Tagged With "Surviving Spirit Newsletter April"
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Writing as Medicine for survivors of sexual abuse and assault
Announcing three Spring 2020 online (audio only) writing circles for survivors of sexual abuse and assault. Led by Donna Jenson, author of, Healing My Life from Incest to Joy . Circle 1: Saturdays 10:00am to 12:00pm March 7, 21, April 4, 18, May 9 Circle 2: Sundays 4:00 to 6:00pm March 8, 22, April 5, 19, May 10 Circle 3: Wednesdays 5:00pm to 7:00pm March 11, 25, April 8, 22, May 6 For more information go to: https://www.timetotell.org/online-writing-circles
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Re: Preparing and Advocating for Medical Care as a Trauma Survivor
Excellent article. And oh-so-true. I know when I was searching for a new doctor, I specifically started inquiring if the physician took a holistic approach to healing as I did not want someone who simply wanted to throw a pill at my symptoms in order to make them go away. After all, masking the symptoms was something I had experienced for over twenty-five years as I tried to wrestle my panic attacks. Once I started respecting my needs on a holistic level, that's when true healing and symptom...
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Re: Self-Care, Self-Compassion slideset.pdf
CIs: thanks so much for your gracious sentiments! Please know how profoundly appreciative I am of your on-going sharing of your heart, mind, and spirit! And thank you for teaching me about the cool tv stand you can embed images in!
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Re: Cancer as a survivor
Dear Cissy, Kind of stunned right now and not sure what to say...but you are in my thoughts and prayers....and your fighting spirit will help you through this...keep questioning and challenging the 'experts', and REST to allow for healing. The connection of trauma and abuse to cancer is huge...it saddens and sickens me that most of the medical world still does not address this simple fact. Take care, Michael
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The Healing Place Podcast: Dr. Jamie Marich - Trauma & the 12 Steps; Addiction Recovery; & Utilizing Complimentary Healing Tools
Teri Wellbrock sits down with Dr. Jamie Marich who describes herself as a facilitator of transformative experiences. A clinical trauma specialist, expressive artist, writer, yogini, performer, short filmmaker, Reiki master, and recovery advocate, she unites all of these elements in her mission to inspire healing in others.
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Beyond the Buzzwords: What Does Trauma-Informed Care Truly Mean? [madinamerica.com]
By Rachel Levy, Mad in America, May 20, 2020 On March 4, 2020, Rethinking Psychiatry (in Portland, Oregon) met for our monthly meeting. The topic was “Beyond the Buzzwords: What Does Trauma-informed Care Really Mean?” This subject turned out to be even more relevant, as we are now facing a global pandemic that is causing massive trauma. This was to be our last in-person meeting for the foreseeable future. We are continuing to meet online. Both our April and May meetings were held via Zoom...
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New YouTube Playlist with All of ACEs Connection's Elaine Miller-Karas Videos
It has been an honor to collaborate with the wonderful and wise Elaine Miller-Karas on 5 online events since I started working at ACEs Connection a year ago. The recordings of these events are our most popular videos on YouTube, with a combined total of over a thousand views. I have now compiled them into a single playlist on our YouTube Channel. >>Click here to visit the playlist<< The videos include: 1. Building Resilient Communities - August 8, 2019 2. The Human Impact of...
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Mental Health Awareness: When Suffering Is Not an Illness
When I was an adolescent and young adult, I struggled with depression. As I reflect back on that time, so much of what I was experiencing was deeply tied to coming to terms with my sexuality. Growing up in the 1980’s in a relatively conservative town, I was closeted (even to myself) until I was a young adult. The pain and fear of being different, of not belonging, of being judged or rejected for who I was more than my adolescent brain could wrap its conscious head around.
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter June 2020
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us. Thanks! Michael. The Surviving Spirit Newsletter June 2020 http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-06-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_June_2020.pdf Newsletter Contents : 1] I desperately miss human touch. Science may explain why. By...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter July 2020
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us. FYI - The Surviving Spirit newsletter has been going out for many years. The idea behind the newsletter is to share news, resources and helpful information that could help any and all who have been impacted by the concerns of trauma, abuse or...
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40 Journal Prompts for Spiritual Growth and Insight (wakeup-world.com)
Do you keep a journal? Millions of people worldwide do, whether it’s a specially chosen, precious notebook of some kind, or simply a collection of random thoughts in a daily notepad. People journal for all kinds of reasons, from finding themselves to increasing business productivity, but recent research has revealed a host of mental health and wellness benefits to journaling too – it really does seem to be useful and enjoyable thing to do, for so many reasons. Creating time for spiritual...
