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The Scariest Thing I Almost Didn't Do
Do you feel overwhelmed by increasing levels of racial tension and anti-immigrant sentiment in our country?
Do you feel discouraged by a sense that our country is more divided than united?
Are you frustrated because you want to do something about it, but don’t know where to start?
That’s how I felt back in 2016, and that feeling, plus my friend’s comment about my privileged blog post, got me started on a journey of self-exploration and accountability for my role in our racist society. I signed up for a retreat for white people to learn about anti-racism. I initially was excited, but as the retreat approached, I got scared. I didn’t want to go.
A Priest and a Meditation Teacher and a Dinner Party
Last fall, I was at a friend’s family dinner party. At the table were several of his family’s old friends, two 8-year-olds, and a priest, who was also an old friend of the family.
Midway through dinner, the (white) priest started to recount a story from his days fighting in the Civil Rights movement. He was marching with a few women of color in a rally, and someone on the sidelines started yelling hateful racial slurs at them. The priest, in recounting this story, used the exact language that was yelled at him and the women of color, including the full N-word.
My Favorite Self-Help Tool: Defensiveness
If you could choose any emotion to feel for the rest of your life, what would it be? Happiness? Peace? Contentedness? Excitement? Compassion? Those are all great. But for me:
I choose defensiveness.
What the…?
I love getting defensive. I’m not kidding. I can’t get enough.
How Menstrual Cramps Taught Me About the Mind/Body Connection
One of my missions in life, particularly in this post-medicine meditation stage of my career, is to help people understand the power of the mind-body connection. Too often in my medical career, both patients and docs interpreted ‘your symptoms are stress related’ as ‘you are a wack-job and a faker’. Here’s a personal story that I love sharing with my clients to illustrate just how much control we have over our bodies, and just how attached (consciously or subconsiously) we can become to our symptoms.