My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies

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S. Armed Forces; as a trauma consultant for the Minneapolis Public Schools; and as a Cultural Somatics consultant for the Minneapolis Police Department. The On Being Project is: Chris Heagle, Lily Percy, Laurén Drommerhausen, Erin Colasacco, Eddie Gonzalez, Lilian Vo, Lucas Johnson, Suzette Burley, Zack Rose, Colleen Scheck, Julie Siple, Gretchen Honnold, Jhaleh Akhavan, Pádraig Ó Tuama, Ben Katt, Gautam Srikishan, and Lillie Benowitz. Because it’s been decontextualized and handed down from my mom, my grandmother, my grandfather, blah blah blah, all the way down, I didn’t have a language for it, but there was a knowing that “this ain’t right.

Have you ever been on the phone with somebody that you love — parent, partner, husband, child — and they’re talking to you, and all of a sudden, you go, “What’s wrong? I also really appreciated the ideas about how to better protect ourselves from internalizing oppression, not just on a cognitive level but on a somatic level.Unlocking the Genius of your Body: Why your logic isn’t adequate when it comes to the violence of race:, Psychology Today, December 2020. laughs] So what I want you to help explore — you don’t have to just talk about the vagus nerve, but I feel like this is another piece of knowledge about ourselves.

Her most recent offering of fresh insight to our life together brings “caste” into the light — a recurrent, instinctive pattern of human societies across the centuries, though far more malignant in some times and places. This article overviews My Grandmother’s Hands and complements an earlier review by Paula Hendrick (Hendrick 2020) It includes a review of what I consider the main subjects of the book, and the body-based practices, which I consider the heart of the book . This event offers a foundational base for developing the skills to cultivate somatic abolitionism personally and communally. as such, trainings that focus on the mind as the site from which to undo white-body supremacy will never be enough.Krista Tippett, host: Well, I was kind of aware that I was half-thinking about what was gonna come next, but, I don’t know, I felt more settled.

As a result of myths about black bodies, white bodies can be triggered into constriction, fear, hate—based on whatever trauma the individual has retained. Tippett: There’s a line from you, which really is what this all comes down to — which is just so kind of [ laughs] sad to think that this is basic human reality — that “all adults need to learn how to soothe and anchor themselves rather than expect or demand that others soothe them. And so one of the things that happens is that if I’m with you long enough, like if me and you become friends, over time I will start to hear things in your throat because the vagal nerve is either open or constricted. His New York Times best-selling book is My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. It means that you have many more places to turn—and many more options to explore—when the heat gets turned up under you.Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. And so it shows up in the eyes, it shows up in the mouth — this is why, when we’re tracking each other, we pick up on things, and even if we don’t know what it is, we know — “that was something. And something that you know and that you articulate so well is that the vagus nerve also is about safety; that the core of us, the core of our bodies, is always asking, first, “Am I in danger; am I safe?

This often results in at least one partner compromising their integrity—and stunting their own growth. Activities for groups with trusted others include humming, singing, rocking, folk dancing, massaging hands or feet, breathing deeply together in silence. Sensitive and probing, this book from therapist Menakem delves into the complex effects of racism and white privilege. We offer up his intelligence on changing ourselves at a cellular level — practices towards the transformed reality most of us long to inhabit.And so what I’ve been talking to people about is, how do we begin to get the reps in with those pieces? The signals from the soul nerve are incorporated into one of several body practices, below, for working with the body’s checkpoints or warning signals. Given our experience, in terms of Indigenous people, given our experience, in terms of Black people, there has been real things that have happened to us from behind. This course is available to the general public, and to organizations entering a year of learning with Resmaa Menakam. How does your view differ from the views of others on the topic, and how did you come to your current perspective?