March 9, 2023 • 46 mins
In this episode of The Joyous Justice Podcast, host April Baskin talks about our relationship with thriving, why so many of us have a bad relationship, and how we can start healing it.
Our relationship with the concept of thriving begins when we are very young and money is one of the core areas where we have the most negative programming. As adults, we must evaluate our beliefs associated with thriving, question them, and do the inner work. Healing your relationship with thriving is the foundation of positioning yourself and our movements for long-term sustainability and success.
Discussion and reflection questions:
- What in this episode is new for you? What have you learned and how does it land?
- What is resonating? What is sticking with you and why?
- What feels hard? What is challenging or on the edge for you?
- What feels or is more possible for you now after having listened to this episode?
- How do you want to further integrate or apply what you're learning? What's one first step you can take, today even?
Visit https://joyousjustice.com to learn more about Joyous Justice, LLC, our team, and get connected & involved in our community!
Join our online community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/590922415522750
Submit a question, insight, or topic or guest suggestion at https://joyousjustice.com/connect
Find April’s TikTok videos here: https://www.tiktok.com/@aprilavivabaskin
Follow us on Instagram (@joyous.justice), Twitter, (@JoyousJustice), or Facebook (www.facebook.com/joyousjustice365)
Visit https://joyousjustice.com to learn more about Joyous Justice, LLC, our team, and get connected & involved in our community!
Want to work with us? If you are considering one of our group or executive coaching packages, but want to talk it through, you can schedule a no-obligation zoom with April: https://calendly.com/aprilnbaskin/chat-w-april
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:09):
You're listening to the joyous justice
April Baskin (00:11):
podcast, a weekly show hosted by April Baskin with
Tracie Guy-Decker.
Unknown (00:15):
in a complex world in which systemic oppression
conditions us to deny others andour own humanity. let's dedicate
ourselves to the pursuit andembodiment of wholeness, love
and thriving in the world and inour own lives. It's time to heal
and flourish our way to a morejoyous and just future.
April Baskin (00:43):
Hello, hello, welcome back for another
episode. And boy, do I have anepisode for you. As you may
know, Tracie Guy-Decker, mybeloved buddy, and partner in
this work is on break right now.
So it is just me. And that isboth a little bittersweet. More
than a little bittersweet. Andalso, this is a really
(01:06):
meaningful opportunity for us tocultivate our relationship
further, you and I. And also forme to step into different parts
of my leadership that when Ifirst formed this gorgeous and
amazing partnership with Tracy,I didn't feel fully ready to
step into. And I feel more readyto do that now. So Tracy and I
(01:28):
are both in a process of growthand evolution. And that is very
exciting. So
Unknown (01:39):
let's dive in. I've got some really juicy stuff that I
want to speak with you abouttoday, regarding thriving. So
here's some of my thoughts aboutthriving overall, my sense is
that some folks have a lovelyrelationship with it. And a lot
of folks are jaded and or have acomplicated relationship with
(02:03):
thriving. And so in thisepisode, in this year episode
today, let me clarify that. Inthis your episode today, what I
want to say and dive into it isthat is high is that it's high
time to heal your relationshipwith thriving, so what I want to
(02:26):
dive into today is that it ishigh time for you to heal, if
this is true for you, and or forthose for whom it is relevant
for you to heal yourrelationship with thriving, and
start setting yourself up andour movements up for long term
success and sustainability. Soyeah, so there's a few different
(02:48):
points I want to cover here. Andthe first is that people often
I've noticed recently, I've beenreally into this concept of
thriving and weaving it into mylife. And it's complicated for a
lot of people for a lot ofdifferent reasons. One is that a
lot of people have beenconditioned and have accepted
(03:09):
the thought that they need toregularly compromise in many
different areas of their life inways that actually really aren't
acceptable, but they just haveto tolerate it and move on. And
a number of you, and perhaps youas well have gotten pretty good
at making the best of sort ofcrappy conditions in certain
(03:31):
ways. And for me, again, part ofthe huge overarching theme here
at joyous justice is that we canthrive and advance justice. And
that actually, our joy and wellbeing is a part of justice. And
I think what gets complicatedfor people is that there's been
(03:53):
either a lot of oppression thatthey've experienced and or a lot
of oppressive dominant culturedynamics that lifted folks up
and conditioned them andpositioned them to learn and
function and operate in such away that when you are not
conscious, you're thrivinginherently is at the expense of
(04:15):
others and at Joy's justiceamong a range of different
things. Part of what I aminterested in advancing with
y'all is holistic analysis isholistic understanding an
integrated decolonizeliberatory.
April Baskin (04:34):
conceptualization and then filtering through your
being an actualization of whatit looks like to operationalised
liberatory living andleadership. And in my model, I
don't know about showbuzz But inmy role model and practice and
in theory, I want my liberatoryliving and leadership model to
(04:56):
have thriving at its core Areboth individual and collective
thriving, right? So thriving isimportant. So in this podcast
episode today, I want to inviteyou to investigate and begin
thinking about what is yourrelationship with thriving. And
(05:17):
what I want to say is to get alittle intimate, and maybe this
particular word isn't right foryou, you can replace this word
with something else.
Unknown (05:24):
But darling, honey, beloved, you deserve to thrive.
And you're thriving is essentialto collective liberation, it is
part of it. And the more youpostpone figuring out how to
(05:46):
thrive in ways that feel bothtrue to you, and are also
ethical and in alignment withyour values, the longer you are
stalling, becoming the empoweredand body integrated, amazing
legendary leader and human andlover, who you are meant to be.
(06:11):
And despite what supremacy anddominance, culture would tell,
each of us tells each of us doestell each of us consistently,
the distance between thatembodied integrative grid
integrated, thriving self is notas vast as you've been
conditioned to believe it is, aswe've been conditioned to
(06:35):
believe it is. Now, that doesn'tmean that the journey might not
involve a lot of courage, andemotion and moving and shift in
different ways. And engaging ona nonlinear path, which is part
of one of the many things thatmakes my redefining resilience
and my grounded and growingframework so helpful is that it
(06:59):
provides structure and supportand scaffolding to what can
otherwise be a super nonlinearmessy progress, process and
progress and actually help buildin rhythm and sacred pacing and
analysis that helps youunderstand at any given point,
(07:19):
where you are in the process ofsomething, what are the next
steps what you can revisit ifyou're not feeling quite how you
want. Sotake a breath here. Oh, so much
feeling? Do you feel it? I careabout this so much. So I think a
lot of people are jaded. Andunderstandably so I have no
(07:41):
judgment aboutthe state of jadedness and or
just kind of having given up onthe concept of thriving, but I
want to invite you to reclaimit, or if you already have
reclaimed it. Kudos to you ifyou have reclaimed it, and
you're living it and or if youhave, you're in the process of
reclaiming it, and you're movingthrough that, yes, more of this,
(08:04):
please. The more weholistically, socially
consciously thrive, the better.
And I don't think puritypolitics or purity culture. Like
don't let that get in the way ofyou thriving. I've been rather
(08:27):
intently.
April Baskin (08:29):
Analyzing this and thinking this a lot. And to make
a simple statement, I am veryclear that to get to joyous
justice in different ways thatjoy needs justice, and also
desires justice, if we areactually in deep holistic joy we
inherently want to give tosupport and others. And as we
(08:52):
are advancing justice indifferent ways we need that
social justice and that activismand that courageous upstander
leadership to be imbued with joyand or spirit. Joy is just one
word with habit joy, or ease,breath, spirituality, Spirit,
(09:14):
they need each other inherentlyto me, they go together.
Unknown (09:19):
And so in my programs or in other spaces you are in, I
want to invite you, butespecially my program, because
it's designed with this in mind.
