Show notes –
Join Shannon and Christine as we kick off Season 3 talking about physical wellness with Sacil Armstrong.
This week’s resources and references:
Embodied Soul Movement with Ifasina Clear
Sacil Armstrong – 10% off my upcoming course How to Talk to Your Racist Friends and Family
Calm in the Chaos class with Sacil & Christine
Nominate your Shearo Nominations (subject “My Shearo”) to Shealoglo@gmail.com
Check out Shealo Glo to order products & get more information about our awesome sponsor!
Show Transcript –
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
Christine Gautreaux 0:08
Let’s do this.
Shannon M. 0:08
Okay ladies, welcome to our podcast. I am Shannon Mitchell, a black female, millennial entrepreneur, the founder of shallow glow, a handmade shea butter company. I am a champion for your self care, business care and intentional wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:25
And I am Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, an international speaker, coach and published author who helps you upgrade yourself in community care.
Shannon M. 0:35
Yes. And together, we are women connected in wisdom, a podcast grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness. Welcome, welcome to our show,
Christine Gautreaux 0:44
right. And we like to get together every week to have intentional conversations about how to be wise in business and relationships, and wellness. And today, we’re talking about physical wellness.
Shannon M. 0:56
Yes, physical wellness is the ability to maintain a quality of life that allows you to get the most out of your daily activities without undue fatigue, or physical stress. physical wellness recognizes that our daily habits and behaviors have an impact on our overall health, well being and quality of life. Right? Yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 1:18
So top of the show, we were talking about moving and dancing. Yes, about being a certified Interplay leader. We use movement and storytelling and voice. And it’s funny that you should bring that up, Channing because I did a focus session just this week, which is like a 30 minute counseling session using Interplay tools and techniques, right. And so we don’t start with the talk, we start with the movement, and I was working with a client and who’s in my life practice program, and who, and we started with, move into a song, right? And it was two minutes of movement and the amazing, like, how much that can shift us, when we just take that time to move and relax and be joyful. And I use it all the time as a personal tool, that if I need energy, if I’m funky and need to shift my mood, I just put on a really good song and go for it. Yeah,
Shannon M. 2:21
I like that. I told you my song recently was Don’t you worry about a thing by Stevie Wonder. And right resting cuz I catch myself even while the song is on starting to worry about something. It’s like you can’t even last five minutes. You know, but it’s funny. And moving to this on definitely helps.
Christine Gautreaux 2:40
Right? Well, I come from a family of warriors. So I know that like sometimes that’s ingrained in us right. And to be intentional about like, you know, worried and help. But action often does like when we talk about women in action. So what can we do to take action? If something’s really bugging us? Or what’s the underlying concern? Yeah. It’s it’s, it’s a big deal, especially with all the energy and what’s going on in the world right now. There’s a lot of things to be concerned about. Now. Yes, a lot of things to be concerned about. Yeah. And before
Shannon M. 3:23
the call, we were talking about pivoting, right. And when I think about pivoting, I was telling you I think about bands. So if you guys don’t know me again, I’m the coolest band nerd ever. Okay, love marching band. I love symphonic too, but I love physically marching on the football field. And pivoting was an action where you would be let’s say, we’re going straight, and you return your ankle, okay. And then you go in a different direction. And now a lot of times we talk about it in situations. So we got to pivot, we got to pivot. And that is very important to stay flexible in the moment and you plan something you thought you were going this way but a detail a hair got tossed into the plan that’s changes the situation. And you got to act quickly and adapt and go another direction. So you reach your goal and not fall apart. Sometimes that’s the goal, you know, to not fall apart and keep going for the next step.
Christine Gautreaux 4:21
Right, it is so true. It’s like the only constant is change. So how do we adapt to change both the physical wellness and all the eight dimensions of wellness? Yeah, how do we and I like what you said ahead of time, like we plan and then we pivot like Yeah, cuz you know, anybody that’s listened to our shows know how big of a planner Shannon is, like, it’s you know, and we had some of that today that we had to pivot with each other and it’s like, it can be challenging and it can be frustrating, and to have some freedom within the forms. We then that we always say that an interplay, like the forms give you structure to have freedom within it, and planners to like we plan and then there’s where’s the freedom within our planning when things happen, right as it as all of us know, after this last year
Shannon M. 5:23
and that’s what I think about physical wellness, right? So let’s talk about my specific position. Again, as a young woman, before I have kids, I’m thinking about muscle memory, right? I’m running, doing abs thing about muscle memory so that when I get pregnant, hopefully one day, my body will be healthy and have that muscle memory to return back to what I wanted to look like. And we’ll see what that looks like. I know there’s expectations on this side of the situation, and then reality on the other one, right.
But that’s what I think about when I think about physical wellness is being proactive, instead of reactive. And again, sometimes life makes you sit down quarantine has been different. And I’ve been following people on my business paid up page on Instagram. And I like to follow active people, you know, because they care about their bodies. And that’s what shallow glow people do. They care about their bodies and taking care of themselves. And I call them glow babies are, and it’s changed. So your physical activity may have changed based on quarantine and what was open, but how do you pivot? And still do what you like to do in quarantine now just kind of adjusted, maybe it’s at home instead of the gym? Or how do you keep the same level of activity. But now it’s a different activity. Now, maybe you ride a bike, excuse me, instead of doing aerial aerobics with the what is that that they use in aerial aerobics? Do you know what I’m talking about?
