Many of you are asking, again, after the recent deaths of Ahmaud Aubrey and George Floyd, what you can do to help. Action is key, and so is reflection that leads to informed action.
Trauma is part of life. So is resiliency. Trauma is not simply an event itself; trauma is in the nervous system. When our nervous system senses danger and threat—and this is different for every system—our primal, instinctual responses are activated as mechanisms to protect us and prepare us for survival. We are biologically programmed to fight, flee, or freeze in response to a perceived inescapable threat, and the younger we are, the more likely something is to be perceived as an inescapable threat.
I watched in awe this connection I will never be able to have with my son, thrilled that he was finding it. I also felt sadness that when he looks at me he cannot see an outward reflection of himself. He is black and I am white. He is a male and I am female. This is our truth.
A portion of this article was originally published in Pact’s Point of View Newsletter in 2016. The human body is incredible. As humans, our senses play a huge role in how we interact with the world around us. We receive information through our senses, organize it and use that information to interact with our environment …
a time of great upheaval Our human world is suffering as is our natural world and the scope of the work ahead runs deep. Many people are searching for answers about how and why we got here. They are also looking for something to do. Because the institutions and systems in this country were founded …