Billy Rosenbeck
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
Billy Rosenbeck, owner of The Mellow Elephant Meditation, spent World Meditation Day last spring road tripping across the region to lead 10 different mediations in 10 different locations, and now a documentary capturing this effort is available to the public.
Rosenbeck told Reminder Publishing at one point in his life, he wasn’t even sure if meditation was for him, but it turned out to become his life’s passion and something that can be used by anyone, regardless of age or background, and that is the message he hopes people can take away from the new documentary.
“It’s always been the idea that, because I didn’t think meditation was for someone like me, it kind of qualified me to teach people who don’t think meditation is for them, and so that is kind of the whole idea. Meditation in places you wouldn’t expect to find it for people who don’t think meditation is for them, and I think that’s what I’m particularly good at communicating,” explained Rosenbeck.
“MELLOW: A Meditation Road Trip” was released on Feb. 26 and can be viewed through themellowelephant.com/firm or on YouTube via The Mellow Elephant page. Rosenbeck said that the documentary proves that meditation can work anywhere because meditation works everywhere — even in places you wouldn’t expect to find it, even for people who might not think meditation is for them.
During the one-day trip, cameras followed Rosenbeck across Western Massachusetts and briefly in northern Connecticut, where he visited police and fire stations, prisons, schools, senior centers and community spaces. Rosenbeck said he already had prior relationships with some of these spaces because he already led meditation sessions with the people there, but overall, the day was about exposing more people from all walks of life to the practice and its offerings.
“I loved the work I did at the yoga studio, but I found the space kind of attracts a certain type of person who’s already interested,” he said. “I always thought of it like bringing it to the street level.”
Easthampton Mental Health and Wellness Coordinator Emma Riley was featured in the documentary during Rosenbeck’s visit to the Easthampton Public Safety Complex for a session with members of the city’s Police and Fire departments. Riley explained in the documentary that she had initial skepticism in bringing Rosenbeck in for a meditation session, in part because of the stereotypes associated with meditation. She said that the common assumption for many, especially in the line of work of a first responder, is that the practice is too closely associated with the “hippie” lifestyle and is not particularly a “macho” way of self help.
This perception is exactly what has helped motivate Rosenbeck in getting the message out there, especially as someone who once had those same feelings before he finally tried the practice as a way to help his mental health. He also said that as a teacher and a brother to two nurses, the pandemic caused much burnout to everyone, but especially those on the front line, which is why much of his work involves connecting first responders with meditation.
Hampshire County Jail and House of Corrections Education Director Ann Marie Basile said in the documentary that holistic healing is a major benefit of meditation, especially for the people she works with. She shared that meditation can help change people’s mindsets.
“To see the guys be some comfortable in Billy’s class, to actually shut their eyes and totally relax, says a lot about what Billy offers them,” said Basile. “It gives me chills that they are comfortable doing that, and it gives them a sense of walking out that space and having less stress on them.”
Rosenbeck added, “Those were two places between honestly, inmates, and police and fire, where I was like, ‘if it’s working for these guys, it has to work for everyone.’ There’s no reason it wouldn’t work in other places.”
Rosenbeck has worked with the Hampshire County Jail for about three years now through regularly scheduled sessions with inmates. He has also collaborated with Easthampton first responders for a couple years and hopes to continue connecting with similar populations in the future.
As part of the documentary experience, Rosenbeck visited his alma mater Minnechaug Regional High School to lead a session with about 40 student athletes. Overall, Rosenbeck called the day a great success, and he feels like the documentary captures him accomplishing the goal of sharing the practice with people from all walks of life.
“The whole idea was like, no yoga studios, no monasteries, no religious affiliation or anything like that. Just real people doing real work in the course of their real day,” said Rosenbeck. “People were so receptive and gracious, the host sites. Organizing, getting people there, promoting it. It was weird because all these places were just a small sample of something bigger. This is ultimately what it came out to be kind of like a love letter to Western Mass., where I’m from, and a thank you to all the people who are willing to give it a shot.”
He added that World Meditation Day was the perfect way to connect with these different groups and bring a session to them. He said the important takeaway should be how one can use this in life consistently.
“There’s no better day to meditate than any other day, right? And for me the point of the practice isn’t what happens through any one particular meditation, it’s about the consistency of it, like brushing your teeth. If you brush your teeth once a month, that’s probably better than nothing, but you’re probably not going to get much of the benefit. The value of it comes in consistency,” added Rosenbeck.
Rosenbeck said that meditation is “an act of resistance against the speed of the world we’re in, but also a necessary skill for living in the modern world.”
“What I really like about it as an approach is being proactive and not reactive. I think I was lucky enough to get out ahead of larger issues that can come down the line, and so in the same way that somebody goes to the gym to bring a healthy body with them into the world, that’s kind of the idea with what meditation is,” Rosenbeck said.
Rosenbeck shouted out Directors of Photography Aiden McDonald and Kayla Ebner from Bold Heart Media, editors of the project, for their help putting the documentary together. He said that sharing this experience in the documentary format was the best way to promote his message.
“A documentary to me — it ended up being 45 minutes. Going into it had nerves about like, is this too long? But at the same time, I’m just never going to be one of those people who puts up a 30-second reel just being like, ‘hey, here are five meditation hacks for you to use today,’” he said.
Rosenbeck hopes the documentary reaches audiences all over the region and can serve as a deeper look into meditation, its benefits and how the practice is something anyone can try to utilize in their lives.
“Whether you are the prisoner or the police officer. Whether you’re the student or the teacher. Whether you’re young or in a senior center. The slings and arrows of daily life are sort of the same for all of us, and so the reason why I think this practice works is because it touches that sort of commonplace in us that is so often forgotten,” said Rosenbeck. “Over the course of the day, I was teaching essentially the same meditation all day long. It’s not like I’m adapting one for the prison and one for the senior center. It’s one thing that cuts to the core of who we are. It cuts into that space of being. Not what we do, but who we are.”
