A Practice Towards Healing And Liberation

As someone deeply committed to a racially just and transformed world, this practice invites us in to deepen our healing-centered practices and work towards the liberation of all people. This practice is grounded in essential elements for healing and liberation to occur. Together we explore the elements of
Holding
Energy
Alignment
Looking Within
Identifying
Noticing
Grounding
Love
Internal Body Scan
Breath
Earth Shaker
Releasing
Acknowledgment
Tending To
Imagining
Openness
Nurture

Transcript

Welcome.

My name is Tammy Farber and thank you for joining me.

This reflective and centering practice was inspired by deepening my own understanding and embodiment of what it means to be on a path of healing and liberation as a practitioner,

Movement builder,

Organizer,

Coach,

Facilitator,

And as someone deeply committed to adjust and transform world.

So as we come together for this practice rooted in our commitments for healing and liberation,

Let's begin with bringing our bodies into a position that allows us to fully settle into this moment,

To relax as we orient to the space around us.

And so go ahead and perhaps make some you know subtle micro movements with the body that allows for that settling in and really gets us into our full length and width.

You may find that you need even a bit of a bigger stretch or perhaps taking a couple of deep breaths,

Inhaling through the nose,

Pausing at the top and exhaling through the mouth with an audible H-A sound or perhaps breathing in through the nose and releasing with a beautiful humming sound.

Both the breathing and humming is activating our parasympathetic nervous system and bringing the body into a more relaxed and grounded state.

You may even feel called to do something like shaking out the hands,

The arms,

The shoulders,

The legs,

And the whole bodies.

So really moving that energy through and clearing space to help us get still,

To really settle into the body.

So take a moment to do whatever it is that you need to do to arrive.

And when you feel like you have arrived,

Silently say to yourself,

I am here.

We all have been deeply impacted by and carry a profound amount of trauma within our bodies due to the ways in which power,

Oppression,

And privilege operates and functions within systems and our own bodies.

This guided,

Reflective,

And centering practice is intended to connect us to and embody a central essential element for healing and liberation to occur.

So as you continue to settle in,

Release,

Open,

Expand,

Orient,

And breathe,

Notice as I speak these words,

What emerges within.

What are the sensations,

Vibrations,

Energies,

Textures,

Emotions that get evoked as I speak to healing and liberation?

I ask that you allow yourself to tend to whatever arises in whatever way you need to.

You may be called to pause,

To journal,

To hum,

Perhaps shed some tears,

All of which are part of our path to healing and liberation.

So let this be your own personal journey as we begin.

H represents holding,

The ability to hold space for myself and others to heal from the wounds of historical,

Generational,

Persistent institutional,

And personal traumas.

What holding do I need for myself right now?

Take a moment and can you energetically hold your heart,

Hold your inner child,

Hold your body and being with love and care?

What holding can you extend to others?

E represents energy.

Where are your energy levels right now?

Just notice without judgment.

Think about what has been giving you energy and what in your life has been depleting.

Notice the thoughts and meaning making that arises and thank it for its wisdom.

Take a full breath and make a commitment to yourself right now on something you will do today to support your energy levels.

A represents align.

At this time,

Ask yourself,

Do I feel in alignment with my internal and external worlds?

Am I in alignment with my truth,

With my commitments,

My desires,

My actions?

And if not,

What gets to shift within me for alignment to come about?

So sense into what would full alignment feel like?

L represents looking within.

Looking within is an essential daily practice of opening to what lives within us.

What we can then see needs to be tended to and healed to honor our wounds and to acknowledge and tend to the ways in which we have possibly wounded or hurt others.

Regardless of what I think I see and what that can evoke,

Can I pause throughout my day and look within?

I represents identify.

Take this moment to identify what is happening in your body right now.

Even if you can't name it,

Can you identify a sensation,

A feeling,

A movement?

Are you in a place in your life where you are able to identify specifically parts of you that are longing to heal and are waiting for you to do so?

What becomes possible through the practice of identifying?

N represents noticing.

Are you regularly noticing when elicitations happen?

Does it activate protective moves,

Distancing moves,

Silencing moves,

Defensive moves?

Does it activate people pleasing,

Running,

Hiding,

Escaping?

What would become possible for you when noticing your go-to moves that most likely do not align with your commitment to healing and liberation?

G represents the practice of grounding.

Are you regularly making grounding and centering practices a part of your daily routines?

What supports you in staying grounded?

Is it a breath,

An object,

A prayer,

A mantra,

A hug,

A walk in nature?