Christine Gautreaux 6:47
Are you talking about like, where they climb the ropes, and there’s like
Shannon M. 6:51
railings in ribbing zand.
Christine Gautreaux 6:54
I have a good friend that does that. And I have another colleague, Sarah, who is an interplay leader who is a circus trainer to who does that. She has a social circus, we should get her to come on and talk to us. Because she’s been doing that. phenomenal work. Yeah, definitely get her to come on and talk to us. Yeah. Yeah, as you’re talking, I’m also thinking about because you know, I’m not as young as you are. And think about well, I think about accessibility issues. You know, I’ve been an athlete my entire life. But like I had a, I was doing traveling triathlons for a while and planning on getting back to them. But I had a major wreck. And I just tore up my wrist. So for about a year, I couldn’t ride my racing bike or do my yoga. That was the key stone of my start to my day, right? Because I had an injury. And there’s so many people I know in love that have accessibility issues. So and especially as they age, sometimes that part of their body doesn’t work that same way. So how do we make adjustments? This weekend? I was at the virtual roots weekend. It was a weekend of artists and activists coming together. And I was trying to look because I wanted to call her name properly. I took a class on Sunday. Yes, here it is. It was the get embodied soul movement class with etha Sheena, clear. And I want to I want to invite her to come on and be a guest on our podcast too, because it was all about movement from the black soul tradition for all bodies, and especially bodies that had accessibility issues. And it was the tradition of African dance. And I thought it was going to be like a workshop workshop. But it was a dance workshop. And, and I have been to another African dance class from my friend Marquita Dupree, who’s an incredible Zumba and our friend today, you’re but she tried to kill me because that glass was so fast and, you know, come from an athletic background. Your first instinct is to do it. Right. You do it, you keep up and I was sore for a week after that class. But he was Sheena’s class was definitely it was a good class like it kind of snuck up on you. It was about an hour and a half. But you could do it from the chair or you could do it from you could do it from standing and she gave us rest breaks but I was still at good kind of sore. You have to afterwards. I was like, Oh, I did something there. That was some good dancing.
Shannon M. 9:43
And that’s a pretty long class an hour and a half. I remember what I used to work at the gym when I was a kid I saw a state. We had Zumba and I took the class one day after I worked I said are we gonna dance the whole hour like I know I’m a college kid. We go to parties but you know you can Dance and chill, you know, dance. So our and it’s a lot. And I love that it was accessible. Like you said accessibility is a thing is a huge thing. And we talk about privilege as an able bodied person. That’s definitely a privilege that I have and something I don’t have to usually consider on a daily basis unless I’m intentionally thinking outside of what again, what I need to think about on a daily basis.
Christine Gautreaux 10:26
Well, thinking about accessibility to Shannon, we haven’t done this on our podcast because we go live, but one of the things we were practicing on at at the alternate routes we can was visual descriptors for listeners who are not seeing you, and I think it would actually be a cool thing to do for our audio listeners, too. So folks, there we go. So it’s like this. Um, you know, Hey, y’all, my name is Christine Gautreaux. I use she her her pronouns. I am coming to you today. From the land of the Muskogee Creek. I’m about a mile east of the Chattahoochee River in a place now called Duluth, Georgia. I am a middle aged white woman with light skin, I have long, over a little longer than my shoulders, Auburn Lynx hair, I’m wearing glasses that have a dark purple rim on them. I am wearing a blue tarp today that has some crisscross straps. And behind me is just kind of like a blank wall, which usually you can see my bookshelf behind me, but for some reason today, you can write and I’ll pass it to you ship.
Shannon M. 11:41
It Okay, so let’s see. I am How did you describe it? I’m not gonna do the geography. And I said it earlier, but I’ll do it again. I am a black. Female. How do you describe yourself? With two puffs? They’re called Lock pedals. Okay, guys. Pedals. Flowers. Yeah. Thank you with a jean jacket and a fashion overdressed that looks like the sun.
Christine Gautreaux 12:09
I like it in white, your pods? Your thoughts coming out of our ears today?
Shannon M. 12:14
Yes. Yes. Yeah, I need to work on that. And thank you. I was I was thinking about that thinking about. I feel like this is something I realized when I started taking better care of myself is the lack of vocabulary that I had to describe myself or how I was feeling or where I was coming from. It’s like, I have all these words for everybody else. But what about for me? And while you were describing an asset, ooh, I bet people would have difficulty doing it. And then you pick me. I said, Oh, no, I am people. I have difficulty doing this.
Christine Gautreaux 12:49
Well, it’s a practice, right. It’s new to us. That’s one of the things that I love about that community, the alternate routes community is we get to show up and practice things, right? Because it’s a culture and it’s a culture shift, right? When you said, having the privilege of being able bodied, that is privileged, but I will tell you from my friend, Myrna who we need to have on to she is the she’s the founder of okay, I’m going to get her I’m going to get her organization wrong, because they changed names. It’s now called Show ability. And so she works with performers who have different abilities. And some of the statistics she and I have talked about before, is it, I want to I want to I want to have her on because I don’t want to screw it up. But basically, it is the largest group of people. As far as folks with disabilities, that is constantly growing. And every human being has maybe in that category at one point or another in their lives. Right, right. And so it’s something not to take for granted. So when you said that, that’s what triggered it for me. And I thought podcasters we may have folks that don’t watch us live online that want to know what you look like, and then you know, and we just have to practice it. So yeah, I probably said, I probably should have said I’m a fluffy middle.
