Boundary Restoration exercise and "ask a therapist"

I love this book so much. Trauma X: Holding Space Radically by VoVo

It talks about trauma, living within your values, taking care of others, taking care of the self. This is such a beautiful book. I believe it might be out of print but I’m hoping there are still copies at the link above. Vo Vo is an incredible artist and educator. This book combines their art, explanations about types of trauma, intersections of traumas including institutional trauma, and how trauma affects the brain, emotions, physical self, social relationships and memory. There are tips on how to show up for and offer support for others, including a section on trauma informed safety planning that’s designed to do with a friend. And a section on caring for yourself that covers a wide range of topics with lots of activities, from building emotional literacy, to knowing your communication preferences, learning to ask for help, connecting to your context, your cause and your story. By far my favorite self-help book.

(update: It does seem to be sold out, but here are a couple others I really like:

https://empoweredboundaries.com/

https://www.margeauxfeldman.com/shop-all/p/aligning-our-actions-with-our-values-a-workbook who also writes here https://substack.com/@carescapes

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One thing I think everyone could use about now is a bit of restoration of self. We are being pulled in so many directions and faced with so many daunting tasks, such a daunting future. There’s a number of “restoration of self” exercises I like to do and like to teach the people I work with to do, and once you’re over the initial self-consciousness of it all, they can be weirdly helpful.

Power Pose and Stomping

One super easy one is to do the power pose - standing like this with your hands on your hips.

And then you slowly but with power stomp one foot and really feel the reverberation of the stomp throughout your body. And then slowly and with power stomp the other foot, again really feeling it throughout the body. You can do it as many times as you want.

Boundary Restoration with string

This other one is quieter, and you need a piece of yarn or string. Here’s the video:

Wishing you some gentleness and joy, and some empowerment and power in these times.