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The Healing Place Podcast Interview
Hi Folks, I had the honor of appearing on Teri Wellbrock's, The Healing Place Podcast a few weeks ago. Teri is a gracious host and we had a lot of fun with this show, despite the seriousness of some of the topics. Who doesn't like to chat about the joys of dissociation? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMv9ZMAw_t4 A deep, yet smile-filled conversation with Michael Skinner, musician and trauma advocate. Please join us as we sit down to discuss: * his role as a musician and the importance of...
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Surviving Spirit Newsletter August 2020
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-08-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_August_2020.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us, Thanks! Michael.
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Staying Strong During Lockdown Means Reaching Out - And Working Your Mind, Too [npr.org]
By April Fulton, National Public Radio, August 18, 2020 It can be tempting, as the pandemic wears on, to shut down — to escape into TV binging, social media and other inadequate ways of blocking out the stress and fears of illness or economic disaster . Dr. Maryland Pao, the clinical director of the National Institutes of Mental Health Intramural Research Program and a psychiatrist who regularly sees children with life-threatening illnesses, says she's seen striking similarities between the...
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Surviving Spirit Newsletter August 2020
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-08-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_August_2020.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us, Thanks! Michael.
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Re: Surviving Spirit Newsletter August 2020
I appreciate having all these great resources in one place. Thanks!
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Freedom From Trauma – Powerful & Profound Practices To Heal Trauma & Consciously Create The Body, Mind, Spirit You Truly Desire
We are living in complicated and stressful times. What needs to be healed seems more palpable than ever. It feels like the call to release what no longer serves has never been louder and we are feeling that tug at our core. While the founder of The League of Extraordinary People, Alfred White, has been gaining more clarity everyday on this, he was invited to be part of an event, more like a movement, to help others find freedom from what has been holding them back. It is a free, online...
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Your Body is Sacred: 3 Ways to Practice Embodied Spirituality (wakeup-world.com)
What is Embodied Spirituality? Embodied spirituality refers to a lived experience of spirituality that is grounded in the body. When we embrace embodied spirituality, we come out of our minds and back into our bodies : into that which is visceral, instinctual, and deeply felt through the senses. We see that the body isn’t just a temple of the Divine, but a living expression of Spirit. As such, the body becomes a source of tremendous wisdom and insight: a doorway to the present moment. Not...
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Surviving Spirit Newsletter October 2020
Hi Folks, The October edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-10-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_October_2020.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us, Thanks! Michael. Newsletter Contents : 1] Beauty 2 The Streetz: This woman is beautifying Skid Row one makeover at a time by Alicia Lee 2]...
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Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) Pod cast 10-22-20
Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) Pod cast https://www.blogtalkradio.com/naasca/2020/10/22/stop-child-abuse-now-scan--2513 "Tonight's special guest is Michael Skinner , a returning NAASCA family member from New Hampshire. Michael is an award-winning advocate survivor. Michael's non-profit, ' The Surviving Spirit ', offers a monthly newsletter addressing the issues of trauma, abuse and mental health concerns, public speaking and his music. He notes that these cover a wide variety of issues."We want...
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Resilience in the Time of COVID -19 [publichealthpost.org]
By Hyeouk Chris Hahm, Kirsten Fleming, and Cindy H. Liu on November 2, 2020 for the Public Health Post Millennials and Generation Z will comprise larger and larger percentages of the workforce in the coming years. Thus, societal functioning will depend on how they emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. As the world continues to struggle with Covid-19, the mental health of young adults has been extremely important. With the early months of the pandemic leading to the rapid closure of schools and...
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The Healing Place Podcast: Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum - Functional Medicine Coaching; Positive Psychology, & Alternative Medicine
A self-professed lifelong learner, Dr. Scheinbaum’s life’s work has been centered around education innovation since the very beginning. She began her career in 1972, teaching students with learning disabilities. Her drive to incorporate a more holistic perspective into her work led her to earn a PhD in clinical psychology at Fielding Graduate University, where she specialized in positive psychology, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mind-body medicine.
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What Really Makes Us Resilient? [Harvard Business Review]
Eleven years ago my friend Sally was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, the degenerative motor-neuron disease which gradually renders you unable to move, to eat, to talk, and in the end to breathe. She had just turned 40, two kids, happily married to a prince of a guy, so much to look forward to, for all of them. And then this horrible suffering. This “very slow car crash” was her husband’s description and I can’t get that image out of my head. The wreckage, the...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter November 2020
Hi Folks, The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php or PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2020-11-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_November_2020.pdf To sign up for an e-mail copy, please write to me @ mikeskinner@comcast.net or sign up @ Website via Contact Us. Thank you & take care, Michael. Newsletter Contents : 1] People Constantly Underestimate How Much They Benefit From Being Kind...
