Dr. Brenda Gandara, PHD

✨ I wrote this poem in solidarity with all of you who are " too political"...💛

✨ To be honest, I am not sure, if it qualifies to be a poem but here it is:

🌀First two slides: inspired by .art

🌀Third Slide: Via@

✨ Today I Did Not Want to Be Too Political

✨ But hearing the cries of starving children pierced through my heart

✨ Today I did not want to be too political

✨ But students' voices are echoing in my thoughts

✨ Today I did not want to be too political

✨ But I imagine each hour of violent death infusing the air --and camouflaged as love

✨ Today I did not want to be too political

✨But sensing each moment of yellow laughter in genocide breaks any spell to keep me blind

✨ Today I did not want to be too political

✨ But choosing humanity in every breath is too much, too radical 🕊️

Kudos to the creator(s)...

Overly independence does not work ...we are all part of an ecosystem. Giving ourselves permission to be interdependent is practicing self-compassion and is also decolonial work.

Just resharing this old comic because...well, you know why.

Self-Compassion is a well-researched practice to welcome our humanity. Welcoming our humanity is decolonial work. Self-judgment is not.

Let’s continue this week on a good note, and release the human tendency to speak harshly to ourselves and about ourselves 🙌

You may not be where you want yet, and you may being seeing old patterns repeating themselves. You won’t get past that by beating yourself up.

You may not be where you want, you may even see old patterns repeating themselves. But you still deserve kindness 💗

Self-Compassion Says: created by and reposted from the amazing 🙏🏽

Congratulations 👏🏻🎉 Felicidades!

Connecting with our personal power and reclaiming our definition of love is decolonizing work 🌸💖🌸

Reconnecting with our feminine energy is to decolonize

https://www.facebook.com/100050641322362/posts/946342277063808/?mibextid=rS40aB7S9Ucbxw6

What does it mean to Reclaim the Feminine?

It means to honour our sacred connection to life that is present in every moment. It means to realize that life is one whole and begin to recognize the interconnections that form the web of life. It means to realize that everything, every act, even every thought, affects the whole.

And it also means to allow life to speak to us.

We are constantly bombarded by so many impressions, by so much media and advertising, that it is not easy to hear the simple voice of life itself.

But it is present, even within the mirage of our fears and desires, our anxieties and expectations.

And life is waiting for us to listen: it just needs us to be present and attentive. It is trying to communicate to us the secrets of creation so that we can participate in the wonder that is being born.

The mystery of the divine feminine speaks to us from within her creation. She is not a distant god in heaven, but a presence that is here with us, needing our response.

She is the divine returning to claim her creation, the real wonder of what it means to be alive. We have forgotten her, just as we have forgotten so much of what is sacred, and yet she is always part of us.

But now she needs to be known again, not just as a myth, as a spiritual image, but as something that belongs to the blood and the breath.

She can awaken us to an expectancy in the air, to an ancient memory coming alive in a new way.

She can help us to give birth to the divine that is within us, to the oneness that is all around us. She can help us to remember our real nature.
~Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee~

Photo: https://www.amandacharchian.com/

Archaeology for the Woman's Soul

Creativity can keep our brain healthy 💚🪴

✨ How many expectations do you have of this moment? Are they realistic? What impact are these having on your ability to enjoy your life?

✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨✨

Vivir con expectativas puede decepcionarte y desconectarte de la realidad.

"Las expectativas son resentimientos premeditados", dicen.

✨ Al final del día, te preguntarás: "¿Por qué no puedo relajarme?

✨ La verdad es que podemos haber interiorizado expectativas externas (escuela, redes sociales, jefes, padres, etc.) que, aunque tengamos la habilidad de relajarnos, no lo haremos.

✨ Es importante diferenciar entre expectativas realistas y no realistas. Por ejemplo, en lugar de esperar estar completamente relajado al final del día, puedes permitirte estar con lo que surja y calmarlo según sea necesario.

✨ Descolonizar es desafiar las expectativas sistemáticas y acoger nuestra humanidad. 🙂

"When I rest within me, I do not do anything and that is everything" Toltec Wisdom

Art Credit to Savi.

That is the first history of Americans before it was America
👉 https://spiritofnatives.com

Para conocernos mejor necesitamos tiempo para desenfrenarse y reflexionar en los patrones que nos llevan a una calidad mejor de vida y cuáles otros no son conducentes a la calidad de vida que deseamos ..

To know ourselves better we need time to unwind and reflect on the patterns that lead to a better quality of life and which ones are not conducive to the quality of life we desire...

La traición institucional es un concepto descrito por la psicóloga Jennifer Freyd, que se refiere a "las malas acciones perpetradas por una institución contra individuos [o grupos de personas o paises] dependientes de esa institución, incluida la falta de prevención o de respuesta de apoyo a las malas acciones de individuos, o grupos de personas, o países (por ejemplo, g3noc*d3) cometidas en el contexto de la institución...".

Después de sufrir una traición institucional, puedes sentir desconfianza o ansiedad ante cualquier signo de incoherencia, aunque antes no te molestara.

Podría tratarse de tu amígdala, que funciona para detectar el peligro. El problema de este mecanismo es que la amígdala no distingue entre nuestro pasado y nuestro presente. Para esta parte de ti, el peligro es el peligro. Tampoco distingue entre peligro psicológico y físico.

