Written by Ayrris Tate, FitPros Wellbeing Instructor
How May I Love You? What do you think our world would look like, if people, and all of our systems approached life with this question? What a beautiful world it would be!
I often hear Math is the only universal language, but I disagree, I think feeling is the supreme universal language. Not every person can understand math, but everyone can feel and it is a force, not limited to just humans. Feeling is the universal language and love is what makes them thrive. In honor of black history month, African-American’s deserve for everyone to take a moment to think about how we can better love them, given our history and the current climate.
How May I Love You? Seeing as healing is a form of love and self- love, may I give you tools to heal and elevate?
Black history in America is filled with rich contributions and culture that have colored our world. Our resiliency and strength prove we can succeed and achieve despite hardships thrown our way. But, this resiliency and strength must also be nurtured due to our past and present environment. The effects of slavery are felt today by African-Americans, as our community is now predisposed to Intergenerational Trauma. Intergenerational Trauma is when an individual or groups of people experience trauma and it is transmitted to subsequent generations, impacting their mental, emotional, and physical health. Unfortunately, America’s current climate of racism, systemic racism, and oppression, has created and reinforced stress and trauma. We need creative solutions to enhance our resilient mindset, strength, and health.
Mental Health Services like Dialectical Based Therapy and Alternative, Holistic Therapies can heal the trauma and stress inflicted upon the black community, starting at the root. These therapies treat emotional, spiritual, energetic, physical, and mental health. Our health is multifaceted and inextricably linked, it needs to be healed as so. There are a plethora of powerful alternative therapies but, as a baseline, Yoga and therapy like DBT are incredible for the mind, body, and soul. It’s also more financially feasible than alternative therapies, which aren’t always covered by insurance companies (we need to advocate for this to change, and add more holistic practitioners in-network!). With new telehealth communities, access online to these resources are available now more than ever.
Yoga is mostly known as the physical exercise poses (asana) but it also includes practices like breathwork, meditation, and chanting. My specific specialty is meditation and pranayama, which have the power to heal stress and trauma. Pranayama is breathwork based on yogic science- an ancient healing tradition. It boosts your immune system, decreases stress and anxiety, elevates mood, enhances your energy, and improves your sleep and cognition. Ancient healing traditions are becoming popular in our culture again for the clear benefits people report. The research and proof on how they have changed lives is out there. It has changed mine, which is why I teach these practices. During the discovery of these new healing modalities, it’s important to stay open-minded. Alternative therapies are creative and go against the philosophies of Western Medicine, as their founding principles are from the East. Eastern Medicine has been around for thousands of years with proven success.
Every day individuals can better love African-Americans by respecting and caring for us. Everyone loves Black culture, but somehow not its people. Food is healing and a form of love. Increased access and availability of healthy food in black communities is love. Yoga teachers and holistic practitioners can spread more love to the Black community through their healing mechanisms. We all need a great tool kit on this journey, and Black people could use some love in the form of healing.
Read more about Ayrris here
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