Shannon M. 14:28
You’ve lost all that weight you used to know. Like, though, we’re about to get you back to these triathlons and everything.
Christine Gautreaux 14:37
Oh, I am I can I tell you last Friday, I did 13 miles on my bike. I was so delighted. And you know, biking, cycling is one of my favorite sports. And so, of course on that day when I you know pedaled out 13 miles, I’m like, I’m putting a century on my bike. calendar right now, of course, I didn’t put it then right on that day, I should have called my friend Shane, who likes to calendar things. Because, say when I woke up and my hips were hurting as bad as I’m like, Am I really doing this? Am I doing this injury this year? Or that? I don’t know. We’ll see. But, but it is a goal that I’m debating is I’m going to look at some races and see what’s within reach there. Because I’ve been wanting to do 100 miler for a while.
Shannon M. 15:29
So what about I’m for it?
Christine Gautreaux 15:31
What have you been working on that you want to go towards?
Shannon M. 15:34
So I’ve actually been working on stretching more, you know, I was reading and the this is genuinely not just because it’s your book, but it is the book that I’m reading right now, right. But I was reading Stillpoint, and it was talking about physical wellness, physical self care, and how flexibility is part of it. So I run, that’s great. Even as an athlete, I want to make sure that I’m stretching when I should. And I do that when I’m workout. But I think I need to add it a little bit more. So I’ve been doing it like in the morning and at night is part of part of my goal. And I know on season one my manifestation. No, my own wisdom and action was that even if I don’t run that day, then I’ll go outside and log in. That’s been something that I’ve continued to do. So those two things.
Christine Gautreaux 16:25
I love that. Well the other thing, before we bring on our guests that I want to I want to mention because every Tuesday I teach a class with my co author, Sheila K Collins, and we do a we do an inner play class for caregivers. And at the end of the class, one of our practices is we ask, What’s one thing that you’re going to do for that you commit to doing for yourself care this week, and what’s one thing you commit to doing your community care, and for the first time in over a year, and y’all are gonna call me to task on this one. But the first time in over a year of what I said for self care is, I’m going to rest when I need to rest this week. So I just want to name that as we call that into the room as we talk about physical wellness, that resting piece being so crucial. Because I have been hitting my you know, my walking goals, my cycling goals, my stretching goals, but I have not been hitting my resting goals, which is such a huge thing, which our next guest is probably going to fuss at me a little bit about that. But I am looking forward to the conversation. Should we bring our guests on? Yes, let’s
Shannon M. 17:37
go ahead and start. Alright,
Christine Gautreaux 17:39
so I am going to read their official bio because I don’t want to screw it up. And Cecile Armstrong is our guest today and I am so excited to introduce y’all to her. Cecile is a self care and social justice facilitator, integrating self care with equity and anti racism training. Her teaching motto is no blame, no shame, no guilt, because those emotions get in the way of learning. She focuses on evidence based techniques and ideas that not only make us feel good, but also increase our mental and emotional capacity to handle the new normal. Oh, Shannon, you and I were just talking about that. She loves music, art and laughter and often dances her way into trainings to set the mood. Even no change can be hard. She believes we have a reason to celebrate. Showing up to learn is a step towards making a positive change. Oh my gosh, Sacil, I wish I had the music queued back up to put the dance together. But I am so glad you’re joining us today.
Sacil Armstrong 18:53
I’m so excited to be here. Thank you.
Christine Gautreaux 18:56
Welcome welcome. Okay, I did pull up the music Hang on just a second y’all cuz that just like we danced in hang on we’re gonna take just 10 seconds and dance
if you’re listening to us in your car just dance along with us for 10 seconds
Shannon M. 19:23
I see you soon Hey
Sacil Armstrong 19:34
I’m gonna tell you you were right when you said you haven’t been arrested and I was gonna call you out on it. I’m gonna call you out.
Christine Gautreaux 19:43
Right and you know I know my indicator when I’m not ready. And one of my appreciating can call me out on today too is like I overschedule like I get my brain doesn’t like I if I’m not resting enough what happens? Then I’m not realizing how much time I need in between. And I’m like, Oh, it’s this is this crazy cycle? And I double schedule or I’m like, what is happening? And it’s my integrity to go, Oh, you are not well rested? Because norm, the norm. Right, right. Oh, I’m so.
Shannon M. 20:23
And I do the same thing. I wonder we should we should talk about that indicators for when you start kind of getting off a little bit.
Sacil Armstrong 20:31
Yeah. Yeah, knowing your knowing your indicators is huge, it’s a huge way of stopping the cycle, you have to be it you have to be aware of your own your own symptoms, your own patterns, yes, if you don’t know your patterns, you’re gonna keep repeating the same stuff over and over again, right, we recognize patterns, you can stop it before the cycle gets started.
