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Guided Meditation for Inner Peace 30 Minutes

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“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman.”  

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“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman.”  

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-Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Microaggression events refer to everyday derogations, slights, and invalidations that are often delivered to people of minority or marginalized backgrounds.

Examples are complimenting a racial minority college student as surprisingly intelligent or well-spoken ("you speak really good English for an Asian"), or referring to negative events, behaviors, or traits as "that's so gay."

The term "microaggression" was first introduced by Chester Pierce and redefined by Derald Sue and colleagues. Before colleges and workplace settings implement diversity training and before "microinterventions" are recommended in day-to-day interactions to combat microaggression, there exists a great deal of discourse in public and academic arenas around this term.

Popular media has referenced a war on microaggressions. Critiques of this body of research question the empirical reality of microaggression, particularly microaggression's conceptual clarity, differentiation from other forms of discrimination, confounding impact of individual differences in emotionality, and empirical support for its causal association with mental and physical health outcomes.

To examine the associations between adjustment outcomes and microaggressions targeting different social identities, Priscilla Lui and Lucia Quezada systematically surveyed published and unpublished data and conducted a meta-analysis and narrative review on this research literature to date.

They addressed three questions:

What are the associations linking microaggressions and adjustment outcomes?

What factors explain heterogeneous findings across existing studies?

What is the current state of this empirical literature, and what are critical research gaps to consider in future investigations?

In their article, " Associations Between Microaggression and Adjustment Outcomes: A Meta-Analytic and Narrative Review" published in Psychological Bulletin, Lui and Quezada searched and located 72 independent samples containing quantitative data about the associations between microaggression and adjustment outcomes.

These studies included approximately 19,000 participants recruited from the U.S. and other countries. Most of the studies examined microaggression incidents as a function of racial stereotypes and biases. Other studies focused on sexual orientation and gender identity biases, health status and disability, gender stereotypes, and a combination of marginalized identities.

The authors presented a new "cube" model that can guide researchers and professionals to conceptualize different dimensions and facets of microaggression.

Results showed that individuals with microaggression experiences were more likely to report negative adjustment outcomes. More nuanced analyses revealed that microaggression experiences were relatively more closely linked to internalizing problems (such as depression and anxiety), stress and negative affect, and positive adjustment and positive affect, than externalizing problems and health-harming behaviors (such as alcohol and substance misuse) and physical symptoms.

These findings are especially true for racial, LGBTQ, and health status microaggressions. There was little evidence indicating that gender microaggression was associated with adjustment outcomes, but this preliminary conclusion was based on only one unpublished study.

In terms of the conceptual meaning and measurement of microaggression, the authors noted that existing self-report survey questionnaires vary in psychometric properties. It remains questionable whether "microassault" - explicit attacks on marginalized individuals and communities - should be considered a form of microaggression.

Lui and Quezada also conducted subsequent quantitative and qualitative reviews of these studies.

They found that the existing literature presented mixed findings as to whether microaggressions were associated with adjustment outcomes above and beyond the influences of overt discrimination.

They also indicated that not many studies considered individual difference factors such as vulnerability and reactivity to stress.

Furthermore, the authors called for more systematic investigations that differentiate the possible impact of various types of discrimination and pathways that relate to mental and physical health outcomes.

Overall, the study by Lui and Quezada showed empirical support for associations between racial, LGBTQ, and health status microaggressions and adjustment outcomes. These associations varied by individuals' demographic backgrounds and study characteristics.

The study provides an authoritative summary of the state of the science on microaggression and presents a model to conceptualize how various aspects of microaggression may be linked to adjustment outcomes among individuals.

Findings reveal gaps for future research to further enhance the empirical validity of the microaggression research program. With more robust studies to come, the field may be better able to determine how and in what contexts to address microaggression-related issues in applied settings.

Citation

Lui, P. P., & Quezada, L. (2019). Associations between microaggression and adjustment outcomes: A meta-analytic and narrative review. Psychological Bulletin, 145(1), 45-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/bul0000172
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Note: This article is in the Social Psychology & Social Processes topic area. View more articles in the Social Psychology & Social Processes topic area.

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Microaggressions: What They Are, And How They Are Associated With Adjustment Outcomes

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Microaggression events refer to everyday derogations, slights, and invalidations that are often delivered to people of minority or marginalized backgrounds. Examples are complimenting a racial minority college student as surprisingly intelligent or well-spoken ("you speak really good English for an Asian"), or referring to negative events, behaviors, or traits as "that's so gay."

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Daring to set boundaries, is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others.

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Fortunate, indeed, is the individual who takes exactly the right measure of themself and holds a balance between what he/she can acquire and

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Walls keep people out. Boundaries teach people where the door is.

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Take time each day to be mindful. Enjoy the little things and the little moments. Little moments make you aware of the big truths in life and make you aware of where beautiful things and peace come from.

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You can’t pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.

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Boundaries define us. They define what is me and what is not me. A boundary shows me where I end and someone else begins, leading me to a sense of ownership. Knowing what I am to own, and take responsibility for gives me freedom.

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We can be sure that the greatest hope for maintaining equilibrium in the face of any situation rests within ourselves.

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Saying ‘no’ doesn’t mean that you are failing at something. Instead, take it as proof that you are doing well.

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The only people who get upset about you setting boundaries are the ones who were benefiting from you having none.