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Art and Trauma: Creativity As a Resiliency & Healing Factor
Art and Trauma: Creativity As a Resiliency & Healing Factor I have long believed that all of the creative arts are healing. I was drawn to music because it made me feel good, first just listening, then learning to play the drums and then performing in rock bands. Later in life, learning the guitar and singing along with songwriting. Sadly, trauma disconnects so many of us from our creative outlets...finding the ways to reconnect with our creative selves goes a long ways in healing the...
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Art and Trauma: Creativity As a Resiliency & Healing Factor
Art and Trauma: Creativity As a Resiliency & Healing Factor I have long believed that all of the creative arts are healing. I was drawn to music because it made me feel good, first just listening, then learning to play the drums and then performing in rock bands. Later in life, learning the guitar and singing along with songwriting. Sadly, trauma disconnects so many of us from our creative outlets...finding the ways to reconnect with our creative selves goes a long ways in healing the...
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The Connection Between Emotional Flashbacks and the Inner Critic
It was Pete Walker, an M.A. in psychoanalysis, who first coined the phrase emotional flashback to describe the gut-wrenching experience of reliving the helplessness and dissociation caused by trauma. In his book, Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving , Walker describes many aspects of emotional flashbacks and how the inner critic holds people hostage. I shall be referencing this book throughout this work. In this piece, we shall examine how the inner critic and toxic shame create the...
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Virtual Self-Care/Stress-Management Session for the Community
Hi Everyone, I just joined this incredible ACEs network. Pleasure to connect with you. I'm the Director of Outreach & Engagement at IsraAID, a humanitarian aid NGO. We respond to humanitarian crises worldwide, incl. refugee crises, natural disasters, and health epidemics like COVID19, and previously ebola. One of our key areas of expertise when we respond to crises is MHPSS. Since the onset of COVID19, we have designed a virtual stress-management/self-care session for professionals, and...
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Healthcare providers learn skills to prevent burnout, build resilience
It’s an enormous understatement to say that healthcare workers today are suffering. Every day, you hear interviews with nurses, physicians, social workers, and others in healthcare saying they’re pushed to the breaking point and beyond. But, by using skills taught in the Community Resiliency Mode l (CRM), even people under severe stress can weather the onslaught, do their work, and get along with colleagues. CRM is an evidence-based training program that’s being used by millions of people in...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter December 2020
Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The Surviving Spirit Newsletter December 2020 Hi Folks, Hoping this finds you well and safe. Wow, coming to the end of a very challenging year...I do hope that 2021 brings forth healing and hope for all of us. Life can be hard, a pandemic...
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Resilience against Holiday Triggers of Trauma
Trauma. “A widespread, harmful and costly public health problem. It occurs as a result of violence, abuse, neglect, loss, disaster, war and other emotionally harmful experiences. Trauma has no boundaries with regard to age, gender, socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, geography or sexual orientation.” To say that COVID-19 has in some way been a traumatic experience for everyone would be an understatement. It has had far reaching effects on individual health and well-being and economic...
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RUMBLE - The Indians Who Rocked the World - Independent Lens
Hey folks, A powerful music documentary. Well worth watching to learn the back story on some great musicians and music. I saw this a few years ago, glad I watched it again. Talk about overcoming trauma, racism and stigma....these folks exemplify the courage and the perseverance of the human spirit. Take care, Michael. - RUMBLE | The Indians Who Rocked the World | Independent Lens | PBS - https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/rumble/
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Mindfulness: Panacea or Hucksterism?
Psychology and spirituality are viewed as separate disciplines, but they shouldn't be. Healing is grounded in the place where they meet.
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter January 2021
Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The Surviving Spirit Newsletter January 2021 “ May 2021 bring everyone Joy - Peace - Hope - Love - Good Health - Renewed Faith - Inclusiveness - Empathy - Understanding - Kindness - Acceptance - in a Safer World. May we spend more time &...
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Sending Love Vibrations to Lost Loved Ones (wakeup-world.com)
When we lose a loved one, we feel the helplessness and heart-wrenching tugs of grief. We are suddenly left alone. For years, the person at our side, a parent, grandparent, sibling, friend, suddenly cease to exist. The void left in one’s life is too wide to stitch. We become a shadow of our former self. Continuing life unfurls as a morbid chore. In recent months many people have lost loved ones in the cruellest of circumstances. Visitors were not permitted at bedsides or at gravesides. But I...
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Resilience
This is a blog I posted a few years ago which I hope might be helpful to others, I have learned so much on my journey of healing childhood wounds and am so happy to see resources like this group available to help others. 15/11/2017 “If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world“ – Sydney Banks. While there are many words to describe resilience such as spirit, strength, toughness, buoyancy, no one truly understands just how many...
