Niseema Dyan Diemer LMT, SEP, BCPP
In this second hour of our interview with Richard D. Smith we dive into how the systemic trauma of oppressed communities is reflected in feelings of powerlessness followed by rage. Lack of education and job opportunities, limited access to healthcare and mental health programs has reinforced the idea that somehow Black, Indigenous, People of Color, (BIPOC) people are inherently, "less than".
Richard sees self love as a "revolutionary act." This starts with recognizing and understanding, "What happened to me is not my fault or even about me." When you are able to see that external events and influences are not about you and that you can choose to take care of yourself in simple yet profound ways you start to co-create your life. By paying attention to the basics like good nutrition, like daily exercise and like choosing to be with people who support you, you can shift from a learned helplessness to learned optimism. This helps you gain self worth and perspective and it helps you make decisions that shift behaviors from self sabotaging to self nurturing. When individuals do this work the whole community benefits and systemic oppression changes.
When communities begin to organize in protest and take grassroots actions they are in an active healing of their own individual and generational trauma. Richard believes that when this happens an individual can reclaim and reimagine the institutions that have failed him and his community. The rage and anger that pours out of long-oppressed communities makes sense and the process of trauma healing begins with reclaiming your power and your community's power.
One of the first steps in healing trauma, says Richard, is to activate, "healthy aggression." This is the kind of aggression that supports the individual to stand up for himself, honoring his self worth and creatIng safety in his world. Standing up and saying, "my life matters" is tremendously healing. Standing up for myself leads to standing up for my community and all the people in my life.
Richard ended his two episode appearance talking about a forthcoming metrics for healing individuals and communities. His work educating all communities about the effects of individual, systemic and generational trauma and where to go from here is just beginning.