Shannon M. 20:53
Right. And patterns is exactly what I think about Cecile, when Christine was reading your bio, talking about the blame, shame, guilt, those are like go to the self sabotage habits, right. So instead of to learn, you want to push it off on somebody else, or that’s what we tend to do. Right, right. So how do you how do you balance those things between not doing that? What do you what do you help people do instead?
Sacil Armstrong 21:18
Okay, well, when I’m doing my workshops, the first thing I do is talk to people about recognizing their own emotions, because a lot of times people don’t even recognize what they feel. So they don’t even see what they do. And so the first thing I do before I even start talking about either anti racism or equity or self care, any of that stuff, the first thing I do is have people get in touch with what they’re feeling, I’m like, we’re going to dance a minute, so we can bring the energy up. And then we’re going to sit and breathe so that we can get in touch with what we feel. And so after we do some breathing, and get in touch with what we feel, then I talked to people about taking responsibility for their own emotions. It’s like, okay, recognize what you feel. And then recognize nobody else has any power over that except for you. You know, as the facilitator or the person that’s leading the workshop, I might say things that make you feel bad, that make you angry, that make you feel guilty, but I’m not putting those emotions on you, you know, I might be triggering those emotions in you, but I can’t control how you feel. And so it’s not my responsibility to make you feel better. It’s your responsibility to recognize where those feelings are coming from. Sit with them, so they can pass and then come back to concentrate on whatever it is that we’re talking about. And it’s okay to interrupt class and say, I need a minute, or that’s triggering for me, can we work out why or any of that kind of stuff, as long as you’re taking responsibility for what you feel? And that’s what I do in the beginning. So that everybody is on like the same level with, you know, all right, we’re all going to be the only things that are triggering, and we’re all gonna feel some stuff. And I got to do with my own shit. Sorry, I gotta do.
Shannon M. 23:01
It, yes. So how do you how would you advise somebody to balance their physical wellness with that when you think about physical wellness and what you do, what is it that stands out? Is it both the action and then the breathing together? What do you think?
Sacil Armstrong 23:19
Yeah, it’s definitely an action in the breathing together. And I will admit, I am not not like super active. I’m not athletically Keller, but I am, I am all about my wellness. And I do walk in the morning, I walk just about every morning barefoot on the grass, that’s my morning rituals to get myself grounded before I start my day. And it might not sound like it’s all athletic, but that is purely physical experience, you know, for me, absolutely get my body settled, get my mind straight. Before I start my day. I’m also most of the time, pretty careful about what I eat. And so it’s not just making sure that you eat live food and that you eat, you know, a lot of vegetables and less meat and all that kind of stuff. It’s also about about, um, things like, like making my own tea, I will go out to the grocery store just about every week, and I get like a bunch of different herbs that I know what they do, and toss them in a pot and bring my own tea. And sometimes I’m throwing in things like sweet potato or beets, things that are you know, superfoods, so all of these things into a pot and sweeten it up with some honey and some apple cider vinegar, and you’ve got your own tea and it’s something that’s fresh, it’s homemade. It’s got all these good properties and if you know, you know what the herbs are for, and you know, you’ve got your own, pray over it. And then you’ve got your own, like super tea for yourself, you know, personalized to you,
Christine Gautreaux 24:47
since you be willing to write down that recipe for us that we could share with our listeners. And of course we’re like shaping our
Shannon M. 24:57
lives. Gotta go. Okay, yeah, Laura and I love being barefoot too. So barefoot on the grass. That makes sense.
Sacil Armstrong 25:11
Yeah. Yeah.
Christine Gautreaux 25:12
It’s such a thing thing. That’s one of the things I tell my clients when somebody is really scattered or chaotic or can’t like, catch their breath. It’s like, when’s the time you put your feet on the earth? And if you’re really struggling, go lay down on the earth, like, yes. So Whoo. I love that, that we have that in common sale. Because, well, you know, go ahead.
Sacil Armstrong 25:38
I was in that embodiment class with you on Sunday, and I was outside dancing, and I was barefoot.
Christine Gautreaux 25:46
I didn’t know if you were in the green room when Shane and I were talking about it, because the class were almost one more quarter on was killed me, but this one was not like this one was accessible. And it was good. I was sorry. I don’t know about you. But the next day or two, I was like, what’s that? I’m like, Oh, it was arms.
Sacil Armstrong 26:06
We did. Yeah, I was. So afterwards, too. But I absolutely, absolutely loved that class. I used to dance all the time. And I’ve gotten away from it. And that class just like brought me right back to it. No, yeah, absolutely. I’ll put
Christine Gautreaux 26:20
the link to that in our show notes for our listeners, because she was incredible teacher. And in that classes is I think she said that. They said, sorry. I’m misgendering them. Um, I think they said on the second fourth Saturday of the month, but also to it.
Sacil Armstrong 26:39
Yeah, it was twice a month. Yeah. I know. She’s got a Facebook group and Instagram, where she goes live. I already signed up because I was like, Yes, I’m definitely doing this again.
