"The fight for liberation can't only be fueled by anger — it has to be fueled by love. A lot of times when we talk about love, activism, and resistance, it's framed in a way like love for the oppressor. People take Martin Luther King's quotes out of context, because 'The only way to drive out hate is with love' is not about loving the oppressor or loving the system that continues to disenfranchise us. It's about loving ourselves. If we are not tapping into our joy, what are we fighting for? If we don't have a vision for what our people and our lives can look like past the resistance then we won't actually know what we're fighting for, so we're just fighting with no end goal in mind. Manifesting joy is important because you're creating that sense of joy in the moment and in the fight, which is essential for building resilience, because we've been in this fight for generations. Black joy is key to our resilience, and key to our persistence and our existence. If we didn't have joy we would have been wiped out as a people. And that's what's amazing about Black people — through anything, we're able to find joy. That's how our ancestors survived by finding joy through music, singing, connecting with each other and through community. Joy is the key to not only surviving but truly healing and thriving. Black joy is what has sustained us.
Last year, I was done being triggered. I'm tired of witnessing people like me being treated like animals without an ounce of care in the world. I was done fighting from a place of anger. Anger is an important emotion, but self-care is acknowledging the anger and expressing the anger in a healthy way. I went to one protest. My fight is going to be pouring into my people and pouring into myself, and that's just as revolutionary as going to a protest and holding up a Black Lives Matter sign.
I get up in the morning and I pray, I read my devotionals, I journal, I do yoga, depending on my mood I read affirmations, I burn some Palo Santo or some sage, and I clean. Cleaning is a huge part of my self-care routine. My favorite days are Sundays because I have declared Sundays my sabbath and I don't work. I sleep in on Sundays, I'll make tea and write in my journal, read books, listen to podcasts, listen to music, clean the house, watch church, cook a nice meal, and spend time with someone I want to catch up with. I organize my space, and feed myself physically and spiritually. I'm adamant about keeping Sundays sacred and I'm adamant about setting boundaries so that things that are not sacred don't infringe on my Sundays. I also want to get deeper in my mediation practice because I struggle with being present in the moment. Right now I am in the process of exploring tools and reading different books seeing what works best for me. A shower or a workout can be a meditation. I also got a Tibetan singing bowl and that's been really fun to add into my routine."
