At one point in my life, I was a full-time college administrator, a full-time student pursuing a Ph.D., a wife, a mother of two small children, a church member, a community volunteer, a member of five boards—and oh yes—I was also running a part-time consulting practice. While it all looked good on the outside, on the inside I was crumbling.  → Read More

Since being overwhelmed by chronic oral pain last spring, I’ve done lots to cope, including things that would proved to be my downfall: I comforted myself with way too much ice cream (full-fat, every day, it was soothing and numbed the pain), and I put my scale away. Physicians prescribed an array of painkillers and novel approaches, and I even underwent a few nerve blocks. I learned to meditate and distract myself. But nothing kept the pain at bay as effectively as a huge bowl of ice cream, followed by just one more.  → Read More

Audre Lorde, my favorite Black Feminist with Melissa Harris-Perry in second place, once said, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgent, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Self care is not only an act of survival, but a direct act of resistance that shifts oppressive patriarchal paradigms, and further, self love. The socially constructed gender roles assigned to a woman puts the needs of others over her own.  → Read More