- Hey, y'all.

It hasn't been long, but I'd be lying if I didn't say that things have been rough.

Testimonies for the trial of Derek Chauvin have been traumatizing.

We've seen one juror break down into tears over George Floyd's death.

Kids who should be worrying about school have had to recount the shame and guilt that they felt from watching a man die.

Many of us are so busy getting by that, we don't notice the toll that this trial is taking on our minds, on our bodies, on our souls.

So making time to care for ourselves feels more important than before.

So here's the question.

How do we protect ourselves mentally and spiritually through the trial?

(bright music) - If you're gonna listen and watch on this trial, first thing to do is orient yourself.

Look around, look behind you, look up, look down, let your body know that there's nothing behind it.

Look for places to leave, look for places to escape, look for doors, exit doors, look for windows.

Remind the body that you're here right now.

Okay?

Ground yourself.

Notice your feet inside your shoes.

Notice your booty on a chair or something like that.

Notice your... Breathe, right?

Have somebody there with you, right?

Hold their hand.

Touch, self touch is important.

You notice something happening in your neck touch your neck and give it support.

These are not Jesus' hands.

These are just ways to give your body support in things that are showing up in the body.

Just support it.

So you may notice something in the heart some in the stomach, just support that.

Rock, hum, whale, do those pieces and more than anything, pause and stop.

When you notice the overwhelm.

Talk to other people, move, but pause and stop.

So you notice the overwhelm is starting to begin to be too much.

Turn it off, get up, move, walk, go outside, call get on Zoom.

Do whatever it is that you need to do.

But put in a lot of breaks.

A lot of breaks.

Don't override as black people, one of the ways we survived...

I have survived this brutality is not only tapping into joy and love and laughter with each other right?

And communing with each other.

One of the ways we survived is to override everything.

We override anything that comes up, we override get to it and let's just move through it, right?

And when I want us to do is pay attention to that and we notice that that's happening in a more frequent basis.

Stop, reach out to people, get up, walk, move, right?

So that's what I would say.

In terms of white people, I would say the white people watch it.

Watch the whole thing.

You can do some of the same things I've said but just watch the whole thing, come back to it, right?

And begin to get together with other white bodies and deal with race specifically, race specifically that has a four and 500-year old charge to it that white folks have not developed any type of collective efficacy around.

White people have no idea about race.

None.

Collectively have no idea.

And they have to begin to work with this with each other's bodies.

- When times are hard, it's important to lean on ourselves and on the people that are around us.

We need to check on each other.

You need to take care of yourself.

We'll get through this the way that we always have, together.

Until next time, peace and love.

(bright music)