And also I don't think that I'mnecessarily alone in that. That
the nice thing about the way andI wasn't planning on talking
about this, but it's justintuitively coming up. As I'm
recording this. The nice thingabout how I've designed our the
(09:41):
core curriculum and grounded andgrowing is that when as you move
through it, you allow yourselfinitially to still think like
actively be thinking aboutothers in your relationship to
them, but also anchor andknowing and working on
cultivating better knowingthrough very concrete processes
(10:01):
and practices yourself andcaring for your self. So that as
you move into the final processof the ground integrating
process, more specifically theShamal process, and as you start
to build up your capacity tonavigate these things, then you
(10:21):
can layer in greater and greatersociological analysis. But
here's the thing that a numberof phenomenal leaders teach. One
of my favorite is ProfessorEmeritus, Barbara J love. And
when she talks about her fourstages of liberatory
consciousness, which you mighthave heard me discussed before,
(10:42):
this might be new for you, so Iwill cover them, they are and
sometimes the order is switchedbetween the last two. But here's
the order that I like of it isawareness, which is where a lot
of folks are around differentthings. Like they have some
semblance of like anunderstanding of these things,
then there's analysis. Andbasically how I like to describe
analysis is when on a givenissue, whether it's racial
(11:03):
justice, or collectiveliberation, in general, or socio
economic oppression, ordominance or fat phobia, or any
form of oppression or dynamicyou go there's, there's four
levels, that ideally you achievewith it is awareness, which is
the basic level understanding.
(11:26):
And then there is analysis,which is where it filters
through the story of your livingand your specific life and also
other circumstances around youwhere you take that
understanding, and you start tointegrate it and filter it
through, so that it's not juston the surface thing, but it
starts to become part of who youare in a way that works for you.
(11:49):
And it might have you shift someof your understandings or
stories, and or may enhance themin different ways. But that is
the process of integration. Andthat is what analysis is about.
But then we don't stop there,then we start to move into
accountability, and the synonymthat I like to use for
accountability, becauseaccountability in the context of
(12:12):
systemic oppression, andcarceral culture is often viewed
in a very punitive, threateningway. So how I like to reframe
accountability, that is both inservice of bringing more ease to
everyone, and feels good to meas someone who has often wanted
and or desperately neededaccountability from others, and
(12:32):
at times got it and in a numberof instances did not is
commitment is commitment. So nowthat you have a basic surface
level knowledge, but and you'vegone further, and it started to
percolate and get into the rootsof your understanding and
starting to filter through theroots of your being and your
(12:54):
concepts and showing up and howthings are flowering in your
life and the kinds ofrelationships you're you're
having and this types of pollenyou're putting out into the
world, and what are you drawingto us starting to shift some of
that, right? Is commitment tohow we are showing up in
(13:16):
different ways around ourimpact, strengthening that in
different ways, being thoughtfulabout that thing. And, and then
the fourth piece, and these twocan alternate back and forth a
bit or a little bit moveable isaction is taking action, in
service and in alignment with inservice of and in alignment with
(13:37):
your awareness, analysis, andcommitment, or accountability.
Right. And all of those things
April Baskin (13:47):
are meaningful and take time. And I think a lot of
people struggle with this.
Because one, it takes time andpeople don't make the progress
they make and because of purityculture and dominant culture
that demands perfection,
Unknown (13:59):
people get stuck. And to go back to the main theme of
this episode, right. And sothese are just a few of the
different barriers that get inthe way of people thriving. And
what I want to assert, if youdidn't notice, is that thriving
gets to be woven throughout andgets to boost us and that we are
(14:23):
feel so intense about it. We are
April Baskin (14:27):
profoundly and fundamentally and on
conditionally deserving of careand love and thriving wherever
we are on that liberatoryconsciousness journey.
Unknown (14:39):
My problem in this work is not that people aren't
perfect is that people getdisempowered and aren't
resourced well and stop. Andthen the oppression continues if
mistakes are made in the contextof evolution, and I see someone
actively engaging or fightingfor their well being as long As
(15:00):
it's not in a way that superoppressive or super either or
that is fine. That is okay.
Particularly if you're in acontext like here at joyous
justice where it is understoodthat that is an essential part
of moving toward greater courageis by strengthening your own
(15:21):
foundation. And what better wayto strengthen your own
foundation and figuring out whathelps me or makes me feel good.
When do I feel at home? When doI feel safe? What are small and
big things that elicit joy andpleasure and ease and
(15:45):
inspiration from me. Becausewhen we have some of that
flowing, moving through thestages of liberatory,
consciousness becomes easier. Itbecomes more empowering
(16:07):
certainly. And it also canbecome more enjoyable. As we're
caring for ourselves, andpracticing compassion, and also
weaving in rigor. You havecapacity, immense capacity, to
take on and embody and champion,profound rigor. Especially, and
(16:30):
at times, perhaps only if youalso match that rigor with
trauma informed analysis, alsoknown as compassion might also
be known as compassion, maybethat's a better way of saying
(16:50):
that right?
With compassion, trauma,informed analysis, fun, play,
these are all things. And thesearen't just things for you. And
for others, these are thingsthat are a part of what our
(17:12):
final destination of whatcollective thriving, of what
liberation, collectiveliberation, and decolonization
looks like, is living simply tolive is enjoying the mundane, is
savoring beauty is honoring thebrilliance of our minds, and
(17:37):
beginning to understand in theplaces where we're weird, or
quote, unquote insufficient issimply usually a place where
we've been under resourced, andor learned coping mechanisms
that were brilliant, and bravein our lives and
intergenerationally in thecontext of oppression. And in
(17:57):
day to day, life isn't sohelpful right now. But that's
not that's something to beashamed of. That's something to
honor and celebrate, that weeffin made it. And now we get to
resource and nourish ourselves.
And figure out what we want tocarry in our day to day satchel,
and what we want to put on theshelf, and perhaps what we want
to discard, and there might besome things that we discard, or
(18:21):
we say we want to keep thekernel of wisdom and insight
here, but in light of differentthings. We've learned this
survival mechanism, I cherishit, I bless it, I think it was
can we really kinda right nowit's funny. It has enabled
survival and joy in our family,just generations. And now when
what might be an example, isfeeding children. And that was
(18:47):
really useful in the context ofenslavement or in rough
circumstances, or in the contextof pogroms where our bodies were
being beaten, to help build inthat grit in particular ways. In
light of the understanding atthe time, I can appreciate that
that had a purpose. And I wantto keep the kernel of the
(19:08):
parental and familial desire tokeep our children safe, and to
cultivate grit and resilience inthem. But actually, I want to
lovingly compost Berry, and letthat decompose and filter back
through soil that we can use toplant other parts of our family
or my individual garden,whatever the case may be. And
(19:32):
I'm going to keep this seed andperhaps put that on the sash.
Put that on the shelf, orperhaps put that on the satchel,
but in that case, I want torelease those harmful patterns,
right? And then other timesthere might be things like
urgency, that in day to day lifeand a lot of different ways is
(19:52):
not in service of ourphysiological well being our
communal dynamics. orinterpersonal relationships. But
in light of the ways thatcertain impressions or danger
can spike suddenly, at times, Iwant to both disentangle that
from my day to day living. But Ialso don't want to discard it or
(20:15):
bury it or deep or compost it.
Well, that that decompose, Iwant to put that on the shelf.
Right, because we haven'tactually achieved collective
liberation yet, or anywhereclose to that, and sometimes I
feel unsafe. So I don't want tobe using that. And I want to do
(20:35):
work through a program. Sothey're grounded and growing to
release some of that urgency andthat perfectionism in ways that
are practical and work. But alsokeep urgency on the shelf.
