Self Care Sundays

Rommy Torrico is an undocumented trans activist and artist. They shared how her journey into being more intentional with self-care began as they moved away from their blood family. They discuss how growing up, their self-care was largely rooted in spiritual practices. Next, they explain the concept of "chosen family" and we discuss building supportive communities when traditional ones aren't available to us. They then explain what it means to be undocumented, how it feels, and the challenges to your mental health that comes with it. Then, we discuss the importance of community care in different communities. Rommy then discusses their journey as an activist from being more involved in direct actions, to taking more space to rest, and, now, using their art as activism. We then discuss privilege and self-care, including the privilege of having access to vocabulary. Finally, we circle back to the importance of boundaries and how we find them.

Carla Gaskins-Nathan is a massage therapist and healer in resident at Auburn Seminary. She shares how her journey into self-care began as she got sick after working too much. That burnout led her to explore the limits of Western medicine and how Eastern medicine provides a framework to think more holistically about self-care. We discuss how Eastern medicine conceptualizes energy and how Carla came to think about protecting and preserving her energy. Next, we discuss how boundaries are fundamental for having time to engage in self-care. We also discuss how tropes around resiliency prevent people from taking care of themselves. Then we discuss privilege and self-care. Specifically, how self-care has been commodified and appropriated from communities that have always known how to do self-care. Then, we discuss how self-care doesn't happen alone and how our environments and the people around us shape our ability to do self-care. Finally, we discuss spirituality, religion, and self-care.

The transcription for this episode is available here.

Kerri Kelly, the founder of CtznWell, shares how her journey into self-care was a radical shift in her life, but still imperfect because of her perfectionist tendencies. She shares how she defines the wellness industry and how it exploits people. She says well-being is really the opposite because it's rooted in interdependence and is a systemic approach. Next, we discuss how one can have boundaries in a community approach to self-care. In particular, we explore how self-worth is necessary to believe you are worthy of the care that boundaries provide. She shares how she believes her perfectionism is rooted in systems of oppression that exist in our society. Then we move into how she discovered that well-being for people with privilege is about community care. Whereas, for people who have less privilege, choosing self-care is radical. We then discuss how leaving people behind is leaving people behind and how sometimes that means letting go of winning or getting credit. Finally, we discuss how to redistribute power and privilege so people have access to the resources they need for self-care!

The transcription for this episode can be found here.

Jeena Cho shares burning out as a lawyer, being diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, and being chosen by lawyers to help them learn how to do self-care better. She shares how she realized that anxiety in the body is often rooted in something not being right and how she learned to listen to it. Next, we discuss how important it is in helping professions to understand the potential impacts of the work and how we can experience vicarious traumas. Also, how mindfulness allows us to notice and manage the emotions and challenges we face. We discuss the importance of listening and the value of being heard. Importantly, we discuss how privilege can make you feel guilty about pursuing self-care and how to find the sweet spot in the ways we think about ourselves to pursue self-care. Also, we discuss who deserves to have self-care and decide it is EVERYONE, including those who one might think, is the least deserving. Finally, we discuss the unique challenges of forming communities of care in a profession where you have an opponent. As always, we close out with our self-care goals for the coming week!

The transcription for this episode is available here.

April Reign discusses navigating how inclusive to be with #OscarsSoWhite in a way that allows her to preserve herself and feels fair. She also shared how she creates digital boundaries and relies on her community online to help provide support. She also shares how she separates her personal life from her online life and ensures the privacy of her family as well as keeps herself safe. Also, how she is intentional about how and what she shares and how we might do the same. She also shares how she thinks about being responsible with a large platform. Next, we discuss how media representation is important to preserve avenues for self-care. We also discuss the complexities of representations including why it matters to see people who look like you in media as well as why demographic similarities are not enough when people's values don't align with what we believe and hold dear. Finally, we discuss how you can practice self-care without a lot of privilege and why representations of self-care in media are important. We also discuss why it's detrimental to judge how people practice self-care and what they choose to focus on.

The transcription for this episode can be found here.

Alice Wong, co-creator of #CriptheVote and creator of the Disability Visibility Project, shares her journey into self-care. She shares how her journey into self-care began as she realized that her body could not handle the exertion she was demanding from it. We discuss how she learned to set expectations that made sense for her within her unique strengths and limitations. Alice discusses the importance of saying, "no, thank you" to maintaining self-care. She remind us that if people want our free labor or can't respect boundaries then, "that's too damn bad". Her insight into how our identities play into these expectations was profound. Finally, we discuss the journey into identifying as disabled.

What happens if you achieve all of your goals and are still unsatisfied? What do you do with the feeling of not being enough? Akosua D. Edwards shares her journey into self-love through positivity and gratitude. Also, how you can both acknowledge the shit in your life WHILE trying to change it. We also discuss how the focus on gratitude made Akosua more present and looking to increase the things in her life that were bringing about feelings of gratitude. She also shares how setting boundaries is an act of self-love in addition to self-care. She shares how letting go of things that are making you unhappy and sitting in the discomfort/uncertainty creates space for the things that you do want in your life. Finally, we discuss how to create communities of care that allow people to grow in this way.

The transcription for this episode is available here.

Rohan Gilkes, the co-founder of Innclusive, became interested in entrepreneurship as a way to make his work more enjoyable as a form of self-care. We discuss the sweet spot of privilege required in order to pursue this possibly risky path - enough resources to have the tools needed, but not so much to become complacent. Rohan also shares how the online space provided him with a digital community to learn and grow from to pursue his interests. Next, we discuss his current company Innclusive, and why it matters to create inclusive spaces as well as the challenges in doing so. Rohan also discusses how he deals with confronting his male privilege when it's uncomfortable. Finally, Rohan shares how he doesn't have boundaries on an ongoing basis but, instead, engages in deep work and then takes vacations.

The transcription for this episode can be found here.

Anna Dardick is an activist and a creative. She discusses how she learned to set boundaries while working as an activist in college after a racist incident on her college campus. She discusses white privilege and how white people can work to dismantle white supremacy when people don't feel they have privilege because of their class. She also shares how, perhaps, white guilt is actually white shame. We then move to how self-care is necessary for the sustainability of a movement and how people volunteering even a little time can enable that. She shares her belief that the ideal activist work has joy involved and discusses how fandoms can allow that. Finally, we discuss how to build communities of care.

The transcription for this episode can be found here.

This week Deepti Sharma, founder of Food to Eat, joins us to talk about her journey into self-care. We start by talking about how she took up running after graduating from college and moving away from friends and family. Deepti shares how that practice grew from being solely physical to a meditation. She also shares that setting aside time for self-care and the people she cares about, helped her improve in her work because she had balance. Next, we discuss how she learned how to become intentional with her time both professionally and personally. She also shares that, as a new mom, the best piece of advice she got was, "Don't take any unsolicited advice." Finally, she shares setting digital boundaries and then relaxing them to build a supportive community of people online. Finally, we discuss the importance of sharing failures and privilege.

The transcription for this episode can be found here.