Instead of accepting the status quo, the intergenerational trauma and oppression that society normalizes, you are more interested in what we need to change, and ways to break the cycle.

You have probably been developing and fine-tuning your critical awareness.

When we find ourselves questioning everything around us and don’t take anything at face value, we begin to see where change is needed.

“Knowing who I am informs what I want to change.”

When we embrace our identities and declare our positionality, it adds depth, richness and meaning to everything we do.
 

Knowing yourself is arguably the first step it took for me to build critical awareness.

So what is critical awareness/consciousness?

As we are navigating in this dystopian world, our levels of consciousness can shift in and out as responses to overwhelm. Paul Freire's (1973) work outlined 3 levels of consciousness: 

Here's a hot take…

I am convinced that we have all been in magical consciousness at some point or another!

Whether it's about climate change, racism, ableism, stigma or divisiveness around gender orientations, social classes, types of education… we live under multiply oppressive systems and I am pretty sure we experience these 3 levels of consciousness all the time.

You probably have a loved one, or friend group or acquaintances who do not perceive our actions as capable of changing conditions… and, I want to remind you that hope isn’t an emotion or optimism, hope is a discipline (as quoted by Mariame Kaba).

If you are dreaming of better and brighter futures for yourself and us all on a certain area, what informs you of this hope for liberation?

Why would this be showing up for you so strongly?

・₊✧

Perhaps there is a soul wound…

Soul wound: 

the psycho-spiritual damage peoples suffer from historical trauma, intergenerational trauma and colonization. Another interpretation I found of the 'soul wound' is the moral injury that pierces a person's identity, sense of morality, and relationship to society.

Here are some ways to sustain our soul:
 

Soul care is caring for each other. When the soul or culture of certain groups are oppressed, we need to find each other who are radicalizing from the wounding so we can liberate from such oppression in small communities at a time.

Tending to our bodyminds. For example, healthy ways to release rage if you have been feeling this could be to seek community, bring in movement and singing (activates our vagus nerve), or join creative workshops. Choosing to support our bodyminds are small and mighty ways to live authentically, so we have room to take care of each other.

Community and belonging. We navigate repression effectively in community. Hope in our ability to get through hardships together makes us resilient and powerful. As Decipher is approaching year 4 as a therapy practice, I have been brainstorming ways to foster more third space elements: spaces outside of work and home that bring a sense of belonging, collaboration and community.

Committing to lifelong learning. It is incredibly humbling when critical consciousness builds within us: when it continues to witness, call out, and awaken parts of us that have been laying dormant due to internalized -isms from living in an oppressive world.

If you are needing to play, rest and fuel your creative spirit to continue showing up for collective liberation, I am collaborating with my friend, Monica from Level V Bakery to bring you 4 workshops this Summer! Save your spot in the link below and share with your friends 🫶

Have you ever heard of the saying, 'work to live’, instead of ‘live to work’ and wondered… how the heck do I do that?

…Perhaps there's something gnawing inside of you when you hear that you have a choice to “live” fully/presently.

…Perhaps you are seeking for self-actualization or a spiritual awakening of some sort, to transform and do some healing.

…Perhaps you are similar to myself, in which they call a ‘cyclebreaker’.

…Then maybe you're in the right place 💗

In these past few years, I found myself exploring rest as resistance and strategizing ways to escape capitalism (which is a system that uses humans as commodities) with the intention of living wholly as a liberation practice.

I sense in my body, that when I verbalize these words above, it's still fresh. Kind of like discovering a treasure chest that’s been locked up under the sea for a very long time.

Sometimes I wonder if an ancestor from my lineage has called out unjust systems before and the wisdom got lost along the way.

Or if they were punished for questioning it.

Or that no one has ever cared to be critical of it until little old me.

In this journey, I am discovering just how deep intergenerational wounds can be, especially when it comes to my relationship with work for survival…

 ₊˚ ☁️・₊✧ 

Healing justice is when we reflect, observe and recognize how systems we seek to change outside of our bodies are also carried within our bodies.

To feel worthy of rest is not easy for me and my lineage!

