Show notes –
Join Shannon and Christine as they chat about Spiritual Wellness with special guest and founder of Women Healing and Empowering Women.
Shealo Glo – www.shealoglo.com Now offering Subscriptions * Delivered on the 1st & 15th!
Discount Code – WISE5
Nominate your Shearo by emailing subject “My Shearo” to shealoglo@gmail.com
Stillpoint – https://www.amazon.com/Stillpoint-Self-Care-Playbook-Caregivers-Breathe/dp/1732370400
Book a private coaching session with Christine at: https://www.christinegautreaux.com
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Busi’s website – http://www.whewnow.org/
Insight timer meditation app – https://insighttimer.com/
Article we referenced today:
https://chopra.com/articles/8-ways-to-keep-your-mind-body-spirit-healthy-through-the-holidays
Poem – Beah: Thus A Black Woman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcZntCk_beA
https://www.house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative
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.
Shannon M. 0:08
Let’s do this. 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.
Unknown Speaker 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.
Unknown Speaker 0:43
And we love to get together every week and have intentional conversations about how to be wise in business relationships, and wellness. Like there’s so many aspects of it to weave in together, you know, so many aspects. And then you throw in technology, and there’s a lot of fun.
Shannon M. 1:04
I call it the variables, the variables of the way the situation can play out.
Unknown Speaker 1:10
Right? Yeah. So how you been this week, my friend, what you’ve been up to, you know,
Shannon M. 1:15
I’ve been over here, let me let me show you what I’ve been up to my two planners getting ready for the next year. Oh, I can show you guys that that’s new stuff that we have coming up for the end of next year when we can make the new wisdom but it’s written down in the planner. Okay. And that’s what I’ve been doing getting organized at the end of the year, looking at my goals, thinking about where I would want to end for the end of quarter four, and making sure I have my plans laid out for 2022. So I could start having the right conversations to be proactive about that.
Unknown Speaker 1:48
I love it. You know what I realized, between our conversation last weekend this week. So you know, last week, we were talking about this fabulous vacation that I got to go on and so privileged and grateful to have that opportunity. And what I really realized there was a little bit of a letdown afterwards how sometimes there is like after you’ve had a great experience, you know how like after you’ve produced a great event, or you’ve launched your book, or you you know, sometimes there’s that little bit of luck, you know, and it just corresponded also with the time change and darkness. So there’s that. But the other thing I realized is my, I don’t know if it’s my body, if it’s my soul, if it’s my spirit, if it’s all of it was really saying, hey, yeah, that was great. But you haven’t had a loan time, you haven’t had some time to hear yourself think because as we move into 2022, and you know, we’re social entrepreneurs, both of us. So we got people asking us for collaborations, we have some big projects coming up together. And what I realized is I was hesitating on some things, because I hadn’t checked in with myself. So I’m scheduling a couple of days in my calendar right now for some Silent Retreat, thinking. Was it you and I that were talking about it the other day about we were listening to a teacher, and they said to schedule time with yourself, to ask yourself the questions that you would ask
Shannon M. 3:20
specific or just other people you know, and specifically she said at least an hour to hear yourself think in the brainstorm especially as women because so much we ask other people their opinion, our friends, God, mom, all these different people, but sometimes we already know the answer, or we haven’t processed how we feel about it. So they can give us information and it feel kind of off kilter or off a little bit. And that’s why because you asked this person before you ask yourself, right,
Unknown Speaker 3:51
I love that. So time for meditation time for prayer time for checking in with myself. That’s what I’m that’s what I’m about to have happen. And I’m pretty excited about it. So what are we talking about today? Because I think it goes right in with that topic. And our guests that we have on today you want to give everybody the definition and what we’re talking about?
Shannon M. 4:11
Absolutely. So this week is about spiritual wellness, and spiritual wellness. Wellness allows us to be in tune with our spiritual selves. This realm of wellness lets us find meaning and life events and define our individual purpose. It can be defined through various factors including religious faith, values, ethics and morals, regardless of whether you believe in a particular religious faith. There is always something to be learned about how you see yourself in the world.
Unknown Speaker 4:43
Yeah, you know, we talk about it every season, but I think it’s especially important as we are about to go into the holidays, and which creates so much stress for folks. Right and it’s in the United States. For the Christian holidays are coming up. And it’s I think it’s one of those things that, especially as women who are expected to carry so much of the organizing and the planning, and I think it’s a good thing to be talking about, about being imbalanced with our spiritual wellness at the same time.
Shannon M. 5:20
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And especially when we talk about still point, and the great points you ladies make about caretaking being the danger to the people who are doing the caretaking. That’s usually not the side of the conversation that we have. So that’s why I love the first part, the first point that this article that I referenced earlier mentions is being intentional with your time, you know, so I was on the phone with my dad last night like Hey, Dad, based on everything going on. I’m planning on cooking double, when I cook Thanksgiving dinner, I was like two things, the greens, two things and macaroni and cheese. He told me not to. I’m not going to argue with the man, you know what I mean? No problem, I will not cook double, I will use my time somewhere else. Thank you for saving my time. And that’s really important to me, not to not overextend myself, just to be nice.