Because in different moments inmy life now and or in the
future, we might need that. Sothat is an ancestrally proven
(20:58):
best practice that has stood thetest of time and is still
something that I don't knowabout you, but I want to keep
that. But I don't necessarilywant that to be a go to, in my
day to day satchel or purse thatI carry around. Because that
affects my adrenals and my bloodpressure and the presence or
(21:22):
lack thereof of inflammation inmy body. And also can be
damaging in the context ofparticularly relationships
across lines of difference andpositional power. So that's work
that we can engage in. And whatsupports us in that work is
(21:45):
profound love of self. And ifthat is something that's not
accessible to you yet, thenbeginning to weave in elements
of thriving and well being intoyour life that is in alignment
with a potential love of self isa good first step. And we don't
(22:08):
need to have another barrierthat comes up here around this
concept of thriving, that is avariation of the purity culture
dynamic is all or nothingthinking. Thriving, just like
anything else is a dynamicprocess. And you can have a
little thriving or a lot ofthriving and somewhere in
between. And we can start outwith incremental measures, which
(22:32):
is where a number of sources andsocial media posts often, like
recommend people starting offand kind of stay in that place
at joy is justice, I want tochampion us going and taking it
all the way as far as wepossibly can. Because again,
outside of the paradigm ofoppression, and which is where I
(22:53):
endeavor to exist much of thetime, and helping my clients
begin to begin to functionoutside of and exist and build
outside of that paradigm. In ourliving in leadership. Obviously,
we're on this planet, and thatparadigm is everywhere. And the
more we heal, and the more weremove internalized oppression
and unhealed harm, the more westart to heal those things, and
(23:18):
suffocate and let the roots ofthat oppression wither. And we
replace new plants, and newroots and or deepen existing
healthy ones. That's how even ifthe poison is still in the air,
we start to filter that air indifferent ways and also join
forces in different ways andprovide cleaner air for each
(23:41):
other. Okay. That was metaphorfor now. That's good enough for
now. Right? So this doesn't haveto be all or nothing. It can be
incremental, and oh, this isgood. And I think a lot of
people get stuck. Because youmight have resistance to what I
(24:01):
just said a moment ago about,you know, going taking it as far
as you can. But I think whathappens more frequently, is that
people are met with a barrierthat ties into another limiting
belief or lie that they've beentold about themselves, and they
fall back into resignationcompromised survival mode, so
(24:23):
they might have certain areas ofthriving, but they but you might
experience disempowerment arounda new thing. And through my
programs and through myleadership, hopefully in
alignment with a number of otherthought leaders, what I want to
do is offer you not a classsimply on perfectionism, or on
(24:44):
thriving, but give you aframework that helps you engage
in a process of intentionalemergence and transformation
around each of these differentbarriers as you encounter them
To clear the way to greaterthriving. And now please don't
(25:04):
misconstrue what I'm sayinghere, I'm very much not of the
mind that we need to engage intransformation and deep thinking
about every little thing. That'sa challenge know, what I'm
talking about is I want toinvite you to step into thriving
more, where can you embrace itmore, particularly if you are
(25:24):
someone who has a targetedidentity, let alone multiple
ones. And even if you don't,let's say you are a white sis
hat. Christian man, able bodied,tall, fit slender, young, split,
(25:48):
You're not too young, you know,like in your 30s or 40s, maybe
maybe even 50s, although ageismmight start to creep in there.
And you're in all of the nontarget all of the privileged
oppressor identities, check allthose boxes, I'm still clear.
Now, you might be a little bitmore mindful when you have that
(26:11):
much disproportionate power.
That the things that you thinkyou've been conditioned to think
support, your thriving aren'tharmful. But particularly this
is all in the context of folkswho are this is not generic
advice. I'm specifically talkingabout this, in terms of folks
who have a desire to advancecollective shared power and
justice, and work towardcollective liberation in our
(26:35):
world. If that is something ifthat is a value for you that you
care about. If you care aboutsocial justice, I'm still team
you thriving. And now it's moreimportant, because that's a lot
of conditioning, you've gottento be positioned, both for harm
in certain ways to, to keep youin reproducing the harm, and
(26:58):
also a tremendous amount ofprivilege that we be mindful
about that. But we don't want tobe mindful to the point that it
stops you from thriving,especially since so many men
commit suicide and experience aton of harm in the context of
this system you're thriving isimportant to and if they're
(27:18):
thriving is important. So iseverybody else's. So So let's
see. So I've talked about acouple of different barriers and
dynamics that get in the way ofthriving. What else on that
final piece. That is anotherfacet of some of what I've
already named here that I think,is a specific manifestation of
(27:39):
people's social consciousness isguilt. Is people feeling guilty
about thriving? And I feel likethis is worth a whole episode in
and of itself. So what do I wantto say right now that would be
of greatest service to you. Iwant to invite you
April Baskin (28:10):
to honor the feeling that you're feeling and
perhaps take time to surface itand move through it. If you want
to know some ways that you mightdo that. That will likely be
covered around day three of myupcoming live workshop
Unknown (28:27):
where we will talk about and unpack this more, but
in the meantime, you couldengage in a variation. Something
that Tracy teaches beautifullyof Tara Brock's process, you
could do some journaling, youcould call a confidant so
there's there's that piece of itokay, if you're feeling guilty,
(28:48):
right? So honor that in someway. Surface it perhaps get more
clear about what that's about.
And then as you're ready, I wantto invite you to perhaps start
to shift that guilt you'refeeling or just noticed the
component parts is some of thatguilt about commitment
(29:15):
to some of that guilt, aboutyour social justice analysis,
Are there parts of that guiltthat are actually really
righteous and beautiful.
As important in some ways, moreimportantly, but equally,
equally important is and howmuch of that guilt is really
(29:39):
guilt that should be at the feetof systemic oppression, and
other people who have causedharm. That's a bit more of a
burden that you need to carryaround that and guilt isn't in
service of any one's thrivingit's in service of
disempowerment and manipulation.
I think it sets up people acrossdifferent identities to be in
(30:02):
the in be manipulated and toaccept this treatment. And that
is not okay. Soif you can, as you can, I want
to invite you to move in thedirection of shifting from guilt
(30:23):
into greater commitment that iscurious and as receptive to
continually evolving and beingin relationship. And there's a
word I'm wanting here that I wasafraid to say. So I stuffed it
(30:44):
back down. Let's see if it cancome through. What's coming
through in this moment is love.
Love has a number of theelements that's attached. With
that guilt love can have thefour levels of the Pretoria
consciousness a part of it, lovecan have awareness, and analysis
(31:06):
and commitment, which is thecounter to the guilt is
commitment. So it's a lovingcommitment, is what we want to
shift into from guilt is lovingcommitment. It's not guided by
guilt, that might be informed bythe pain, that systemic
oppression causes in the worldand in awareness and in our own
(31:27):
lives and the ways we've beenpositioned to be complicit. But
in time, and I don't think it'suseful to stay there. But you
might also try on some anger.
Anger is a really helpfultransporter, once you honor and
move through some of that painis can you kind of leverage some
anger about having beenpositioned in this way, and use
(31:48):
that to start to move in thedirection of loving commitment,
okay, coming back out of thatheart space. So if you want more
about this, please feel free tosend me a message either
directly to my email at info atchoice justice.com, or the
contact page on the website onthe Joyce justice.com website.
(32:13):
And all of that information isin the show notes of this
episode, if you don't have spaceto write it down or can't
remember that you can contact methrough this, if you have
thoughts or questions about anyof this, I'm happy to speak
about any of this in greaterdepth. But I think so all of
that to say is that guilt canget in the way of a thriving,
(32:34):
and I don't want it to anymore.
