Soothing Your Hands: Resmaa Menakem (My Grandmother's Hands)

The following practice comes from best-selling author, healer, and social somatic activist, Resmaa Menakem from his book, "My Grandmother's Hands". To learn more about Resmaa and his work, just click on the picture of the hands.

Use this practice as a healing tool and as a way of remembering. Remembering all of the life, love, sorrow, etc. that can be mapped from the palms of our own hands. Nourish and nurture your hands. Remember when you used your hands for healing? Perhaps recalling using your hands for violence. How do you want to honor and use your hands as a healing agent for good moving forward in your life?

(From, "My Grandmother's Hands-Chapter 11, Page 159)

"Find an oil or lotion that smells good and feels good on your skin. This doesn't have to be anything special; many people use olive oil or hand lotion.

Get comfortable. Focus your attention on one hand. Then, very slowly and mindfully, rub it with lotion or oil. Apply it to your fingertips; then to the rest of your fingers; then to the spaces between your fingers; then to your palm; then to the back of your hand. Spend fifteen to twenty minutes slowly and gently rubbing it in.

Notice how each part of your hand feels as the liquid first touches it, then spreads across it, then gets rubbed in.

Now do the same for your other hand."