Unknown Speaker 6:10
To get things to check in, right? Yeah, the article we’re talking about is the eight ways to keep your mind body and spirit healthy through the holidays. And we will it was an article that was put out last year in December, and it was written by Aaron easterly. And we can just touch real quick on the points before we bring our guest up because I think she’s gonna have some things to say about it too. But that number one was be intentional with your time. I am, especially this last two years of the pandemic has changed this for me, you know, I love holiday parties. I love connecting with people. And I realized when I didn’t have to do it the last? Or was it just one season as had been why I don’t know where we’re at anymore. But you know, at least one season we went through that there really weren’t any like there were some online zoo, but there weren’t any, I realized how much I really love the the quiet times of the holidays like the quiet ceremonies and the for me that really, it was really good. And that feeds into number two, which was practice mindfulness. About being of the paying attention to the bringing awareness to your body. You can do this, no matter where you are, or who you’re with, observe your posture. Notice where you’re holding tension, and pay attention, holding tension, and pay attention to how deeply your breath flows. Y’all know that for interplay? And as we’re always like, take a deep breath. Right. Be present in the moment. Yeah. You mentioned this already. You want to say number three?
Shannon M. 7:58
Yeah, let me go down to it. Yes, find the blessings of imperfection. And it’s interesting. This reminds me of a painting that I was thinking about on the way to the farmers market earlier, when I was I was thinking about you, Christine, because I realized I do actually enjoy by art. And clearly right and I clearly I haven’t bought from huge artists yet. But what I’d normally do is commission, somebody who’s been female artists commission, somebody that I know that can paint or draw to do a piece. And I was watching one of the I believe it was a resident on campus when I was in college paint the thing you know, the piece she was making for me, and I saw the different colors, she used to make a certain color. And I was I never would have thought that this green would have brown in it or something like that. But when it came out, it was beautiful. And that’s how life is things happen in ways that you wouldn’t have picked if you were in control with everything. But when you look back at the way things ended up falling is still beautiful.
Unknown Speaker 8:58
I love that. Number four is just common sense, but eat at least two healthy meals a day. So during the holiday season, it can be easy to get carried away with indulgences. So you could be toxic to you depending on your food and alcohol or what you drink. So to maintain your commitment to health without depriving yourself focus on having at least two healthy meals each day. That’s smart like that. And it goes into more detail in the article which we’ll link in the show notes. But yeah, number five, you and I talk about this one all the time. Maintain a regular sleep cycle.
Shannon M. 9:40
It’s so important. So vital, right? It’s
Unknown Speaker 9:42
such as basic, but I mean I always tell my clients when I’m doing private coaching with somebody author if they’re out of balance or they’re really struggling. I always go back to the basics. Are you getting enough sleep? Are you eating good food, and are you exercising? And sometimes that’s enough to reset this right Number six, following right along, stay active. So yeah, don’t squeeze out your regular yoga or your gym or whatever, because the schedule gets too busy prioritize yourself and your self care, because that is going to or even it says don’t be afraid to spice up your physical fitness routine to accommodate a busy calendar. Right? What I like to do, and we’ve talked about it on this show before, but I like to double dip. So if I hadn’t seen somebody because to me, the holidays are especially about in wrangling with our topic of spiritual wellness, of connecting with my friends, right. And so I might schedule a friend that haven’t seen for a while to go and hike with me and get my exercise in and have a good visit. And you know, give them their little holiday gift or whatever, because you know, sometimes they don’t see each other. Number seven, meditate. I love that one. So easy to say, but sometimes so hard to do. For those of y’all listening that aren’t meditators, it’s okay to do it for two minutes. It’s okay to be guided, you don’t have to think meditation is sitting still for an hour, because if it was, I would have to hurt myself, but I can still for an hour. But I can listen to Insight time or calm or calm and have guided meditation and be guided through it for you know, they have one minute, two minute, five minute 30 minutes. And to those of y’all listening that can meditate for an hour, I am impressed. Just gonna say that. Number eight in the last one in this article that we’re referencing, is pay attention to what really matters. It can be easy to get lost in the holiday shuffle and lose sight of what’s important. stay aligned to stay aligned with your personal values, make a brief, brief list of your top priorities in the areas of health, relationships, spiritual and working career, what am I talking about the eight dimensions of wellness, right? So make a quick list and your top priorities. So you have intentionality around it. Because it is easy to lose track and to lose lose ourselves in the midst of the chaos in the midst of the all of it, right?
Shannon M. 12:21
Yes, absolutely. And one of the things outside of what they said that was interesting to me, especially because it’s an article that’s about what does it say? Let me see at the top eight ways to keep your mind body and spirit healthy through the holidays. So again, I always find it interesting when we’re on something like spiritual wellness, and we’re still talking about sleep and we’re still talking about physical wellness and moving. It’s so important to each other that you you can’t separate it, you know, and I can tell you on the days when I don’t get enough sleep. That means not waking up all the time at the right time. That means I’m not writing in my journal that means I didn’t meditate or pray and I’m going to work overextending myself and I bet money at least 25 cent. Okay, that My patience is shorter. Because of those things, yeah. Right. Here, right.
