What we need to understand and eventually action ourselves as Black women – because Lord knows who else will do it for us – is that wellness, our wellness, has been historically compromised, and when you pair that with a potential lack of support, trauma of all kinds (large and small), unhealthy coping mechanisms, chronic illness, stress, disability, substance abuse – the list goes on – the results can be pretty damning.
The sooner we grasp the urgency of needing to care for our wellness above all, the sooner we can get the help we need, raise our voices, make change, and begin to see a positive difference in ourselves and those around us. For far too long, we have been silenced, and collectively, we will need to admit that at times we’ve even silenced each other too.
As Black women, we have long been raised, programmed and expected to care for others, so the most basic notion of taking time for yourself can be seen as selfish or indulgent. But in that very basic sense, we have a revelation in front of us. That is, that self-care absolutely can be and is a Black feminist act and a necessary path that we need to uphold to protect our community and our futures.
We're setting boundaries and being kind to ourselves, just because.
‘Experts’ will tell you that there are somewhere between five and eight dimensions of wellness to focus on for optimal health results, but we are living in this dimension and, well . . . My belief is that wellness is everywhere and in everything.
So, let’s focus on what is real, what isn’t, what serves us and what doesn’t as Black women, and let’s not put a number on it. Instead, I’d love to explore a few aspects of wellness that society and professionals have established and view them through the lens of Black women’s experiences.
Physical wellness
Physical wellness as a definition means caring for your body and building or maintaining physical health now and into the future. As far as we know, myself and the ‘experts’ can agree, a healthy body is one that is obtained through exercise, nutrition, nurture and self-care and sleep.
However, we must remember that when it comes to physical health, whole health – or as Grace Victory called it, ‘“whole”-istic health’ – it should not be limited to a very specific vision of a person with a very specific set of boundaries.
To be physically healthy is about so much more than just what size clothes you wear or how many abs are showing when you tense your muscles. Wellness is a holistic integration of physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing, fuelling the body, engaging the mind and nurturing the spirit. Although it always includes striving for health in the physical sense, it’s more about living life fully and allowing yourself to become the best kind of person that your potential, circumstances, genetics and fate will allow – which we’ll come to find out, as the magical beings that we are as Black women, is a potential far greater than we might initially realise.
Emotional wellness
Emotional wellness can be understood through years of self-awareness and appreciation of the thoughts and feelings that you yourself experience, as well as those held by others around you.
Understanding and respecting your feelings, values and attitudes, and also appreciating the feelings of others, learning to manage your emotions in a constructive and productive way and making a conscious choice to feel ‘positive’ and enthusiastic about your life and the way you live it. It might look like emotional stability in the face of chaotic circumstances, an inner peace or contentment or a strong ability to communicate through difficult situations.
From haircare and fashion to education and social justice.
Vocational wellness
A dimension not often discussed in the wider wellness bubble, but one that accounts for much of the modern Black woman’s health and ability to access healthcare, her ambitions and the trajectory of her and those close to her. All of these things are often determined by the specifics of her vocation(s) and the degrees of wellness that surround her work environment.
We spend so much of our lives working, thinking about working, avoiding working, trying to work more or less, that of course it plays an integral role in how well we are.
In order to build a healthier connection to wellness in our vocations, we need to prepare for and participate in work that provides personal satisfaction and life enrichment and that is consistent with our values, goals and lifestyle, or we need at least to find ways to build that into the work–life balance that we achieve long-term.
To obtain this, as Black women we must consciously seek work that contributes to our individual and unique gifts, skills and work that is personally meaningful, rewarding and, most importantly, respectful. We may have been taught that this was not possible or not on the cards that we have been dealt, but speaking from experience, not only do I believe that you can, I assure you that you can.
Spiritual wellness
Our search for meaning and purpose in human existence is often directly correlated to religion, but don’t think it has to be. Many define spirituality according to religious values, while others find expression of spirituality through personal relationships or through nature.
Much like religious wellness, spiritual wellness provides us with systems of faith, beliefs, values, ethics, principles and morals, but they aren’t intrinsically linked to a higher being or organised community. A healthy spiritual practice may simply include meditation, travel, forgiveness and expressions of compassion. Spiritual wellness can allow Black women to live a life consistent with their own beliefs outside of the cultural systems and institutions that we have historically been brought up in, nurturing something more bespoke and specific to us.
Environmental wellness
Environmental wellness refers to your sense of safety, comfort and connection with your physical surroundings. It can be enhanced by living more in harmony with the planet and our nearest and dearest communities, because wellness in this domain begins in your immediate surroundings. Your personal space has a direct impact on your state of mind, emotional well-being and productivity; it’s a lesson a lot of us had to learn the hard way during the years of the pandemic.
This aspect of wellness explores the optimal ways to curate and maintain your personal space, how you might like to navigate through it and what you may choose to protect it from or invite into it. If we take it one step further, environmental wellness also extends beyond your personal space to larger communities, geographic areas and the rest of this floating rock too. Understanding how your social, natural and built environments affect your health and wellbeing as well as having an awareness of the unstable state of the Earth and the effects of your daily habits on the physical environment are key. How can we give back to our home (aka Earth) and foster a meaningful connection to it?
‘Climate change is not just a white people problem,’ Heizal Nagginda explains in the conversations she has within her Ugandan community. As people of the Earth, originally and spiritually, we must own our place in the ecosystem, voice our opinions and fight for the world we care for, on both large platforms and more intimate spaces too – for our sake and for the sake of those that will come after us. Demonstrating a commitment to a healthier planet is an overlooked dimension for Black women but one we can start now.
Here's to Black British literary babes.
Financial wellness
In the grand scheme of things, as women, it’s a fairly new reality to be able to manage our finances outside of any male influence. For Black women, some may argue that, generally speaking, we have been doing this for years, just without credit and with a lot of hard work. Managing one’s resources to be able to live within your means, making informed financial decisions and investments, setting real- istic goals and preparing for short-term and long-term needs or emergencies is not anything new. The Black mother and matriarch has been doing this for years, along- side her many other roles, but, of course, the framework and structure has not always been the standard within our community and the ambition to do these things completely independently is also ever-growing.
Modern Black women are not only discovering finan- cial wellness now, but we are also being invited to join in on the conversation and even confidently invest, too. It’s something I hope in a decade’s time is more normalised than ever before.
Financial wellness also includes being aware that every- one’s financial values, needs and circumstances are entirely unique to them and being able to navigate these conversa- tions within our own communities with or without the end goal being generational or community wealth.
Intellectual wellness
Intellectual wellness simply means growing intellectually, maintaining curiosity about all there is to learn, valuing lifelong learning and responding positively to intellectual challenges. A well person expands her knowledge and skills while discovering the potential for sharing her gifts with others. Travelling a wellness path, you’ll explore issues related to problem solving, creativity and learning and find ways to continue to challenge your brain and provoke new thoughts and ideas.
Black wellness
I think this could otherwise be described as Identity Wellness or something similar. Here I intend it to mean a strong and healthy connection to our identity and our ethnic background. Learning about and having opportun- ities to immerse yourself in your heritage are famously grounding exercises. The feeling of arriving in a country you may have never been to but feeling like it is a return or homecoming is a sense that resists logical explanation. The sense of community and belonging is something that we search endlessly for in life, and that bond that we feel with kinfolk is a large piece of that puzzle for many.
Extracted from Take Care: The Black Women's Guide to Wellness by Chloe Pierre (Headline, £22).