In fact, it's an arduous feat for someone like me to find exits out of stifling spaces and experiences. I find myself crisis managing, keeping up with thoughts of what is expected of me in moments when I need to listen to myself and need rest the most.

(Below is me rambling so you can choose to skip past this)

I heard stories that each of my parents took on multiple jobs to save up for a one-way ticket to come from their motherland to a new continent, leaving the rest of their families physically behind and sending back the fruits of their labor to support them financially. Growing up, it was normalized to not take weekends off. With barely any time for relational building and quality time, this never-ending hamster wheel has played like a broken record.

(Okay, I would LOVE for you to read this ↓)

Breaking the cycle means unwinding intergenerational wounds of up to 14 generations!

Please note that it is NOT about breaking the entire 14 generations of burdens, and that if you still struggle with the cycle showing up, you are no longer a cycle breaker. The focus is more about building awareness of personal responses, of family's history and ancestors' stories, as well as cultural woundings. Being a cycle breaker is about building critical consciousness (will write more about this in the next newsletter) of what is the wound that your lineage and yourself have been carrying. 

In the therapy room, I have been practicing remembering that when clients/folks are in session with me, I may be witnessing up to 500 years of ancestral wisdom, cultural and historical stuff showing up.

Hey, I recognize that this practice sounds intimidating. However, it serves as a reminder that we are incredible humans who can carry some pretty heavy stuff.

We are on this journey of liberating ourselves, future generations and organizing with community for a better world. That’s some superhero typa power 💪

・₊✧  Take a deep breath here   ☁️・₊

Some gentle reminders I tell myself:

"I will notice more presence, tend to my body and mind, and feel my heart space soften.

There will be many more moments where I catch myself in labor when I could have chosen to relax. That is because these systems are designed for me to sense risk if I were to choose to rest (ahem… due to capitalism, patriarchy, intergenerational wounds… ahem).

There will be many more moments where choices to rest will become closer within reach. When I am no longer defined by the disconnection, violence, betrayal and disregard of my healing."

꩜   𖦹   ꩜   𖦹   ꩜

Here's a journalling/art prompt for you, or a conversation you may choose to have with your community:

What is it that you are hoping to break in this lifetime?

-Linda

There's what it is. 

Then there's what it seems.

Recently most of my concerns shows up as what it seems like initially.

It's as if my actions seem futile.

It seems like like I'm losing it. 

My body, my business and my life seems like they're in their flop era.

Witnessing the age of the neocolonial internet where those who hold power actively outrightly censor untold stories of the oppressed and when allies share their activism, how shadow banned their accounts can become.

Here's what they don't want you to know!

How to access what it is and has always been:

In my community, folks whom I've been reaching out to are helping me to be able to call out all the ridiculous moments it has been seeming like to get to what it actually is.

Oppressive systems are built to prime and gaslight us to feel ‘what it seems’ like. Like we are fraud, or that nothing we do will help and we should just look away…
 

…when it is actually a healthy sign of your humanity if you have been feeling dysregulated, feeling the rage from the grief of witnessing.

Your felt sense of discomfort, grief and rage is living proof of the practice of unlearning and decolonizing. Indigenous teachings tell us that our bodies carry the knowledge, wisdom, pain and wounds from 7+ generations. Rage is our embodied wisdom. 

 If you feel like you are in the smack middle of your ‘flop era’, 
you are in the right place.

The place where there is:

• collective healing towards liberation

• unlearning and resistance from oppressive systems and practices

• access to what it is and to your lineage's wisdom

• emotional healing instead of spiritual bypassing

• creative ways to validate your experiences

• bravery to share wisdom, advocate and call up reps because you're a badass human who cares.

“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians” 

- Nelson Mandela

The essence of our shared humanity and collective healing is to build a container for one another until all of us are free.

Bearing the weight of the thousands of lost dreams and the lifetimes of deep sorrow that will follow won't be possible if we don't come together, continue to call and email reps for a ceasefire NOW. 

I often think about the similarities of interweaving in different activism work I am part of.