And I invite you to engage insome of the different elements
of what I shared, it could beprecisely or you could take
these different elements andthen move them around so that it
works for you in different waysaround your process. And might
you might engage in movement orattend a program that helps you
(32:58):
hold space for other peoplearound these different themes or
this sort of thing. Right, butthat you do whatever you need to
do. And for some of you it mightbe as simple as a pivot. And to
notice some of that anger andjust leverage that anger, anger
as a volleying point to moveinto f that I posit been
positioned in this way. And thisis inappropriate, I've been
(33:20):
positioned to harm people. And Ireject this, I accept that this
is what has happened. And Ireject this continuing to be my
truth anymore. And I want tostep into mindful loving
commitment. And part of thatmindful loving commitment can be
(33:42):
is to begin to anchor in moresolution rather than problem
focused activism. And look tomovements and efforts and
resources that support thriving,not exclusively, also healing is
in service of thriving are, youknow, this is not to when I said
that it just occurred to me thatthat might sound like I mean
(34:03):
that that's a singular thing.
I'm not saying that. But justthis is one thing that is really
important, right, is to leaninto and look for and notice the
places in your work and in yourleadership, wherever you
thrived. And did you keepyourself from it because you
felt like you didn't deserve itin some way. Or there was a
challenge that happened thatagain, you could use different
tools and resources, traumainformed and healing centric
(34:27):
resources to move through thosethings and re enter some of
those spaces on relationshipsfrom a place of mindful loving,
curious, commitment. Mindfulloving curiosity and mindful
loving commitment. So I thinkI've covered now about three or
(34:51):
four different barriers andchallenges that can stop us from
leaning into thriving so Fullyperhaps now You can let some of
that percolate through yoursystem and step more into
thriving and think about what isthriving look like for you. To
me thriving and joy are somewhatsynonymous in different ways or
(35:13):
are related our neighbors, ourbuddies, our homies. And I
invite you to think about in away that similar to how Tracy
and I invited you earlier thisyear to think about what brings
you joy, what helps you tothrive and if you had difficulty
stepping into or maintainingsome of that joy, hopefully some
(35:39):
of these insights and reframescan support you with that. And
if you want greater support,then please sign up for go to
joyous justice.com/resilient,resilience, resilience. And or
check the show notes and or justgo to joyous justice.com There's
a big button, a big banner onthe homepage, and sign up for
(36:01):
redefining resilience. Becausewe will take you through I will
guide you through a process thathelps you actualize the things
you want in your life that canhelp you actualize deeper
healing. As well as intentionalemergence and transformation in
(36:26):
service of what you want, andhow you want to live and you're
thriving and the justice, youwant to advance. I'm tired of
all these things beingpiecemeal. And so I've taken
years of research and study andtesting and refinement to come
up with a robustmulti-dimensional into
(36:47):
integrative system that accountsfor all of these different
things that accounts for ourneurology that accounts for
trauma informed leadership,analysis and healing, that
accounts for liberatoryleadership and decolonize
decolonization and antioppression work that accounts
for joy and love and thriving.
(37:11):
So I would love for you toattend this program. And please
invite your friends and otherpeople in your community it is
incredibly multifaceted, thespace is professional, you know,
so you can use this in yourprofessional context. And people
also use it around navigatingchallenges that are deeply
(37:33):
personal and familial. It'sapplicable across all these
things, because as a black, Afroindigenous woman, as a black
Afro indigenous Jewish woman,who lives a multifaceted life
and engages in multi dimensionalleadership, and sees a need for
more people to do the same inorder to effectively confront
(37:56):
the multifaceted cluster f. Thatare various dynamics playing out
in systemic oppression, aroundsystemic oppression, and climate
change and the climate disaster.
April Baskin (38:12):
It is all the more important that as much as we can
from a place of warrior from aplace of a mindful warrior
mindset, which I am a descendantacross all three of my lineages
of
Unknown (38:25):
warriors, perhaps you are too. And if we are going to
be as effective and courageousas we can be, the foundation of
that must be our thriving andwell being. I want to make this
case, I'm not saying you have tobelieve in me, but from my
perspective, there is no other
April Baskin (38:47):
way. With the exception of at times when we
are engaged in social change,work or a battle where we didn't
have quite enough resources, sowe need to power through that
moment. But chronically beingunder resourced and
undernourished. And having abroken heart leads to incredible
(39:08):
vulnerability and a lack ofcapacity to effectively analyze
and strategize.
Unknown (39:15):
And this moment demands not perfection, but it does
demand excellence and profoundlyeffective strategy. And my case
for this is that that strategyis best rooted in nourishment,
(39:38):
and love and wisdom and deepindividual and collective care.
So cheers to your thriving. I amso here for it. I believe that
you're thriving that you'redoing well. Oh, that you feeling
(40:01):
nourished and balancedspiritually mentally
relationally, emotionally,physically, in terms of your
resourcing and finances,in terms of your connection to
community, that all of that, Ibelieve that all of that
(40:23):
is a part of what collectiveliberation looks like, for me.
And the more you nourishyourself in those ways, even if
some of it is low key, or maybeeven high key oppressive, but
the more you start to fill yourcup, your energetic care cup,
and you start to empty theemotional overwhelm cup, you
have both have the resourcingand have the space to continue
(40:48):
to evolve to know better, andthen have the agility. Agility
in my mind requires limbernourished muscles, and tissue
and body. Right, and if I wantto be perhaps a little less
ableist mental agility requiresa nourished brain that has
(41:10):
enough omega threes in it.
Enough fatty acid, and hydrationand nourishment. All right,
these things are deeplyintertwined. And I'm tired of
our conditioning and supremacy,culture of profound segregation
and separation and isolation,making this so confusing. It's
not confusing. Our thriving,you're thriving is essential. is
(41:35):
essential in supporting andadvancing collective liberation.
And the more we thrive, the morewe can refine that thriving and
become more accountable, andengage in both of these things
in a dynamic iterative process,where we know better and we do
(41:56):
better and we feel better. Andthen we do better than we know
better, we do better. And we seea challenge or we notice, Whoo,
that's oppressive. Okay, well, Ilove myself that I have support,
let me get support around this.
They take time to learn becauseI really thought that was the
best way. So let me use thesedifferent tools that April
teaches and other folks teach.
I'm actually a lot don't but butApril teaches in different
(42:19):
people teach across differentprograms around engaging in a
holistic integrative process, toshift my thinking without
leaving myself behind, andwithout leaving others behind,
and engage in transformation.
And they get back in to no onebetter, doing better, feeling
better. And keep that going in avirtuous cycle and seeing
(42:40):
something that's upsetting.
Using the Shema process andtools to transmute that energy.
Notice who this is real toxic indifferent ways. How does that
further clarify what I want? Howwhat do we need to shift here?
Do I have power and resourcing?
Can we organize around this? Oris it too powerful? So then how
do we learn how to move aroundthat and start to strategize and
develop a long term strategy toundercut that in a way that
(43:05):
positions us in the context ofsafety and wellbeing? So that is
the work to me. And I thinkthriving is super helpful. And
also, what I didn't even mentionthat's a good way to end here.
Thriving is something that Ibelieve each of us as emanations
(43:25):
of divine energy. Those asbeautiful sacred children of
Mother Earth deserve to thrive,deserve to live well deserve to
eat delicious fruit and spendtime with people we love and
savor what is good and beautifulin life. Just because and also
(43:49):
because that is what is inalignment with Olam, haba the
world, the beautiful world tocome collective liberation
April Baskin (44:00):
is all being safe, and having shared and dynamic
and flowing power that shiftsamong us. So there isn't any
extensive power over there'scollaboration, and well being us
all working in different ways tobuild lives that we love and
support ourselves and eachother.
Unknown (44:21):
Just lots of play and fun. So cheers to your thriving,
and let me know how it goes. Letme know, what are your some of
your favorite ways to thrive?
