What gifts are you giving yourself this holiday season?
I am giving myself the gift of several self-vulnerability dates where I carve out time to meditate, reflect, journal, write poetry, and create art (drawings and collages) about the ups, downs, and in-betweens of this year.
This morning, I reflected on my 61st birthday which is fast approaching (December 18th). My reflections took me back to my first trip to Negril, Jamaica with my Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Soror Karla Ray Thompson in December 1992. That trip was really special because I turned 28 on the beach and surrendered to my first Saturn Return (astrology lovers like myself can appreciate this experience).
That trip offered me sacred and safe space to embrace and express self-vulnerability. That experience of telling myself the TRUTH about what I felt, thought, believed, and what was and was not happening in my world was MESSY, SCARY, MAGICAL, OVERWHELMING, and LIBERATING all at the same time. It helped me speak to my heart, listen to myself without judgment, and come home to myself. It marked the beginning of a major shift in how I showed up in my life, relationships, and career. It also laid the foundation for my Thriving Mindfully heart-centered approach to being, living, and serving humanity with my gifts.
Click on the video and listen to the “Thriving Mindfully Theme,” one of the nine spoken word poems on my newly released debut album entitled Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter.
Click the button below to get more information about my album. Buy and download it from Bandcamp, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms except Amazon and Spotify.
It’s been 33 years since that trip and my heart remains filled with deep gratitude for the gift of self-vulnerability that I continue to give myself and my Thriving Mindfully approach to being, living, and serving humanity with my gifts.
Do you want to learn how to give yourself the gift of self-vulnerability?
Need my coaching support?
GO HERE to sign up to join me for Thriving Mindfully Sundays on December 14th and January 4th from 3:00 p.m. EST to 4:00 p.m. EST via Zoom
I look forward to seeing you at one or both of the Thriving Mindfully Sunday sessions.
How are you doing now that the holiday season has begun?
After my mother Theresa made her transition on July 9, 2023, the months of November and December became filled with tons of memories and reminders that she was no longer physically present on Mother Earth.
These months have become some of the most emotionally vulnerable times of the year for me because they are filled with a mix of emotions ranging from gratitude to grief. I am grateful for having my mother for 58 years of my life. I am grateful I feel her love, hear her wisdom, and experience her presence and protection as my loving + wise + well ancestor each day. I also grieve her physical absence and miss sharing the holidays with her.
Navigating my vulnerability and grief each year can be messy, hard, and scary, especially when I try to avoid feeling or hide from my emotions. Over the past three holiday seasons, I have learned to cope by embracing and practicing self-vulnerability.
For me, self-vulnerability is an INVITATION to open your heart to yourself.
Self-Vulnerability is also a CHOICE you can make to tell yourself the TRUTH about your emotions, thoughts, grief, beliefs, fears, doubts, weaknesses, imperfections, experiences, and relationships instead of hiding from them.
Self-Vulnerability is also healing and liberating because it creates space for you to embrace your birthrights of self-awareness, self-love, self-kindness, self-compassion, self-forgiveness, and self-acceptance.
RESOURCE #1
If you are feeling vulnerable and/or experiencing grief during the holidays, I invite you to use my holiday check-in list of questions to get in touch with yourself below.
RESOURCE #2
Listen to my new spoken word song, “G.R.I.E.F.” that is included on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter (released on November 20). Go here to get more information about, buy, and download the album
RESOURCE #3
If you need more support, sign up to join me for Thriving Mindfully Sundays on December 14 and January 4 from 3 p.m. EST to 4 p.m. EST via Zoom. Get more information and RSVP here.
Go here to get more information and listen to and buy Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter album on Bandcamp, YouTube Music, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms except for Amazon Music and Spotify.
How are you welcoming the Spring season into your life?
I am welcoming the Spring season into my life by celebrating the new Astrological new year, Spring Equinox, and the Aries season that began on March 19th at 11:09 PM ET.
My celebration includes setting an intention to continue my Thriving Mindfully with death, loss, and grief by taking a deep dive into self-nurturing (self-care) rooted in my Akan ancestral wisdom that lives in the Adinkra symbols. The wisdom is a part of my ancestral medicine.
FYI The Akan are the largest ethnic group of present-day Ghana, and the Ivory Coast located in West Africa. My paternal loving + wise + well ancestors are the Akan people in Ghana.
FYI Adinkra symbols are deep truths reflecting proverbs, concepts, and wisdom in a visual form that appear in cloth, clothing, artwork, architecture, furniture, and more.
I picked six Adinkra symbols to guide my self-nurturing through the Spring season. I used them to create affirmations that support my intention. See below.
What intentions do you want to set for the Spring season, new astrological new year, or second quarter of 2024?
