The Sasha Whitney

Self-Love is a journey for many that begins with a change of mindset and incorporates other elements and necessary changes along the way. Today we’re talking self-love and all those other changes, big and small from avoiding falling into comparison traps and evaluating the people we keep around us, that need to occur along the way in order to get us to that destination.

During our meditation today, we get in tune with our body moving through a body scan starting from our toes to the crown of our, releasing any tension and stress we may be holding onto with our breath as a guide. Afterward we will go through a written reflection on how we can better use our breath to become more in tune with releasing stress in the moment so it doesn't have an opportunity to take root as stress we hold within.

I was so hesitant, had so many reservations & concerns but I did it... I finally joined TikTok! This is more light hearted content on the podcast today but me joining TikTok was something I ruminated on for months. I’ve heard so much about and saw it with my own eyes that TikTok not being a safe space for Black women and Black content creators. Plus with me being a millennial, I felt more comfortable on Instagram and Facebook. In today’s podcast, I reflect on why what finally get me to join, my experiences so far, and how my first video of how to use a salad cutter bowl of all things has garnered 60k views & counting!

With so much out of our on control, the things we can always control are our breath and how we show up. Use this meditation as a guide to set the tone for your day, the pace for your day, and how you are showing up.

Imposter syndrome is very real and we all may experience it a time or two in our lives or maybe unfortunately walk through it everyday. The thing is, what if is what you’re experiencing is not imposter syndrome but instead internalizing other people's energy, projections, implicit biases, and low expectations of you? And what if in order to start to move us to shake this mindset, we need to remove certain elements from our reality? Today we’re talking about imposter syndrome, scarcity mentality, and the type of people in your life to be mindful of that may be the source of your imposter syndrome.

Self-care is such an important but understated and often misunderstood practice. During our meditation, we take the time to reflect on self-care and how we can make it a priority. Self-care at it’s core is a practice in which we make time to care and love on ourselves, understanding we cannot pour from an empty cup so we make our wellness, health, and happiness our attention. It doesn’t have to be something super indulgent or an all time consuming process. and speaking of time, self-care is something we should prioritize and make non-negotiable time for in our day rather than simply hoping we’ll get around to.

Unplugging from social media and opting out of the 24/7/365 media news sources in general can provide many benefits to our mental wellness however unplugging doesn’t have to mean unaware or uninformed. As in all things, we must create a balance that works for us to protect our peace, joy, energy, and mental health. Let’s talk about it!

How often have you just known or felt something to be true because your “gut” tells you? That “gut instinct”? That right there is your intuition at work, our sixth sense, that seat of intuition that operates from our limbic and reptilian systems that we tap and lean into during our practice today. For our practice today we will also be journaling so you will need a pen and a journal if you are called to written reflection.

What do you hear when people say, “I don’t want to get political” when the topic of civil rights, equality, and human rights come up? For me, I hear “I don’t want to talk about issues that do not impact me.” Not wanting to get political is a luxury. With Martin Luther King Day around the corner, these same people will then quote him even though he led with the values of equality, civil rights, and human rights. Today we’re talking about influencers, influential people, and just people like you and me on the gram who need to start getting “political” and leading with their values, the white moderate, and showing up intentionally.

One of our longer but necessary meditations at 15 minutes, the love and kindness meditation is one that positions us to send out much needed love, kindness, stillness, forgiveness, peace, and happiness out into the universe. I offer you this mediation to start your year off on the right food and to come back to at any time when you need a little more self-love. For today's meditation, we will not be journaling afterward but I encourage you to take any time you need afterward to reflect or sit with your thoughts and write them out if that's what you feel called to.