Emotional Overload Is Rooted in Fear Last week I said goodbye to the phone I’d had for more than 3 years, a phone I was attached to more than I’d like to admit. I entered a state of complete overwhelm, spiraling between questions and frustrations, between crying and raging: How could I possibly learn a new phone? Why aren’t there any small phones? How will one of the new—BIG—phones fit in my pocket? It’s not fair that all the phones are large, while women’s pants ... Read more ...
storytelling
Eating Vegan in Ireland
From curries and creamy risotto to mint chocolate and coconut ice cream, Ireland offers an array of vegan dishes, including comfort foods and sweet treats. This summer I traveled to Ireland with only a few weeks of planning—after realizing how much I needed a period of extended rest and reset. When I began telling friends and family about the trip, responses went something like this: You’re going to Ireland? That’s awesome! But what will you eat?” The short answer is ... Read more ...
Responding to White Supremacist Terror, This Time in El Paso
I woke this morning in Ireland to news of the El Paso shooting: the latest act of white supremacist terror in the United States. My body was already aching (today’s a rest day after some seriously long walks), but the news ramped up the ache and lodged itself in my chest. I recognized the familiar heartache that comes with shootings and acts of violence, particularly against Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)—in this case, against Latinx folks in Texas. Along ... Read more ...
Toward Public Outcry: Why I’ll Keep Repeating #AbolishICE and #CloseTheCamps
Outcry: a strong expression of public anger and disapproval This week I dreamed about being detained when traveling, taken aside in an airport and made to wait and wait and wait … It became clear that I was being monitored and considered dangerous and essentially arrested. What started in the airport turned into a full detention / internment / concentration camp experience. The dream’s details are sketchy, but I remember feeling powerless. I couldn’t call for help. I ... Read more ...
How Small and Sustained Actions Turn Resolutions into Habits
Typically, by mid-year (by the summer solstice for those of us in the northern hemisphere), new year’s resolutions are a thing of the past. Months after setting resolutions, it’s easy to have forgotten or moved through them—with seasons shifting our embodied needs, creating the conditions for new intentions to be named. The summer solstice, then, provides the occasion for setting new resolutions, for looking backward to previous ones and forward to daily practices that ... Read more ...
Turning 40 with the Gift of 40 Miles: Why I’m Taking Myself on Walks This Month
May is both my birth month and a time of transition (when the school year ends and summer begins). For as long as I can remember, I’ve looked forward to May and its potential for renewal. This year I’m celebrating my 40th birthday and wanting to mark the occasion with extended time on trails. Specifically, I’m setting a goal to hike 40 miles on my own this month: miles that I’ll walk toward understanding how to be independent within interdependence. Why This ... Read more ...
It’s More than End-of-the-Year Exhaustion: Semester Rhythms and Recurring Burnout
Today Inside Higher Ed published my article, “Semester Rhythms and Recurring Burnout,” reflecting on the exhaustion that many educators and academics face at the end of each school year. This article weaves together multiple threads of feeling, thinking, and doing (heart-head-hands) from my past few weeks, including: attention to my body’s fluctuating energy levels, seasonal changes, and continued recognition of semester rhythms; ongoing reflection on career ... Read more ...
Learning from and Healing Scars, Both Personal and Collective
Over the past year, my body has experienced a few physical injuries, including a concussion from falling last January and a cut from stepping on a broken bowl back in August. The fall left both knees badly scraped and bruised so that scars are still visible on the surface. The puncture in my foot has involved months of getting ceramic out—piece by piece—and an MRI now confirms that “only scar tissue remains.” That scar tissue isn’t visible like the scars on my knees, ... Read more ...
Living in Shutdown USA
In recent weeks, friends have been asking about my experience with the government shutdown. I’m feeling and experiencing a lot, living in DC, or “America’s lightning rod” (thanks to Katharine Weinmann for this language from a recent comment). Certainly, the city feels on edge and reminds me of the urgent need for resistance, for visioning, and for choosing alternative paths, if we are ever to stop the perpetuation of injustice. I look to everyday life for direction, ... Read more ...