Christine Gautreaux 26:50
I will tag that in the show notes for folks that are interested. That was a soul and body class and embodies. Shannon, you’ll have to join us. Yeah. Yeah. And it’s usually on Sunday. Saturdays, Saturdays. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah, that was incredible. I had a great. So what else to say when you think about physical wellness things that when you tied to your work, because you know, racism is in bodies,
Shannon M. 27:24
and bodies? And I actually have a even more like, specific question. Okay, so I know we have a giveaway, right? So you are giving our listeners 10% off for your upcoming course. Right? How to Talk to your racist friends and family. So I love that for that person that’s talking to their racist friends and family. What would you say to them about the tension? What do you what do you do with that physically, if they’re thinking about their physical wellness, after that conversation,
Christine Gautreaux 27:55
or during that?
Shannon M. 27:57
Yeah, that’s
Sacil Armstrong 28:00
about their wellness, physical wellness, before they have that conversation. Because the the first thing about having a conversation with somebody is, knowing what you’re feeling. Because if you go into that conversation, go, Oh, my God, this person is stupid, and I can’t stand the way they think. And I have got to change them. If you go in with that attitude. Even if you don’t say it, your conversation is already off to a bad start, because that person don’t feel it. And so the first thing that I go over in this class is getting in touch with what you’re thinking and feeling about the person that you’re trying to reach. And then coming to a place where you can allow them to be where they are. And you can just meet them there. And then you can talk to them and bring them along. But before you can do any of that you have to get in touch with what you feel, and recognize what you’re feeling and thinking and get yourself grounded to a place where you’re like, I’m okay, I know what I want to share, I can’t force them to do anything, all I can do is share this information with them. Because that’s how I teach. When I when I teach my anti racism classes, I do a whole meditation before I ever enter the classroom, because I know that people are there because they want to be and I can’t change their mind about anything, all I can do is hold space for them, and then share the facts. And if I can hold space so that they can get over their defensiveness and they can say okay, she’s not attacking me for being who I am. So I don’t have to be afraid. So that means I can listen. And then all this stuff gets out of the way and I can share the facts and I’m trying to think I can’t think of one class where I’ve ever had where somebody has said, I don’t believe anything you say and I’m not gonna change my mind. Every class every time when I do the no blame no shame, no guilt, and I get everybody grounded. People usually cry first thing there’s always someone in class that cries and says thank you because I was scared to be here. And then once everybody settled and I start sharing facts and saying this is our history, this is where these things come from the way our society is now. Did not just pop up out of thin air did not just pop up because this is how people are. This was designed race racism was legislated in to your country. And once people learn that, and then they’re like, Oh, I didn’t know, what do I do now? And then I’m like, Here you go. Let me show you. Let me show you what it takes to be anti racist. You know, in your daily life, you don’t have to go out and, you know, March and say, I’m this, like heavy duty activists, you can say, I’m going to be anti racist in my life. And this is how you do it. And yeah, that’s what gets people.
Shannon M. 30:28
I love that, though. And it reminds me, especially with a psychology degree, right, why I think people are crying and so emotional is because they probably thought they felt those things for somebody else. But they realized it was for them, like they felt the blame and the shame and the guilt, right, you put that down? You feel so much lighter?
Sacil Armstrong 30:47
Yes, yes, you really do. But it’s also a constant thing. You can’t just say, Okay, I’m in this class, I put it down. And now it’s gone, because you’ve dealt with it your whole life. And so as soon as you walk away from that class, where somebody has you focusing on that, you’re going to pick it right back up without even thinking, yeah. And so it’s something that people have to work on. And they have to, they have to sit with and practice that every day. Because like I said, when I do my classes, I have a whole ritual that I go through beforehand, so that I can hold space for people. Because if I walk into that class, without it, somebody is gonna say some racist as well, I know, I have to get into my space, so that I can help other people get there, too.
Shannon M. 31:27
I love that.
Christine Gautreaux 31:29
Well, and I was also thinking, when you talked about that to Cecile, if we’re doing our work as white people, and we’re doing our work as folks who want want to be allies, or CO conspirators to end race, we’re going to step in it and make me say, so what what may happen is shame, blame, or guilt bubbles up in like, look, we didn’t do something the right way, or we you know, and so, so having those tools to be able to set it down to be able to stay in the work, you know, take care of ourselves and have sustainability as activists, caregivers, like people just trying to make a difference in the world. I think it’s because I think that is part of the physicality of it is if our finally good, we don’t want to do it.
Sacil Armstrong 32:21
Right, right. That’s true. But activism, if you do an anti racism, any of that stuff, it isn’t different than learning anything else, when you start learning, you’re gonna screw up, you know, and if you if you let the possibility of screwing up, stop you from taking action, you’ll never do anything. Because that’s how we learn, we learn by doing and messing up and then doing it better, and then mess it up and then do any better. And then messing up. And that’s just the process. And so, and that applies to anything that you learn. And so when people can, can get that in their mind, okay, I’m gonna mess up. And I saw you commented on one of my blog posts about ally ship. You commented on the part where I said, the key is, when you mess up, you can’t like cry and say, I didn’t mean it. And this all this other stuff, you got to say, I’m sorry, you know, what can I do to make up for this, and then do better going forward? And you have to keep doing that over and over and over? You know,
Christine Gautreaux 33:20
well, and I speak to my white colleagues and friends and people out there, because I’ve been in a way too many spaces where when a white person messes up, they make it all about them, and they start crying, and they center themselves. And when you’re doing the anti racism work? That’s No, it’s not about you, Oh, I loved your blog in your article where you very succinctly said, like, I’m sorry, what can I do differently? And then feels because it’s kind of like what you said at the beginning of the podcast, like, it’s okay to have those feelings, but and we’re not expecting our friends of color, or our teachers of color to fix it for us or to have to process those feelings with us. That’s for us to take. And so I, I mean, it’s huge, because I know you’ve been in those spaces, but I’ve been in this face is too and it’s like, don’t do that.