What's something you can commit to today to making grounding an essential part of how you're moving throughout the day?

I want you to continue to think about by staying grounded what becomes possible for me in my bigger commitments to healing and liberation.

So let's take a moment and place both hands over our hearts and take just a few gentle breaths as we move into the exploration of liberation.

L represents love.

In what ways am I demonstrating self-love and love for humanity each waking day?

How can I cultivate greater love for my body,

For my being,

For my soul,

For humanity,

For this planet?

How can we allow love to truly be our guide?

I represents internal body scan.

As we hold the love,

We move into the practice of an internal body scan.

So take a moment now and notice what are the sensations,

Temperatures,

Textures,

Vibrations,

Energies,

And feelings you notice within your body.

That internal body scan can begin with the soles of the feet moving up the back body,

Down the front body,

Or perhaps moving up the front body to the crown of our head,

Down to the back body.

What might be possible if you made the practice of an internal body scan a regular part of your day?

Might you move slower?

Might that create more spaciousness?

Might that honor what your body needs and is asking for at any given moment?

B represents breath.

So bring your awareness and attention back to the breath and breathe.

Feel into the fullness of your breath by connecting to the beautiful cadence and rhythm of the inflow and outflow as you breathe.

The more we breathe,

The more physical life force and energy we bring into our bodies.

Deep breathing activates our lymphatic system,

Which is responsible for oxygenating our blood cells and detoxifying our bodies.

Breath is something that deeply connects us to ourselves and connects us to others full humanity.

Let's explore E.

E represents earth shaker.

As we continue breathing,

Take a moment to call in the earth shaker that lives within you.

Ask your inner earth shaker,

In what ways are you willing to shake,

Disrupt,

Call in,

Take risks,

Continually tap into your growing edges for your commitment to healing and liberation?

Earth shakers will bring about the liberation we all dream of.

R represents releasing.

You may notice bring your awareness to your inner earth shaker brought about some activation in the body.

And so go ahead and take a deep breath and release and take another breath and release.

As we breathe and release,

We're releasing tension,

Self-deprecating thoughts,

Anxious or nervous energy,

Judgments,

Anger,

Frustration,

Sadness,

Pain.

This release is critical for our healing process and overall well-being.

So take another moment and connect to anything you would like to release in this moment.

A represents acknowledgement.

In this moment,

I want you to go ahead and acknowledge your beautiful self and the work you are doing to heal and liberate.

Can you make acknowledging yourself and others a regular part of your practice to honor the wisdom,

Strength,

Beauty,

Brilliance,

And more that lives within you and all you come into relationship with and beyond.

You may want to take a moment and silently acknowledge those who have had tremendous impact in your life and have been a part of bringing you on your journey into this moment.

T represents tending to.

Tending to our experiences,

Tending to our emotions,

Tending to our traumas,

Tending to our afflictions,

And more is absolutely essential for the full metabolizing and digesting of what we hold generationally and what we carry from our own lived experiences.

So take a moment and see is there anything your body,

Your heart,

Your mind is asking you to tend to right now?

And if so,

Go ahead and do so.

I represents imagine.

As we continue to ground,

Center,

Breathe,

And explore,

Let's take a moment to connect to our imagination.

Imagination,

Creativity,

And the space for emergence is essential to healing and liberation.

So I want you to pause for a moment and imagine a world where healing is the norm and liberation has occurred.

What would it feel like,

Look like,

Smell like,

Taste like?

Go ahead.

Try and touch it with your imagination.

O represents open.

As we come near to the end of this embodied centering practice,

How do we remain open in our hearts?

How do we remain open in our bodies as we move throughout the day?

Remaining open is a liberatory practice.

And N represents nurture.

As we embody the many elements of healing and liberation,

We must ensure that every day we are finding those moments to nurture our spirits,

Nurture our visions,

Nurture our souls,

Desires,

And commitments.

We tend to this as we do a garden,

Planting,

Cultivating,

And harvesting the yet imagined and actualized.

So go ahead and take another deep,

Cleansing,

Nourishing breath and ever so gently begin to wiggle the toes,

Wiggle the fingers as we begin waking up the body.

As we move slowly,

Perhaps we want to roll out the shoulders,

Bringing our arms above our heads with a breath and release.

And take one more moment for any way you feel called in to close this practice.

And when you're ready,

Gently opening the eyes and together we will rise.

Thank you so for joining me in this practice and I look forward to meeting again.