Tending to the Body’s Shocks: Holding Ourselves and Each Other After the Overturn of Roe v. Wade
Dear Hearts,
This is an incredibly sad and confusing time for many of us. Over the weekend, millions lost their rights and will continue to lose their rights to abortion care. This major decision comes right after the ongoing legislative attacks on the LGBTQIA community, especially the trans community. These ongoing attacks can feel like big shocks to the body and our internal systems.
When hearing about difficult news, people tend to gasp, quickly inhale air, stiffen their body for protection, and move into places of flight, flight, freeze, and collapse. While it’s essential to take action and protest in the ways you can; perpetual urgency rooted in confusion and chronic overwhelm are not sustainable for our bodies or the movements we are trying to support.
So what do we do? How do we support ourselves and each other? Tending to your shocks means noticing what is going on in your body and giving time and space to feel your feelings. It means acknowledging the places on our body where we are bracing and holding and offering these places touch and attention. Weave in care routines that are both supportive of yourself and supportive of caring for others.
Some suggestions for self-support:
• Take breaks from social media
• Notice where on your body where you are feeling your feelings. Add heat to those places through touch, hot water bottles, heating pads, baths, etc. Warmly,
• Self-massage, awakening sensation, and offer care to tissues and muscles that are bracing and holding.
• Connect with nature
• Self-pleasure
Some suggestions for caring for each other:
• Make friendship dates With trusted loved ones, touch, cuddle, hold, and give and receive a massage from each other. Touch is one of the most connecting and powerful practices we have.
• Make dates with friends and family where you can process some of what’s going on and make grounded actionable plans to care for those who are most affected.
• Go into nature together
Caring for one another and ourselves is an act of defiance in the face of those who try to control and regulate our bodies. The suggestions offered in this post are by no means exhaustive. Feel free to adapt or add your own.
With love,
River
* This blog was initially published days after the Roe v Wade overturn and was republished on a new blog here on Sept 14th, 2023. The practices are still relevant in a post Roe v Wade world.