Nuestra amígdala tampoco distingue entre distintos niveles de peligro.

Tal vez sea cuando tu jefe no te llama a la hora que dijo que lo haría, o llega tarde a la oficina, o tu institución no apoya los derechos humanos básicos de las personas que luchan por ellos.

Estas señales pueden dejarte con tu respuesta de lucha o huida activada, especialmente cuando la traición institucional es histórica y continua.

Lo que necesitas es alguien o un grupo de personas que te ayuden a calibrar y calmar tu sistema nervioso frenando contigo, escuchándote, reflejando tus sentimientos, reflejando tus patrones de desconexión y relacionándose con tu experiencia.

Alguien que sea capaz de crear un espacio congruente para tu experiencia.

Para que puedas sentir seguridad en tu cuerpo.

https://youtube.com/shorts/JPQ6NLptkMY?feature=shared

Chomsky: Why Palestine Is Alone #Shorts US intellectual Noam Chomsky explains the reasons for international indifference to the suffering of Palestinians: Namely, wealth and power. The biggest econ...

Can we separate politics from the use of our language?

Who defines our concepts?

How can language create distance between us and our present?

For example, who defined the word genocide?

What is the socio-political history of those who have defined this word? their personal experience of oppression?

Can genocide be something present or does it have to end to qualify in this way?

Part of our decolonization is exercising our socio-political muscle to identify our socio-political identity given what we have experienced in our lives, and to question and identify the socio-political identity of others, especially when they are involved in creating the language we use to capture oppressive conditions.

🇵🇸🤍🇵🇸🤍🇵🇸🤍🇵🇸🤍🇵🇸🤍🇵🇸🤍🇵🇸🤍

¿Podemos separar la política del uso de nuestro lenguaje?

¿Quién define nuestros conceptos?

¿Cómo puede el lenguaje crear distancia entre nosotros y nuestro presente?

Por ejemplo, ¿quién ha definido la palabra genocidio?

¿Cuál es la historia sociopolítica de quienes han definido esta palabra? su experiencia personal de opresión?

¿Puede el genocidio ser algo presente o tiene que terminar para calificarse de esta manera?

Parte de nuestra descolonización consiste en ejercitar nuestro músculo sociopolítico para identificar nuestra identidad sociopolítica teniendo en cuenta lo que hemos experimentado en nuestras vidas, y para cuestionar e identificar la identidad sociopolítica de los demás, especialmente cuando están implicados en la creación del lenguaje que utilizamos para captar las condiciones de opresión.

The importance of understanding and standing up to colonization has been brought home to many of us by the horrific extermination that continues with PAL*ST*NA.

To stand with the Pal3stin*ans is to stand with all indigenous peoples who have fought for the rights to their lands and natural resources. It is to stand with all oppressed groups who continue to struggle for their basic human rights. It is the same flag and the same struggle for the right to exist. Remember that Pal3st*n3 needs our collective voice.

Let's come together as a community and join me in a workshop to bring to the forefront colonial structures and how they have impacted our field of psychology.

I invite you to meet in person so that we can better understand colonization and contribute our voices to the decolonization of mental health.

In partnership with the Orange County Psychological Association (OCPA), this workshop will explore how we can begin to cultivate our decolonization by contextualizing our most researched psychological concepts to oppressive socio-political structures, and more! Much more!

If you are a mental health professional, student, or just interested in the topic, this event is for you!

This event is free for students! :)

To register: https://www.ocpapsych.org

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in sponsorship opportunities or if you would like me to come and speak at your organization.

Palestinians and Israelis share their cruelty.

But Palestinian brutality here is different from that in Israel.

Also, for many decades, Palestinian casualties have been a constant. In contrast, Israeli casualties have been comparatively few.

The use of unequal and unjust force, resulting in the destruction of the other, is a familiar concept to many people.

This power dynamic in question can be unequivocally identified as colonialism.

Palestine wants its freedom but lacks socio-economic and military power. Palestine is tired of injustice and inequality: it is tired of its colonization.

To understand the concept of decolonization, on the other hand, we have to recognize that the lives of those who lack power are just as sacred. We have to understand that they have a right to exist. We have to recognize their right to sovereignty: something that is clearly yet to be understood by those in power.

✨ Mucho de nuestro conocimiento ancestral ha sido transmitido en comunidad. Es por eso qué me surgió está idea de entrevistar gente que han explorado en sus vidas la decolonizacion y vivido desde su experiencia personal. Para así aprender de todos desde la experiencia.

Nuestra primerísima invitada es Tzenteolt mujer medicina que nos compartirá un poco como una chica creada en escuela católica acaba desarrollándose y conectandose con su sabiduría y poder ancestral. 🔥🍃

✨ Si tú has explorado tu decolonización y te gustaría compartirla con nosotros mándame un DM y lo coordinamos. 😉

💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠💠

✨ Much of our ancestral knowledge has been transmitted in the community. That is why I came up with the idea of interviewing people who have explored decolonization in their lives from their personal experience. So that we can all learn from each other's experience. Something that we as human beings have been doing for a very long time! 🍃

✨ Our very first guest is Tzenteolt, a medicine woman who will share with us how a girl raised in a catholic school ends up developing and connecting with her ancestral wisdom and power.🔥

✨ If you have explored your decolonization and would like to share it with us send me a DM and we'll coordinate it. 🤗

*This interview will be in Spanish.