Decolonizing The Body (healing, Body-centered Practices For Women Of Color To Reclaim Confidence, Dignity, And Self-worth)

By (author) Cleveland, Christena; By (author) Blackwell, Kelsey; Foreword by Cleveland, Dr. Christena
Short description/annotation:
Powerful, body-based practices to help you reclaim confidence, dignity, and self-worth.
Description:

Powerful, body-based practices to help you reclaim confidence, dignity, and self-worth. As a woman of colour, you are more likely to experience oppression, discrimination, and physical or sexual violence in your lifetime. In addition, your family may have experienced generational trauma and systemic racism going back for centuries. This old and new trauma can manifest in both the mind and body.

However, there are ways you can free yourself from this trauma, build confidence in yourself and your abilities, and restore your powerful sense of self. Written by a woman of colour for women of colour, Decolonizing the Body offers proven-effective somatic, body-centred practices to help you heal from systemic oppression, trust the profound wisdom of your own body, and reconnect with your true self. And by slowing down, cultivating a daily ritual, and setting strong boundaries, you can reclaim your inherent dignity and worth-as well as those aspects of yourself that you may have cast aside in an effort to survive.

With this empowering guide, you''ll discover:
·How bodies are colonized through systems of oppression
·Why slowing down is essential for healing
·How to listen to what your body needs
·How to create a space for ritual in your daily life
·How to strengthen feelings of capability
·How to cultivate community-starting with yourself

To decolonize the body is to become whole again, and to come home again. Let this book be your guide on this crucial journey.

Review quote:
Decolonizing the Body is a vital offering to women of color seeking a somatic approach to community healing. Practical, earthy, and wise, Blackwell invites us to do the inner work, and is a trustworthy guide for our time.
Review quote:
Decolonizing the Body is beautifully written, instructive, and inspiring. In accessible but flowing language, Kelsey Blackwell starts by reminding us that the body never lies. She helps us remember how to hear its signals, and even more importantly, provides a practical guide to freeing ourselves from the boxes that patriarchy, racism, and capitalism try to force us into.
Review quote:
This book is filled with so many moments of wisdom and joy. It is a gentle beckoning to one''s sensing, one''s feeling, one''s freedom. Naming the lies of internalized colonization and the truths of interdependence, unconditional dignity, and more, Kelsey weaves an invitation. Importantly, this book is written by and for women of color. And those of us who are white have so much to gain from reading it, too.
Biographical note:
Kelsey Blackwell is a certified somatic coach, writer, teacher and creator of the Decolonizing the Body 7-week program. She is committed to undermining the master''s tools with contemplative, somatic and creative practices. Working exclusively with womxn of color, whose wisdom she believes is uniquely essential in this time, Kelsey supports clients to confront internalized feelings of not-enoughness and reconnect with inherent dignity and worth. In addition to being impactful and powerful, Kelsey believes working towards personal and collective liberation must also bring joy. Kelsey brings to her work certification as a Somatic Coach from the Strozzi Institute, Certification as an InterPlay Leader, more than 10 years of Meditation Practice and Certification as a Meditation Guide through Shambhala International, study in UnTraining (unlearning internalized oppression) and Karuna Training and a Master''s Degree in Magazine Publishing from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern Universi