The Responsibility of Truth and Healing in the Community with Fariha Róisín

Healing from deep-seated trauma is always an uphill battle. It becomes even more challenging to address in a society that commodifies healing and shames victims for talking about it. And so, healing and wellness have become painstakingly inaccessible for people with no means. While it feels like taking out a lump in your throat, the key lies in taking responsibility for your truth. This way, you can spark change and healing for yourself and your community.

In this episode, Rosie speaks with Fariha Roisin about our responsibility to the truth about generational abuse and trauma. She discusses the reason for writing her book, Who Is Wellness For? In line with this, Fariha stresses the need to increase access to information around healing and wellness modalities. She also emphasizes the impacts of colonization and capitalism in commodifying the wellness industry.

If you want to start taking responsibility for your truth and begin your healing journey, this episode is for you!

Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

Learn why it’s critical to speak up about your trauma.
Understand the root of the inaccessibility of the wellness industry.
Discover how to course correct the commodification of healing modalities.

Resources

Connect with and learn more about Fariha Róisín: Website | Instagram | Newsletter
Who Is Wellness For? by Fariha Róisín
You Are Radically Loved by Rosie Acosta
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E-mail us your topic at info@radicallyloved.com.
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Episode Highlights

[03:57] Transmuting Sadness

She’s in a constant process of transmuting her feelings of depression.
Writing was the first tool Fariha learned to get out of her situation.
Fariha grew up in a lower-middle-class family in Australia around violence and abuse.
It became her role in the family to be bright and cheery, which she has brought into her private life today.
Feeling the weight of the world has a lot to do with the sadness of transmutation for her.

[05:38] How Fariha Handles the Overwhelm of Needing to Show Up

Global politics have been difficult in the last couple of years on top of a worldwide pandemic.
Fariha believes we're not here to impress anyone or be like anybody else. With this, she tends to disengage with outward pressure.

[08:56] Generational Abuse and Trauma

Fariha grew up in a hostile environment. Finding out that both her parents were genocide survivors opened up a deep clarification regarding the holes in her childhood.
Non-white people barely survive stronghold colonization, which impacted the customs and cultures of where she originated.
Nobody talks about the generationally similar experiences with family violence and abuse in colonized countries. But it's something we all need to discuss.
It's a healing experience to share the abuse you've experienced.
Shame holds us and our parents back from talking about it because there's guilt attached to what has happened to us.

[13:00] Who Is Wellness For?

Fariha felt a lot of responsibility for the truth about the trauma she and her ancestors experienced. She wrote the book as a truth teller for herself and her family.
She channels something bigger than her and finds a way to put it onto the page. It's painful work.
Seeing herself as someone doing an act of service makes her feel less obligated to stay within the confines of people’s expectations.
She constantly battles how in the eyes of others, she’s not taking her work and journalism seriously.
The book calls for a sense of urgency to help communities access information about healing and wellness modalities.

[13:34] Fariha: "I felt a lot of responsibility to the truth…But ultimately, I'm here for a purpose, and I'm doing it. I'm really channeling something bigger than me and finding a way to put it onto the page." - Click Here To Tweet This

[21:14] Inaccessibility of the Wellness Industry

[21:17] Fariha: "I think wellness and the wellness industry and people—I’ll just say the white rich people—that are really steering the ship, they want it to be exclusive. That's why there's this whole world where it's like, ‘Yes, you too can be healed, but you have to have a shit ton of money in order to be healed.’" - Click Here To Tweet This

Tune in to the full episode to hear about Rosie’s insights on access to healing modalities!
White, rich people steering the wellness industry’s ship want it to be exclusive.
Every colonized culture had a framework and social responsibility of having healers. These cultures had rich and ripe ecosystems that ensured everybody was healthy.
The idea that investing in your spirituality is something only rich people can have is an impact of colonization and capitalism.
Colonizers want us to spiritually disconnect from ourselves and our culture to make us more pliable to capitalism.

[22:59] Fariha: “The idea that investing in your spirituality is only something that rich people can have is something that also colonizers want us to believe because colonization and the impact of colonization is capitalism now.” - Click Here To Tweet This

[23:45] Taking Capitalism Out of Wellness

Doctors go to medical school to understand diseases, not to heal you. They don't care to ensure you will never get sick again.
The more we involve capitalism in the venture of healing, the more we lose ourselves.
The pandemic has brought light to the proof regarding this; we are at a pivotal time.
Roe v. Wade is a perfect example that the government doesn't care about our body's autonomy and agency over our health. They only care about control.

[24:19] Fariha: “The more that we invest and involve capitalism in the venture of healing, the more we lose ourselves” - Click Here To Tweet This

[26:36] Course Correcting the Modification of Yoga and Meditation

No one should be paying for meditation. The idea that you must pay for an app that tells you to meditate is a dangerous cycle.
The way to course correct this modification is to have conversations around it.
The elite make money off meditation modalities must feel so cornered that they begin to understand the responsibility of it.
We’re experiencing mass death because of so much cruelty and energetic mishaps. We must be able to balance this energy out.

[28:26] We Have No Choice but to Change

Money is a good balancer. There is a way for us to act responsibly and address poverty. It all comes back to trade.
There wouldn’t be poverty if Western countries traded fairly with countries like India and Jamaica.
India and Jamaica have beautiful resources but can't take care of their people.
We need to start educating how twisted and deceptive these ways of being are. The more we protest, the more it stops.
Our stances on social topics have changed, and we’ll have no choice but to continue to change.

[30:40] Fariha: "We have evolved as a society and civilization. Even just in the last 10 years, we talked about queer rights, we talked about trans rights, and being a woman of color is, just like basic things. We have changed, so we CAN change, and in fact, we have no choice but to change." - Click Here To Tweet This

[35:22] How Fariha Feels Radically Loved

Fariha feels radically loved by God and the earth.
She feels humbled by her existence every time she has a connection with the earth.
We would be such different people to one another if all of us felt radically loved.

About Fariha

Fariha Róisín is a writer and multidisciplinary artist. She is the co-founder and director of Studio Ānanda, the deputy editor of Violet Book, and on the board of directors at Find Center. Fariha's work mainly centers on her identity as a queer Muslim Bangladeshi. Her interest is in the margins, otherness, liminality, and mercurial nature of being.

Fariha is the author of How To Cure A Ghost, Like A Bird, and Who Is Wellness For?

If you want to connect with Fariha, visit her website and Instagram or subscribe to her newsletter.