Hey Byte Wellness Fam!

How are you feeling?

I’m grateful. Period. I’m grateful for the birth of my brand new niece and the health of her and her mother! (Anyone have any Auntie advice more me???)

And somehow, her addition to the world makes me even more grateful for our wellness community.

Here’s why:

Wellness is more than the health factors our society usually focuses on: the number on the scale or a specific diagnosis. Wellness encircles every part of our lives: how we feel in our bodies and minds, how we feel about ourselves, even how our community supports us.

We achieve wellness by centering our humanity in making sure that we have what we need to thrive biologically, psychologically, spiritually and socially.

We tend to look back at our ancestors’ lives for lessons, hoping to understand how they fed themselves literally and spiritually in spite of systems and individuals that denied their humanity.

But our ancestors aren't the only ones who were determined to reinforce their humanity. We are too.

One of the things I’m so grateful for with this community is the inspiration it provides for how to define and meet our human needs in the present day.

Discussion Question

• As you learn more about how food affect our health and wellbeing, do you feel like you are gaining health opportunities or losing eating options?
  

  In what ways do our beliefs about ourselves and our definition of good living help us to build the habits that will help us reach our goals for health and wellness? How do they hurt our chances? How does this apply to your approach to eating?

We talked about just that in the #PhyteWellWednesday Workshop this week. Check the recording above. If you haven’t gotten an invite to the workshop but you want one, make sure to join the Daily Wellness Text Thread. Just text TEXT to 1(866)717-1919 to get started (for free).

What We Need to Thrive

Some of the most overt proof of what resources humans need in order to thrive comes from our experiences having to fight for those needs. LGBTQ folks at the intersection of Blackness and/or womanhood are no exception to that rule. Pride month just ended, but it’s never too late to celebrate our Brothers’ and Sisters’ lives and lessons they’ve taught us. One that resonated with me this week, was a quote from Audrey Lorde, a self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet”. By now, we’ve all seen her quote on self-care floating around social media. In her 1988 book of essays, a Burst of Light, Lorde wrote, “Caring for myself not self-indulgence. It is an act of political warfare.”

Folks have used this abridged quote in all sorts of ways: as a statement on the definition of self-care- a condemnation of luxurious, spa-like experiences that society tends to label as self-care; as a call for caring in community.

But, when I read the context of this quote, I had a completely different take.

When Sister Audre examined the meaning of self-care in this essay, she had been diagnosed with cancer for the second time. Suddenly, she had to reckon with the toll that her mind-bending, back-breaking activism and community organizing took on her body.

In the extended quote, she draws a connection between her tendency to “overextend” herself (not get enough rest) and her weakened immune system that made her more likely to develop cancer.

Here’s the extended quote:

“I had to examine, in my dreams as well as in my immune-function tests, the devastating effects of overextension. Overextending myself is not stretching myself. I had to accept how difficult it is to monitor the difference. Necessary for me as cutting down on sugar. Crucial. Physically. Psychically. Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

Sounds like Sister Audre was executing the same mental gymnastics as so many of us. She was trying to redefine wellness (via selfcare) for herself.

Sounds to me like she (as someone who resisted rest) finally had to “accept” that rest is essential. Her next task was to motivate herself to rest more. She did that by linking rest to her big goal of activism.

We can see her working through the argument that the cause she had dedicated her life to executing “political warfare” against oppressive systems that contribute to our harm in fact is achieved (at least in part) by taking care of herself. That requires rest.

What’s the connection to our food label discussion this week?

We’ve spent the last month talking about how caring for ourselves requires nourishment; how our biological needs include eating lots of veggies and limiting sodium. But, for some of us, there’s mental resistance to shifting our eating habits.

We accept that high-sodium eating habits can raise blood pressure and put us at risk for heart and blood vessel diseases like heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and more.

Still, on top of all we deal with in the world, learning that our favorite salty snack could compromise our health might feel like a huge blow. Browsing through the nutrition facts on the Chipotle and Olive Garden menus, some of our community members texted me dismayed, “I guess I can’t eat anything anymore”

It’s rarely easy to shift eating habits. But, it’s downright painful (and very often futile) to make those shifts when our mindset is working against us.

How can we, like Sister Audre, accept the facts of what we need to thrive, then shift our mindsets to work in our favor? How can we align the goals we want most in life (the desires that keep us going everyday) with a new way of eating or resting, or de-stressing?

I’m convinced somewhere in the answer to that question lies at least a piece of liberation.

No doubt there’s so much more to unpack here. I’d love to hear your take on Audre’s powerful observations about self-care and how it compares to your mindset. Feel free to leave a comment or reply via email or text!

Happy Healthy Living,

Dr. Wuse