What’s one action step you can take to jumpstart your intention setting?
I am also diving deep into some of the traditional Chinese Medicine, astrology, and other spiritual and self-care practices I have used in previous years.
I thought you might like to know more about them.
Read on…
In Chinese Medicine, the Spring season corresponds to the wood element and yang energy. Spring represents the beginning of new astrological year (Aries season) and a time of birth and new beginnings.
The wood element represents a transition from a yin season to yang season, death to growth, and cold to warmth. It is a time of expansion growth, development, and moving forward unapologetically.
Yang energy is masculine, hot, active, and connected to the activity of doing. The wood element is an invitation to cultivate vitality, creativity, and emotional resilience.
Wood is associated with the emotion of ANGER. ANGER can be a helpful and harmful emotion. As a harmful emotion, anger can cause you to become reactive or full of rage in challenging situations. You can learn to be skillful in how you work with anger. As a helpful emotion, anger can drive you to make necessary changes in your life. Wood is also connected to forgiveness.
Wood is associated with the color green. Nurture your wood connection by wearing different shades of green. Use them to decorate your home and office. Spending time near trees with green leaves, plants, and flowers. Eat green vegetables and fruits. Drink green juices, tea, or smoothies.
The wood element is associated with the Anahata (heart and fourth) chakra in the heart center of the body. It is located in your heart center. In Sanskrit, anahata means unstruck, unhurt, or unbeaten. It is associated with unconditional love, compassion, acceptance, and gratitude. It is connected to the colors pink and green. Use rose quartz, rhodonite, rhodochrosite, green aventurine malachite, and green jade gemstones. The seed mantra is YAM.
The wood element is associated with the Ajna (third-eye and sixth) chakra located in between the eyebrows. In Sanskrit, ajna means command center, perceive, and beyond wisdom. It is associated with intuition, wisdom, insight, and concentration. It is connected to the color indigo blue. Use lapis lazuli, soldalite, iolite, azurite, and kyanite gemstones. The seed mantra is OM.
The wood element in the body shows up in the liver and gallbladder.
The liver (yin) is in charge of the smooth flow of your life force energy (qi, chi, or prana), blood, and emotions in the body. The liver controls the tendons. It stores blood during periods of rest and releases it to the tendons in times of activity. You can maintain your tendons with stretching exercises. The liver is connected to proper eye function. Use eye yoga to support this area.
The gallbladder (yang) stores and excretes bile. It governs your planning, decision making, and the courage to take action and see your decisions. It is connected to your stability, boundaries of self, passion for life, inspiration, action, The gallbladder is connected to the connective tissue in the body. Use stretching exercises (yoga) to take care of your connective tissue.
Aries is a Fire sign (March 19-April 19) that offers energetic support for passion, willpower, initiative, and taking brave and new action. It is governed by Mars, the planet of energy, action, and desire. Aries season offers you energetic support in your role as a leader and abilities to initiate, tap into your willpower, and be aggressive and spontaenous.
Aries governs the head.
The head is connected to the sahasrara (crown, violet and gold) chakra. Tap into the crown chakra for being the highest version of yourself. Chant SOHAM to connect to the crown chakra’s seed mantra. Nurture your crown chakra with amethyst, moonstone, clear quartz, and selenite crystals.
Aries’ fire energy is conected to your manipura (solar plexus; yellow) chakra which governs your willpower, persistence, and self-confidence. Chant the the seed mantra RAM to connect with the solar plexus chakra. Nurture your solar plexus chakra with citrine, pyrite, yellow or bumble bee jasper, mookite, or tiger’s eye crystals.
Journaling & Meditative Music
I invite you take a moment to explore the journaling prompts below. Listen to the meditative music in the solar plexus chakra video. May they help begin to nurture yourself in the ways you need.
-How can you nurture yourself during the Spring season?
-What type of support do you need to nurture yourself during the Spring season?
-What 1-3 steps you can take this month to get started on your Spring season nurturing?
Death, Loss, and Grief Resources
Are you struggling with death, loss, and grief right now?
Click on the video below to listen to the latest episode of the Thriving Mindfully Podcast that discusses how I am learning to understand, deal with, and nurture myself while experiencing grief in my body.
Grief + You 2-Day Retreat Series
Do you need more support with your death, loss, and grief journey?
Join me for the 2024 Grief + You 2-Day Retreat Series on April 13-14, May 4-5, June 29-30, July 27-28, August 24-25, September 28-29, October 26-27, November 16-17, and December 14-15 at 2-3:30 PM ET via Zoom.
