Emotional Bandwidth: Why You Sometimes Can’t Be There for People You Love | Dr. Tracey Marks
Emotional bandwidth explained: why cognitive load and stress make empathy harder, and why low bandwidth looks like emotional unavailability in relationships. Take my FREE 3-min Brain Quiz to master focus & [...]

A Juneteenth Reflection for SurvivorAffirmations: Not a Bill. A Bridge.
Some of us grew up hearing about sacrifice in ways that hurt.
“I did everything for you.”
“After all I gave up.”
“You owe me.”
Those words can land heavy in the body when love has been tied to guilt. Survivor [...]

10 Facts About Lift Every Voice and SING!
So my childhood was spent learning this song. We sang this and other songs like it for assemblies. I get out into the world and learn not only have others not heard the song but they see it as "hateful"?
Me: But you don't kn [...]

There Are Souls Beyond the Scoreboard: A History Lesson in Hope, Radio, and Second Wind (podcast episode)
We are not living in the time of afterschool specials, radio dedications, and songs that reached through the static to touch a hurting child’s heart.
So sometimes we have to borrow from the past.
We have to go back to song [...]

Before You Yell “Cocaine,” Learn What 1980s Black Joy Looked Like
The 1980s Were Competitive Joy
A room full of Black people dancing hard.
A Black singer sweating through a performance.
A Soul Train line with everybody dressed like joy had somewhere important to be.
A big Black [...]

Dr. Tracey Marks: People Who Drain You vs. People Who Energize You
Why do some people calm your brain while others drain it? One of our favorite psychiatrists, Dr. Tracey Marks, explains how your nervous system regulates with safe people—plus a simple body check.
[...]
What “Find 100 Ways” Teaches Us About Uplifting the People We Love
There are some songs that do not simply play.
They enter the room.
They adjust the light.
They sit beside you with a kind of grown tenderness and remind you that love was never supposed to feel careless.
James Ingram [...]
The Playlist: Funk, Soul, and Body Release
Some anxiety does not need another explanation. It needs a doorway out of the body.
Sometimes anxiety does not leave through thinking. Sometimes it leaves through the shoulders. Through the jaw. Through the hands. Through the b [...]

The Empty Nest is a Healing Space
The empty nest is not the end of motherhood.
It may be the beginning of a woman’s re-encounter with herself.
Not just a quiet house.
Not just “the children are gone now.”
Not just a season people joke about with sadness, lon [...]
When Dismissal Tries to Turn You Against Your Own Body
“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being.” Toni Morrison
Mistreatment often tries to make th [...]

Elizabeth Packard: The Woman They Called Insane Until She Changed the Law
Elizabeth Packard was not simply a “wronged wife.”
She was a mother. A thinker. A religious dissenter. A wife under the rule of a husband who believed disagreement was disobedience. She was a woman living under laws that trea [...]
Affirmations for Patients Who Are Afraid They Will Not Be Heard at the Doctor’s Office
There is a particular kind of tired that comes from knowing something is happening in your body, then having to gather your strength to explain it to someone who may or may not listen.
Some patients walk into the doctor’s offic [...]

Different Go-Go, Same Refusal to Disappear into Misery
I just discovered something beautiful.
There are two kinds of “GoGo.”
One was born in Washington, DC.
One comes from Tanzania.
And somehow, both are rooted in survival.
Many of us Black Americans kno [...]
Mama I Love You: Women Are Amazing, Unique, and Special!
Tyron Woodley’s mother congratulates Kamaru Usman at UFC 235
Â
"It's all good, baby. It's all good. It's your turn. It ain't his turn."Â
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Please, do not ever let anyone convince you of false th [...]

Ketty Lester: Honor the Firsts, Remember the Closed Doors
Ketty Lester deserves more than a passing mention. She deserves the kind of appreciation that slows the room down.
Born Revoyda Frierson in Hope, Arkansas, she came from a farming family and grew into a singer and actress whose [...]

The 12 Somatic Knots of Trauma — The Complete Map from Sacrum to Jaw (and How to Untie Them)
updated from March 24, 2024
Somatic healing is not just “take a deep breath and calm down.”
Sometimes your body is holding a story your mouth got tired of telling.
Your shoulders may remember what you had to carry.
[...]

Their Words Do Not Name Me. Survival Does.
✨ Affirmation ✨
Their words tried to cling to me like chains,
but I shook them off.
Their judgments do not define me.
Their names do not name me.
I carry the name given by my survival—Strength. Courage. Unbreakable.
I wa [...]