Planning a Career Change in 3 Stages
Today my third installment of “Outside Higher Ed” appeared in Inside Higher Ed: This piece shares my process of planning a career change in three stages: beginning to plan while feeling uncertain getting serious about planning putting plans into action I share stories of re-orientating myself through counseling, allowing myself time to grieve, and experiencing a concussion as the physical manifestation of the mental exhaustion that motivated my decision to ... Read more ...
![*Save the Date and Pre-Order Now*
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One month from today (starting Nov. 22nd), I’ll be offering another “40-Day Practice: Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility.”
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This practice provides:
— support for what comes up during the holiday season
— a transformative learning experience
— the opportunity to set intentions and increase readiness for showing up for racial justice in 2020 and beyond.
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Learn more about the practice, and pre-order now: link in bio.
.
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And what a day to be sharing this announcement -- a day pointing to such ongoing and deep work needed by white folks to address whiteness, white fragility, and white supremacy ...
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Committed to staying in this work with and alongside you,
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Beth
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[GIF Description: Four emoticons change facial expressions and represent emotional range, while sharing: “Save the Date! *40-Day Practice* Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility. Nov. 22 – Dec. 31.”]
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#Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracies #EmotionalIntelligence #40DayPractice #ContemplativePractice #WhiteFragility #WhiteSupremacy #Antiraciam #Antioppression #RacialJustice #SaveTheDate #ComingSoon #EBook #ECourse #LearnMore #Leadership #SaveTheDate #HolidaySeason #LeadershipDevelopment #ProfessionalDevelopment #OngoingEducation #SocialJusticeEducation #wednesdayvibes #wednesdaymotivation](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/e26d257828bc0655937da49faff42442/5DB3519A/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/73512623_557325338142913_3768349608661120543_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=101 "*Save the Date and Pre-Order Now*
.
One month from today (starting Nov. 22nd), I’ll be offering another “40-Day Practice: Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility.”
.
This practice provides:
— support for what comes up during the holiday season
— a transformative learning experience
— the opportunity to set intentions and increase readiness for showing up for racial justice in 2020 and beyond.
.
Learn more about the practice, and pre-order now: link in bio.
.
.
And what a day to be sharing this announcement -- a day pointing to such ongoing and deep work needed by white folks to address whiteness, white fragility, and white supremacy ...
.
Committed to staying in this work with and alongside you,
.
Beth
.
.
[GIF Description: Four emoticons change facial expressions and represent emotional range, while sharing: “Save the Date! *40-Day Practice* Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility. Nov. 22 – Dec. 31.”]
.
.
#Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracies #EmotionalIntelligence #40DayPractice #ContemplativePractice #WhiteFragility #WhiteSupremacy #Antiraciam #Antioppression #RacialJustice #SaveTheDate #ComingSoon #EBook #ECourse #LearnMore #Leadership #SaveTheDate #HolidaySeason #LeadershipDevelopment #ProfessionalDevelopment #OngoingEducation #SocialJusticeEducation #wednesdayvibes #wednesdaymotivation")
![Then-and-now hiking photos (taken 3 years apart) remind me to embrace “all the ages I’ve ever been,” including the “childlike” qualities of curiosity and playfulness: https://bit.ly/35G8Dqv ...
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I often write about hard emotional stuff—from fear, regret, and grief to burning-hot rage over injustice. But life includes such joy as well.
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May the joy of single moments become joyful commitments to justice: to staying in the work with deep passion and dedication. <3
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[Two photos of Beth in plank pose below the same overhanging rock in the Appalachian Mountains, taken 3 years apart—in 2016 and 2019.]
