Ep. 12: The Unexpected Joy of Being Seen + 1st Quarter Review

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Hi there and Welcome to the Joyfully Black podcast

This past week, audiences around the world were able to witness a glimpse into the undermining of women despite being highly qualified for a role. This is quadrupled if you’re a woman of color, particularly a Black woman. Although the word “ triggering” is overdone, listening to the line of questioning by some of the legislators was indeed jolting but also confirmed for the world to see what Black and women of color have experienced in the workplace and elsewhere. Despite some of the questioning, there were other moments that brought much-needed light and shared understanding. If you haven’t seen Senator Corey Booker’s remarks at the hearing, please do yourself a favor and watch the speech in its entirety. His words was a shining example of how to affirm one another and let your sister know that we see you, your accomplishments, and the sacrifices you made in order to get where you are today. It was everything we didn’t know we needed to hear. We felt seen.

The other moment that stood out for me is the story, Judge Kantanji Brown shared regarding her freshman year at Harvard. She was thousands of miles away from home, a girl from Miami Florida who didn’t even have Harvard on the radar but she made it! And here she was in Boston feeling homesick and feeling out of place. Judge Kantanji Brown recounted that she was walking across campus and a Black woman was walking towards her on the same path. She says her face must have showed how dejected she felt. As the woman passed her, she turned to look at Judge and said “Persevere”. Whew….the chills. Haven’t we all had that moment, when we were feeling down and out and then someone, something is placed in our path to give us the strength to keep going.

You may have even been that source of encouragement for someone else on your life - To Persevere. Listen, I’m not really a person who cries easily but the tears that started streaming down my face….whew chile. I felt every word. And speaking of persevering, this is my word for this episode timely because we are at the end of quarter 1.

Can you believe it?! This winter just flew on by honey! And in Joyfully Black fashion, we are going to do a Quarter 1 Review on our intentions to see where we are to date. I’ll start…

Keeping myself on a podcast schedule while acknowledging that I needed to be open to help to avoid overwhelm. As a result, I found a wonderful person who has a great eye for graphics and keeping me on track with my IG content

Staying focused looked like being real with myself about my health journey. Yes, I’ve been strength training and goingto Zumba ( bc that’s my fav of course) but I realized I needed to deciding to put the sweets down in order to meet my physical health goals. Part of my sel-care is making sure I feel free in my body and for me that comes through dance fitness I found a Caribbean Soca Fitness class and a Mixxed Fit class to make sure I’m getting my steps in. And guess what? It’s helped! My sugar cravings have disappeared and my clothes are starting to fit how I like them to fit. Looking in the mirror and enjoying the view - O-kay!

Being focused also looked like getting a promotion at work and increased responsibilities. This is a Heck- yeah moment and I’m certainly open to where this new adventure takes me.

- Oh, and one unexpected thing that happened literally last weekend was making a new friend who I may not have connected with had I not tried something new and ventured out to a house music event. You know how you meet people and it’s like… wow, I’m so glad we met. Where we going next?! Yeah, it was like that.

Now, we know everything ain't always peaches and cream. Instagram and social media are typically the highlights I’m giving myself permission to not overanalyze situations out of my control, relinquish the need to always be “on”, and permission to rest. In fact, as we go into this next quarter..part of my self-care plan is taking my butt to BED so I can get 7-8 hours of rest, I’m naturally a night owl though so I’ll let you know at the end of quarter 2 how it goes.

Speaking of quarter 2, there will be a slight update in programming.

We are moving our new episodes to the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. We will also have our season 1 finale in May. So mark your calendars!! I’m really excited about this update because it allows me to provide you with quality podcasts and guest interviews with energy, joy, and with y whole self for you and the Joyfully Black community. We are in this together!

O-KAY, We talked about me? So, what about you? How was your first quarter of the year? How have your intentions come to life? How have your intentions been challenged?

Mmail me at joyfullyblack@gmail.com or send me a DM on Instagram.

Let me know, so I can celebrate you, affirm you. So our Joyfully Blk community can celebrate with you. Deal? Alright! And that’s this week’s show.

Remember to like, subscribe and leave a five-star review for Joyfully Blk wherever you listen to podcasts. AND share the podcast with a friend!

Thank you again for joining me this week on Joyfully Blk. Let’s stay in the Black ya’ll!

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