I hope that the summer is treating you well, and that you are surviving whatever meteorological, social, health-related, economic, familial and political weather is happening where you are. There has been quite a bit of family stuff happening for me, so I’ve been less present and visible than I would like to be.
I’m not always at the top of my game. Sometimes I’m in the middle and sometimes I’m at the bottom. But I keep going and I keep learning massive amounts of stuff about life and being human.
I wrote newsletter content on July 4 but did not manage to send out the newletter until now. Since the existential threat to our democratic form of government has not abated in 11 days, I have shared that content below.
First, though, I want to let you know that I’m scheduling a series of ongoing 90 minute group sessions for working with our selves and our nervous systems, for connecting in community, and for facilitating trauma recovery. I’m calling the sessions “Somatic Magic with Resilient Rosalie”.
I’ve got three meetings scheduled for July and August.
Thursday, July 25, 5:00 – 6:30 PM EDT
Monday, August 5, 2:30 – 4:00 PM EDT
Tuesday, August 20, 12:00 – 1:30 PM EDT
There will be a break in September as I will be traveling. I will add additional dates and times for October and November. The content will vary from meeting to meeting but each will be a standalone meeting, so that you do not need to try to attend every one.
So, please join me, or send others who might be interested in this work. The meetings will include brief lectures, sharing, Q&A, guided work for the whole group, breakout groups, and demonstrations. When you go to the scheduling page, you have three price point options: free, $10, or $20. All three options offer the same dates and times. But if you pay the $20 amount, you will get a front row seat! I am totally kidding, this is Zoom. All seats are the same. When you click on the link and provide your time zone, you can see the correct dates and times for where you are located.
At this point, I’m not going to send meeting recordings out afterward. I will record these initial meetings for my personal reference and will work on how to manage recording and sharing in a way that allows for safety for people to share personal experiences within the meetings if they would like to. I need to figure out which parts to record and which parts to skip for a public recording. I will get there as I know that sharing recordings allows for more people to “attend”.
If you are passionately interested in attending Somatic Magic with Resilient Rosalie and the days and times don’t work for you, please let me know what days of the week and times would work and I will try to integrate those scheduling requests into future dates.
I do currently have space open in my practice for 1:1 coaching clients, for you or someone you know who might be struggling with the challenging and persistent inner chaos that can result from some developmental trauma experiences. There is a link below to schedule a Discovery Call, or you can go to the “Work With Me” page on my website to schedule a call.
And now for my 4th of July perspective. Feel free now or at any point to skip over this and go to the kittens below.
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I’m writing this on July 4th, that day when America celebrates the birthday of our imperfect but ever-evolving democracy.
American democracy received a shock just a few days ago when the Supreme Court ruled that an American president can’t be held accountable for any crimes committed while that president is doing things that they can argue are within their role as leader. And also ruled that this – currently blatantly corrupt – court can overrule the scientific boards in executive branch agencies that make thoughtful decisions about how various challenging concerns and issues should be managed in a good way.
I felt shocked when I read about these rulings. But even now after just a few days, the shock is wearing off. That is something that can happen when we live in traumatized bodies and traumatized communities.
Here’s what happens when we are living with unresolved trauma. When we were younger, we had experiences that were very painful, that felt unbearable. They didn’t necessarily look that bad to an observer (though some certainly did look bad) but we experienced being afraid, at risk, alone and unsupported. And it was too much. We didn’t have the inner resources and perspective to be able to hold and navigate those painful circumstances.
So we took the intense emotions of those experiences and disconnected ourselves from them. We hid the terror, shame, confusion, pain, whatever it was. “This is too uncomfortable to manage, so I need to make it go away.”
That is a great skill to have, and we all have that skill, the skill of making things go away that are too uncomfortable to manage.
It is uncomfortable for me to entertain the very real possibility that here in America, people could go to jail for being gay or trans or for having or performing an abortion or for being poor or for marrying someone of a different race. But this is quite literally where we are according to respected legal scholars. It is terrifying.
So, what do we do?
Feeling chronically terrified – or chronically angry – is not conducive to our health or our effectiveness. That’s how many of us came to be relatively frozen, disconnected and less functional in the first place.
First, what to not do:
We should not assume that we are 100% right about everything and then demonize and attack people who disagree with us.
We should not completely disconnect from the process of democracy and voting.
What we can do, what you can do:
Slow down.
Engage in your spiritual and/or religious practices.
Engage in self-care practices.
Be curious and humble. Be open to new insights and perspectives.
Ask for wisdom, “What is my part here? What am I called to do that might help this USA to survive and improve in a good way, and that is possible within the constraints of my life and responsibilities? Or, for me, is this a moment to upend things and to take heroic action?”
Keep breathing.
Look at the people in your life, ones that are close to you and ones you don’t like or don’t relate to. If [and only if] it feels ok to do this, try looking for what you appreciate and respect in each one. Pause there, experiencing the goodwill in our fellow humanness.
If you can find it, trust in the larger goodness and grace of a reality that is deeper than the surface reality on which we live.
Keep breathing.
Care for your families, friends and communities. Find specific actions you can take that make a positive difference. Feel and notice that difference that you are making.
And I know that there are shocking and terrifying things happening in many places in the world. War, death, violence, poverty, and famine. For many of us, really being present to those realities feels like too much, so we make them go away, we make them either unimportant altogether or else “simply” irrelevant to us, or we just find a way to explain them away or forget them.
For many people, the most shocking news of the moment is likely not the rulings of the US Supreme Court, but whatever is going on more locally where you are, or whatever is going on that relates to people with whom you feel solidarity, wherever they are.
This practice might be relevant here:
And here are more kittens. Not to make the challenges go away, but to bring some softness, gentleness and hope to our nervous system as we navigate the challenges.
Thank you for the ways that you care for your people, your community and your world, no matter where you are and what is going on around you.
