When We Disappear

I recently worked with participants processing experiences of racism in the workplace, and here’s something I noticed we - myself included - do in such uncomfortable situations:

We make ourselves disappear.

  • When we over-function to prove our worth and competence, we disappear.

  • When we contort and shrink our bodies to brush off an inappropriate comment, we disappear.

  • When we stand in the corner of the room at an event to scan bodies and stares we disappear.

  • When we trap our anger in our breath to avoid being ‘confrontational’ or ‘difficult’, we disappear.

When I disappear - for the comfort of the other - they remain fully intact,
while I’m now left to tend to my body and the harm that has landed upon it yet again. 


What can grow for us when we:

  • Stop apologising for the discomfort felt by the other when we bring up our own truth? 

  • Walk a little slower and more fully in our bodies to reclaim space, time and energy because: we deserve to be here.

  • Reflect the burden back to the other person for them to self-educate and do better - rather than us always reconfiguring ourselves?

A Brick to Our Miseducation

The deeper I engage with Art Therapy, the stronger I feel about its place within advocacy and activism.
So how can I not use it as such?

  • Every story we penetrate about who we are - or who we’re told we are - is a brick to the miseducation we’ve received about our ‘role’ and our ’place’.

  • Every opportunity of ‘not knowing’ is a new self that can breathe in a system that chokes us into boxes and bottom-lines.

  • Every reminder of something we once housed within us is an act of preservation.

  • Every moment we slow down and reclaim from the fast-paced structures we’re set in is a chance for regeneration and transformation.

  • Every rising sense in our body that we move towards, is a resistance to the numbing fleetness of the everyday.

  • Every seeded curiosity about our next step can be a toxic cycle broken.


So how can I not use it as such?