Unknown Speaker 13:17
Absolutely. You know, I know that our guest today has some wisdom on this and if you are ready, I would love to introduce our listeners to my friend and colleague who is joining us today you ready? You know I always get excited and so I’m going to read directly from their bio so I don’t elaborate in ways they wouldn’t be happy with. But our guests today Bootsy Peters mon and I hope I pronounced that last name right because I just know her by her first name is an activist, educator, world traveler, motivational speaker, entrepreneur and reentry criminal justice hip hop artist. She began her teaching career in the fall of 91. Since that time, she taught for years in various places such as Nairobi, Kenya, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Brooklyn, New York and Houston, Texas. Her travels encompass 31 countries and 31 US states across which she runs her own import export company. Sick a lotta and I’m going to have her correct me if that was wrong, imports and the founder of Wu women healing and empowering women, a 501 c three social purpose venture, confronting the intersection issues of melanin dominant and indigenous women in prison and how it relates to sexual abuse, family violence, homelessness, negative impacts of misogynistic lyrics, objectification of women and the glorification of prison culture in hip hop. I am so excited to welcome to the stage Stage my friend Boosey Hello. Oh, I’m so glad your texts work and my friend
Unknown Speaker 15:09
will tell you to use the call because it always gives me a hard time is the iPad normally works? This time, it was the opposite. You know it feels technology. What are you gonna do love it.
Unknown Speaker 15:25
I’m glad you are here and that you made it.
Unknown Speaker 15:29
It’s an honor is truly truly an honor to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me
Unknown Speaker 15:34
how you are.
Unknown Speaker 15:36
Right now I am. I feel I feel grateful. I’m very grateful. I am. I have been very, very disciplined in terms of prayer and being a part of different spiritual groups of different levels that I practice African spirituality, I practice Buddhism, I also practice Christianity from a medical physical standpoint, I’m a member of agave. So that wasn’t your talk, you know, most of the things that you’re saying is all the things about, you know, living, and even with all those different things around prayer, what have you, I still feel scattered, I feel scattered, and like to be still more, I’m not as bad as I want to be. So I have some more groundedness to do. And I’m grateful, because I’m in Atlanta to live in a hospital. You know, I’m not homeless, I’m not, you know, I’ve my family has a lot to be grateful for. So I stay in gratitude, despite whatever challenges I stay in gratitude,
Unknown Speaker 16:33
we often talk about on the show, we see about holding grief and holding gratitude at the same time. Because you know, we want to walk hand in hand because we don’t want to not look at the tough stuff. But we also want to hold it with the gratitude. So we’re kind of balanced with it, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. So we wanted to have you on today for so many reasons, because you’re just an amazing human being. And also because you’ve got this really cool new project you’re working on. And we wanted our listeners to hear about it. So will you tackle what you’ve got going on over?
Unknown Speaker 17:12
Yes, absolutely. So there is an awesome ancestor named Bill Richards. Be first name is spelled B E. H. Her last name is Richard. She’s a activist and artist, a poet, and an extraordinary gave back as an educator and what have you as an art educator. And she wrote this poem in 1951. She played sad pointing to his mother, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. So that dates me. I don’t know how many people have seen, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. She also was in Beloved. And she played as this elder where the people would run for freedom. So at any rate, she wrote this poem, titled a black woman speaks of white womanhood, white supremacy, MPs. And the poem leaves no stone unturned. She talks about a lot of things in this poem that addresses and confront issues from historical aspects of the challenges that are at the root of women. And quite frankly, all women on the planet is when you look at the spectrum of the poem, she’s it’s a conversation between women of non dominant, and then European descent, but then it includes all the way between why and how that affects us. So again, the title of the poem is a black woman speaks of white womanhood, white supremacy and peace. We’re using this as a tool for the sexual healing grief ritual movement. And so we’re using a play on words by using her name and giving honor to her and her name. And we’re saying we have to be a ripple. It takes waves to shift and change things, right. And so what part of the ripple are we going to be in that wave of change? And the poem allows to address several issues that need to be confronted, that are all intersecting to women in prison, women dealing with domestic violence, women’s dealing with homelessness, and all those issues that are affecting women, their families and their communities, on a local and global level. And so we’re building on the work we have done in the past, in which we always look at relationships, because relationships are at the root of everything we do. They it’s a great way to reflect see how healthy we are, is based on our relationships. And so woo women healing and empowering women. Our match was our baseline to Proverbs. One says when you educate a man, you educated individual, but when you educate a woman, you educate a nation, and firstly, women heal the women and then the women heal the men. So this is this work we’re doing. It’s a women’s only collective that is intergenerational, that is interfaith that has a variable socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as varying sexual orientation. And we are using this poem to collectively come together and use it to dissect it and connect it to all the issues that exist today as well. And so we’re giving birth, it’s a nine month movement. It started in August for orientation we, we found out we were pregnant, because we’re using the word nine month as a symbolism to give birth to a new day. And the facilitators are midwives and doulas, and all the participants are pregnant, and they found out that they are having a baby. And they’re going to give birth in April, in honor of sexual whew being trafficking month, as well as Earth Day. And so this is right on time, because of the the summit that’s going on in Glasgow right now. And all the voices of indigenous people who are fighting to be heard, and they’re connecting the dots around the oath to the rape of indigenous people. And, and that’s at the essence of this work.
