Healing ourselves from the impacts of racial trauma

Our health and well-being mean more than our physical state— it includes our spiritual, mental, and emotional parts of our body. Health and well-being are about our whole selves. And when our bodies– our whole selves– have been impacted by historic and systemic racial trauma, ALL of our parts need to be included in healing practices. Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu (an American Poet and Storyteller of Nigerian descent) offers a menu of options to consider how to nourish our whole selves and buffer against the impact of historic, systemic racial trauma.

These practices can be done by the whole family. The earlier in life we practice preventive measures the easier they become and the more effective they are to keep us well. Here is to your healing strength!

Our whole bodies pay the high cost of historic and systemic racism, microaggression and oppression.  And yet we have the strength to learn to heal…we must heal…because it is by healing that we learn to dismantle systems of oppression within ourselves, honor our ancestors and reclaim our strengths, dignity and well-being. 

May you be well. 

Adapted from: “The Four Bodies: A Holistic Toolkit for Coping with Racial Trauma” by Jacquelyn Ogorchukwu