On the podcast: a grief too big to hold alone
This podcast was recorded in early September, 2023, in the midst of a wave of grief that felt too big for my body; too big to hold alone. In Rooted, we are dedicated to shifting away from cultural forms that perpetuate separation and isolation.
Sometimes my heart breaks so deeply at the news of the world that I can hardly keep my head up. At times the grief becomes so big that it feels like my body isn’t big enough to hold it, almost as if I could crack and out of the crevasse that opens up, this primal scream would come tearing out to shake the foundations of the earth.
And it always reminds me of this idea that challenges a lot of the Eurocentric ideas about grief, that it’s a private affair, or something to limit to one or two people, or perhaps a good therapist. But sometimes the grief is not mine alone; let alone mine to hold alone.
This short reflection is devoted to that.
About the author(s):
.png)
Karine Bell makes her home with her two kids, her partner and a dog.
She’s a somatics teacher and abolitionist, dedicated to embodied trauma
alchemy. A bi-cultural black woman, she’s also a culturally reflexive anthropologist exploring the intersection of where our bodies/psyches/experiences meet our collective histories.
She believes in the healing made possible at the personal and collective level by the work we do through transforming experience in our bodies today. She combines continued study in somatics with studies in depth psychology with a focus on community, liberation, indigenous and eco-psychologies at Pacifica.