Unknown Speaker 21:00
So intersectional, so amazing, we are going to put the link to the poem in our show notes and the link to your website so people can get involved in the project. Big work, I mean, you’re talking healing on a global scale. This I mean, playing around here not playing. Let’s stay on the surface and and do some spiritual bypass here. That’s not what this is about.
Unknown Speaker 21:32
No, not at all. Because at the end of the day, to give birth, because I don’t know how many of us on here are mothers, but I have I have two children. And I would get all women as mothers, you know, I mean, to some, not everybody has a mothering nature. Some do, you have some women have mothering natures and nurturing energies, some men have that as well, right. So we got to give birth giving birth, I don’t know who gave birth with clothes on I don’t know, I don’t know how the baby’s gonna come out and don’t get naked. So we had to get naked, I’m comfortable giving birth, it’s not, you got to figure it out, move around. A lot of different positions and movements and things you have to do, the board is gonna come, there’s no way What does not come. So you have to be willing to waterflow you have to be able to be open to being naked, to being awkward to being uncomfortable to doing all the different stages that it takes to give birth, because we want change. And as a mother of two daughters, I’m here to you know, want to plant a seed for ally ship for women of all ethnicities, and all nationalities and whatever their backgrounds are, whatever this orientation may be, whatever that looks like, I’m looking for ally ship, you know, and we can’t get to ally ship, unless we really do work, everybody has to do the work. That’s the only way we’re going to shift and change things. I don’t have any power over anybody else myself, right. And so we’re here to just say, hey, let’s be bold, and come together because courageous, and do our inner work and look at how it affects each other. Look at the areas that we have power in and areas that some of the people may have more power to be able to ally for us. So when I look at my sister, Christine, and the so called canons of the world, they’re not gonna listen to me as fast as I was to Christine, Christine will go and confront them. And you’ll be seeing more and more videos with our sisters and brothers in ally ship confronting their own people around me behavior, right. And so as I’m whatever the group is, if one is in that group that has a power dynamic, and they don’t use their power and their voice to stop the nonsense, as an adult, I’ve been in a store and seen a mother could use profanity at their child. I had to say, hold on. That’s the baby. Why are you talking to the baby that way? Why. And I didn’t know how she was going to be Yeah. And how she was, I felt like I had to step in for the baby because the baby couldn’t do it. Right. As an adult, adult, let me deal with this adult, like men document about domestic violence. I don’t know who’s gonna stop it. They gotta stop it. Right. So this ally ship is very important. And that’s another component of being ripple is to build allies, ships amongst women, and to get to the core of European standards of beauty, historical issues, but more importantly, the me to movement because the B to movement doesn’t go far enough. They want to talk about Weinstein, our Kelly is like no papi go, let’s go all the way to the time of the trafficking of bodies, right of my ancestors that were trafficked, and how bad was taken from here, and how that connects to the trafficking that’s still going on today. It hasn’t stopped. It’s still going on today. And we haven’t connected the dots to the fact that this country is built on weight. It has six farms and had meeting farms. You know, my ancestors had to have sex without any spirit to soul ties to one another. And so it’s affected a lot of things. And we have the unhealthy sexuality, as well. So as a people in this country because it’s, it’s in the souls, it’s in the trees and the grass and the leaves rape it all. And so we have to handle it, we have to be intentional. So we’re going to have a sexual healing grief ritual in April to come and make the nine month movement of all the things and what we did during the nine months that fear, virtual. And then on the 23rd of April the 24th of April, and we’re hoping that we have as many people as possible come to Houston, we’re going to go to Galveston on the 23rd. That Saturday at nine in the morning, we’ll go into our ancestors we want every single interface that that is present that’s open the boat come and say, Hey, we want to ask our our spirit guides and our, our gods and goddesses and as our ancestors, hey, like can we heal from this, we forgive you for what you were supposed to do. We forgive ourselves for things that we continue to do. And we’re ready to eradicate, because we want to dream big. And we’ve got to eradicate this behavior of sexual predatory deviant behavior that’s connected to this power and control. Like, you know, what Exxon is doing to the earth. All companies are doing something they do. Right. They have to swap bodies, we have to connect the dots. And that’s the purpose of the spear report.
Unknown Speaker 26:14
We love it. Lucy that, like you got some big Heelan big dreams big. Yeah. And that you’re all your sisters to be a part of.
Unknown Speaker 26:27
Yeah, absolutely.
Unknown Speaker 26:28
You have you have a question?
Shannon M. 26:31
Yeah, I mean, my question is more specifically, let me see, because I did write it down. It it points to your website. So when you think about the macro culture of the West, we were talking a lot about it. I guess actually, you answered it already. How would you describe it? So let’s not talk about that. One. Let’s talk about when you say working with agency for women, what does that look like for you in a healthy way?
