Francesca welcomes Dr. Shelly Harrell for a conversation around multigenerational racial trauma, recognizing your inner truth, and getting ReRooted to your inner resources.
Dr. Shelly Harrell is a psychologist with nearly 30 years of experience as a therapist, professor, mentor, and consultant. She has focused her career on both research and applied work developing and delivering interventions that address the needs of culturally-diverse and underrepresented populations. Shelly also runs Soulfulness4Life, a company dedicated to developing and implementing psycho-educational training, and coaching services with a focus on meditation and other contemplative practices, resilience, empowerment, stress management, and wellness in ways that resonate with culturally-diverse populations.
Music and Soul
Francesca and Shelly start with a conversation around the topic of multigenerational racial trauma. How music can play a healing role. Shelly explores how things like slavery and genocide have an impact not just on the individual soul, but the collective soul as well. She talks about the need to take the sacred pause and listen to your inner wisdom.
“One of the things I do in my work is integrate music, it’s a central piece of healing. Music touches the soul and spirit, it’s beyond words. How music can touch us is beyond words. And often these experiences of stress and trauma are beyond words.” – Dr. Shelly Harrell
Explore more about music as a vehicle for transformation with Melanie Moser on Shakti Hour Ep. 29
Difference is Not Deviance (21:50)
Francesca examines some of the misconceptions of mindfulness, and how it’s important to be aware of your own individuality. Shelly reflects on the importance of recognizing your inner truth. And how this process is complicated for people who are members of historically and currently oppressed groups. She talks about not seeing difference as deviance, and not internalizing the thoughts that are based on the dominant, mainstream narratives of society.
“We don’t have to polarize these ways of being in the world, we can coexist with our differences.” – Dr. Shelly Harrell
Connecting to Inner Resources (36:40)
The conversation turns to how people living in conditions of extreme stress and oppression can access their inner resources through mindfulness training. Shelly talks about the need to expand these ancient mindfulness practices to be more inclusive, and honor difference and diversity. Francesca ends the show with a reminder that we can “get ReRooted to that which is already here within us all.”
“So again, creating an openness to how do people center? How do people bring themselves into themselves?” – Dr. Shelly Harrell
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