My debut novel,Love’s Troubadours was inspired by a speech given by activist and playwright Lorraine Hansberry in February 1964. She spoke to a Harlem-based group of aspiring young, gifted, and African American writers about the power to love in America. In her remarks, Hansberry stated,
“O, the things that we have learned in this unkind house that we have to tell the world about! Despair? Did someone say despair was a question in the world? Well then, listen to the sons of those who have known little else. If you wish to know the resiliency of this thing you would so quickly resign to mythhood, this thing called the human spirit … Life? Ask those who have tasted of it in pieces rationed out by enemies. Love? Ah, ask the troubadours who have come from those who have loved when all reason pointed to the uselessness and foolhardiness of love. Perhaps we shall be the teachers when it is done. Out of the depths of pain we have thought to be our sole heritage in this world-O, we know about love!”
She referred to African Americans as troubadours, the descendents of people who used the power of love to live through and overcome despair and insurmountable odds. She went on to urge the audience to seek wisdom from African Americans because of their capacity to love.
I first read about Hansberry’s speech in Salvation by bell hooks in 2001. Salvation discusses how African Americans have used the power of love to transform their lives and communities. hooks’ writings caused me to question how I could use my gifts as an artist and writer to promote love as a healing tool in the lives of individuals and communities in America. I answered that question by writing Love’s Troubadours, a novel that tells the story of Karma Francois, a 30-something museum curator and yoga teacher who loses her job, discovers family secrets after a loved one dies, and begins a healing journey as she relocates from New York City to Washington, DC. Learn more about her in the video below.
Karma learns many life lessons as she comes face-to-face with the choices she has made in her life and relationships. Watch the video below and learn about some of them.
Throughout her journey, she uses journaling, meditation, mindfulness, poetry, spirituality, therapy, and yoga to heal and love herself. Hansberry’s wisdom on mindful living inspired the way I wrote about Karma’s healing journey:
“I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful, and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and–I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations and generations.”
Watch the video below and learn how Karma’s healing journey transformed her idea of love in her life.
After reading Hansberry’s book, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, I made a conscious decision to use my novel’s characters to celebrate the beauty and diversity of people of African descent. Watch the video below and learn about the diverse characters.
Listen to a chapter excerpt from Love’s Troubadours that illustrates the diversity of African Americans when Karma walks into Mocha Hut, a coffee and tea café in her U Street neighborhood, and eavesdrops on a conversation.
I discovered mindfulness when my career as a young lawyer and investment banker did not produce the level of success I expected. Mindfulness is the practice of taking a deep breath, coming into the present moment, and paying attention without judgment. The present moment is where you can access awareness, balance, and calm with loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. Mindfulness is the gateway to who we truly are. It helped me overcome panic attacks, release my career expectations, develop self-care practices, and pursue my calling as an artist, author, Reiki master practitioner, speaker, and yoga teacher.
Are you new to mindfulness?
Looking for information on how to practice mindfulness in your life?
Curious about how to use mindfulness to practice gratitude, identify your fears, and become aware of the stories you tell yourself?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, check out my Mindfulness 101 Podcast playlist with 15 episodes. The episodes feature small steps you can take each day to practice mindfulness with guided meditations, a body scan, a mini toolkit, and more.
Need more mindfulness tips and information? Check out my resources page with three free gifts created especially for you!
Click here to learn more about my mindful living offerings. Contact me at ananda@anandaleeke.com to learn how you can work with me as a speaker for your next event, trainer for your organization, or coach (one-on-one or group sessions). I look forward to hearing from you.
Looking for a great book to read? Check out my yoga-inspired novel, Love’s Troubadoursand learn how the main character Karma uses mindful living practices including meditation, prayer, therapy, and yoga to heal her spirit, heart, mind, and relationships, and reinvent her career.
PS: Don’t keep me a secret. Use the links below and share me with your network!
Becoming your own best friend is one of the greatest self-care gifts you can give yourself. It is loving kindness.
Take a moment to look into your eyes and befriend yourself today or this week. In that moment, ask yourself what you need to outsmart stress and thrive+work mindfully. Do one thing that helps you meet your need.
In honor of National Women’s Health Week (May 12-18), I am celebrating the many contributions women yoga teachers make to women’s health and wellness. Sariane Leigh, a Washington, D.C.-based yoga teacher, health activist, blogger, writer, and wellness instructor uses her Anacostia Yogi web site, blog, podcasts, classes, and workshops to promote health awareness and yoga for women and individuals recovering from trauma-related experiences such as HIV/AIDS diagnosis, conflicts, natural disasters, poverty, and institutional racism. Leigh’s healing approach marries Hatha and Kemetic yoga principles to the psycho-social healing tradition from African-American women’s spirituality.
Looking for a great book to read? Check out my yoga-inspired novel, 
Ananda Leeke 