Unknown Speaker 26:54
When you say working with agency with women, yes, I work with agency is first being open to going in and doing your inner work, really, really being honest. And and with agency, I mean, with urgency, the agent and urgent about the person healing because without one doing their own work, it’s like we’re wasting our time, everybody’s not going to take in the ownership, that they have control over their bodies, they only then that they are the CO Creator of the universe, and that what kind of work are they going to leave on the planet. So the agency is around doing your work, doing your work, not going over to other people and tell them what they need to do. going and getting distracted around all of the plethora of things that are out there to distract us to stay focus, to truly stay focused and go in, listen to your God’s got itself and do what you know is best for you and move in purpose, moving what you came here to do. Because a lot of us have been conditioned to think that we’re here to just get a job to make some money to fit whatever society says is what we’re supposed to do. And so we’re saying no, that’s not the paradigm because before you came here you are infinite being who may have come in many times before, and you chose to come back again, for a purpose for a reason. What is your purpose? What is your reason of coming here, it would be so sad to leave and not manifested. So that’s, that’s what I’m talking about. terms of what you’re going to do for yourself. What you’re going to do for your, for your community, as a local community we’re gonna do for the collective as a as a as a citizen of the universe, because we are citizens of the universe. Let’s dream big. Let’s play big that’s being small with giant beings. We forget because our spirit truncates to get in this body. That’s the That’s your that’s the rule that we chose to do that have this. This you being experience. But remember, we are giant, huge spirits big, great grand, and we can we can do grand things.
Shannon M. 29:10
I love it. Yeah, no, of course. And I think that’s how I live my life. You know, I started marching in high school, and I’m just used to you got to do it at a certain pace, we’re not going to take any longer any less than whatever needs to be to be taken to give it the space that it deserves. You know, so especially when we talk about women, it’s interesting to me being a millennial, I didn’t grow up with women. And maybe they you would say they still are but at each other’s throats, not supporting each other, really not knowing who we were, you know. So, I think that when we talk about work, and when we do our work, either professionally or for ourselves, I think that it’s taken away from women to do it at a certain speed with a certain determination this, you know, so I love that you said that about the agency because it’s important to do that with whatever you do.
Unknown Speaker 29:57
Absolutely. So I I am a Generation X sir. I was born in 1965, that burn baby burn a year, just four days after Malcolm X was assassinated, and I was born in the same hospital that his body was taken to. So growing up in the NY City going up in the 70s, during a time that people are celebrating, self celebrate and say, wow, you know, being proud of melanin skin, and I’m celebrating that being of the citizens continent, that’s what I grew up in. And then my, my peers are the ones who suffer from the birthplace of hip hop, the boogie down Bronx, like, I was just blessed, though, to grow up in a community in a time, where that’s what you know, I go to community, I grew up with so many women in my community of mothers, other mothers to us, I was raised to have parents and grandmothers in my grandmother lives with my family, as well. So my paternal grandmother, so I grew up in community I grew up in with children at night, at nine years old, we did each other’s hair, we’d be the girl get between your legs, we sit on the bench between the outside, I mean, that was it was a bonding thing. And that’s what we would do, you know, and that’s what I grew up in this time period, that allowed me to have the mindset. And so unfortunately, they saw those kind of hours, and they purposely threw the drugs in our community and did all the things that happened to break that to break that intergenerational and sisterhood and, and connectedness that we had. And it’s still missing pockets. But we have to stop being in our silos. And we have to come out and it’s good to be in our pockets. Don’t get me wrong, we have to do that work, then we have to also ripple together, then do our work, then ripple together, we can’t stay in our silos.
Unknown Speaker 31:50
Oh, I love that bluesky that silos, right? Right. I also want to bring awareness to our listeners of what you just did there. That was a masterclass in, in place, as far as like you said, where you were born, what was happening in the world, because I know some of the work I’ve been doing is that we have to all do that we have to look at what were the community and environmental factors that were affecting us, especially around race in things going on, that we took into our little bodies, that we may not even be conscious of that, you know, that is powerful that to state that. I don’t know, if we talked about it on the show, I can’t remember we’ve talked about so much. But, you know, when I was doing some of that internal work, Lucy, I realized I was in my mother’s stomach when the Kent State massacre happened when the activists were killed. Because I had always gotten the message growing up, don’t be seen, don’t be heard. It’s important to work on these issues. But be careful, right? I was really confused about that. Because my family taught me like to speak out. And so I was always really confused about this mixed message I was getting, until I went back and looked at the timeline. And when I looked at the timeline, I realized we No wonder I got that message so strong, because my mom I was in my mother’s womb when that happened. And of course, she’s gonna want to protect that baby and say, Don’t be gunned down for speaking up and standing up. Right. So it’s, it’s been fascinating to me, sometimes heartbreaking and and very empowering at the same time to go back and look at the timeline from when I was born. And the systems I was raised in. And place matters about where you’re raised, just like you were saying about the community you’re raised in and what were the messages you were getting, and that you may not even realize you were getting.