You can do that on our Facebookpage or on any of the places
where I'm on social or send me amessage I would love to know
(44:41):
what are ways that you want toeven thriving this coming
spring, which starts on March28. How do you want to thrive
and if you want support inthinking about that and moving
through some of the very realvery real and difficult and
tenuous barriers that might begetting in the way of your
(45:04):
thriving. Join me on Monday,March 20, the start of spring
and also the launch ofredefining resilience so that
you can redefine resilience andservice of your thriving and
your most empowered visionaryleadership. Let's do this
friend, much love.
April Baskin (45:28):
Thanks for tuning in. To learn more about joyous
justice LLC, our team and howyou can get involved with our
community. Check out the info inour show notes, or find us at
joyous justice.com
Unknown (45:40):
If you enjoy this episode, show us some love.
Subscribe wherever you'relistening. Tell your people
share what you're learning andhow your leadership is evolving.
Stay humble, but not too humble.
And keep going because thefuture is ours to co create
You're listening to the joyous justice
April Baskin (00:11):
podcast, a weekly show hosted by April Baskin with
Tracie Guy-Decker.
Unknown (00:15):
in a complex world in which systemic oppression
conditions us to deny others andour own humanity. let's dedicate
ourselves to the pursuit andembodiment of wholeness, love
and thriving in the world and inour own lives. It's time to heal
and flourish our way to a morejoyous and just future.
April Baskin (00:43):
Hello, hello, welcome back for another
episode. And boy, do I have anepisode for you. As you may
know, Tracie Guy-Decker, mybeloved buddy, and partner in
this work is on break right now.
So it is just me. And that isboth a little bittersweet. More
than a little bittersweet. Andalso, this is a really
(01:06):
meaningful opportunity for us tocultivate our relationship
further, you and I. And also forme to step into different parts
of my leadership that when Ifirst formed this gorgeous and
amazing partnership with Tracy,I didn't feel fully ready to
step into. And I feel more readyto do that now. So Tracy and I
(01:28):
are both in a process of growthand evolution. And that is very
exciting. So
Unknown (01:39):
let's dive in. I've got some really juicy stuff that I
want to speak with you abouttoday, regarding thriving. So
here's some of my thoughts aboutthriving overall, my sense is
that some folks have a lovelyrelationship with it. And a lot
of folks are jaded and or have acomplicated relationship with
(02:03):
thriving. And so in thisepisode, in this year episode
today, let me clarify that. Inthis your episode today, what I
want to say and dive into it isthat is high is that it's high
time to heal your relationshipwith thriving, so what I want to
(02:26):
dive into today is that it ishigh time for you to heal, if
this is true for you, and or forthose for whom it is relevant
for you to heal yourrelationship with thriving, and
start setting yourself up andour movements up for long term
success and sustainability. Soyeah, so there's a few different
(02:48):
points I want to cover here. Andthe first is that people often
I've noticed recently, I've beenreally into this concept of
thriving and weaving it into mylife. And it's complicated for a
lot of people for a lot ofdifferent reasons. One is that a
lot of people have beenconditioned and have accepted
(03:09):
the thought that they need toregularly compromise in many
different areas of their life inways that actually really aren't
acceptable, but they just haveto tolerate it and move on. And
a number of you, and perhaps youas well have gotten pretty good
at making the best of sort ofcrappy conditions in certain
(03:31):
ways. And for me, again, part ofthe huge overarching theme here
at joyous justice is that we canthrive and advance justice. And
that actually, our joy and wellbeing is a part of justice. And
I think what gets complicatedfor people is that there's been
(03:53):
either a lot of oppression thatthey've experienced and or a lot
of oppressive dominant culturedynamics that lifted folks up
and conditioned them andpositioned them to learn and
function and operate in such away that when you are not
conscious, you're thrivinginherently is at the expense of
(04:15):
others and at Joy's justiceamong a range of different
things. Part of what I aminterested in advancing with
y'all is holistic analysis isholistic understanding an
integrated decolonizeliberatory.
April Baskin (04:34):
conceptualization and then filtering through your
being an actualization of whatit looks like to operationalised
liberatory living andleadership. And in my model, I
don't know about showbuzz But inmy role model and practice and
in theory, I want my liberatoryliving and leadership model to
(04:56):
have thriving at its core Areboth individual and collective
thriving, right? So thriving isimportant. So in this podcast
episode today, I want to inviteyou to investigate and begin
thinking about what is yourrelationship with thriving. And
(05:17):
what I want to say is to get alittle intimate, and maybe this
particular word isn't right foryou, you can replace this word
with something else.
Unknown (05:24):
But darling, honey, beloved, you deserve to thrive.
And you're thriving is essentialto collective liberation, it is
part of it. And the more youpostpone figuring out how to
(05:46):
thrive in ways that feel bothtrue to you, and are also
ethical and in alignment withyour values, the longer you are
stalling, becoming the empoweredand body integrated, amazing
legendary leader and human andlover, who you are meant to be.
(06:11):
And despite what supremacy anddominance, culture would tell,
each of us tells each of us doestell each of us consistently,
the distance between thatembodied integrative grid
integrated, thriving self is notas vast as you've been
conditioned to believe it is, aswe've been conditioned to
(06:35):
believe it is. Now, that doesn'tmean that the journey might not
involve a lot of courage, andemotion and moving and shift in
different ways. And engaging ona nonlinear path, which is part
of one of the many things thatmakes my redefining resilience
and my grounded and growingframework so helpful is that it
(06:59):
provides structure and supportand scaffolding to what can
otherwise be a super nonlinearmessy progress, process and
progress and actually help buildin rhythm and sacred pacing and
analysis that helps youunderstand at any given point,
(07:19):
where you are in the process ofsomething, what are the next
steps what you can revisit ifyou're not feeling quite how you
want. Sotake a breath here. Oh, so much
feeling? Do you feel it? I careabout this so much. So I think a
lot of people are jaded. Andunderstandably so I have no
(07:41):
judgment aboutthe state of jadedness and or
just kind of having given up onthe concept of thriving, but I
want to invite you to reclaimit, or if you already have
reclaimed it. Kudos to you ifyou have reclaimed it, and
you're living it and or if youhave, you're in the process of
reclaiming it, and you're movingthrough that, yes, more of this,
(08:04):
please. The more weholistically, socially
consciously thrive, the better.
And I don't think puritypolitics or purity culture. Like
don't let that get in the way ofyou thriving. I've been rather
(08:27):
intently.
April Baskin (08:29):
Analyzing this and thinking this a lot. And to make
a simple statement, I am veryclear that to get to joyous
justice in different ways thatjoy needs justice, and also
desires justice, if we areactually in deep holistic joy we
inherently want to give tosupport and others. And as we
(08:52):
are advancing justice indifferent ways we need that
social justice and that activismand that courageous upstander
leadership to be imbued with joyand or spirit. Joy is just one
word with habit joy, or ease,breath, spirituality, Spirit,
(09:14):
they need each other inherentlyto me, they go together.
Unknown (09:19):
And so in my programs or in other spaces you are in, I
want to invite you, butespecially my program, because
it's designed with this in mind.
And also I don't think that I'mnecessarily alone in that. That
the nice thing about the way andI wasn't planning on talking
about this, but it's justintuitively coming up. As I'm
recording this. The nice thingabout how I've designed our the
(09:41):
core curriculum and grounded andgrowing is that when as you move
through it, you allow yourselfinitially to still think like
actively be thinking aboutothers in your relationship to
them, but also anchor andknowing and working on
cultivating better knowingthrough very concrete processes
(10:01):
and practices yourself andcaring for your self. So that as
you move into the final processof the ground integrating
process, more specifically theShamal process, and as you start
to build up your capacity tonavigate these things, then you
(10:21):
can layer in greater and greatersociological analysis. But
here's the thing that a numberof phenomenal leaders teach. One
of my favorite is ProfessorEmeritus, Barbara J love. And
when she talks about her fourstages of liberatory
consciousness, which you mighthave heard me discussed before,
(10:42):
this might be new for you, so Iwill cover them, they are and
sometimes the order is switchedbetween the last two. But here's
the order that I like of it isawareness, which is where a lot
of folks are around differentthings. Like they have some
semblance of like anunderstanding of these things,
then there's analysis. Andbasically how I like to describe
analysis is when on a givenissue, whether it's racial
(11:03):
justice, or collectiveliberation, in general, or socio
economic oppression, ordominance or fat phobia, or any
form of oppression or dynamicyou go there's, there's four
levels, that ideally you achievewith it is awareness, which is
the basic level understanding.
