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Credits Last Updated 2017-06
In this exercise, women will push back on any feelings of monotony, disenchantment, sadness and disconnection by activating their desire to dream and rejoice with life.
This session should be attributed to Mujeres Al Borde’s Manual “Self-Care and Feminist Healing for Unmanageable” as adapted for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting resource “Cyberwomen: Holistic Digital Security Training Curriculum for Women Human Rights Defenders”, under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International CC BY-SA 4.0 License
Materials to Prepare:
- An open and relaxed mind
Trainer’s Note
- Self-care is an essential part of a holistic digital security practice, and is important to consistently reinforce and encourage – it is highly recommended that you distribute exercises related to self-care throughout your training.
- For this and all sessions in your training, always be conscious of and sensitive to women’s different physical abilities and limitations.
Running the Exercise:
Step 1 | Begin by explaining how, in the daily life of a woman activist or human rights defender, it can be easy to become overwhelmed by feelings of monotony, disenchantment, sadness and disconnection to overcome.
Step 2 | Continue by explaining that, during this exercise, participants will address those feelings they experience when they are struggling, or feel lost and without a sense of direction – they will do this by activating an energy point which, in traditional Eastern medicine, activates the desire to dream and to feel enchanted by life again.
Step 3 | Invite the participants to sit in a circle, either in their seats or on the floor.
Step 4 | Lead the group through the following steps (have them repeat this three times): - Locate your energy point – it sits right between your eyes, just below your eyebrows and just above the bridge of your nose.
- Inhale with a deep, cleansing breath and hold it.
- With your thumb, press down on your energy point – as you exhale, think of something that inspires you and makes you feel alive.
Step 5 | Finalize the session by inviting participants to use this technique whenever they feel the need to center themselves and push back on feelings of despair or melancholy. Talk about how it is okay to feel afraid, tired or disenchanted at times, and how everybody has felt this was at one time or another.