Unknown Speaker 33:58
Why I mean, so I realized it because it was so intense. They made you know, that, you know, they made you realize it, right, because again, I was born in the belly of the civil rights movement. So there was so much energy, that you come out the womb, knowing my family anyway, and my community anyway, that was so I feel that to who much is given much as expected. And I was so fortunate to be raised with that type of wellness, and to be raised with that kind of love. Don’t get me wrong, we still have our challenges, there still was a lot of things that went down. That was not the healthiest. However, I was truly blessed, blessed in ways that are immeasurable. And I’m grateful for that. And so I have to hold space for people like Shannon who was born in a different time, or born in a community that didn’t hold that space for her. You know, there’s a lot of our sisters all over that, that have different circumstances that cause them to be who they are. So I’m so grateful that you use the word timeline, because it brings us back to the conversation at hand around the topic of be a ripple. And and so when I was breaking down to all of you for this for this movement, it started off with the timeline of the women’s movement. I mean, there’s women’s movement since the 1800s. And, you know, they often I remember hearing about Susan B, Anthony, and all these women. And then as I get older, I find out oh, Susan B. Anthony, was rude and disrespectful to either B Wells. And so she didn’t want them to be a part of that movement. They had to walk up the street, in my city, right when they were doing this protest against men, and patriarchy, right. And then in the 70s, I’m a little girl and Shirley Chisholm, who doesn’t get the level of honor and respect that she deserves to be the first, the first Whoo, man to Monster presidency, and the first melanin person as well, by she had both and Gloria Steinem. She didn’t support her and she supported the governor. So that was Miss Ms. Magazine did not support Shirley Chisholm. Right. And so this woman’s movements from the timeline of that time to this time, there has never been true ally ship ever been true ally ship, but it’s this woman’s movement. And so that’s another component and a typical, from from octopus that we’re dealing with, it’s a major, major project that we’re doing, we’re not looking to do just one thing, we’re looking to do several things through these this nine month. That’s why we need the nine months again, to give her you know, as as Spirit gives us an opportunity to find out, you’re pregnant. It’s like, okay, you got nine months to get together all together to get the room together, give it to us, baby, you got nine months, right? So that’s what we’re doing is like, looking at all the historical factors, that and implications that have have that connect to the challenges that we’re dealing with, because they’re not here, but they’re here because of reasons that cause them.
Unknown Speaker 37:06
You are speaking my language when you’re talking a multi layered project. We talked about that often on this podcast. And we also talk about ally ship. And that’s actually what this podcast was born of, is because she and I were having these incredible conversations at our Monday manifesting mastermind that we’ve been part of for several years together. And she was like, more people need to hear the conversations that we have together and an opportunity came up and I called her and said you want to do a podcast? And she was like hell yes. I think those were her words. And that’s why is this podcast was born almost a year ago. Lucy is because we were like, Let’s have these conversations. Let’s not just skim the surface, let’s talk about because we’re of different generations, we’re a different ethnic backgrounds, we’re different spiritual face, like all the things and and we’re women who are trying to figure it out and lift each other up and support each other. And, and yeah, it’s a thing.
Unknown Speaker 38:10
Yeah, yes, yes, yes. And one of the biggest things about it is that it’s etymology. And that’s one of the other components that we’re addressing. The other technical part of the multi layered aspects of this work, is looking at the etymology, and the power of words. And the via, was to turn my call I, I came up my own coin, the psychological world warfare, that happens to us do words, even like when you said, how we are women, and we’re trying to figure this out? No, you’re trying to do anything we’re doing. We’re doing this work. And we are, you know, finding our way and we’re figuring it out, like so on. And so it’s the same way with all the other words, you know, the constructs the constructs, and raise the constructs of the terms and calling people alien, like what I remember from a little girl and I remember when I first heard that word, Elena, um, and then Monica was in relation to a bee. And I’m like, they’re not talking about the folks out like, you know, another planet. This is actually a body of another person, just because you’re not from the area you were raised or born, you’re going to call an alien that was that never set well with my body. I remember from a little girl it did not. And all these words, it’s like the death of a little, little cuts. That microaggressions in ways that words, wordplay. We have that we have to we have to shift and change that and let it be known. You’ll define us we will come up with our own words. We’re not going to allow you to continue to cut me down with words that cause separation and divisive pneus and divisiveness and mean spirited behavior.
Unknown Speaker 39:58
Amen. I love That. Shannon, and then we lost you for just a second. Welcome back. You have a last comment or question before we move into wisdom and action?
Shannon M. 40:14
No, I don’t think so I think well, actually, I will say yes. So I hear what you’re saying Boosie about every, all of the barriers that you talked about, right? Because there’s a lot and we know, that’s just the tip of the iceberg on all of the topics, right. But when we talk about spiritual wellness, specifically, because I think that some people struggle with seeing the relation between everything that you talked about in spiritual wellness. Can you hit on that a little bit? And how how you think about the time between the two?
Unknown Speaker 40:45
Is that against the spiritual wellness and, and what else?
Shannon M. 40:49
And the intersectionality between gender and race and everything that we have to deal with as black women? That’s usually not spoken about? How does that? Absolutely. How does that spirituality?
