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These are just some of the questions we’re asking…

One session into the program and we are deep in inquiry, but I have no doubt specified solutions will come from these conversations to uniquely serve the communities we are a part of.

And in the process, I hope this weekly online space grows into something that feels equal parts sacred and fluid. A place in the metaphysical for us to touch base and come back to our collective why.

Want to be part of the next re[creation] room cohort?

Fill out the interest form to learn more about the program and book a discovery call with me to see if it’s a good fit!

Not ready to be part of a group coaching space? Consider becoming part of the re[creation] room membership! You can learn more here and join us in the chat.

A book I have been raving about on social media is Andrea L. Richie’s book, Practicing New Worlds. This book is both an abolition field guide and a toolkit for decolonial practice that encourages the reader to create change on the individual level and work their way outward.

A concept from her her book that most stuck with me is the idea of the fractal principle. This being the idea that larger systems are built by simple rules happening on a repeating scale, and that we as humans are a part of that.

I’m not going to lie, I read this and I cringed internally at the idea that I want to imagine a world post-capitalism, and yet, I am still grappling with it internally. Constantly chastising myself for not being productive enough, not working enough, working too much, feeling guilty for resting, and shame for my varying degrees of privilege that allow me access to wellbeing where it is denied to others.

As Richie says in her book, “How you talk to yourself is a reflection of how society is structured and how you are structuring society.” And this quote got me thinking about the functions of guilt and shame.

I will never forget sitting in my 300 person lecture in undergrad in a class called Nations and Nationalities. I remember my professor posing this very question. “Who does guilt and shame serve?,” he asked as his silvery hair glinted under the florescent lights of the lecture hall.

I remember him giving us a variety of cultural examples of how guilt and shame were used as functions of control to keep people from questioning the roles they had been given, the abuse they were being subjected to, even the power they had been chosen to wield.

When I consider guilt as the idea that something I’ve done is deemed as wrong, and shame as the idea that something about who or what I am is inherently wrong, when applied to the larger scope of systems, I come to the conclusion that shame is bestowed up on us by power structures that create the pipeline for guilty action to continue.

In other words, if I believe something about me is inherently wrong then I will move through the world with guilt. If I see my identity as inextricable from shame, then guilt becomes the roadblock for my ability to think and do differently.

And while these ideas can be explored at varying degrees of identity privilege and marginalization, I will use myself as a personal example:

As a Black woman, society has taught me to feel shame for what I am. Has taught me that what I am is lesser and wrong. This has bestowed upon me a feeling of shame that for many years kept me at war with myself.

Kept me from questioning the overarching power structures that needed to profit off of my deference to whiteness because of my ‘inherent wrongness,’ instead of dismantling systems that would uphold a dominant racial group in the first place.

When it comes to guilt, at the same time I am a Black woman, I am also American with a level of accessibility, no matter how hard fought, that has not been afforded to my Afro-descendant counterparts in the Global South.

I explore my guilt a lot these days as I have found a vibrant cultural community in Costa Rica that I am attempting to be part of. One that I see comes with so much beauty, but also so much hardship. Economically, geographically, ethnically…

I feel guilty for the comfort my American money affords me here, but I am determined to not let it embarrass me into shame and secrecy. Because not only do I have the opportunity to live a good life here, but I have a chance to “wipe my feet at the door,” as one of my friends and amazing facilitators Jameelah says. To show up in service to the space that was here long before I arrived.

In the re[creation] room we did a self-talk audit that encouraged us to unpack the internalized systems of oppression we perpetuate within ourselves and how, through confronting the inner voice that keeps us cycling through unconscious conditioning, we can begin to build bridges for other ways of being in the world that make equity and regenerative future-building possible.

If you want to engage with that exercise you can join us over in the re[creation] room membership.

This week we kicked off the first session of the re[creation] room group coaching - a 4 week live container for folks to gather, reflect, and get creative about how to generate the change they wish to see in themselves and their communities as a byproduct.

While this cohort is closed for enrollment, I hope to offer other live spaces like this one in the future for us to continue meeting intentionally and having timely conversations that inspire us to become the community members we need and create the spaces we are craving.

Here’s a recap of what we covered in session 1:

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As I shared in my story highlights on Instagram, in the month of May I read, “There, There,” by Indigenous author, Tommy Orange and, “Afterglow: Climate Fiction for Future Ancestors,” a compilation of short stories centering a diverse array of authors from different cultural backgrounds sharing their visions for our climate future.

If you’d like to read a summary of what each of these books is about, you can click here and here for the respective titles.