The Lie of “Not Enough Trained People”: What Martin, Motown, and Black Representation Already Proved
There is an old lie that keeps getting dressed up as wisdom.
It says Black communities do not get full representation because there are not enough “trained” people.
Not enough trained actors.
Not enough trained writers.
Not [...]
The Black Performance Genius Behind America’s “Iconic” Jazz Style
I like Bob Fosse too. He was a brilliant dancer and choreographer. But his style is heavily influenced by Black dancers. You can't even put too much "heavy" on the "heavily influenced."
American stage entertainment keeps [...]
AFFIRMATIONS AND SELF LOVE
HEALING JOURNEY
đź–¤ Affirmations for Black Girls Who Had to Be Strong Too Soon
Let this be your softness. Your sanctuary. Your yes.
I was never supposed to carry all that weight—but I did. And I honor the girl who survived [...]
An Affirmation for Choosing Active Goodness
Today, I look for quiet, healthy ways to do good.
 because my presence in the world carries weight.
I understand that goodness does not requir [...]
🌿 Affirmations to Silence Internalized Shame
For the Survivor who still carries what was never hers to hold.
The shame I carry does not belong to me. I lay it down, piece by piece, and r [...]
How 3 Minutes of Gratitude Calms the Brain | Dr. Tracey Marks
Affirmations
1. I thank the breath that chose me today. With every inhale, I welcome life. With every exhale, I release what is no longer mine to car [...]
CONFIDENCE/POWER/RESILIENCE

It’s Not About Safety. It’s About How He Used His Body.
Notice how people speak about sacrifices made for art vs. how they speak about sacrifices made for their favorite football or basketball player.....
[...]
Affirmations for Boundaries and Transformation for Empaths
🌹 Affirmations for Transformation
My compassion includes myself.I can love others without abandoning me.
Healing is not my j [...]
They Spoke Labels. I Lived Through Fire.
✨ Affirmation ✨
They tried to pin me down with names that never belonged to me.
They whispered labels meant to wound, meant to cage.
But I rose t [...]
I Choose Me Over Their Opinions. Every Time.
SurvivorAffirmations.com | Inspired by WeSurviveAbuse.com
They have opinions about your story.Your tone.Your timing.Your truth.
But they didn’ [...]
HEALTHING JOURNEY
Even in Silence. Even in Fear. I Was Resisting.
You may not have screamed.You may not have fought back the way they say you “should have.”You may not have run, or yelled, or told anyone.
But please [...]
The Bold Choice to Live AND Thrive
Tyka said I could, so I did. -Prince (Tyka Nelson was Prince's sister who recently passed away)
Notice how people speak about sacrifices made for art [...]
đź–¤ Survivor Affirmations for the Ones Who Never Got the Apology
And were told to stay silent for someone else’s comfort.
I was not too much. I was too aware. And they were not ready for the truth I [...]
🌤️ Clarity After Chaos, Grief, and Rain
There comes a moment — after the thunder, after the tears — when the air feels different.
It’s quieter.
Cleaner.
You can finally see what was [...]
Survivor Affirmations for the Sharp Pain of Betrayal
Affirmations
✨ I release the pain of betrayal and reclaim my peace.
✨ What broke me open is now making me stronger.
✨ I trust m [...]
She Is AMAZING
A Journey to Finding Our Voices Through Personal Stories (podcast/audio)
Your Survivor story has the power to heal. On this episode of We Survive Abuse, Tonya GJ Prince reveals how sharing our trut [...]
Untold Inventions Of Black Women Inventors That Schools Don’t Teach in Black History
Surviving isn’t luck—it’s innovation and strategy. “I create what has never been seen, because innovation runs in my bloodline.” [...]
Vivica A. Fox: A master class in showing up and showing out from her days on Soul Train
Soul Train dancers were not “just dancers.”
They were artists.
People sometimes talk about Soul Train like it was simply a place to party.
But look [...]
Big Mama Thornton: I Stand Up for Myself As Long As I Can
elink.io | See Original
[...]
Dorothy Porter Wesley: The Woman Who Transformed the Dewey Decimal System
Libraries are often called the gateways to knowledge. But have you ever wondered who decides how books get organized? For over a century, most libra [...]
ART HEALS
Remember the Time: Memory Remembers Meaning, Not Calendars
Memory does not keep time the way clocks do.
It keeps impact.
It keeps feeling.
It keeps the moments when something inside us recognized truth befo [...]
Selena Quintanilla: 🌿 She Brought Joy to the World. And We Will Not Ignore What Took Her.
Selena Quintanilla carried something extremely rare.
Joy that felt real.Warmth that reached people across language, culture, and place.A presence tha [...]
The Forgotten Black Woman Inventor Who Changed the Lives of Women and People with Disabilities
Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner
(1912-2006)
The Forgotten Black Woman Inventor Who Revolutionized Menstrual Pads
(article with audio)
[...]
JOURNALING/WRITING IN A HEALTHIER WORLD
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