I love the hashtag trending right now, #WeHelpOurselves
Professor Blair L. M. Kelley started the Hash to shift conversation to a focus on Black women who have helped our own community. I’m all about us championing for ourselves. For me, this includes our total wellness.
When overwhelmed with emotion, whether due to the attack on Black lives, your life circumstances, or a combination of the two, please remember to take time and space for self-recovery.
Our emotions are valid! The full range from anger to sadness are appropriate expressions. I urge you to find time to sit in quiet solitude, disengage from the media and others, and be one with yourself.
I commit to doing this for the next three days because I’m overwhelmed with it all. Consequentially, it showed up in my actions as I overlooked a few details this week.
Slowing down is often crucial for moving forward with sustained power and grace. And this doesn’t mean we stop doing the necessary work for Black liberation.
I leave you with these words from bell hooks:
“Choosing ‘wellness’ is an act of political resistance. Before Black women can effectively sustain engagement in organized resistance struggle, in black liberation movement, we need to undergo a process of self-recovery that can heal individual wounds that may prevent us from functioning fully.”
Tend to your heart. Because Sis, we need you!
Peace & Love,
Q