BlackFULLness prioritizes culturally relevant mindfulness for stress reduction, healing justice

OAKLAND, Calif. -- You're just one download away from getting and keeping your mind right. With customized guidance from the BlackFULLness App, mindfulness and stress relief can happen in under 15 minutes each day.

"BlackFULLness is a culturally relevant mindfulness app designed for and by Black folks with the Black experience in mind," explained co-founder and CEO Sonia Russell. "We are focused, not exclusionary, we think everybody needs what we got."

Created in 2020 by wellness leaders Sonia Russell and David Lee Walker, Jr., the BlackFULLness app offers dozens of mindfulness practices, acting as a conduit for community connection and healing.

"It was 2020, and it was a time of multiple pandemics where the stress was high," described co-founder and CSO David Lee Walker, Jr. "So, to be presented with an opportunity as a solution to expanding folk into stress reduction, specifically Black folk because there were a lot of offenses against Black folk during this time. This app was an opportunity for us to bring something to life."

Russell and Lee Walker, Jr. believe that identifying, establishing, and maintaining consistent mindfulness practices can heal minds, bodies, and souls. The app features a range of guided audio practices that encourage deep breathing, grounding, joy, and more.

"We have an exercise called 'I CAN Breathe,' oftentimes we keep hearing, 'I can't breathe,'" said Lee Walker, Jr. "We're reminding Black folk that we can breathe."

Russell adds, "And in fact, we breathe in honor of those folks we have lost whose breath was taken away."

The app aims to decolonize, demystify, and design mindfulness sessions by exploring what mindfulness is, isn't, and what it can be. It's all about making mindfulness fun, intuitive, and informed by real life experiences.

For more information about the BlackFULLness app, visit here.

To invest and support BlackFULLness, go here.

Be sure to follow @theblackfullness on Instagram for the latest updates.