JANUARY 2025
We have been thinking of you, our beloved Body Trust community, these last few weeks.
We are feeling angry, anxious, and devastated with you. The collective anxiety is high.
The truth is they want us to feel overwhelmed and dysregulated.
They are deliberately trying to stun us all into silence.
We are easier to control when we are dissociated and fragmented.
We’ve been training for this moment.
Find ways to get back in your body. Fight the conditioning and allow yourself to rest.
In a recent workshop, Desiree Adaway said:
“We crave predictability, especially in an uncertain world. Routine & ritual are great for us in these times. We all need a plan to show up for ourselves and our communities.”
Here are some of our ideas:
Remember that we come from survivors. We are all here because our ancestors survived. We were made for these times.
“Make art in the face of fuck.” We love this quote from one of our favorite writers, Lidia Yucknavitch. Find ways to tap into your creativity and use it as a fortification in the face of so much destruction. Lean into practices of radical imagination. This may be art in a physical sense and this may be the ongoing creative process that is your healing and community building. Lidia recently posted this fantastic list of ideas for aiding in the resistance.
Seek time in nature. Spending time amongst the trees or listening to the sound of a river flowing is hugely beneficial for our nervous system. An alternative, more accessible idea is to find nature videos you can watch when feeling overwhelmed.
Love on your people. We will not thrive in isolation. Make plans with the favorite people in your life. Meet up on Zoom for a craft hour. Host a monthly brunch or a soup night. Text your people and say “you are not alone”.
Find one thing you can do right now. What unique interests, gifts, talents can you offer your community? What’s one thing you can do to show up for people less safe than you?
Here are some resources we find ourselves returning to:
BOOKS
Eloquent Rage by Brittney Cooper
Love & Rage by Lama Rod Owens
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey
Undrowned by Alexis Pauline Gumbs
PODCASTS
How to Survive the End of the World with adrienne maree and autumn brown
Becoming the People with Prentis Hemphill
Dark Woke with Janaya Future Khan
We hope you find some small things that allow you to feel resourced. We hope you can hold that you are both needed and not alone.
Our rage is righteous. And what we do with our rage matters. Let it be a force for good.
Onward, in solidarity. We believe we are in this together.
Dana & Hilary
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