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An archive of all past Queerly Embodied emails is now available. Simply scroll down to “Archive” on my website.
In my last newsletter, I talked about rituals of care for our protector parts, shifting our relationship from one of pushing them away to offering them care.
In today’s part 2, I’m going to offer another ritual that can offer some holding when protectors come online that feel particularly crunchy. You probably already have a relationship with these of parts: the ones that feel loud and uncomfortable in your body, the ones that create intense waves of thoughts, the ones that leave you with a lot of intense feeling, the ones that historically may have been punished or not had safety to come into their full expression.
It can be tempting to push those parts away, to push through them, to numb them. It may not always be safe to let these parts be seen and heard. So much of white, westernized therapy and culture places a focus on feeling calm, and conflating regulation with calmness, which can further add to the pressure to quieten down and tamp down these parts. The prompt for today’s practice is: What anchors you when you’re feeling these things? Whether that feeling is rage, fear, protection, hypervigilance, grief, hopelessness, or something unnamed, what tethers you to community, the earth, and yourself? What holds you when you are holding your parts? Like I shared in my previous newsletter, we need our protectors, even the ones that feel crunchy and intense and have been marginalized by society and westernized therapy speak. These parts make sense, they carry their own lineages, they are navigating how to engage with a world in which so many identities are being violently marginalized. And as you feel these parts and sit with them, you deserve to feel supported and held. Holding comes in many different forms. For some, it’s tapping into being held by nature. For others, it’s connecting with the holding that ancestors provide - both by blood and through chosen shared identity. And for others, it’s connecting to holding via spiritual practices. Whatever holding means to you, and however you can experience the felt sense of holding, the following written and recorded practices are an invitation. If you try these practices and find them difficult, that’s okay. Holding, and tapping into holding, takes practice. Notice any micro-shifts as you follow the recordings, and be gentle with any parts that find it difficult. If practicing alone feels hard, try this practice with a trusted community member or a pet.
Practice 1: For folx who find visualizations accessible Practice 2: For folx who do not find visualizations accessible or prefer to be guided through a practice that focuses on using objects to represent parts and connecting to holding As always, take what’s helpful, compost the rest, and adapt these practices to your unique system and body. In solidarity,
Eula
For more T4T mindfulness practices, visit my T4T meditations SoundCloud page. More will be added regularly.
I have several slots open for pro bono, time-limited, virtual somatic resourcing sessions. For a full description of this offering, visit this link.
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