Bearing Witness to Genocide: Tips for Self-Care

Photo by Mohammed Ibrahim on Unsplash   

Many of us are finding ourselves sitting in horror, confusion, anger & more as we bear witness to genocide. The advent of social media grants us 24/7 access to global news & stories. What may have felt abstract & distant in the past now feels very real for many of us as social media is constantly flooded with news, content, & graphic images.  Social media highlights more than ever how we all are connected & that the only way to heal collectively is to shed light on the matters that cause us pain.  As one of my favorite Rumi quotes states “The cure for the pain is in the pain.” When our fellow human being is hurting - we are hurting too, I recently read a post on “Black Liturgies” that captures this truth by James Baldwin, “To encounter oneself is to encounter the other: and this is love. If I know that my soul trembles, I know that yours does, too: and if I can respect this, both of us can live.” Our collective survival & liberation is dependent on our ability to see ourselves in one another instead as separate beings. While it is important to bear witness to suffering as a way to practice empathy, to honor our shared humanity, & to learn how to build from the pain, it is also critical that we take care of ourselves while doing so. 

Genocide is horrific, unnatural, & deeply traumatizing for those directly impacted & for those who experience vicariously. Vicarious trauma is the trauma of the bystander, watching the terror from afar. Whether it be direct or vicarious trauma, the body only knows that it’s experiencing trauma. A trauma response can exacerbate our personal stressors depending on our state of mind or window of tolerance before our brains were flooded with the news, painful stories, & graphic images online. It can trigger the ancestral/historical trauma encoded in your DNA that remembers the stories of genocide & war that may have happened to your people. You may find yourself in a trauma response because you are a mother/parent witnessing the violence & loss other mothers/parents & children are facing. A trauma response can also trigger survivor’s guilt where you may feel the pain of being alive while your fellow humans & their children are dying OR feeling guilty about being relatively safe & privileged while your fellow humans and their children are not. And sometimes we don’t know the why of being triggered, but what’s most important is knowing when you are in a trauma response.

A trauma response can be all encompassing. It is important for us to track & build awareness of when the body is in a trauma response. Too much pain can overwhelm the nervous system & place us in states of immobilization (frozen, desensitized, hardened) which can take us out of our humanity & the ability to channel our emotions in healthy ways. The following guide seeks to offer coping strategies to tend to the pain & reconnect with yourself through self-care practices. 

1 .Tracking the body: what am I noticing?

broken-heartedness - heaviness - GI distress- fatigue - feeling off- headaches -brain fog  emptiness - sadness - dread- physical pain- insomnia - heart palpitations - isolation- worry - rumination - despair - short fuse - confusion - numbness - anger - tension unsettled- fear - crisis of faith - helplessness - guilt - coping through drinking alcohol, substances, & food (restricting, overeating, comfort eating)

2. Resourcing: for self-regulation 

create space for your emotions - spend time in nature - engage your 5 senses -  breathwork- movement grounding-somatic release practices like dancing, shaking, stomping, scream to move through the pain - create art- music- write/journaling - candles/altar for grief - turn worry into prayer - do your best to take care of the basics: nutrition, drink water, adequate sleep/rest

3. Titrate media consumption:

Titration is a trauma healing technique which means to take things in slowly. In this context, to consume media coverage bit by bit instead of deep diving into it. 

4. Communal Grief Processing: 

We heal in community & deeply need each other in times like these. At the root of trauma is disconnection & carrying the embodied histories of being violently ripped away from one another. The antidote is connection/community care. Consider gathering w/others to create space for communal witnessing, sharing, emotional releasing, art-making, etc.

5. Channel Emotions through Action: Education, Donate, & Mobilize

-Education resources: @aljazeeraenglish @jewishvoiceforpeace @theimeu @letstalkpalestine

-Donate & mobilize in the way(s) that feel right for you

Remember to keep breathing, keep loving yourself & one another.