(11:26):
And then there is analysis,which is where it filters
through the story of your livingand your specific life and also
other circumstances around youwhere you take that
understanding, and you start tointegrate it and filter it
through, so that it's not juston the surface thing, but it
starts to become part of who youare in a way that works for you.
(11:49):
And it might have you shift someof your understandings or
stories, and or may enhance themin different ways. But that is
the process of integration. Andthat is what analysis is about.
But then we don't stop there,then we start to move into
accountability, and the synonymthat I like to use for
accountability, becauseaccountability in the context of
(12:12):
systemic oppression, andcarceral culture is often viewed
in a very punitive, threateningway. So how I like to reframe
accountability, that is both inservice of bringing more ease to
everyone, and feels good to meas someone who has often wanted
and or desperately neededaccountability from others, and
(12:32):
at times got it and in a numberof instances did not is
commitment is commitment. So nowthat you have a basic surface
level knowledge, but and you'vegone further, and it started to
percolate and get into the rootsof your understanding and
starting to filter through theroots of your being and your
(12:54):
concepts and showing up and howthings are flowering in your
life and the kinds ofrelationships you're you're
having and this types of pollenyou're putting out into the
world, and what are you drawingto us starting to shift some of
that, right? Is commitment tohow we are showing up in
(13:16):
different ways around ourimpact, strengthening that in
different ways, being thoughtfulabout that thing. And, and then
the fourth piece, and these twocan alternate back and forth a
bit or a little bit moveable isaction is taking action, in
service and in alignment with inservice of and in alignment with
(13:37):
your awareness, analysis, andcommitment, or accountability.
Right. And all of those things
April Baskin (13:47):
are meaningful and take time. And I think a lot of
people struggle with this.
Because one, it takes time andpeople don't make the progress
they make and because of purityculture and dominant culture
that demands perfection,
Unknown (13:59):
people get stuck. And to go back to the main theme of
this episode, right. And sothese are just a few of the
different barriers that get inthe way of people thriving. And
what I want to assert, if youdidn't notice, is that thriving
gets to be woven throughout andgets to boost us and that we are
(14:23):
feel so intense about it. We are
April Baskin (14:27):
profoundly and fundamentally and on
conditionally deserving of careand love and thriving wherever
we are on that liberatoryconsciousness journey.
Unknown (14:39):
My problem in this work is not that people aren't
perfect is that people getdisempowered and aren't
resourced well and stop. Andthen the oppression continues if
mistakes are made in the contextof evolution, and I see someone
actively engaging or fightingfor their well being as long As
(15:00):
it's not in a way that superoppressive or super either or
that is fine. That is okay.
Particularly if you're in acontext like here at joyous
justice where it is understoodthat that is an essential part
of moving toward greater courageis by strengthening your own
(15:21):
foundation. And what better wayto strengthen your own
foundation and figuring out whathelps me or makes me feel good.
When do I feel at home? When doI feel safe? What are small and
big things that elicit joy andpleasure and ease and
(15:45):
inspiration from me. Becausewhen we have some of that
flowing, moving through thestages of liberatory,
consciousness becomes easier. Itbecomes more empowering
(16:07):
certainly. And it also canbecome more enjoyable. As we're
caring for ourselves, andpracticing compassion, and also
weaving in rigor. You havecapacity, immense capacity, to
take on and embody and champion,profound rigor. Especially, and
(16:30):
at times, perhaps only if youalso match that rigor with
trauma informed analysis, alsoknown as compassion might also
be known as compassion, maybethat's a better way of saying
(16:50):
that right?
With compassion, trauma,informed analysis, fun, play,
these are all things. And thesearen't just things for you. And
for others, these are thingsthat are a part of what our
(17:12):
final destination of whatcollective thriving, of what
liberation, collectiveliberation, and decolonization
looks like, is living simply tolive is enjoying the mundane, is
savoring beauty is honoring thebrilliance of our minds, and
(17:37):
beginning to understand in theplaces where we're weird, or
quote, unquote insufficient issimply usually a place where
we've been under resourced, andor learned coping mechanisms
that were brilliant, and bravein our lives and
intergenerationally in thecontext of oppression. And in
(17:57):
day to day, life isn't sohelpful right now. But that's
not that's something to beashamed of. That's something to
honor and celebrate, that weeffin made it. And now we get to
resource and nourish ourselves.
And figure out what we want tocarry in our day to day satchel,
and what we want to put on theshelf, and perhaps what we want
to discard, and there might besome things that we discard, or
(18:21):
we say we want to keep thekernel of wisdom and insight
here, but in light of differentthings. We've learned this
survival mechanism, I cherishit, I bless it, I think it was
can we really kinda right nowit's funny. It has enabled
survival and joy in our family,just generations. And now when
what might be an example, isfeeding children. And that was
(18:47):
really useful in the context ofenslavement or in rough
circumstances, or in the contextof pogroms where our bodies were
being beaten, to help build inthat grit in particular ways. In
light of the understanding atthe time, I can appreciate that
that had a purpose. And I wantto keep the kernel of the
(19:08):
parental and familial desire tokeep our children safe, and to
cultivate grit and resilience inthem. But actually, I want to
lovingly compost Berry, and letthat decompose and filter back
through soil that we can use toplant other parts of our family
or my individual garden,whatever the case may be. And
(19:32):
I'm going to keep this seed andperhaps put that on the sash.
Put that on the shelf, orperhaps put that on the satchel,
but in that case, I want torelease those harmful patterns,
right? And then other timesthere might be things like
urgency, that in day to day lifeand a lot of different ways is
(19:52):
not in service of ourphysiological well being our
communal dynamics. orinterpersonal relationships. But
in light of the ways thatcertain impressions or danger
can spike suddenly, at times, Iwant to both disentangle that
from my day to day living. But Ialso don't want to discard it or
(20:15):
bury it or deep or compost it.
Well, that that decompose, Iwant to put that on the shelf.
Right, because we haven'tactually achieved collective
liberation yet, or anywhereclose to that, and sometimes I
feel unsafe. So I don't want tobe using that. And I want to do
(20:35):
work through a program. Sothey're grounded and growing to
release some of that urgency andthat perfectionism in ways that
are practical and work. But alsokeep urgency on the shelf.