Sacil Armstrong 34:18
Yeah, I know. It’s like, it feels bad. And you fit you feel bad in your body, you feel bad in your heart and your mind. And it’s your responsibility to sit with that. Because those are your feelings that you’re putting on yourself. So it’s your responsibility to sit with that read, let them pass through so you can let them go. And then get up keep doing the work.
Christine Gautreaux 34:37
And that’s the important piece, get up and keep doing the work especially as white. We have the privilege to set it down or not. And that’s not a good friend, a good ally a good to me a good human being. So we got to think about and keep going. So yeah, I love that.
Shannon M. 34:55
Yeah. And I really liked what you said. So I think I’m going to do that from now on when I teach in class. I says, If I’m about to speak, I’m going to give some time. Just like you said, Christina overbooked myself, right. So if I have to speak, then I know I need that time for myself to make sure I’m good before and after. I think that’s, I think that’s wise.
Sacil Armstrong 35:18
I know. Yeah, when I don’t do it, when I don’t do it, things don’t go as smoothly, because I have time that I’ve set aside before to get prepared. And then I have time afterwards, especially with teaching antiracism. Because when I do it, my whole self is there, I am completely present with everybody, giving people what they need holding space. And holding space is hard sometimes, especially with people who don’t know, because in those two hour sessions that I do, I hear so much racist stuff. And I’m just holding space because this is where they are, you know, but I teach and then afterwards, I’ve got to have my time, so that I can decompress because I held space and took on all this stuff. And I’m like, I’m not gonna take that with me through the rest of my evening. And so usually, once I’ve done something, I’m not doing anything major the rest of the day, because I’m giving myself time to let it all go. And that’s spiritual work. But it’s also physical work, because I’m exhausted,
Christine Gautreaux 36:09
right? You have any physical practices or anything that you do Cecile after to let things go.
Sacil Armstrong 36:19
Most of the time, what I do was more of a it’s more of a spiritual thing, but I do a lot of breathing. And then a lot of times, a lot of times, I just want to take a shower. I mean, that’s a physical thing, but
Christine Gautreaux 36:31
it’s a physical thing. And I’m glad you brought that up. I do that often. It’s like a natural way to cleanse all that energy off of you. And you’re really conscious when you’re conscious about it, and you make the I’m gonna let this go down the drain. Right? It’s like a shower meditation. Right? Mm hmm. I think that’s, I think that’s so powerful.
Sacil Armstrong 36:57
Oh, yeah. Well, actually, that’s, that’s gonna be one of my blog posts. Next week, I’m actually writing a shower meditation that people can use. So when you get in the shower, it’s not just the physical acts of washing up, but it’s merging the spiritual with it.
Christine Gautreaux 37:10
Right. Oh, I can’t wait to see. And I know we have a little more time. Since we’re talking about the blog. Cecile, where can folks find your blog? Because we’ve mentioned that oh, where can they find out?
Sacil Armstrong 37:25
I’m on Patreon. So it’s patreon.com/the Real Cecile.
Christine Gautreaux 37:30
Okay, I’m gonna put that up. The real Cecile. I love that. So folks can go and follow you. Okay, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. And we’ll put that in there, too, so people can find you and follow you.
Sacil Armstrong 37:46
Okay. All right. Well, they’ll find what I’m talking about right here. It’s all about equity, anti racism and self care.
Christine Gautreaux 37:53
Right. And I love I want to give a shout out to Paul Zelizer over to wear printers because that you Paul, I’m part of is aware printers community. And he tagged me and said, You need to connect with to see alarms are like, Y’all need to connect. And I was so excited when I reached out to you. And I was like, Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, we clicked immediately. Right away. And I don’t even think Shannon knows this yet. So Shannon, Cecile and I are doing a workshop together on the let’s reimagine platform. So we’re doing a shop called Calm in the Chaos. And that is from seals work. And it’s basically like, how do we take care of ourselves in this? So with that, in the show, note two folks want to join us because we Okay, great. We’re going to do an hour and a half. And we’re gonna we’re going to combine some interplay and some of the seals work and we’re gonna we’re just gonna have a good time together refilling our buckets and, and having a having a pause. So I’ll make sure and tag you on it. So you can join us if you want to. Yes, please. Yeah. Before Shoshana was talking about I haven’t done Interplay yet. This way she actually said to me
there’s an inner player I said not yet. Well, she is but not officially but that’s coming. When I met Cecile, and I think it’s funny that she and and immediately reading your bio was like, Is she an interpreter?