Below are some thoughts that I've been reflecting on in the world and lens of social justice, environmental justice, animal rights justice, that I adopt and aim to pursue collective liberation for us all:

Disclaimer: below are current self-reflections, learnings from activists and colleagues away from an institution (some days I wish I had to chance to learn from a program in undergrad and other times I’m honoured to learn at my own pace) to work towards transformative justice. FYI, there is no guarantee I will stay with these same ideas in the future: I may shift or grow out of these thoughts and ideas, which is all part of the process! I also don't expect you as the reader to agree with all that I write below. However if you resonate with any of these thoughts, that's awesome! :-)

Punishment and censorship from activism work is totally a thing.

“People get pleasure, validation, and even build community out of punishment.” - Mariame Kaba

I am practicing acknowledging that punishment can be ‘rewarded’ and at times even ‘pleasurable’ in our humanity. And as justice-practicing folks, we are not exempt from this humanness. When someone or something hurts us, we may also want to hurt them back. We are not perfect beings.

Perfectionism and activism don't work well together.

I have been unlearning the harmful effects of perfectionism the long and hard way through first dipping into 'white veganism' when I turned vegan half a decade ago. I was experiencing constant shame and guilt from this space: like judgements if you aren't vegan for the ‘right reasons’ etc. (don't even get me started!).

'Cancel culture’ in the social justice space is something I witness often too. Spending our precious efforts and time judging and hating on others can be exhausting and unsettling.

This work is a WIP. People are all in different stages and come from very different spaces. It usually takes group improvisation and nurturing, not isolating and cornering. If you are hoping to steer away from ‘cancel culture’, check out what transformative justice is all about.

Transformative justice gives us opportunity to “transform” through learning, growing, which can help us even in healing through discussions. I aim to sprinkle in transformative justice praxis in different spaces I enter. Join me if you're up for this challenge too!

Failures helps us grow! Failures provide movement!

It’s not always your role to educate those who aren't in the collective.

You don’t have to care about opinions from voices that are not in the collective. I experience exhaustion and insecurity around spaces dominated by white fragility, folks who shame and punish others for making mistakes and the like. Give yourself the permission to distance and disengage so you can spend your energy in spaces that make you feel empowered and sustained.

Deepa Iyer’s work on The Social Change Ecosystem Map helped me find that I don’t have to do and be everything; that I can take on roles for social change that sustains my energy while doing important, charged work.

Where does your passion lie?

My activism work is currently leaning towards healing justice work, connecting with folks who are hearing about these ideas for the first time (in their ‘awakening’ stage or contemplating on pursuing this kind of practice). I imagine adopting play, creativity, art into spaces I enter. I hope to create digestible content for those who are thinking of coming closer and maybe joining this community!

"Hope is a discipline” - Mariame Kaba

Hope in this context is not an emotion or something we hold onto. Hope is something we do. Hope sustains us in this work. Your role no matter how ‘small’ it seems is valuable. Instead of narrowing in on the dread of the current system and the state of the world, I am practicing on choosing to commit to something else that is possible.

Accountability in community.

There is deep yearning for a space that gets me and these values I care about. That provides me with a vision of where we can go. I have been reading and reaching to books, articles, podcasts by transformative justice advocates and learning from the roots, from BIPOC folks, from stories, from family, searching for communal care that have been passed down and ideas on liberation.

I am currently helping out on a really exciting project with a fellow therapist friend. ROJ will be an offering for justice-oriented practitioners (students, therapists, coaches, social workers, HR or DEI workers, SJ activists etc.) or those who are curious in adopting justice into their practice. If you are in need of an accountability community when pursuing collective liberation and would like to unlearn together, ROJ may be the community for you!

PS. I will be posting on @reflectingonjustice on IG, you are welcome to follow us if you are interested!

I don't know about you, but I've been searching and dreaming for a space like this for quite awhile now. I can’t wait to share the launch with you folks in the near future!

Healing and activism work is and will always be interwoven.

The symbiotic relationship of stories, emotions, feels that oscillate in and out of the humans we get the chance to witness and connect with. Collective healing and mutual aid can shift difficult and unbearable moments.