It’s been feeling …chaotic lately, right?
Collectively, we’ve been taking the steps to dismantle systems of oppression for generations now. Did we think the demolition would be a neat and tidy process? In addition to external destruction, we internalized the oppression, so we are dismantling our sense of self, too.
We are dismembering ourselves.
It is tender, bloody work creating an apocalypse. It’s only natural that things are getting a bit unhinged…
So how do we survive the apocalypse we requested?
In chaotic times it is necessary to learn new mindsets and skill sets. We may notice that the skills we used to survive oppression are no longer working as well. In chaotic times of upheaval, we must learn the skill sets and mindsets to become the eye of the storm, or risk getting swept away by the chaos.
We have been socialized to create safety and success using oppression. We call this process of adopting oppressive strategies as our own, internalizing oppression. We self-police, self-control, self-judge, self-doubt, self-abandon, and self-sabotage.
In doing so we become divided. The power of our limitless human capacity is divided between loving ourselves and fighting ourselves. But we need to focus our power to accomplish our goals. This is how we stay calm while dismantling the familiar and stable world we know.
How do we unlearn internalized oppression?
If you want to get more flexible, people recommend a stretching practice. If you want to calm your mind, people recommend a meditation practice.
If you want to get better at anything, you practice.
In my experience, liberation is no different. If you want to become more liberated, you take up a liberation practice.
To heal my own impostor syndrome, which I did in 2020, and to heal other manifestations of internalized oppression like perfectionism and force, I used two specific tools; Practices of Full Emotional Expression, and healing through altered states of consciousness including hypnosis and plant medicine. I bet you haven’t heard of that first one.
What is a practice of full emotional expression?
I have discovered and used three practices of full-emotional expression, Intuitive Painting for Liberation, Effective Listening, Re-evaluation Counseling (RC), and The Gourasana Mediation Practice (GMP). They each have their own unique structure, but they have 3 qualities in common.
A practice of full emotional expression:
1. Believes that all emotions are welcome and actively welcomes any and all emotions that arise during the practice.
Welcoming emotions and making space for them as honored guests is a powerful step beyond accepting emotions. These practices provide a structure to feel and express emotions, allowing your body to release them. These practices can offer immediate stress relief including lessened back pain, headaches, tension, and other physical symptoms of repressed emotions. As we use the practice, we release the backlog of pent-up emotions and feel more and more spaciousness and calm in response to triggers, like chaos, that used to hook us.
2. Teaches how to safely feel and express emotions, even those that feel scary or dangerous.
Many of us repress our anger because we experienced anger being expressed as violence. Many of us grew up in conflict-avoidance families where we didn’t learn any ways to express anger other than repression. Practices of full-emotional expression teach us how to feel and express emotions safely. As we practice, we build trust and safety with our own emotions, and we begin to feel safe feeling and expressing emotions, like fear and anger, that used to scare or overwhelm us. These practice spaces give us a supportive, low-stakes environment to practice. As we strengthen our practice, we discover that when we are triggered in life, we are not also triggered by our emotional response to life. When we are not afraid of our fear of chaos we can act powerfully in the face of it.
3. Provides a judgment-free space
Each of these practices of full-emotional expression requires highly trained facilitators. Facilitator training involves healing judgments or fears about emotional expression so the facilitators can hold nonjudgmental space. Additionally, facilitators are taught how the practice holds and supports emotional expressions so they can avoid getting in the way. As participants build trust in the practice, they deepen their experience and expression of emotion. Over time, participants build the capacity to stand tall and calm in the looming presence of chaos.
Because practices of full emotional expression are so shockingly effective, I began partnering with Sacred Paintbrush Arts to provide innovative programs that feature our Intuitive Painting for Liberation somatic liberation practice space.
Healing internalized oppression is not an overnight process. Like building capacity in any area, it’s a slow and steady process of building capacity through consistency. It takes time to chip away at the oppression we have cloaked ourselves in, to reveal the liberation we are underneath.
As we heal our internalized oppression, we no longer shut down and hide in response to big emotions, or big energies like chaos. We will be bold enough to think clearly and act bravely in chaotic times. With these new skillsets and mindsets, we can leverage the chaos around us to tear down the systems of oppression inside and outside of us.
Be the apocalypse you want to see in the world.
Photo Credit Photo by Breno Machado on Unsplash