Healing our Nervous Systems

In a recent HuffPost article titled, I Can't Self-Care My Way Into Feeling Better Anymore Racine Henry, a therapist and owner of Sankofa Marriage and Family Therapy in New York shares, “The effectiveness of self-care strategies tend to fade if the stressor or trauma increases.”

I couldn't agree with this more! However, I think that what is missing from this conversation, and all others like it, is the impact that sustained trauma has on our nervous systems; particularly if you are of the African Diaspora.

My belief is that people of the African Diaspora are uniquely impacted by persistent, long-term, generational, and systemic traumas. As BIPOC are met with the traumas of everyday life in America and the traumas of living through a global pandemic, we are at an increased disadvantage as it relates to healing through mental health and self-care practices. As a result, we find ourselves circling the disparate impact drain clinging to hope that we can just "hang in there" or pray until something happens. The truth is, the system is working precisely as it was designed. In short, we cannot heal through available frameworks and healing modalities and we certainly cannot heal alone.

Because of a history of trauma within our ancestral lineage and daily encounters, our nervous systems are in dire need of co-regulation techniques and practices. For many of us, our ancestors were unable to teach us how to regulate our nervous systems since they themselves were being victimized by the torturous practices of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, racism, Jim Crow, the Prison Industrial Complex, and everyday life in America. As a result, we have developed adaptive strategies that are unable to hold up to the rigors of daily life while living through a global pandemic. Without the ability to co-regulate, we are unable to develop individual, sustainable, skills and techniques to cope during our most stressful times.

H.E.A.L YOUniversity was founded on the notion that healing requires the collaborative energies of Heaven, Earth, and Absolute Love in order to bring us into harmony and wholeness with ourselves, the planet, and the communities who love and support us.

If you are unable to self-care your way to feeling better, H.E.A.L. YOUniversity is offering free guided meditations in an effort to provide a space for this very healing work to be facilitated. Through group discussion and guided meditation work, we collectively support, witness, and hold space for one another's individual healing in order to co-create a life of harmony and healing. It is my prayer that together, we will be able to reset, repair, and recover from the damage brought on by generations of pain and struggle.

If you are looking for new ways to care for yourself and others, please join me in one of our upcoming free guided meditation practices and/or programs by visiting H.E.A.L. YOUniversity today.

Namaste🧘🏿‍♀️