How to heal during collective trauma

Unpacking & Healing from Collective Trauma

Written by Dr. Therapinay

What is happening in me with all this collective trauma?!

There may be a lot going on, and sometimes it’s hard to understand and process it all when collective trauma and grief is constantly being experienced. So what do we do? How do we heal?

First off, what is going on?!?

In recent news within the United States, the Asian American community has experienced two back-to-back mass shootings in California’s Monterey Park, Los Angeles and Half Moon Bay. These events are layered on Lunar New Years, the migrant farm workers community, and on the collective identity and individual experiences.

So what you may be happening, to put it susinctly, is that you’re experiencing a lot of sh*t….

If you’re one to intellectualize and what to know what’s going on concretely to your internal system, here you go: Physiologically, the sympathetic nervous system is ramped up sending all sorts of signals to your neurotransmitters to release and block certain chemicals to do it's job to protect and survive. Neurologically, our brain is trying to figure out all these messages we're getting - our thoughts, our emotions, our physiological changes, all of it.

The internal parts of the emotional system are all trying to understand the loudness of many emotional messages at once.

Additionally...

You may be getting an onslaught of external input from social media, news, friends/family. Which, then, may also be relayed back to the internal system to try and hold, understand, process...

TLDR:

A lot is going on (a lot of trauma, a lot of response, a lot of stuff) in social media/new/external land and then we take it in

and then our inside (our internal-system-land) is figuring all that ish out....

Is this “normal”??

In reality, our body, mind, and heart isn't built to take in so much stimulus - it may seem so because people have been adapting and functioning under this social media news sensationalizing act now act now culture like a pressure cooker. The body - your body may be reacting in a normal way to an abnormal system - this ecopolitical capitalist oppressive system.

So, the complex layering of feelings starts to become heavy, tiring, possibly overwhelming. What is being experienced is the cycle of surviving, resting, restoring, triggering, process is the mental & emotional fatigue that leads to burn-out, dissociation, apathy, and numbing.

Cycle of Burnout - Dr. Therapinay

So, what can be done??

So many questions may arise, such as..

"What if.....

We had mental health support -

We had comprehensive health structures - We had more activism and healing toxic masculinity -

We had stricter gun laws, economic, interpersonal, political, and overarching systems change to address the roots of the issues??? "

Amongst the questions, there are GREAT collective healing spaces that are being held hosted by Asian American Health Collective and Amplify Restorative Justice. There are also many healers, therapists, and wellness practitioners looking to support individuals, possibly like yourself process and heal during this time!

Here are also a few ways off my dome that might jump start your care and healing practices:

3 ways to balance out self-care healing time and activism during a time of collective trauma

Here are some ways to navigate all the pieces of things during this time of collective grief, trauma, mourning, and movement work.

3. Prioritize & be mindful with how many organizing engagements and effort you do in a day

Talk with your kasamas, friends, family who are engaged in community organizing who are also doing the care work too - ask them how they’re balancing things out, or what advice they may have for you. Ultimately, you want to figure out what your energy levels are like, what your capacity is, and what you need to rest AND restore. Remember, “REST” is separate from “RESTORATION” - so, resting, sleeping, distracting, dissociating are all very, very, different pieces, AND to actually feel RESTORED is a process on it’s own. lLearn what your emotional/mental capacity is, and how much you can realistically do in a day, in a week, in a month. Take inventory of what you may be holding (emotionally and logistically). Also, remember that some efforts or mobilizations may take more energy than others.

2. Create, practice, and refine collective & self-care rituals in your daily life

Healing and mental HEALTH is a way of life - it’s a process - it’s muscle we build - it’s also in the way we care for, AND with each other. Maybe, it’s attending collective healing spaces, attending to your body, eating a meal & snacks and drinking water regularly, protecting your sleep hygiene, practice physical ways to come back to homeostasis. To truly refine and understand how your care practices look like, work with a professional! A therapist can be a great source of support, accountability partner, and healer for all the things. You also deserve a space JUST for yourself to quiet the noise of the world and your internal world as part of your care practice.

1. Honor your emotional insight, be gentle with yourself/others, & know when support is beneficial

There are many ways that this may look: holding conference meetings with your emotions regularly, feeling into anger/ sadness/ whatever emotion comes, finding out what your trigger points are, moving your body in exercise/ dance/ or ritual, practicing reflection time sacredly, connecting with a therapist regularly, leaning into growth gently, being with all emotions compassionately. Insight can look like: knowing when you’re experiencing strong emotions, knowing how to regulate your nervous system, feeling comfortable with the many parts of your internal system.

Healing can look like: feeling creative, feeling curious, knowing your capacity to engage and when to disengage to rest & restore, having more bandwidth to care or act compassionately, feeling compassion, feeling wholeness, or even knowing when you’re not feeling whole and being content with the process… or even, being gentle and patient with yourself can also be signs that you’re healing.

When you’re ready and able, there is a therapist waiting for you (seriously, frfr) to help and connect with for all this hardbeautifulgrievingliberating work at Therapinay.com.