Shannon M. 39:44
Movement stillness sounds like
Sacil Armstrong 39:49
totally fine. I’m not there yet. I’ve been on the site and I definitely want to join.
Christine Gautreaux 39:56
I am. Yeah, we haven’t upcoming secrets of inner play for helping professionals that I would love to have you come join me at it’s a weekend. You do a Thursday night, Friday night, a Saturday and a Sunday. And it’s a little more spaced out. Because you know, when we were in person, we would do a whole weekend. And that doesn’t. On on virtual, we’re really conscious of how much our bodies can take online. So we stretch it out. Yeah. And we’re channel facilitators online that we have big breaks, we get to move. I mean, that’s the good thing about teaching something that has movement in it. Yes, it’s when I go to a traditional Zoom meeting. Now I’m like, there’s just
you’re bringing it in at the at the top of the show shaman about how the pandemic has affected us all. Reality. You know, I had a client reach out this last week and say, I’m just not doing well. I’ve, you know, I’m not I’m more sedentary because of the pandemic, I’m in front of my computer. Overall, I just feel horrible. And, you know, I know that a lot of people have seen this meme that’s gone around. But it talks about indigenous wisdom of the healers used to say, when was the last time you danced? When was the last time you say, when was the last time? And really, like I asked my clients that like, when was the last time you? When When do you move when you do something for yourself? So I know all three of us are about self care in our businesses. So what I would love to ask each of us to speak to the question, like what is your favorite self care practice that addresses physical wellness? Everyone you’ve already said, right,
Shannon M. 42:00
so I’ll let you go for sure, I guess.
Sacil Armstrong 42:04
Okay, well, I’ll say, I’m my favorite one that I have not done, done well with keeping up with at all is dancing. I used I used to dance every day, I used to be part of a dance troupe. So I was performing once a week had practice once a week and was in class once a week. And then I danced in between because that was just me and I’ve gotten away from that. That’s my favorite thing. And I really need to get back to it. And then my second favorite because you can do it anywhere regardless and nobody ever has to know that you’re doing anything is focusing on my breathing. Because I can be anywhere and nobody ever knows that. Okay, now I’m breathing from my belly and I’m really focusing on being you know, inviting my body and people nobody ever has to know and I don’t have to worry about you know, having equipment or having a space or anything. It’s just just being here. So Oh, I
Shannon M. 42:54
love that. I love that was the question again, Christine. It is
Christine Gautreaux 42:59
each of us self care as part of each of our businesses. So what is our favorite personal self care practice that addresses physical wellness,
Shannon M. 43:09
right? And my personal one it is shallow that is what I’ll say my shea butter company and I want to stop using the word crazy because it’s not crazy strategically orchestrated or is definitely on purpose that I have a shea butter company but it’s so interesting to me when I think about how I was a little girl that known my mom for 12 years. Growing up with my dad not knowing how to take care of myself. Lotion wasn’t working. I love that I found shea butter and now I’m able to use shallow glow and shea butter to help all these women and all these families take better care of themselves. You know I love going into people’s house and I see shallow glowing people are sending me there you go rubbing your glow.
Christine Gautreaux 43:53
Doesn’t know this is not me but every time Shannon says Shayla glow I have to reach for my Shayla glowing
Shannon M. 44:02
like and I love I got pictures of people giving their mom’s foot massages for Mother’s Day and all of that I love you know, so that is my favorite part.
Christine Gautreaux 44:18
I love that. Yeah. Well Cecile, I would say dancing is one of mine too before the pandemic Joe and I would have a weekly dance date and we have not had that because everything was shut down. We did a little bit of online but it’s harder in my office than in a big Zumba classroom. Right? Watch the bowl watch. But I also think, you know, I like to greet the sun from my labyrinth in the morning and my Labyrinth is in the trees and it’s it’s a pretty hefty one. Like when people were over the House last week. They’re like, how long is that? It’s like it’s About a quarter of a mile like lunchtime you go in, and by the time you go out, so it’s a whole practice. But it is a physical practice because I’m walking and you know, so I think there’s that too. But But mine is the stretching in the mornings to which sometimes I’m habit with because I convince myself that it’s better to sleep an extra 30 minutes. Most of the time, it’s not like most of my body is better served getting up and stretching and doing right, that I need to do to give me energy. So it is sometimes
Shannon M. 45:46
the point what you said, like sometimes your body is better served spending the time doing that. And that’s what I think about when I when I put it on, not only of course, do I put it on my whole body, but specifically my joints is what I think about my ankles, my knees, my, my elbows, my shoulders, because it helps with circulation. And I would think that I’m too young to worry about that. But no, you’re taking care of your body. So go ahead and again. And I love that I can use shea butter to do that, too. Yeah.
Sacil Armstrong 46:17
And, oh, go ahead. I was gonna say the fact that you’re actually like spending the time every day to touch yourself and rub that in, then that’s also you know, part of the self care, because people are people are missing that touch, you know, since we’re not as social, but even if you can’t touch other people affect that you’re taking the time to like moisturize your skin and touch your whole body that says giving you part of that touch that you’re missing from other people.
Shannon M. 46:44
That’s such a good point.
