For the love of God, let's change
When I was studying to be a massage therapist in 1991 we learned about the autonomic nervous system in our bodies. This is the system that works without our conscious effort - breathing, blood pressure, digestion, for example. The autonomic nervous system is where we feel anxiety and experience the fight or flight impulses. A massage therapist taught a class on her work, which was offering massages to nuns and other women who had been brutally tortured in Nicaragua during the conflict in that country in the 1980’s. She spoke about the need to go very slow, to help the woman with her breath, and to help her learn to receive healing touch instead of violence. It was a long slow process. Yesterday I listened to an OnBeing interview between Krista Tippett and a clinical social worker who works with trauma. His hame is Resmaa Manakem and he works in Minneapolis. His work is heart work. He spoke about how trauma influences people in our bodies and ...