This week we reclaim our Voice.
For many of us speaking up for our own wants and needs is unknown territory. For some of us we are quick to speak out for the wants and needs of others, but not for ourselves. Because, as I wrote about a couple weeks ago, we learned from a very young age that speaking up, asking for our own wants and needs, is not acceptable.
Today is about stating clearly to ourselves that having our own needs and wants met is acceptable. Having our own boundaries respected is to be expected.
And.
To have these needs and wants met, to let others know where our boundaries are, we have to speak up for ourselves.
Speaking up for ourselves can be terrifying at first. It can literally make our bodies and voices shake. It can be so anxiety provoking that it overwhelms us. Because of the discomfort it causes, many times many of us will go the "easy" route of not speaking up at all. We convince ourselves that things aren't that bad or that we don't really need/want a thing. We buy into the idea of short term comfort instead of advocating for our long term pleasure.
Today I invite us all to consider the ways we've done this in the past. To offer love and compassion to our Self - past, present, and future. To recognize we have done the best we could with the resources we've had.
And.
Now, we are all learning, or relearning, new resources which will allow us new ways of being in the world. Allow yourself to speak your wants, whisper them under your breath or shout them out from the mountain top, wherever you are right now is where you are. And we need to take these first steps of speaking our wants, our desires, our boundaries; of putting ourselves in that unknown and incredibly uncomfortable space, to recognize the sensations that are happening in our bodies for what they are - old patterns and tools that were once necessary for our survival but no longer are.
EMBODIMENT EXERCISE
I invite you to try this exercise before you start your writing. It will only take a minute or two (or longer if you like!).
Body Reclamation - Throat and Voice
Begin by putting your fingertips on your throat. If you like you can rest them there for a few moments, applying as much or as little pressure as feels good to you, or you can gently tap or massage your throat if you like.
When you are ready, repeat the following three phrases to yourself, either out loud or inside your mind. Repeat the set phrases three times total.
This is my throat.
This is MY throat.
This is MY throat being touched by MY hands.
Doing this exercise while looking in the mirror at your own throat can be extra beneficial.
Note. If touching your throat is activating in any way - stop! Instead simply look at your throat in the mirror and say:
This is my throat.
This is MY throat.
I am looking at my throat.
Note: These reclamation exercises may feel weird or silly or even dumb. I want to encourage you to push past those feelings and thoughts and do the exercise anyway. It feels odd because we are never taught to claim our bodies as our own, and we are going against generations of familial and social conditioning and narratives when we do this work of reclamation.
That said, if you start to do this exercise and it feel "icky" or you become extra anxious doing it, then please stop immediately and practice one of the embodiment/self-regulation exercises from earlier in the week or ones that you know and use in your own practice.
STREAM OF CONSCIOUS WRITING
Before doing the exercises above, think about these questions below for a moment and then once you have completed the exercises, write our your responses in your journal.
What are things you would like to speak up about but have been unable to in the past?
How can your offer yourself compassion for your inability to speak in the past?
What resources can you utilize to help regulate your nervous system as you begin to use your voice now?
If you’d like to support my writing and work (and get some extra goodies too) you can subscribe for $7/month. The extra material paid subscribers recieve will be available for the lifetime of your subscription and the archive (all public posts over three months) is available to all new paid subscribers once you join.
Ways for us to connect
Embodied Relating/Trauma Informed Embodiment on Insta*
Gwynn Raimondi Writes on Insta*
Soothe Your Nervous System Card Deck
Individual Sessions (I currently have two bi-weekly spots available. If you are interested in working with me, please click the link and use the email shown to request a free 30-minute consultation to see if we are a good fit.)
Tarot Readings Every month I offer four readings and they are given on a first come, first served basis.
Ancestral Healing & Journeying Work - (Re)Connecting to who we were before whiteness. Individual sessions to find reconnection with your ancesters, healing ancestral curses/processing ancestral trauma, and nourishing our ancestral strength and wisdom.
*Please note I am slowly moving away from social media. The best way to connect with me and my work is right here.