My Grandmother’s Hands
Click here to purchase prints of Rivers and the Vagus Nerve
Click here to purchase the original
My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Manakem was one of the most incredible books I’ve read so far this year. Maybe even over the course of many years. After being gifted a copy of this book from a workshop leader, I worked my way slowly through this book. This is not one to rush through. It is a book to be FELT. It is a book to be used as reference through your journey through racialized and historical trauma. I began reading this book with a book club but quickly discovered that rushing through it in just one month didn’t feel like it would give the message justice. The work that Resmaa refers to thoughout the pages speaks not only to white bodies, but also to black bodies and police bodies as well.
I turned the last page with a renewed sense of hope for the future—not the near future, but generations after us. After stopping and processing chapter by chapter while feeling and releasing trauma and generational tension, I was reminded that the movement and work for racial justice starts with our inward focus and healing individually. This collective work internally will be the catalist that propels our bodies to a new culture.
I hestitate to put this book back up on my shelf because it holds such a wealth of resources for daily use. From Somatic practices to connecting to our “soul nerve” (vagus nerve), or anchoring the body with deep breathing exercises or simply rocking or humming, each exercise is important in connecting our with our bodies.
Resmaa references the “soul nerve” thoughout the book. For those of us unfamiliar with this important part of our body, here are a few characteristics:
Also called the wanering nerve or soul nerve
The unifiying organ of the entire nervous system
Communicates through vibes and senations between body parts and body to body
Reaches through the throat, lungs, heart, stomach, liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney and gut.
Largest organ in autonomc nervous system.
Regulates the body’s basic functions.
Does NOT connect to thinking brian, but rather to brainstem (lizard brain)
It is where “we experience a felt sense of love, compassion, fear, grief, dread, sadness, loneliness, hope, empathy, anxiety, caring, disgust, and despair.”
It’s main purpose is to receive fight, flee or freeze messages from lizard brain and send to the rest of the body; also sending messages of “it’s okay; you’re safe, you can relax”
Regulates breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure, prevents inflamation, reduces pain, improves mood and helps manage fear.
Has zero capacy to think
Is where we experience emotions and sense of belonging.
Here are some activies Resmaa suggests that we practice in stressful or diffiecult situations to “settle your body, stay present, remain connected with out people”:
Hum
Belly breath
Slowly rock
Rub your belly
Sing aloud to yourself
Chant
Touch your discomfort
“A settled body enables you to harmonize and connect with other bodies around you while encouraging those bodies to settle as well. If you’re white, you may discover that when you can settle and manage your body, you won’t feel a need to manage Black ones—or a need to ask Black ones to manage yours. You’ll also be better able to manage, challenge and disrupt white body supremacy.”
“In order to work through your truma, you need to learn to slow down, reach for an internal resource, and fully expereince your body through your soul nerve.”
I decided to paint a river as I thought about “My Grandmother’s Hands” and the soul nerve and how it connects to so much of our bodies. I thought of how a river twists and turns and winds through the land connecting to so many parts of our earth. I thought of how water has memory and grounds us. That’s what I discovered as I read through Resmaa’s book about trauma and healing and the soul nerve. It is slow, deep, grounding work. It twists and turns through our bodies. To notice and appreciate the connections between our trauma and healing we must slow down and feel. We must let that connections disrupt what is not needed and give us what is neccesary for settling our bodies and feeling a sense of belonging.