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#Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracy #EmotionalIntelligence #Joy #JoyfulCommitment #Committed #CommittedToJustice #Everyday #EverydayJustice #EverydayFeminism #AntiOpression #SocialJustice #Hiking #AppalachianMountains #Yoga #Outdoors #Nature #Inspiration #attrail #yogaposes #yogainspiration #play #yogaplay #thenandnow #throwbackthursday #throwback](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/5849e752998df7706a0b1e17f45d4301/5E624956/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/s640x640/73053828_1007895446230192_946596583059840186_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=104 "Then-and-now hiking photos (taken 3 years apart) remind me to embrace “all the ages I’ve ever been,” including the “childlike” qualities of curiosity and playfulness: https://bit.ly/35G8Dqv ...
.
I often write about hard emotional stuff—from fear, regret, and grief to burning-hot rage over injustice. But life includes such joy as well.
.
May the joy of single moments become joyful commitments to justice: to staying in the work with deep passion and dedication. <3
.
.
[Two photos of Beth in plank pose below the same overhanging rock in the Appalachian Mountains, taken 3 years apart—in 2016 and 2019.]
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#Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracy #EmotionalIntelligence #Joy #JoyfulCommitment #Committed #CommittedToJustice #Everyday #EverydayJustice #EverydayFeminism #AntiOpression #SocialJustice #Hiking #AppalachianMountains #Yoga #Outdoors #Nature #Inspiration #attrail #yogaposes #yogainspiration #play #yogaplay #thenandnow #throwbackthursday #throwback")
![This week’s blog post asks which bucket we’re drawing from: fear or love?
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“What does fear feel like to me?
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Among other things, fear shows up as anxiety, worry, defensiveness, disconnection, and visceral unease.
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In contrast, what does love feel like to me?
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Believing, trusting, being patient, holding space, healing, releasing, expanding, committing, connecting, grounding, and visioning. Love feels mobilizing.”
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While fear leads me to nouns, love leads to verbs.
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Fear keeps me frozen in place. Love enables being and acting, creating and imagining.”
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Read more of this piece focused on emotional literacies: link in bio.
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And speaking of emotional literacies, save the date for another 40-day practice on “Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility” for the last 40 days of 2019, stretching over the highly emotional holiday season. <3
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[This image shows two buckets: one labeled “fear,” the other “love.”]
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#SundayRead #Blog #BlogPost #Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracy #EmotionalIntelligence #EmotionalVocabulary #Fear #Overwhelm #Vulnerability #Crying #Transformation #Transformative #Love #Motivation #LoveAsMotivation #Contemplation #SocialJusticeEducation #Learning #Unlearning #Writing #Storytelling #Writer #Educator #Learner](http://scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com/vp/94dc79fd21922f333b076b36ac73c3e4/5E4CCFEB/t51.2885-15/sh0.08/e35/c76.0.787.787a/s640x640/70418810_142222413725285_2587514143239127622_n.jpg?_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-1.cdninstagram.com&_nc_cat=105 "This week’s blog post asks which bucket we’re drawing from: fear or love?
.
“What does fear feel like to me?
.
Among other things, fear shows up as anxiety, worry, defensiveness, disconnection, and visceral unease.
.
In contrast, what does love feel like to me?
.
Believing, trusting, being patient, holding space, healing, releasing, expanding, committing, connecting, grounding, and visioning. Love feels mobilizing.”
.
While fear leads me to nouns, love leads to verbs.
.
Fear keeps me frozen in place. Love enables being and acting, creating and imagining.”
.
Read more of this piece focused on emotional literacies: link in bio.
.
And speaking of emotional literacies, save the date for another 40-day practice on “Strengthening Emotional Literacies to Counter White Fragility” for the last 40 days of 2019, stretching over the highly emotional holiday season. <3
.
[This image shows two buckets: one labeled “fear,” the other “love.”]
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#SundayRead #Blog #BlogPost #Emotions #Emotional #EmotionalLiteracy #EmotionalIntelligence #EmotionalVocabulary #Fear #Overwhelm #Vulnerability #Crying #Transformation #Transformative #Love #Motivation #LoveAsMotivation #Contemplation #SocialJusticeEducation #Learning #Unlearning #Writing #Storytelling #Writer #Educator #Learner")
