The Discomfort of Change

Last week WISe was muted. We’ve taken the past week to #AmplifyMelanatedVoices and began reflect, to disassemble, to unlearn, to LISTEN and prepare for ACTION. Now, continued cultivation, humility and resiliency will be required to persevere.

We are a community that aims to advance women through whole-self wellness.  We want women to achieve lives of full of purpose and meaning through achieving peak performance and avoiding burnout. 

Our commitment has always been to be inclusive of all women- inclusive of white women and women of color are included- we are very much on that journey and have work to do.  

WISe will STOP being passive about our anti-racism- at all costs.  

WISe will START being more deliberate about amplifying diversity in our event speakers, holding ourselves and others accountable and seeking new ways to engage.  

WISe will CONTINUE to promote both white women and women of color, partnering primarily with women and minority owned businesses and supporting ALL women through meaningful wellness content.

George Floyd cried out for his mama. As a mother I am more overtly taking responsibility to become actively anti-racist. As a mother of a biracial son, I can’t help but think of being Tony Robinson’s mother- Michael Brown’s mother, Breonna Taylor’s mother.

VULNERABILITY BOMB

Like many passively anti-racist mothers in this world I would bear witness to workplace microaggressions and murdered boys at the hands of police in the media and become outraged. I was angry, but I felt ill-equipped with the confidence to speak out, lacking the knowledge to support the black community in a meaningful way and feared saying the wrong thing. The fear of being criticized- especially as a mother of a biracial son (while experiencing burnout) carried too much “risk.” Being an activist would take time, education, energy, and amongst life’s “urgent” woes I suppressed my voice, forgoing my values for the tyranny of the urgent. I was burnt out- I wasn’t strong enough to stand up for myself or others.

I WAS WRONG

I was suppressing my values for things I didn’t value. Obligatory household tasks, emotional energy spent against people that would never reciprocate, additional hours building a future career that I actually didn’t want… I chose spending time against things that didn’t matter for things that did matter because it was EASIER. I was effectively saying “Black Lives Didn’t Matter” by how I was choosing to spend my energy. It wasn’t because I didn’t care- it was because I was burnt out. Misalignment in priorities drove me to a survival mentality- life was happening to me. My priorities were wrong and perpetuated the issue, creating misalignment.

HINDSIGHT IS 2020

It isn’t a coincidence that we are amidst the year 2020, where in hindsight things are obvious that were not obvious from the outset; one is able to evaluate past choices more clearly than at the time of the choice. From great crisis will emerge great change, led by great leaders. COVID-19 created a slowdown, a platform to dismantle. How we rebuild matters- who we rebuild with matters.

BEING BETTER V FEELING BETTER

WISe isn’t about self-improvement to feel better. WISe is a platform to be better. We support the hard self-reflection work in a safe environment of empowerment and accountability in order to serve others. We look forward to continuing to serve you on your self-improvement journey, supporting wellness experts and catalyzing wellness for all.

With love and humility,

Stevi Carr, Founder + CEO- WISe Wellness Guild