Our hearts have coarsened, starved from the nourishment of compassion and awareness of our shared suffering. We are out of practice in taking courageous stands on principle for the benefit of all, not just individual gain. We have chosen the immense power of our minds to focus on what separates us from one another rather than the many things we have in common. And, the human species has lost its awareness of and connection to Nature.
It resonates with me so much because of my recent journey in stroke recovery, where I had to dig very deep into my spiritual practice to summon the courage:
- to learn how to walk again;
- to reconnect with the outside world after months of healing in isolation;
- to step back into my teaching practice and share freely from my vulnerability;
This has taught me that authentically sharing from the depths of my healing journey — from the heart with love — is a superpower. Not only in the physical and emotional healing from the devastation of my stroke, but in creating connection in the heart space with like minded people dedicated to their own healing which can do nothing but have positive impacts in small and large ways.
This is likely a huge topic. But briefly, can you share your view on how this crisis evolved to the boiling point that it’s at now?
I don’t know if I can speak to specifically how the crisis evolved to where we are now, but cultural trends that have emphasized disconnection from others in ways other than digital and our seeming cultural inability/unwillingness to allow for emotions like grief, sadness, disappointment and frustration to be normalized and expressed as part of the human experience.
Our cultural drive to succeed and achieve with no regard for rest, has left us collectively exhausted.
We have never had an honest reckoning as a country about the devastating loss of life and innocence at the hands of the coronavirus pandemic.
Allow the following speech I gave in 2022 to address both question 6 and 7:
We are tired. We are hurting. We are scared.
We live in a world with ubiquitous smart devices, yet writ large we act more foolishly.
We live in a world where tempers are inflamed, yet the collective heart has grown colder.
We live in a world where by some measures we’ve never been more connected, yet have never felt more separated, divided or apart.
Quoting the sage Elder Marvin Gaye, whose poignant words from the epic album “What’s Going On” have never rung truer — we’ve got to find a way, to bring some love in here today. We’ve got to find a way, to bring some understanding here today.
We are tired. We are hurting. We are scared.
Think of the words that were once the provenance of SAT prep that have become commonplace — quarantine, pandemic, endemic, insurrection, impeachment, inflation…. Of course we feel this way.
Notice what I said though…. We are scared. The enormity of what we face requires us to come together to heal and shift perspective. Lama Rod Owens has talked about our collective suffering as a common ground from which we have the potential to organize and come together. We just need people to have the courage to speak on this and the fortitude to hold space for us to come together. We are in this together, whether we like it or not.
In a recent speech I gave in Bilbao, Spain talking about the connection between inner wellbeing and social transformation, I concluded by saying that I truly believe that even in this dark moment, I have never believed more in our collective potential, provided that we have the courage to consider new ways of being and to speak them into existence.
So allow me to practice what I preach…. as I consider the relevance and role of mindfulness and compassion in this moment, I say it has never been more important to embody these concepts and bring them into the world with a level of fierceness and dedication that meets the sense of cynicism, hopelessness and fear.
The medicine of increasing awareness of self, connection to the source of love and compassion that unites us all, softening the edges of cynicism to the fertile soil of imagination to dream of a new way of being and then leaning upon one another to build the new future we all yearn for…. This is the basis of my teaching and personal practices.
I believe we are seeing the failure of the societal myth of rugged individualism and the necessity of the awakening of our shared humanity and common destiny. Quoting the prophetic Elder Martin Luther King, Jr. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one, affects all directly.”
I believe our discontent and despair is the echo of a deeper calling for connection to self and one another. We are being called to consider something else, something new to us, but that is timeless and always in style. The tools of non-judgemental awareness and loving kindness — beginning with ourselves and extending that to one another — again, and again, and again.
When we embrace the sacred pause of mindfulness, we can see not only what’s going on, but begin to resource ourselves with wisdom and presence to form wise action. We are able to sit back and say, “Of course I feel this way, and it’s okay.” We are able to begin to discern what’s true — that we are not the only ones that feel the way we do.
And in our present moment what’s true is — we all are feeling the weight of the past several years and the fruition of centuries of delusion. What’s also true is that it’s within our power to come together, and catalyze a transformation from the paralysis of analysis into the spaciousness of the wise heart.
With these sacred timeless tools we can begin to transform our collective exhaustion into abiding rest, to alchemize our collective pain into wisdom and resilience, and allow our fear to mature into a courage devoted to our collective renaissance.
May it be so.
Ok. Here is the main question of our discussion. Can you please share your “5 Steps That Each Of Us Can Take To Proactively Help Heal Our Country”. Kindly share a story or example for each.
1 . Schedule Time for Radical, Spontaneous Joy — Blues music emerged from people experiencing extreme adversity still making time to sing and express themselves. Having the ability to experience joy, even in times of sorrow, expands our ability for curiosity, connection and community. Regular intentional connection to the mystery of life reminds us that a world exists beyond our sorrows. And having connection to both the joys and sorrows of life helps build equanimity — peace in all circumstances.
