Your Body Remembers, Los Angeles

Downtown LA is occupied.

ICE and the Department of Homeland Security are staging a federal crackdown, and for many of us who grew up in this city—especially Black and brown natives—this isn't just about what's happening today. It's about everything our bodies have already lived through.

It’s about Watts in 1965.
It’s about the uprising in ‘92.
It’s about Florence & Normandie.
It’s about helicopters hovering over South Central.
It’s about protests at City Hall.
It’s about standing in the street chanting names we shouldn't have to say.
It’s about the heat of burning buildings and the chill of being unheard.

The sirens. The boots. The barricades. The silence of national media coverage.
It’s all familiar. Too familiar.
Our bodies are on alert—not because we’re paranoid, but because we remember.

A protester confronts a line of U.S. National Guard in the metropolitan detention center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night’s immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

This Is Collective Nervous System Activation

If you’re feeling foggy, jumpy, tired, angry, heartbroken, helpless—or all of those at once—you’re not overreacting.

You’re remembering.
Not just mentally, but somatically.

Our nervous systems carry the weight of neighborhood trauma, ancestral survival, and years of being surveilled, silenced, or scapegoated.
What’s happening in LA right now is not new—it’s just a new face on an old wound.

You Deserve to Feel This

You don’t have to be at every action or have all the words to explain your pain.

You don’t have to “stay calm” or “be rational” for anyone’s comfort.
Your fear is valid. Your rage is sacred. Your exhaustion is real.
You are a person—not just a voice for a cause.

You deserve space to feel before you organize, before you post, before you go.

Three Somatic Tools to Help You Stay Present

Whether you’re watching from your window, marching downtown, or frozen on your couch, here are a few ways to support your body today:

Glide & Shake

Gently rub your hands down your arms like you're brushing off tension. Then shake your wrists and hands for 10–20 seconds. This helps reset the fight-or-flight pattern and signals safety.

Ground Through Your Feet

Stand or sit with your feet firmly planted. Press them into the floor and notice how the earth pushes back. Name five things you can see, hear, and feel. Let the present moment anchor you.

Hand on Heart, Hand on Belly

Place one hand on your chest, one on your stomach. Inhale for 4 seconds, exhale for 6. Say silently: My body matters. My grief matters. I am allowed to feel.

Resistance Has Many Forms

You don’t have to be in the streets to be in the movement.

You can process, pray, donate, educate, sing, write, rest, cry, feed, hold, and protect. All of it is care work. All of it is resistance. And all of it is necessary.

Don’t let guilt trick you into abandoning your body.

To My City

To everyone who remembers LA burning…
To everyone who’s afraid it might again…
To everyone holding their breath for the next blow…

I see you. I am you.
We are a people of survival, grief, and love.
This land holds our footsteps.
This moment is ours to feel—and to heal.

If you need to fall apart today, you can.
If you need to rise tomorrow, you will.

Your body remembers. That’s not weakness. That’s wisdom.

With care,
Myshell