Making Peace with What Haunts Us (Day 5)

Rezmaa Menakem, trauma therapist and author of My Grandmother’s Hands talks about how the memories and trauma of our ancestors lives in our bodies. This trauma manifests as white body supremacy. We need to recognize, work through and metabolize this trauma. Only in this way can we begin to heal our bodies and the social body of our nation.

For Day 5 of Making Peace with What Haunts Us, Eleanor VanDeusen, Foothills Director of Family Ministry, offers this grounding technique – tapping into the memories and wisdom of our ancestors –

Meditation Text:

Find a comfortable seat, on the ground or in a chair. 

Notice where your body makes contact with the surfaces it is touching.

Notice the temperature of the air on your skin, the sounds in the room, the smells.

Bring your attention to your breath and how the air flows in through your nose and out through your mouth, lips slightly parted. Rest in your breath and just notice your body’s energy. 

Imagine the quality of your energy – its color, it’s texture, it’s temperature and vibration

Now imagine that energy draining slowly down into the earth.

Starting from the top of your head, imagine it slowly passing your eyebrows, your chin, neck, chest, belly, hips, knees, ankles and feet…draining all the way down into the earth

Now imagine that you begin to draw earth energy up… up from the earth and your ancestors.

Imagine the color, energy and vibration of that energy from your ancestors as it moves slowly up through your body.

Notice where that energy settles in your body.

What memories and wisdom do your ancestors want to give you today?

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