strong>Emotions have been running high in the past week. I know that I have experienced grief, outrage, anger, frustration, anxiety, helplessness and more since the recent killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and the 5 police officers in Dallas. I’ve shed many tears of frustration about the state of our world-as I expect you may have, too.
I had never heard of “Heavy Heart Syndrome” until this week but after the events of last week, I believe it’s a great description of how many of us in the U.S. are feeling. It’s a phrase coined by Joel Brown, an executive coach and organizational strategist, who wrote a great article about it that was published on LinkedIn (link below).
When I get to this place of feeling overwhelmed, numb and in denial, I try to get R.E.A.L. by taking small steps of inspired action.
R – Reach Out to Friends and Colleagues
E – Educate Myself (lots of reading)
A – Acknowledge my Emotions and those of Others
L – Listen to the Stories of Others and Learn from Them
So far, I have committed to three small actions so I don’t feel so helpless and uninformed. It feels like a drop in the bucket, but I have to start somewhere.
1. I have started to read Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me, a powerful book hailed by Toni Morrison as “required reading”. It is a bold and personal literary exploration of America’s racial history. I’m less than 50 pages into it, but it’s deep and I’m finding myself having to re-read passages. I’d love to talk to others who have read this. If that’s you, send me an email.
2. I have ordered some children’s books from this list of 12 recommended books for my daughter so we can start talking about prejudice and racism. Grateful to my friend Shonnie Lavender for sharing this on Facebook. We live in a very diverse neighborhood in Houston and my daughter’s friends are Asian, Hispanic, Indian, Black and White. I’m grateful she’s having this experience unlike my homogeneous white upbringing in Connecticut.
3. I am organizing a dinner that I’m calling “Conscious Conversations” this week for professional women in my community to come together and share our stories, our grief and anger and to learn from one another so that we can do better. It’s a small group, but it’s a start.
Here is a roundup of some articles that I read on the internet this week.
Maybe one (or more) will be useful for you.
- Working Through Heavy Heart Syndrome – the aforementioned article by Joel Brown. If you want your workplace to be a socially-responsible environment, he’s got some guidance for you.
- If you’re white (like I am), you may appreciate this piece called “Dear White People”.
- And another compilation of great resources (books, websites, thought leaders, etc) can be found at 70 Race Resources for White People.
- If you’re interested in learning more about ending police violence, read about Campaign Zero.
- And if you are suffering from information overwhelm from too much news (TV, social media, newspapers), step away and practice some smart self-care by taking a walk in nature, expressing your anger and frustration constructively and getting plenty of sleep.
I hope these resources help you. And if you’ve read something recently that you think I’d like to see, I’d invite you to send it my way!
Many blessings to you and yours today and every day,
Elizabeth