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An archive of all past Queerly Embodied emails is now available. Simply scroll down to “Archive” on my website.
To all the folx mobilizing on the front lines, engaging in mutual and direct aid, and to those directly impacted by state violence, I see you. Activism and organizing is embodied resistance, and as you ride the waves of rage, grief, anger and community as you use your body to fight for liberation, your body also deserves care.
The goal of providing aftercare for our bodies during times of heightened state violence isn’t to feel calm, or to return to baseline. Our bodies are barometers of what’s happening in our communities, and because the bodies of so many folx, in particular BIPOC bodies, are facing heightened violence, whatever you may be feeling in your body makes sense.
If you noticing yourself feeling into fight and flight, you make sense. If you notice yourself feeling into freeze and dissociation, you make sense. If you notice yourself feeling into fawn, you make sense. If you notice a combination of states, you make sense.
Resistance, whether it’s via being on the front lines protesting, organizing behind the scenes, engaging in direct and mutual aid for your communities, or providing healing for others, is an embodied experience. And just like any embodied experience, focusing on aftercare is a nourishing practice to create sustainable resistance.
In the kink community, aftercare is a planned, communicative way to tend to each other’s emotional and physical needs. Aftercare prioritizes emotional needs, physical needs, communication and consent. As always, its tenets are applicable beyond kink activities, and are what I’m going to outline below.
The following four steps are ways to practice aftercare for embodied resistance, whether it’s after you attend a protest or direct action, or witness violence in your community, or engage in community care with others. As always, take what’s helpful, compost the rest, and adapt these practices for your unique body.
1. Take care of your bodily needs
Check in with your body. Are you hydrated? Have you eaten enough food? What’s your body temperature? Adjust if you are too hot or too cold. Have you taken your medications?
2. Connect with and check in on community
Connect with your community, whether in-person or virtually. This helps communicate some sips of safety to your nervous system and those in your community. Check in on each others’ safety, and engage in safety and aftercare planning together. Practice connected co-regulation, whether via sharing stories, holding hands, humming, hugging, or dancing together.
3. Release When engaging in embodied resistance, the body absorbs and holds so many emotions. When you are in a space that feels safe enough and supportive enough, whether at home or in community, give your body an opportunity to release what it’s been holding. As always, these practices are going to be unique to your own body and nervous system. Here are some common ways to somatically release stored emotions that you can adapt for your body: Shaking and dancing: Releasing anxiety and fight/flight mobilization Screaming: Releasing rage, grief Slow movements of the hands and feet: Helpful if your body is in freeze and you need to slowly start to mobilize your nervous system Pushing a wall on the exhale: Helpful for releasing tension and rage Full body and muscle tightening and release: Releasing fight/flight mobilization Open-mouthed, tongue-out exhales with a “haaaaah” sound: Releasing anxiety Crying, swaying: Releasing grief
4. Find sips of safety Following release, help your body gently come into some sips of present moment safety. Again, take what’s helpful in these practices and adapt them to your body: Gentle swaying Wrapping yourself in a blanket Orienting to your space by looking to the left, right, in front of and behind you Using your available senses to orient to the present moment, focusing on things in your environment that feel soothing Humming (this helps stimulate the vagus nerve, which helps the body come into some feelings of safety) Deep, slow belly breaths Listening to a soothing playlist or a comfort show on TV
I have several slots open for pro bono, time-limited, virtual somatic resourcing sessions. For a full description of this offering, visit this link. In solidarity,
Eula For more T4T mindfulness practices, visit my T4T meditations SoundCloud page. More will be added regularly.
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