Meditation can help ground you when the outside world feels unsafe
BY KHRYSTYNA BURLAK, IMAGE BY TRUE CREATIVES
In a society that often feels hostile to queer lives, meditation has become an essential tool for many lesbians, bisexual women, transgender people and non-binary people to deal with daily stress, heal identity-based trauma and foster group support.
Although meditation is now popular due to apps and influencers, the significance of meditation for LGBTQIA+ communities reflects a deeper reality: higher rates of anxiety, depression and chronic stress caused by discrimination, exclusion and what researchers refer to as “minority stress”.
A history shaped by reclamation
Step back in history, and many LGBTQIA+ people were pushed out by society from religious and spiritual spaces, where their identities were labelled as sinful or invalid. This forced distance from traditional spirituality left a vacuum – and meditation became one way queer people reclaimed inner life without judgment.
Meditation groups and retreats for the queer-identified and LGBTQIA+ sanghas that supported their identities began popping up as early as the 1980s and 1990s. In San Francisco, the San Francisco Zen Centre’s Queer Dharma formed as a monthly sangha centring LGBTQIA+ practitioners. At the same time, the East Bay Meditation Centre’s Alphabet Sangha created a regular Vipassana-based practice that openly addressed trauma, racism, gender identity, and sexuality.
These days, organisations like LGBTQIA+-specific meditation groups and Queer Mindfulness explicitly centre lived queer experience, realising that general mindfulness spaces frequently overlook the realities of trauma and discrimination.
Healing stress through meditation
More and more often, researchers come to the same conclusion that queer communities have been saying all along.
A 2024 study in the Mindfulness journal showed that special mindfulness programs for sexual minorities really helped lesbian and bisexual people deal with stress and better control their feelings.
Meditation’s resurgence in queer communities reflects today’s social climate. As LGBTQIA+ people face anxiety, minority stress and harassment, many turn to social media for emotional regulation. Chronic stress along with digital exposure has turned meditation into a collective, community practice – changing mindfulness from a personal getaway into a public means of survival for the queer community.
Identity, self-acceptance and emotional clarity
Meditation’s impact extends beyond stress reduction. For many queer people, it becomes a method of self-recognition – a quiet space where identity can be explored without external pressure.
Heather Zayde (she/her), a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, explains: “Being fully and non-judgmentally present with our emotions and feelings can help us understand what we like and don’t like, what we relate to, what we’re attracted to, and the non-judgmental aspect can help us [let go of] that which we feel we should be.”
For trans and non-binary individuals, it’s essential to listen inward. Meditation can help ground you when the outside world feels unsafe.
Self-love and social media
In mainstream wellness, meditation is a means to achieve personal optimisation. In contrast, in queer communities, it is a collective practice that affirms identity and is marked by a common experience of marginalisation. Under this light, meditation goes from being self-care to a practice of collective resilience and survival.
What makes queer meditation culture stand out is its communal interest. Such practices, in terms of personal self-optimisation, instead revolve around the concepts of mutual care, chosen family, and healing together. Group meditation environments – whether online or offline – serve as silent forms of resistance, reminding those involved that in a system that frequently refuses these things to the queer community, rest and self-connection are still political.
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