Dignity

From a nervous system perspective, dignity can be understood as a felt sense of safety, worthiness, and self-respect in the body a regulated state where one experiences a deep knowing of their intrinsic value. It is when the nervous system is in a ventral vagal state (social engagement mode), allowing for connection, presence, and self-expression without fear of shame, rejection, or threat.

Not standing in your dignity is dehumanizing. Dehumanizing, is the experience of being stripped of one’s inherent worth, autonomy, and dignity.

I have seen my family dehumanize themselves their whole lives—because they had to. Because there was no other way. Because the world demanded it of them.

I refuse to dehumanize myself. This is ancestral. Logically, I know my parents want me to be successful because, to them, success means safety. It means dignity. It means I won’t have to suffer the way they did. But dehumanization is suffering.

Not standing in my dignity is suffering.

It’s a complete mindfuck. I have to unlearn the belief that suffering is the price of success. That self-sacrifice is necessary. That I have to let go of my dignity to build an abundant business. I don’t have to buy into what this capitalistic world demands of me. This stops with me.

I'm doing ancestral healing everyday. Fighting oppression, fighting for liberation. It requires a lot of resilience. What I'm doing is bigger than me.

One my commitments since I started therapy was to be more child like. Today I was reminded by my therapist that being childlike is liberation. Children are a beacon of hope, play, possibility and liberation.

So how do we restore dignity. Restoring dignity from a somatic lens involves co-regulation, reclaiming bodily autonomy, self-compassion, and reconnecting with one’s authentic self in a way that honors personal boundaries, agency, and lived experience.

That is what I'm doing. I'm standing on my dignity. I'm standing with my ancestors as they support me, hold me and whisper to me "you are resilient."