Unknown Speaker 41:02
So that question is an excellent question and embodies everything that was about, right, because when spirit plays see on my heart to do this work, it was over years that I had when I look back on effect on everything, right. And so being born at the time period that I shared with you, the 160s and 70s 80s, I grew up with a Pan African mindset. And I wanted to all I wanted to bridge the gap between Africans and diaspora and Africans and continents, and especially Dubai, with a woman I know, that’s, I guess, my age, and spirit, and I’m just, you know, just following through, and he’s telling me as you share my bio, that I’ve lived in the continent, 2020 Ethiopia, that’s what they are. I was just in Sudan teaching as well. Um, and so being there is when I learned going to parts and seeing how there are women who Mac, just to be able to running water lights, you know, to use the bathroom, having to take bucket bags, and things of that nature. So that’s how I got involved in import export. And as a way that women will be able to raise money so they can ticket their children, school, what have you. And so, over the years, when I came back to the States, and then realizing about the prison industrial complex, and women were the fastest going to prison, and they’re learning at the root of that was domestic violence, molestation, rape and incest. That’s at the root of it. Oh, and then you have to look back okay, well, molestation, rape and incest winners, all that come from it comes from this country that started this country off with a rape all conversation begins with a great study begins with a great when the Europeans that came and did you think they had a cosmology, or ancient people at cosmologies, even our European brothers and sisters, they to have cosmology, and the cosmology taught us about a oneness, a oneness or wholeness, a oneness of us being connected to each other, to the earth, mother, earth, Father scars, and you know, in the dualities, because there’s Mother Earth, and father and father, and his mother, sky, and Father sky, just like we’re both our mothers and fathers, you have the right brain, left brain, everything is interconnected, your spiritual, your spiritual, these systems is connected to everything in your life. And so when you have condensation, and captivity, and weight, the weight entails not only the physical weight, it also entails the weight of the connectedness to the cosmologies, that taught us the oneness of loving ourselves, loving our goddess God cells, and how it connects to each other. There’s a oneness together, there’s only a few molecules that makes you separate from me. And we are all the children of the mitochondrial DNA. The the, the real Eve, the mitochondrial DNA that’s in all of us comes from mitochondrial DNA of of the ancient ancestor that gave birth to all of us. And so if we can all connect back to that route, around that cosmology, that teaches us that we are one, we’re one with the Earth, we’re one with each other. We’re one with our ancestors, that is at the root of everything, and that disruption of it directly connects to and as a microcosm, when we look at the prison industrial complex, when we look at all the complexes that exists, whether it’s the pharmaceutical complex or the farm, you know, what’s going on with the Agra, the ghagra and all these things, it comes right back to being disconnected from spirit that connected to the earth that connects us to each other. That connects us to our God cells. It comes back to it and what was replaced with that capitalism. We took away The cosmology I connected instead to capitalism. And so the presence is capitalism is dealing with power force small few people to be in control. The big Agra is capitalism controlling the earth for a few people, and to have the resources at the expense of the masses. For the Big Pharma, capitalism, taking the medicines around the roots, the herbs, because every pharmaceutical drug starts with the root of the earth of the plant, that mother, father, God’s got love here for all of us that’s connected to the cosmology again. So it all comes back to that.
Unknown Speaker 45:51
Girl, we don’t have to have you back, because we got more to say, and we’re almost out of time. And so I would love to have you come back Bootsy, especially closer to April when you’re about to launch this big project. So we can hear how it’s going how the journeys going.
Unknown Speaker 46:13
Because let me say this, before we sign out is that it’s a two day event, it will entail in the April 23, the morning in Galveston doing the sexual healing grief ritual, coming to Houston doing doing healing workshops, that will entail acupuncture and meditation, as well as two workshops that will share some of the things that we did during the nine months with the community. And then the 24th. That evening, we’re doing performances, each participant will do some kind of interpretation, artistic expression of how they are responding to the poem of B. Richards. So that’s April 23, and 24th. About today, combination of giving birth to be be verbal, sexual healing, be factual. And you all
Unknown Speaker 47:10
know how powerful the market, my friend, powerful work, thank you so much for your work in the world and what you’re doing, we will link in our show notes, your website and about this project, so our listeners can check it out and get involved. You know, this is a powerful, that’s gonna benefit us all.
Unknown Speaker 47:32
Thank you so much. I’m so grateful to both of you, for blessing us to be here blessing me to be a blessing me to be here to represent the organization. Shannon, I hope I answered that question. One more piece to say real quick is that connects back to the question that you asked, we chose to do the community work first, we have not even done direct services yet, because we wanted to focus on what you just ask, like to get to the root of the spiritual work, because all too often organizations reentry programs and other organizations that address issues around people being formerly incarcerated or what have you. They tend to address it using a BandAid on a gunshot wound by just providing, you know, some job training and maybe a job placement. And, you know, here you go, but get you an apartment. And then I get into the root of the issues that stem from the historical factors that connect to why we’re doing the work the things that we do the unburied the unhealthy behaviors, right. And so we do want to after this event in April, we’re going to be using the the the funding from that event to begin our direct services, which is around providing housing, it’s two ways if I answered that the remix sustainable housing for our women. So I look forward to coming back in April, giving an update of what we’re what we’re doing, how it came along. And the next the next phase, which is the ways of our assets to remix. I’m so grateful to both of you lovely, beautiful queen goddesses, for opening up the space and allowing me to be here and to play with you guys.
