Find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably, alone, in front of your computer or smartphone. Have pen and paper ready.
Take a few, slow, deep breaths.
Google “January 6 riot.” Then click on the Videos tab near the top of your screen. A long list of links to videos will appear.
For the next thirty minutes, click on the links, and watch the videos they lead to, one after another.
Afterward, soul scribe[1] about your body’s experience.
Note any:
- vibrations
- images and thoughts
- meanings, judgments, stories, and explanations
- behaviors, movements, actions, impulses, and urges
- affect and emotions
- sensations
Take a few more deep, slow breaths. Then say aloud: “This is what our country is facing. This is what it has always been facing.”
[1] Soul scribing simply means pausing, paying close attention to the vibrations; images and thoughts; meanings, judgments, stories, and explanations; behaviors, movements, actions, impulses, and urges; affect and emotions; sensations your body experiences in that moment, and then noting those experiences in writing. Soul scribing help you access information from all of your body’s intelligences…. You can soul scribe using brief notes, lists, or your own personal shorthand. This might include abbreviations, emojis, pictures, or whatever else you like. (If you want to be more detailed – for example, if you want to keep an embodied journal or diary – that’s fine, too.)
— Resmaa Menakem in The Quaking of America