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List of Books, Therapies & Resources for Healing Chronic Illness and Other Effects of Trauma (Free Downloadable PDF)
These are the books, therapies and resources I wish I'd known about when I was a family doctor and when I first started getting sick with what would turn out to be a disabling chronic illness. This compilation includes the most helpful resources I’ve found over the past 20 years of learning about the science of adversity, why it's not psychological and how to heal the effects of trauma.
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The Journey of Healing – De-stigmatizing the Discussion of Trauma and New Related Think Round Exhibition
t is all too common to be closed off when discussing the worst experiences we have faced in life. Feeling scared, embarrassed, emotional, or that no one else can understand are all-natural reactions when approaching the difficult discussion of trauma.
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Hope, Healing & Help - The Surviving Spirit Newsletter February 2021
“ Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch.” - Judy Blume Hope, healing & help for trauma, abuse & mental health. The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php & here's the PDF - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/pdfs/2021-02-The_Surviving_Spirit_Newsletter_February_2021.pdf “ Our brains developed along with music and singing as a survival mechanism.” - Tania De Jong To sign up for...
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"How to talk policy and influence people": a Law and Justice interview with Dr Stephen Porges
In this "How to talk policy and influence people" interview with Dr Stephen Porges, the developer of polyvagal theory, we discuss the vagus nerve, the evolutionary development of the mammalian autonomic nervous system and the human social engagement system. We discuss the importance of a felt sense of safety in the presence of other people, which starts with our experiences with our primary care-giver in infancy. We talk about common symptoms due to our bodies being in a chronic state of...
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When gratitude and cooperation between friends affect inter-brain connectivity for EEG [ncbi.nim.nih.gov]
By Michela Balconi, Giulia Fronda, and Maria Elide Vanutelli, BMC Neuroscience, April, 7, 2020 Abstract Background Recently several studies in the psychological and social field have investigated the social function of gift exchange as a useful way for the consolidation of interpersonal and social relationships and the implementation of prosocial behaviors. Specifically, the present research wanted to explore if gift exchange, increased emotional sharing, gratitude and interpersonal...
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The Surviving Spirit Newsletter March 2021
Healing the Heart Through the Creative Arts, Education & Advocacy Hope, Healing & Help for Trauma, Abuse & Mental Health “ Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars”. Kahlil Gibran The latest edition of the Surviving Spirit Newsletter is posted at the website - http://newsletters.survivingspirit.com/index.php or here's the PDF -...
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Re: Learn How to Truly Forgive – and Truly Heal (wakeup-world.com)
This is a sad statement and a false statement for many of us who have found Joy, Peace and Love without forgiving our perpetrators. - "When we refuse to forgive, we put ourselves in a prison cell of our own making. We rob ourselves of true joy." This writer did not walk in my shoes and has no comprehension of what I and others have suffered and endured at the hands of others. For those who want to forgive, great...and for those of us who don't want to, great. There are some evils in the...
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Thirty Ways to Self-Care!
Hello Bridge community! Did you know that April is National Stress Awareness Month? Along with ushering in warmer weather, this new season marks a time for us to take inventory of our stressors and readjust as needed. We know how compassionate and dedicated our Bridge community continues to be, your consistent advocacy is an inspiration to us all! I want to honor your hard work by providing a few tips to help lighten your load this next month. Please feel free to participate in a fun 30 day...
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April 2021 Upcoming Classes [apositivelight.com]
Monday Night Meditation 7pm - 8pm each week Learn Mindfulness Meditation with Joanie Lane Meditation can be helpful in living a more joyous and fulfilling life by reducing your stress and keeping you grounded in peaceful presence. Meditation is simple and easy to learn with guidance and instruction. Joanie Lane is an international meditation teacher and graduate of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach's Mindfulness Meditation Teacher's Certification Program. She's been helping people learn to...
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'Healing hikes': How one Oakland organization is making Black lives matter in nature [sfchronicle.com]
By Jessica Flores, San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 2021 Hopeful. Alive. Connected. Joy. Those were all words used to describe how a group of Bay Area residents felt during a closing circle after kayaking in Richmond’s Marina Bay on a recent Saturday. Some attendees had kayaked before. For others, like Marisa Brown, it was their first time. The group was part of a local meetup hosted by Outdoor Afro , a national organization founded in Oakland that connects Black people to nature and...
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What Your Body Has to Do With Social Change (yesmagazine.org)
Using somatics to explore trauma can help make authentic connection and collectivity more possible. In 2009, my beloved movement comrade Malkia Cyril invited me to a course called Somatics and Social Justice being offered by a group called Generative Somatics. “The word somatics comes from the Greek root soma, which means ‘the living organism in its wholeness.’ It is the best word we have in English to understand human beings as an integrated mind/body/spirit, and as social, relational...