THE EVOLUTION REVOLUTION
Hi. The earth continues to spin, the light continues to enter the day, the tides continue to crash into the shores, we made it to here and what miracles to behold in this impermanence.
A SPELL:
I am creating new opportunities for myself, in contrast to experiences serving as indicators for change. I am learning new ways to stay engaged and temper this rage by intentionally reaching beyond my patterned responses, into moments of peace. I slow down and just notice it. I am expanding my capacity for grief, believing my capacity for joy grows every time I honor the day’s sorrows. I am letting go of so much that does not serve me, watching so much that does pour in and fill the voids. I am trusting teachers only if they tell me to trust myself. I exist in a web of connection that does not hoard power or resources and openly shares and exchanges information. I cocreate dyads of right relationship, emotional coregulation, and somatic abolitionism. I am wisely budgeting my time, money, energy, & food, creating containers of devotion to share with others. I am curiously present in meeting each of the parts, sensations, and emotions that arise within me, supported by deep breathing. I am encouraged there is still a place within each of us that hasn’t been wounded. I know everything is a practice so I remain gentle with myself when the reps mostly just look like getting back on the path again and again. I divest from addictive habits that keep me from myself. I stay connected to my truest self and use my body as a tool to maintain that connection. I am loving awareness. I am. I am. I am.
A PRACTICE:
Place your right hand on your left upper arm, nearing your shoulder. Place your left hand on your right upper arm, nearing your shoulder. Take one deep breath in and then out, through your nose. If you have a little longer, take five breaths like this. Or ten. Or however many you can squeeze into this moment and feel okay enough. If this feels too hard, find a sprig of rosemary on a walk outside and rub it in your hands and smell it. You could listen to music or not.
SOME THINGS:
I’m in my sixth + week of somatic therapy that is blowing my mind. Over ten years ago, the truest education I received from massage school was when I came to understand how activating the parasympathetic nervous system through calm and relax can disengage our sympathetic nervous system responses (fight, flight, fawn) by working hands on, with living bodies in clinic. This feels like a loop of the same lesson where I reorient back to the body, staying in it a bit longer each round. Everything is a practice.
2. seeking woven fabrics for scrap quilts — got an untouched fabric pile or maybe some old sheets, blankets, curtains, table cloths, cloth napkins or dish towels, etc you’re looking to rehome? ***will exchange food for fabric***
nyt article from a friend on how “losing my eyesight made me see more clearly”
a song that helps give perspective: “stop thinking” by pea sized
“the wisdom of trauma” movie from Dr. Gabor Mate; pain as a doorway to healing & trauma as the root of all addiction
another great book “The Body Keeps the Score” by Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk
the choe show : artist David Choe talks openly with other artists while he paints their portraits and reconciles his own relationship to a general theme of parenting and sex addiction. vulnerable and beautiful.
I am forever inspired by the quilters of Gee’s Bend
I dedicate this issue of ALICE, which took many days of sitting with my anger and trying to write beyond it, to Resmaa Menakem. Resmaa is a clinical therapist, creating a new vernacular and sharing science around embodiment & healing through the body, identifying the history and trauma of race in America. Resmaa gifted the public with the terms “white body supremacy” and “somatic abolitionism” that sit with me (you can hear more about here). Some grounding exercises from his book, “My Grandmother’s Hands”.
// LOVE & RAGE & SOMATIC ABOLITIONISM // I LOVE YOU KEEP GOING