By: Raven Williams, MSW Rest. What does it truly mean, and how do we embrace it as Black women, as mothers, and as caregivers? How can we slow down in a world that constantly demands we move faster? ​This is a real concern in our community. Living with unbalanced priorities can impact our mental well being. As our mothers would say, “You can’t take care of others before taking care of yourself.” Yes, before your kids. Yes, before your husband. And definitely before your job.

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that Black women carry one that is rarely named in the spaces where healing is supposed to happen. It is the exhaustion of being strong by necessity rather than by choice. Of holding together families, communities, and workplaces while quietly coming undone on the inside. Of walking into rooms and immediately calculating how much of yourself is safe to bring. For far too long, the message has been clear: handle it. Push through. You ar

Before we knew the word trauma, we just called it family. We called it the way things are done. We called it being strong. We called it not airing your business, not showing weakness, not asking for more than you needed because someone else always needed more. We inherited ways of loving, ways of coping, ways of surviving and we carried them into our adult lives without always realizing we had a choice. But you do have a choice. And understanding that choice, and then making

There is a version of strength that no one talks about enough the kind that keeps you moving when everything inside of you is screaming to stop. The kind that gets the kids ready, answers the emails, shows up to work with a smile, and holds it all together without a single person knowing how heavy it all feels. That kind of strength is real. It is earned. And it deserves to be honored. But here is what also deserves to be said: survival mode was never meant to be a permanent

What Anxiety May Look Like.... "She never misses a deadline. Her house is organized, her inbox is managed, and from the outside, her life looks like it is running exactly the way it should. She is the one people call when they need something handled. She is dependable, capable, and always on. She is also exhausted in a way she cannot fully explain." What she may not know — what many high-functioning women do not know — is that anxiety has been the engine running underneath al