Because in different moments inmy life now and or in the
future, we might need that. Sothat is an ancestrally proven
(20:58):
best practice that has stood thetest of time and is still
something that I don't knowabout you, but I want to keep
that. But I don't necessarilywant that to be a go to, in my
day to day satchel or purse thatI carry around. Because that
affects my adrenals and my bloodpressure and the presence or
(21:22):
lack thereof of inflammation inmy body. And also can be
damaging in the context ofparticularly relationships
across lines of difference andpositional power. So that's work
that we can engage in. And whatsupports us in that work is
(21:45):
profound love of self. And ifthat is something that's not
accessible to you yet, thenbeginning to weave in elements
of thriving and well being intoyour life that is in alignment
with a potential love of self isa good first step. And we don't
(22:08):
need to have another barrierthat comes up here around this
concept of thriving, that is avariation of the purity culture
dynamic is all or nothingthinking. Thriving, just like
anything else is a dynamicprocess. And you can have a
little thriving or a lot ofthriving and somewhere in
between. And we can start outwith incremental measures, which
(22:32):
is where a number of sources andsocial media posts often, like
recommend people starting offand kind of stay in that place
at joy is justice, I want tochampion us going and taking it
all the way as far as wepossibly can. Because again,
outside of the paradigm ofoppression, and which is where I
(22:53):
endeavor to exist much of thetime, and helping my clients
begin to begin to functionoutside of and exist and build
outside of that paradigm. In ourliving in leadership. Obviously,
we're on this planet, and thatparadigm is everywhere. And the
more we heal, and the more weremove internalized oppression
and unhealed harm, the more westart to heal those things, and
(23:18):
suffocate and let the roots ofthat oppression wither. And we
replace new plants, and newroots and or deepen existing
healthy ones. That's how even ifthe poison is still in the air,
we start to filter that air indifferent ways and also join
forces in different ways andprovide cleaner air for each
(23:41):
other. Okay. That was metaphorfor now. That's good enough for
now. Right? So this doesn't haveto be all or nothing. It can be
incremental, and oh, this isgood. And I think a lot of
people get stuck. Because youmight have resistance to what I
(24:01):
just said a moment ago about,you know, going taking it as far
as you can. But I think whathappens more frequently, is that
people are met with a barrierthat ties into another limiting
belief or lie that they've beentold about themselves, and they
fall back into resignationcompromised survival mode, so
(24:23):
they might have certain areas ofthriving, but they but you might
experience disempowerment arounda new thing. And through my
programs and through myleadership, hopefully in
alignment with a number of otherthought leaders, what I want to
do is offer you not a classsimply on perfectionism, or on
(24:44):
thriving, but give you aframework that helps you engage
in a process of intentionalemergence and transformation
around each of these differentbarriers as you encounter them
To clear the way to greaterthriving. And now please don't
(25:04):
misconstrue what I'm sayinghere, I'm very much not of the
mind that we need to engage intransformation and deep thinking
about every little thing. That'sa challenge know, what I'm
talking about is I want toinvite you to step into thriving
more, where can you embrace itmore, particularly if you are
(25:24):
someone who has a targetedidentity, let alone multiple
ones. And even if you don't,let's say you are a white sis
hat. Christian man, able bodied,tall, fit slender, young, split,
(25:48):
You're not too young, you know,like in your 30s or 40s, maybe
maybe even 50s, although ageismmight start to creep in there.
And you're in all of the nontarget all of the privileged
oppressor identities, check allthose boxes, I'm still clear.
Now, you might be a little bitmore mindful when you have that
(26:11):
much disproportionate power.
That the things that you thinkyou've been conditioned to think
support, your thriving aren'tharmful. But particularly this
is all in the context of folkswho are this is not generic
advice. I'm specifically talkingabout this, in terms of folks
who have a desire to advancecollective shared power and
justice, and work towardcollective liberation in our
(26:35):
world. If that is something ifthat is a value for you that you
care about. If you care aboutsocial justice, I'm still team
you thriving. And now it's moreimportant, because that's a lot
of conditioning, you've gottento be positioned, both for harm
in certain ways to, to keep youin reproducing the harm, and
(26:58):
also a tremendous amount ofprivilege that we be mindful
about that. But we don't want tobe mindful to the point that it
stops you from thriving,especially since so many men
commit suicide and experience aton of harm in the context of
this system you're thriving isimportant to and if they're
(27:18):
thriving is important. So iseverybody else's. So So let's
see. So I've talked about acouple of different barriers and
dynamics that get in the way ofthriving. What else on that
final piece. That is anotherfacet of some of what I've
already named here that I think,is a specific manifestation of
(27:39):
people's social consciousness isguilt. Is people feeling guilty
about thriving? And I feel likethis is worth a whole episode in
and of itself. So what do I wantto say right now that would be
of greatest service to you. Iwant to invite you
April Baskin (28:10):
to honor the feeling that you're feeling and
perhaps take time to surface itand move through it. If you want
to know some ways that you mightdo that. That will likely be
covered around day three of myupcoming live workshop
Unknown (28:27):
where we will talk about and unpack this more, but
in the meantime, you couldengage in a variation. Something
that Tracy teaches beautifullyof Tara Brock's process, you
could do some journaling, youcould call a confidant so
there's there's that piece of itokay, if you're feeling guilty,
(28:48):
right? So honor that in someway. Surface it perhaps get more
clear about what that's about.
And then as you're ready, I wantto invite you to perhaps start
to shift that guilt you'refeeling or just noticed the
component parts is some of thatguilt about commitment
(29:15):
to some of that guilt, aboutyour social justice analysis,
Are there parts of that guiltthat are actually really
righteous and beautiful.
As important in some ways, moreimportantly, but equally,
equally important is and howmuch of that guilt is really
(29:39):
guilt that should be at the feetof systemic oppression, and
other people who have causedharm. That's a bit more of a
burden that you need to carryaround that and guilt isn't in
service of any one's thrivingit's in service of
disempowerment and manipulation.
I think it sets up people acrossdifferent identities to be in
(30:02):
the in be manipulated and toaccept this treatment. And that
is not okay. Soif you can, as you can, I want
to invite you to move in thedirection of shifting from guilt
(30:23):
into greater commitment that iscurious and as receptive to
continually evolving and beingin relationship. And there's a
word I'm wanting here that I wasafraid to say. So I stuffed it
(30:44):
back down. Let's see if it cancome through. What's coming
through in this moment is love.
Love has a number of theelements that's attached. With
that guilt love can have thefour levels of the Pretoria
consciousness a part of it, lovecan have awareness, and analysis
(31:06):
and commitment, which is thecounter to the guilt is
commitment. So it's a lovingcommitment, is what we want to
shift into from guilt is lovingcommitment. It's not guided by
guilt, that might be informed bythe pain, that systemic
oppression causes in the worldand in awareness and in our own
(31:27):
lives and the ways we've beenpositioned to be complicit. But
in time, and I don't think it'suseful to stay there. But you
might also try on some anger.
Anger is a really helpfultransporter, once you honor and
move through some of that painis can you kind of leverage some
anger about having beenpositioned in this way, and use
(31:48):
that to start to move in thedirection of loving commitment,
okay, coming back out of thatheart space. So if you want more
about this, please feel free tosend me a message either
directly to my email at info atchoice justice.com, or the
contact page on the website onthe Joyce justice.com website.
(32:13):
And all of that information isin the show notes of this
episode, if you don't have spaceto write it down or can't
remember that you can contact methrough this, if you have
thoughts or questions about anyof this, I'm happy to speak
about any of this in greaterdepth. But I think so all of
that to say is that guilt canget in the way of a thriving,
(32:34):
and I don't want it to anymore.
And I invite you to engage insome of the different elements
of what I shared, it could beprecisely or you could take
these different elements andthen move them around so that it
works for you in different waysaround your process. And might
you might engage in movement orattend a program that helps you
(32:58):
hold space for other peoplearound these different themes or
this sort of thing. Right, butthat you do whatever you need to
do. And for some of you it mightbe as simple as a pivot. And to
notice some of that anger andjust leverage that anger, anger
as a volleying point to moveinto f that I posit been
positioned in this way. And thisis inappropriate, I've been
(33:20):
positioned to harm people. And Ireject this, I accept that this
is what has happened. And Ireject this continuing to be my
truth anymore. And I want tostep into mindful loving
commitment. And part of thatmindful loving commitment can be
(33:42):
is to begin to anchor in moresolution rather than problem
focused activism. And look tomovements and efforts and
resources that support thriving,not exclusively, also healing is
in service of thriving are, youknow, this is not to when I said
that it just occurred to me thatthat might sound like I mean
(34:03):
that that's a singular thing.