Christine Gautreaux 46:47
I was thinking about how beautiful, like, we always talk about the seal on the show how physical wellness is it really intersects with all the other dimensions. And that it is it’s crucial to whatever we do no matter our accessibility or like to move some pieces of ourselves, right, if at all. No matter how slow or gently it needs to happen. Because it’s so vital for self care. And I know in the work that you’re doing in the world, and the work that I do in the world to like that physicality of really dancing some of those stories out and getting or recognizing them.
Sacil Armstrong 47:37
Yeah, the train.
Christine Gautreaux 47:41
Well, it’s actually good timing my friends, because we are about out of time with you. And we have so love chatting with you, I looked up and I’m like, Well, we’re almost out of time. So we’re gonna put your, um, we are going to put your how to find how people can find you on Instagram and you’re at the real Cecile and we will put that in our show notes. And, or folks can find you at Cecile Armstrong calm. And I will also attach the class that you and I are doing together and hope people will come in Okay, for the Calm in the Chaos. All right. I am so
Sacil Armstrong 48:17
don’t have the link up yet for the class where people can get the discount. That’s a new class that’s coming up next month. So as soon as I have that link, though, I will send it to you how to talk to your racist friends and family.
Christine Gautreaux 48:28
Yes, yes. And I hope everybody listening takes that class like because she Cecile is gonna give us 10% off are her upcoming course how to talk to your racist friends and family. I will schedule allows it at all, I will be there my friend. So I love my family and my friends. But there are definitely some racist in there. You know I’m from. And, yeah, so I will do my best to be there. But thank you so much for being with us today.
Shannon M. 49:01
Thank you. So thank you.
Christine Gautreaux 49:03
It’s a joy to talk to you was always a joy to
Sacil Armstrong 49:07
talk to you.
Christine Gautreaux 49:09
Bye! Oh my gosh, how fun was that?
Shannon M. 49:15
It was good. It was. I feel like I went to the city and got to go hang out with my friend real quick.
Christine Gautreaux 49:21
That’s how I have felt about Cecile, since the minute I met her. I’m like, Oh my gosh, and she’s in Virginia. So we haven’t met personally yet. But that’s gonna happen this year. We’re gonna make sure that things are back up. So when you think about that conversation, what bubbled up for you my friend?
Shannon M. 49:40
I mean, I would say my wisdom and inaction is to put my feet on the grass. Like I love walking outside barefoot. And you know, I was just on the beach last week, but I have not been barefoot out here recently, so I’m probably gonna change that.
Christine Gautreaux 49:56
I like that. I think I may do it right after the show. Like to ground myself and put my feet on the earth. I’m going to be traveling to see family next week. And, um, you know, that being intentional about place, right? What do you mean talking about, we were talking about this at the alternate routes weekend about where we come from in our place. And in environmental wellness, you know, how we talk about environmental wellness, but there’s the physicality of it, I guess what’s bubbling up for me is when I think about, I’m not going to be in my place that I’ve been in for a year and a half, I’m going home, to the place that I come from. So there’s going to be a totally different energy when I land there and get to put my feet on that ground. But even you saying that I want to go outside and put my feet in my yard, like my grass right now and kind of be intentional and soak it up and give gratitude for it. Because it makes me teary even to think about it. Because, you know, in some ways for 18 months, it’s been like, oh, like, we have to be home, you know, but such gratitude for having a place to be. Yeah, I’m having a beautiful grass that I can put my feet in and gratitude for that. And, and my little fancy feet getting excited about things are opening back up. And I travel for the first time in a year and a half and being intentional about where I’m putting my feet. I like that. I like that too. Yeah. I like that. So yeah, I’ll be I’ll be I’ll be tuning in from another place next week. Who am I? We all the tech will work because I look forward to being with y’all. And all right. You talked a little bit about Shayla globe. Do you want to give a shout out for and tell people about Shay rose?
Shannon M. 51:54
Yes. So lady Shea rose are women in your life and in your community who are making a difference? Right? Who was that one person you think about that your life will be completely different. That is a shea row and we want to honor her. And what that looks like with shallow glow. Actually, I’m going to change it. So now I think I want the ladies to have their option. That’s instead of me saying here, this is what I’m giving you, they’re going to be able to pick so send your Cheryl nomination to shallow glow@gmail.com. I need the subject title to be my shero so that they’ll all go together. And I’ll be picking a nomination at the end of this month. So it is May 19. The nominations close at the last day of the month, and the next one will be announced. So she will get that in the mail. She will get to pick it out and just you know be honored for all the work that she does and give her more time to touch on herself and give her the love that she needs like Cecilia was talking about. And of course everybody loves a thank you for the work that they do.
Christine Gautreaux 52:54
Oh, I love that so much. Thank you for being a sponsor of this show. And thank you for honoring a no, we can’t honor all the amazing women because then you would not have so many. I love that you are intentional about that and giving shout out so thank you so much.
Shannon M. 53:13
Of course, of course. And don’t forget, be well be wise. And we’ll be back next week by Christine from another state right.
Christine Gautreaux 53:24
Look forward to it my friend.
Unknown Speaker 53:25
Yes. Thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on-air live on Wednesdays at 5 pm. Eastern via Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to like share and subscribe be part of the conversation and get connected at women connected in wisdom.com.
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