This has been a week for the history books! I have been processing previous events and I am still processing! While trying to process, I picked up the book My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem. I saw that it was on sale on Audible and decided to download it too! This is a timely read! In this book, the author, Resmaa explains how trauma is in the body and not just in the thinking part of our brain. "The body is where we fear, hope, and react; where we constrict and release; and where we reflexively fight, flee, or freeze." (pg. 5). He goes on to say that "Sometimes trauma is a collective experience..." (pg. 13). I don't know about you, but this most recent election may fall in this category. This election had a profound effect on our county as a whole: Black, White, and all shades in between! The book also explains how trauma can manipulate DNA and be passed down to the next generation. Menakem discusses three types of trauma responses: trauma ghosting (the body's recurrent or pervasive sense that danger is just around the corner), reflexive trauma (traumatic retention (trauma passed down over generations within a particular group), and a type of trauma that is seen in America's law enforcement officers (pgs. 8-9)
The author also leads the reader into body activities so that trauma in our bodies can be released. If you try to skip, the body activities, the author calls you out and tells you to go back and do the exercises.(LOL!) If you are reading the book at a place where you cannot stop to do the exercises, he encourages you to put the book down until you can make space to do the activities!
Good News!
Just as trauma can be passed down from generation to generation so can resiliency. Just as our bodies are designed to heal itself, "resilience is built into the very cells of our bodies. It's in us to cope, overcome, and succeed! Resilience is both intrinsic and learned (pg. 50). "Resilience can be built and strengthened, both individually and collectively. (pg. 51). Healing our traumatic experiences is possible; we just have to put ourselves in a position to make this healing possible!
The human body is amazing! The connection between mental health and physical well-being is profound! As I was reading, I thought several times about the book, The Garden Within by Dr. Anita Phillips. If you have not read this book, I highly recommend it. This season we are in is important and we need to be ready spiritually, mentally, and physically!
We have read, watched movies and documentaries, and visited museums regarding the trauma African Americans have undergone through Slavery, Reconstruction, and the Civil Rights Movement. We have witnessed on social media the horrendous treatment of African Americans in recent times. Despite all of this we have forged ahead and created lives for ourselves.
The poet Maya Angelou put it perfectly, in her poem "Still I Rise":
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave us,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Copyright Credit: Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise" from And Still I Rise: A Book of Poems. Copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou. Used by permission of Random House, an imprint and division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.
Source: The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994)
Sis, you always enlighten us with your love and study of literature and its relevance as a healing force in our lives. Thank you for doing your part, teaching us how to enrich our lives with words and stories. The audience that's assigned to you is all the more blessed! Here's to hope, resilience, and purposeful intention! We know how to survive, strive, and ultimately thrive!