2 . Make Time to Care for yourself in Small Ways, always… Elder Audre Lorde reminds us that,”Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self- preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” You can’t give what you don’t have…. And by that I mean, if you are hoping for a world of peace, love and harmony, and are short stocked in your own cupboard, how can you provide that to others? Taking care of your mental and physical health as an afterthought does not end well. But when you begin to realize that the quality of your mental and physical health DIRECTLY impacts your quality of life, you realize that even small investments with intention and discipline yield far more than large investments haphazardly.
3 . REST IS PRODUCTIVE — to make a finer point on the above statement, whether we like it or not, the human body requires rest. So, in our culture which glorifies hustle, achievement, grinding and pushing to the limit — many people ignore or outright mock the necessity of rest and recovery. So, whether it be physiologically or psychologically — balancing the systems of the body in macrocosm and microcosm allows for the body to repair itself. A rested mind is more conditioned to dreaming and creative response than one is exhausted. It is impossible to have a fresh idea, from an exhausted mind.
4 . Embrace Creativity When Confronted with Resistance — Elder Nikki Giovanni once said, “Style has a profound meaning to Black Americans — if we are given rotten peaches, we will make cobblers; if given scraps, we will make quilts; take away our drums, and we will clap our hands, we prove the human spirit will prevail we will take what we have to make what we need.” — I mention this because our current environment has seen a renaissance in the tattered frock of telling others what they cannot do under the guise of cultural purity/erasure. But we do not EVER have to concede the conditions or thoughts of another as the end to whatever story we are trying to write.
5 . We are all in this together, whether we like it or not — the sooner we consistently practice awareness of and connection to the bond we all share in this human experience — the sooner we will begin to build the muscle memory of community. All of the problems we face — we have one another in common. All of us experience grief and loss. All of us experience disappointment and frustration. All of us want safety, security and a chance for success. Some of us know that we are only as strong as our most vulnerable, and we have to remind those of us who have forgotten this by creating a vision so compelling they cannot help but join us…. Or create critical mass so that our sheer numbers drown out a vision not rooted in our mutual thriving and well-being.
It’s very nice to suggest ideas, but what can we do to make these ideas a reality? What specific steps can you suggest to make these ideas actually happen? Are there things that the community can do to help you promote these ideas?
Find one of the five points I mentioned above that most resonates with you, and commit to doing it every day for a month. And when you commit to practicing this precept, do something that makes it fun. None of us will ever do anything that feels forced, contrived or boring. But taking the time and patience to skill build as opposed to complaining about things not happening fast enough is a game changer. Small changes over time yield sustainable transformation.
We are going through a rough period now. Are you optimistic that this issue can eventually be resolved? Can you explain?
If it can be said this way, while having a stroke wasn’t on my 2024 vision board — it has been the most beautifully transformative experience of my life thus far. The reason I am optimistic that this issue can be resolved is because I have learned first hand that rough periods aren’t the end of the story. In my experience, the rough periods of a story are where a plot twist can occur, or the introduction of a new character or characteristic that would not have been born in any circumstances other than under adversity.
So long as we have health, breath, focus and a will to heal — a rough period is merely a moment in time where we forge deeper connection to life and one another to harvest wisdom and discernment. My ancestors endured being enslaved and the horrors of legalized segregation to build a family legacy that has led to all I have accomplished in my life professionally, personally and spiritually. I found a deeper connection to my yoga and meditation practice from being in the liminal space between injury and recovery. I found deeply held pathologies, lodged in the recesses of my subconscious, that I could lovingly address guided by the compassion I had to practice to begin seeing my stroke as a teacher.
When we begin to ask ourselves, what is the rough period asking us to pay attention to — we can begin to shift our perspective and see something other than misery, doom and gloom.
If you could tell other young people one thing about why they should consider making a positive impact on our environment or society, like you, what would you tell them?
Because we seem as a society to be addicted to cynicism and pessimism, we underestimate the cumulative impact of positive thoughts. And again, I learned this in the context of my stroke recovery. As I sat laying in my stroke recovery bed in South Carolina, unable to walk without help from others and hundreds of miles away from home, I realized that my mindset was a key aspect of my recovery. And in the midst of all of the hard news I was receiving in the aftermath of the stroke, I knew that I had to hold space for ANY positivity and build from there.
So from day 1 of my stroke recovery (day zero being the day of the stroke), I adopted the following frame — The stroke was my new teacher, and as such, I sought to interpret my life in the context of HOW was this happening for me, as opposed to WHY was this happening to me.
This simple, foundational frame allowed me to stay steady and patient in the months of intense physical therapy, acupuncture, medication and radical diet shift that took place. I began to see the ‘limits’ imposed me by the stroke as invitations to deeper discipline and higher wisdom. I learned how to:
- nourish my nervous system (with low light and pleasing sound);
- feed my body to stimulate neurogenesis;
- share from my heart to inspire others to take their health more seriously;
- literally put one foot in front of the other, and stack small victories into the bankable currency for transformation.
I would encourage people to think about what might emerge if they invested their positive thoughts and energy into something as opposed to infusing cynicism into a situation and suffocating all possibility for positivity.
How can our readers follow you online?
IG: @oreggieglobal
IG: @activepeaceyoga
TedX São Paulo: The Power of a Purposeful Pause
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@reggieglobal/videos
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success on your great work!
Political Strategist Reggie Hubbard On 5 Steps That Each Of Us Can Take To Proactively Help Heal… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.