Releasing Trauma Through Movement, Breathing, and Journaling in the Black Community

By Tiffanie Wood

Breathing comes naturally to us until it doesn't. This could be a little bit of anxiety talking, but unless you have a breathing problem, you don't think about the "how." That is until you do, and then it's all you can think about. The same goes for moving. We don't think about "how" we walk or sit, just that we do it. What has become abundantly clear in the pandemic is that people with disabilities have been long utilizing many of the newly popular health and wellness trends. Meditation has regularly been lauded for its calming and stress reducing properties but its internal healing benefits have previously not been as widely spread. Not only can it make you feel better mentally, but physically has been shown to improve lung and body health.

For Black people in 2020, this is the equivalent of suddenly realizing what racism is - that it's the cause for so many community shortcomings. So, it shouldn't come as a shock that Black people specifically are not doing the one thing that's supposed to come naturally to everyone: breathe.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an uptick in public health and wellness discussions that have not gone unnoticed. The pandemic is awful, but it's forced the local and federal government's hand to extend resources to citizens that didn't exist previously.

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