🍁 We Are the Storm and the Shelter: Healing Together This Fall

By Revived Soul Wellness & Consultation

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.” — June Jordan

🌊 Opening Reflection: The Weather Inside and Around Us

This season, the world feels heavy.From the hurricane Melissa to the ongoing political turbulence here in the U.S., many of us are holding fear, grief, and fatigue that aren’t just personal — they’re collective.

As Black and Brown professionals, healers, and community builders, we often carry the storm within us — the tension between staying informed and staying sane, between showing up and slowing down.

But what if this fall, we remembered: we are not only the storm — we are also the shelter.We are the hands rebuilding.We are the prayers whispered across oceans.We are the warmth that keeps the fire of hope alive, even when the winds try to blow it out.

🕯 Collective Liberation in Real Time

There’s no denying it — many of us feel powerless right now. Watching disasters unfold, policies threaten our rights, and systems crumble can leave us emotionally numb or hypervigilant. But these reactions are not signs of weakness — they are signs of trauma.

Collective trauma isn’t just what happens to us — it’s what happens between us when systems disconnect us from our shared humanity.

And yet, liberation begins in the remembering:

• The remembering of our bodies as sacred ground.

• The remembering of our ancestors who survived storms before us.

• The remembering of community care as resistance — a radical form of love in the face of despair.

When we heal together, we reclaim our power from systems that thrive on our exhaustion.

🍂 Fall as an Invitation to Release

As the leaves fall, they remind us that release is part of the rhythm of resilience.Let this season be your teacher in letting go — not to give up, but to make room.

Let go of the need to hold it all alone.Let go of the guilt for resting.Let go of the illusion that your worth is tied to your productivity or your pain.

Fall invites us to shed what blocks us from softness — to ground in what is still good, still growing, still within reach.

🧠 Liberation Tools: Regulating the Collective Nervous System

When the world feels chaotic, tending to your nervous system is revolutionary.Here are 3 somatic and reflective tools to try this week:

1. Co-Regulation Call:Call or text someone you trust and say, “I don’t need advice — just a little grounding.”Sync your breath as you talk. Collective calm builds collective power.

2. Storm Body Scan:Sit quietly and notice where the “storm” lives in your body.Offer compassion to that part: “You’ve been working so hard to keep me safe.”

3. Fall Ritual of Care:Brew a warm drink — ginger tea, cinnamon, or sage.Write one thing you’re releasing on paper and safely burn or bury it in the soil.Whisper, “I make room for peace.”

? Journal Prompts for the Season

Take your time with these over the next week or two:

• Where in my life am I rebuilding from a storm — emotional, relational, or global?

• What am I ready to release this fall to make space for rest and renewal?

• Who are my roots — the people, ancestors, or communities that ground me in hope?

• What does “being the shelter” look like in my daily life?

🌻 Closing Reflection

If you’ve been feeling powerless — pause and breathe.Your very breath is resistance.Your joy, your rest, your healing — these are not luxuries; they are forms of protest.

This fall, may you remember:

• You are part of something ancient and unbreakable.

• You are allowed to rest even when the world is still storming.

• You are both the storm and the shelter — and you are not alone.

With love & solidarity,

Felicia Prince, LCSW

Founder, Revived Soul Wellness & Consultation

🕊 Liberation. Healing. Revival.