Shannon M. 49:26
Absolutely. Yes. And we have something that we do every week. For each category, we talk about the wisdom and action and what we’re going to actually put in play based on what we talked about and be more intentional about this week. So if you had to give a hashtag wisdom and action, what would you say?
Unknown Speaker 49:46
of wisdom, an action for you, a wellness full of spiritual wellness, meditation affirmations and prayer.
Shannon M. 49:57
Okay, I like that and I do that I will absolutely no need to ever to because I’ve been thinking about it and I need to do it. And I like this number for this article we were talking about eat too healthy meals a day. You know, Christine, I’m relatively healthy. I’ve been doing a lot. A lot. A lot. So
Unknown Speaker 50:15
yes, yes. Yeah, well, I’m talking about green leafy vegetables, you got to have green leafy vegetables every single day. I know that my lifestyle blessed me to have my first child three days before my 41st birthday. I have my second child at 45 right where I’m sitting at right here is why gave birth to my child at 40 at 45 years old. And I’m 56 I’m 56 So let’s see what 56 look like.
Unknown Speaker 50:46
See what that’s what it look like when you take care of yourself. And when you’re right because I stopped eating red meat in 1990 and I just do seafood and vegetables and fruit. It’s all about the real medicine is what you eat. Your food is your medicine. Yes.
Shannon M. 51:10
Food is your medicine. So I am in agreement agreement with you. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 51:16
What was your wisdom and action Shaman?
Shannon M. 51:19
Mine was meditation prayer and was it was it
Unknown Speaker 51:24
was was my son’s meditation prayer affirmation and Greenleaf estimation.
Shannon M. 51:27
Yes, so mine are those three and eating too healthy I guess it is the green leafy
Unknown Speaker 51:35
vegetables and water. Right? We did we just did what a green leafy vegetables alone, you know, I’m saying
Unknown Speaker 51:46
I think this week my wisdom and action is going to be what we talked about when we first got on Shannon about scheduling a silent retreat for myself. And in listening to myself so so I’m going to make that time happen. And yeah, so thank you so much Lucy for being here. I’m going to pop you back in the green room real quick as we wrap and we’re so grateful for your wisdom and thank
Unknown Speaker 52:12
you so much. Thank you so much I have a telecom which I have to hop on so I so appreciate you is perfect timing. Love Love to both of you all the blessings and your journey and the work that you’re doing the powerful work that you’re doing so grateful for you keep up the great work and continue to ally so much. Yes.
Unknown Speaker 52:35
Oh my that was a powerful conversation. I know we had a little bit of tech issues. So I’m hoping for our audio listeners that are tech gurus able to clean it up a little and if not and you’ve made it to this point. Thanks for hanging in with us. I mean it was it was really powerful. So what do you want to I know we’re we’re working a little long here but you want to give folks some updates on what’s happening over at Shiloh glow and things to be looking out for as we head into this holiday season.
Shannon M. 53:09
So many good things so we are officially up and running on the website with our new products that I’ve been telling you guys about my this is really it’s really sad. Okay, my oil is beautiful. It’s God I need I need more oil. I can definitely tell the difference when I’m putting the butter on I need to use more butter. It doesn’t go on as easily because I didn’t you know replenish the moisture in my skin. So I’m missing my shea logo and I hate when I run out. And so that’s why we have updated the website to have the subscription so if you ladies love your product, you want to keep getting it or giving you more since we’re giving you more product, the smallest size is three ounces that way everything will pass through TSA or if you need the bigger size because your kids keep stealing it. Of course we have the home Glow Kit right because they will still it do not say I didn’t tell you and that’s the eight ounce containers in the four ounce oil so you ladies can go in gentlemen right can go and pick what you want. And because you our listeners have women connected in wisdom, we do have the discount code of Wi Fi for you. So go do that today. I know people are looking for the Black Friday deals, we might be sold out okay and do not say I didn’t tell you that either. But either way we will take care of you and I’m looking forward to everybody enjoying their new product.
Unknown Speaker 54:25
Oh, I love it. Thank you so much. And y’all I can tell you from years past Shayla Golo makes great holiday gifts and stocking stuffers rave reviews from all the folks I’ve given it to so so yeah, get on over there and check it out. If you are needing support and help this holiday season you can also feel free to reach out to our women connected in wisdom community or you can find me at Christine gautreaux.com and book a session if you need some personal coaching and support because you know We know it’s tough out there right now y’all and you don’t have to do it by yourself that we are community and we want to support you in your wellness.
Shannon M. 55:10
Yes, thank you so much for being part of our show. And don’t forget, be well be wise. And we’ll see you back next week.
Unknown Speaker 55:25
Thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on air live on Wednesdays at 5pm. 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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