In this particular post, my goal is not to share a general rating or synopsis of the books themselves, but rather to share how they have inspired me and broadened my worldview.

On There, There

When I read a book, I want the words on the page to dissolve in front of me and take my disbelief with them. I want to live inside the story, seeing as the characters see, thinking as they think, breathing how they breathe. Tommy Orange’s book, “There, There,” brought me to this place.

For lack of better words, this book felt heartbreakingly familiar. There is so much shared pain in the history of Indigenous peoples in the Americas that so closely parallels that of the Black American experience.

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Let’s get started!

Who am I?

I’m a journalist by training with a background in political media, reality television, social justice, and environmental comm…

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I’m a journalist by training and a holistic health coach who, after years of international travel and identity exploration, has started to understand just how interconnected inequality, systems, community, wellbeing, and belonging are.

My work has taken me all over the world exploring human-centered design systems in the Dominican Republic, Swi…

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Mercury goes retrograde on July 17th. Mercury the planet of communication is going to be feeling faulty for the next couple weeks as we ride out this retrograde until August 11th. Think issues with communication like misunderstandings, harsh words exchanged in the heat of the moment, and glitches with technology.

Mercury going ret…

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Uranus, the planet of rebellion, innovation, and sudden change is entering Gemini for the first time in 84 years and change is on the horizon. This 8 year transit is a time of tapping into realms of higher consciousness, unexpected shifts, and societal shake-ups. So basically, hold on tight!

I highly encourage you to look at wha…

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I’m beginning my breath work journey with a dear friend of mine and couldn’t be more excited! During my time in Colombia, I encountered a few different breath work practitioners and did my first session. It was eye-opening! I could literally feel the deep emotional stuckness emanating from deep within my bones.

Not just my own emotional b…

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This recent new moon in Cancer has had me supercharged. As a natal Cancer moon I’ve been sitting with all the intuitive nudges and redirections I feel the Universe giving me right now.

That being said, a topic I’ve brought up recently in this newsletter is that of manifestation. I know this is an…

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👩‍🌾 Grounding questions for your week:

As we enter the end of June and move into July, the first full month of summer, there’s a sense of possibility filling the air. Not only a shifting of the seasons, but the ending of a cycle.

My life in Barcelona the past 4 years has felt like a constant flurry of change…

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Hydration is the name of the game this week as the weather heats up! We passed the Summer Solstice last week on June 21st and that means we’ve officially entered the summer months in the Northern Hemisphere.

Here’s what this means for your hydration habits:

If you’re a Europe dwelling girly like myself, air conditioning is not common in …

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This week it actually feels more important for me to highlight what’s NOT working for me 😂 Here’s a quick word on emotionally bypassing:

The body is intelligent. Let’s start there.

I shared about this topic today on my IG stories, but after months of experiencing drastic improvement in my period symptoms, u…

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My heart feels heavy coming out of the weekend with such grave news happening within the geopolitical sphere. As I try and make sense of it all, I’m continually reminded of the patterns we find written in the stars during such tumultuous times.

🪐 Planetary Projection:

We’ve got some heavy transits in motion …

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One of my favorite ways to care for myself during and leading up to my period is by using magnesium spray. This really changed the game for me in terms of managing muscle tightness and pre-menstrual cramping in my late luteal phase. Did you know that cortisol is actually highest right before you start your period? Higher cortisol=higher …

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You may have noticed that this newsletter is being released later on Wednesday than normal. That’s because, as I’m entering my dark of the moon period this week (aka my late luteal phase), I’m leaning into all the ways my body is challenging me to slow down, to soften, to retreat inward.

It can feel unc…

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👩‍🌾 Grounding questions for your week: Community in divisive times

Last weekend during a dinner with two fellow female entrepreneurs that I deeply admire, the topic of community came up. The question around community seems to be one that we’re all so deeply grappling with at the moment in these difficult tim…

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This week’s healing “hack” feels less hacky and more like an awareness building exercise. I came across this beautiful post on Instagram this week about shame, resistance, capacity, and desire that really had me feeling into a lot of heavy and hard truths that I think we can all relate to in some way or other.

Definitely give it a read. …

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In general, it can be so easy to look through the lens of toxic positivity and reason away difficult circumstances that are calling us to deeper depths with ourselves. To, instead of leaning in, overintellectualize our feelings to some derivate of the adage, that which I give energy to grows, so I’ll j…

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👩‍🌾 Grounding questions for your week: Phone Addiction

This week I’m leaning into my relationship to my phone. I talked about this a bit last week, but I’m slowly building habits that are helping me stop the scroll in the mornings and instead opting for practices that add intention to my day.

Morning meditat…

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