I'm not saying that. But justthis is one thing that is really
important, right, is to leaninto and look for and notice the
places in your work and in yourleadership, wherever you
thrived. And did you keepyourself from it because you
felt like you didn't deserve itin some way. Or there was a
challenge that happened thatagain, you could use different
tools and resources, traumainformed and healing centric
(34:27):
resources to move through thosethings and re enter some of
those spaces on relationshipsfrom a place of mindful loving,
curious, commitment. Mindfulloving curiosity and mindful
loving commitment. So I thinkI've covered now about three or
(34:51):
four different barriers andchallenges that can stop us from
leaning into thriving so Fullyperhaps now You can let some of
that percolate through yoursystem and step more into
thriving and think about what isthriving look like for you. To
me thriving and joy are somewhatsynonymous in different ways or
(35:13):
are related our neighbors, ourbuddies, our homies. And I
invite you to think about in away that similar to how Tracy
and I invited you earlier thisyear to think about what brings
you joy, what helps you tothrive and if you had difficulty
stepping into or maintainingsome of that joy, hopefully some
(35:39):
of these insights and reframescan support you with that. And
if you want greater support,then please sign up for go to
joyous justice.com/resilient,resilience, resilience. And or
check the show notes and or justgo to joyous justice.com There's
a big button, a big banner onthe homepage, and sign up for
(36:01):
redefining resilience. Becausewe will take you through I will
guide you through a process thathelps you actualize the things
you want in your life that canhelp you actualize deeper
healing. As well as intentionalemergence and transformation in
(36:26):
service of what you want, andhow you want to live and you're
thriving and the justice, youwant to advance. I'm tired of
all these things beingpiecemeal. And so I've taken
years of research and study andtesting and refinement to come
up with a robustmulti-dimensional into
(36:47):
integrative system that accountsfor all of these different
things that accounts for ourneurology that accounts for
trauma informed leadership,analysis and healing, that
accounts for liberatoryleadership and decolonize
decolonization and antioppression work that accounts
for joy and love and thriving.
(37:11):
So I would love for you toattend this program. And please
invite your friends and otherpeople in your community it is
incredibly multifaceted, thespace is professional, you know,
so you can use this in yourprofessional context. And people
also use it around navigatingchallenges that are deeply
(37:33):
personal and familial. It'sapplicable across all these
things, because as a black, Afroindigenous woman, as a black
Afro indigenous Jewish woman,who lives a multifaceted life
and engages in multi dimensionalleadership, and sees a need for
more people to do the same inorder to effectively confront
(37:56):
the multifaceted cluster f. Thatare various dynamics playing out
in systemic oppression, aroundsystemic oppression, and climate
change and the climate disaster.
April Baskin (38:12):
It is all the more important that as much as we can
from a place of warrior from aplace of a mindful warrior
mindset, which I am a descendantacross all three of my lineages
of
Unknown (38:25):
warriors, perhaps you are too. And if we are going to
be as effective and courageousas we can be, the foundation of
that must be our thriving andwell being. I want to make this
case, I'm not saying you have tobelieve in me, but from my
perspective, there is no other
April Baskin (38:47):
way. With the exception of at times when we
are engaged in social change,work or a battle where we didn't
have quite enough resources, sowe need to power through that
moment. But chronically beingunder resourced and
undernourished. And having abroken heart leads to incredible
(39:08):
vulnerability and a lack ofcapacity to effectively analyze
and strategize.
Unknown (39:15):
And this moment demands not perfection, but it does
demand excellence and profoundlyeffective strategy. And my case
for this is that that strategyis best rooted in nourishment,
(39:38):
and love and wisdom and deepindividual and collective care.
So cheers to your thriving. I amso here for it. I believe that
you're thriving that you'redoing well. Oh, that you feeling
(40:01):
nourished and balancedspiritually mentally
relationally, emotionally,physically, in terms of your
resourcing and finances,in terms of your connection to
community, that all of that, Ibelieve that all of that
(40:23):
is a part of what collectiveliberation looks like, for me.
And the more you nourishyourself in those ways, even if
some of it is low key, or maybeeven high key oppressive, but
the more you start to fill yourcup, your energetic care cup,
and you start to empty theemotional overwhelm cup, you
have both have the resourcingand have the space to continue
(40:48):
to evolve to know better, andthen have the agility. Agility
in my mind requires limbernourished muscles, and tissue
and body. Right, and if I wantto be perhaps a little less
ableist mental agility requiresa nourished brain that has
(41:10):
enough omega threes in it.
Enough fatty acid, and hydrationand nourishment. All right,
these things are deeplyintertwined. And I'm tired of
our conditioning and supremacy,culture of profound segregation
and separation and isolation,making this so confusing. It's
not confusing. Our thriving,you're thriving is essential. is
(41:35):
essential in supporting andadvancing collective liberation.
And the more we thrive, the morewe can refine that thriving and
become more accountable, andengage in both of these things
in a dynamic iterative process,where we know better and we do
(41:56):
better and we feel better. Andthen we do better than we know
better, we do better. And we seea challenge or we notice, Whoo,
that's oppressive. Okay, well, Ilove myself that I have support,
let me get support around this.
They take time to learn becauseI really thought that was the
best way. So let me use thesedifferent tools that April
teaches and other folks teach.
I'm actually a lot don't but butApril teaches in different
(42:19):
people teach across differentprograms around engaging in a
holistic integrative process, toshift my thinking without
leaving myself behind, andwithout leaving others behind,
and engage in transformation.
And they get back in to no onebetter, doing better, feeling
better. And keep that going in avirtuous cycle and seeing
(42:40):
something that's upsetting.
Using the Shema process andtools to transmute that energy.
Notice who this is real toxic indifferent ways. How does that
further clarify what I want? Howwhat do we need to shift here?
Do I have power and resourcing?
Can we organize around this? Oris it too powerful? So then how
do we learn how to move aroundthat and start to strategize and
develop a long term strategy toundercut that in a way that
(43:05):
positions us in the context ofsafety and wellbeing? So that is
the work to me. And I thinkthriving is super helpful. And
also, what I didn't even mentionthat's a good way to end here.
Thriving is something that Ibelieve each of us as emanations
(43:25):
of divine energy. Those asbeautiful sacred children of
Mother Earth deserve to thrive,deserve to live well deserve to
eat delicious fruit and spendtime with people we love and
savor what is good and beautifulin life. Just because and also
(43:49):
because that is what is inalignment with Olam, haba the
world, the beautiful world tocome collective liberation
April Baskin (44:00):
is all being safe, and having shared and dynamic
and flowing power that shiftsamong us. So there isn't any
extensive power over there'scollaboration, and well being us
all working in different ways tobuild lives that we love and
support ourselves and eachother.
Unknown (44:21):
Just lots of play and fun. So cheers to your thriving,
and let me know how it goes. Letme know, what are your some of
your favorite ways to thrive?
You can do that on our Facebookpage or on any of the places
where I'm on social or send me amessage I would love to know
(44:41):
what are ways that you want toeven thriving this coming
spring, which starts on March28. How do you want to thrive
and if you want support inthinking about that and moving
through some of the very realvery real and difficult and
tenuous barriers that might begetting in the way of your
(45:04):
thriving. Join me on Monday,March 20, the start of spring
and also the launch ofredefining resilience so that
you can redefine resilience andservice of your thriving and
your most empowered visionaryleadership. Let's do this
friend, much love.
April Baskin (45:28):
Thanks for tuning in. To learn more about joyous
justice LLC, our team and howyou can get involved with our
community. Check out the info inour show notes, or find us at
joyous justice.com
Unknown (45:40):
If you enjoy this episode, show us some love.
Subscribe wherever you'relistening. Tell your people
share what you're learning andhow your leadership is evolving.
Stay humble, but not too humble.
And keep going because thefuture is ours to co create
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