Letting Go Of “Strong Black Women”
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When it comes to identifying the most important person in your life, who is it that you often refer to? If it’s not yourself, then there’s some work that needs to be done. Although it’s understandable and even common to place the relationship with either your spouse, a parent, your child or a sibling as the most crucial part of your being, your connection with self is what matters most since it greatly shapes everything else around you. For the new year, if you still find yourself struggling to take care of your needs, no worries – we got you. We spoke with licensed counselor Dr. Shana Lewis who shared her advice and tips on how to develop a loving relationship with yourself.
Counseling
We all have endured pain and trauma – whether individually or collectively. However, If you focus on women in the Black community, in particular, we have endured racism, colorization, and sexism amongst other generational and societal issues, all while managing a host of everyday responsibilities.
Going as far back as slavery, Black women were supposed to be strong, be quiet and just do what we were told no matter the circumstances, which to this day, still affects us. “As a people, we come from space in our history where we didn’t have the opportunity, to be honest,” says Dr. Lewis. “We didn’t have voices and we had to do what we were told…so we didn’t have anyone, except each other as a community to depend on and even that sometimes may not have worked out as well.”
While we’ve made strides to where women today are now in the position to use our voices, pursue our dreams, be independent and still have