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The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love, and to be greater than our suffering.

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Brainstorm Health 2019: How to Break Up With Your Phone I Fortune

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I really wanted to like this book, as there is a dearth of good literature about the particular difficulties women face accessing recovery, the reasons why women are traumatised and drink and use in the first place, and the ways in which women are traumatised all over again by recovery. As a long time survivor of AA, and someone who has slogged through more than a decade of trauma recovery, I had high hopes. Alas I found this book deeply annoying, not feminist, and for an author who claims to have stopped trying to please everybody, it tries painfully hard to please everybody.

Some accounts of her own life and drinking are well written, as were some parts of her description of trying and leaving AA, and I'm sure many women would identify, but there was just too much wrong (and dangerous) about this book. There's too much to fit into a short review but my headline complaints are:

1. despite nodding to radical feminism, it's not remotely radical (in the latin sense of 'root cause') because Holly doesn't understand the difference between sex and gender (or she does but she's trying so hard not to offend men, she won't say so).

Gender isn't an identity (just like racism isn't an identity), it's the means by which women are oppressed, gender is the SYSTEM of patriarchy, the 'how' that is used to keep women down as a sex, and women are also inculcated into their own oppression via 'femininity' - learning to be submissive, it's not innate, and it's not natural, and if you can't grasp this, then you have no material analysis.

This lack of analysis inevitably leads to utterly offensive suggestions such as embracing your 'feminine energy' - this is evolutionary psychology straight out of the MRA playbook. It's also not true. That chapter was so offensive, I threw the book across the room.

2. it's dreadfully woke waffling on about 'oppressed folks' and then detailing very expensive trips, drinking excursions to vineyards, baby showers and so on, and then a long list of 'recovery' courses, therapy, massage, acupuncture, holistic retreats that were embarrassingly middle class (told without a trace of irony). If you haven't got 'thousands of dollars' like Holly, then whoopsy, sorry oppressed folks.

3. She's still centering men, with all her agender, genderless BS, women are female, men are male, male people oppress female people because of their sex (not their 'feminine energy'), they use gender to do it, this is feminism 101. Any good discussion of WHY women experience things the way we do was then derailed by trying to PLEASE and shoehorn confused men into it. Feminism - clue is in the name - is for females. It is entirely fine and reasonable that women could expect just one book that actually exclusively focuses on them and their needs, it's not women's job to wipe the tears of the whole world.

4. For anyone traumatised, diving into anything as dodgy as Kundalini yoga (which can cause a huge decompression, regression, and all kinds of emotional havoc, and that's before we mention the untrained hippies running those kind of things) is just irresponsible, if you are female, traumatised and in need of help, for God's sake don't do that, it's not safe.

5. More laughing when new ager, arch 12 stepper, and age woo practitioner Echart Tolle turned up, give me strength, once again, McMindfulness, spirtual bypassing twaddle.

6. A course in miracles, is she taking the p*ss? Again dangerous, stay well clear. Those last two books are handed from member to member in AA, nothing new there, or helpful. This kind of junk, just like Marianne Williamson and Byron Katy's (evil) 'The Work' are all the same kinds of abusive twaddle that no woman in her right mind should touch with a bargepole and yet seem to be very popular in recovery circles. It's all still a wolf in sheep's clothing.

7. Falling to her knees and asking God to put her into service - is the KEY PLANK of AA, that's pretty much the entire (nonsense) AA programme in one phrase. There's nothing wrong with helping others, but hardly a counter AA idea, and nor is the idea of 'surrender' - you absolutely do not have to surrender, this is not a war.

8. I live in the UK, but the endless references to oppression taking a turn for the worse because Trump won an election rang a bit hollow, given the dearth of political analysis (there's much abuse and misogyny in liberal, identity obsessed politics, indeed it's the main focus of the actual proper women's movement right now) and I'd imagine many women who perhaps voted for Trump have equally complicated and difficult lives and are in need of good advice on quitting drinking. Virtue signalling isn't political analysis.

In short, nice try but no cigar, which is a shame, as it had the potential to be a better book if she wasn't so afraid of offending anybody (men mostly). In my opinion identity politics has been the ruination of the women's movement, has turned young women's brains to mush, and it has absolutely no business being in your recovery. Being female isn't not an identity, and being female in a patriarchy has serious material consequences.

Do yourself a favour, read some actual feminism, if you are into your spiritual stuff, read some of the brilliant female mystics out there.

If you like yoga, then go to a nice safe gentle class (yoga for trauma for instance, with a trained, safe, boundaried teacher) and stay away from quackery, or people who claim they can heal you, these people are dangerous.

Buy Charlotte Kasl's Many Roads, One Journey (that's the book that got me out of AA, written in 1995, unashamedly centred on the needs of women, still a classic and not done justice by Holly at all) or read Gabriel Glaser's book on women and drinking, and run as fast as you can away from this silly book.

Holly, if you ever read this: the master's tools cannot dismantle the master's house.

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quit like a woman: the radical choice to not drink in a culture obsessed with alcohol

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Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol

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Amazon.com: Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol (Audible Audio Edition): Holly Whitaker, Holly Whitaker, Random House Audio: Audible Audiobooks

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The truth is that you can defeat your fears. With more than forty simple, effective techniques, you'll learn how to overcome every conceivable kind of anxiety without medication.
Are you plagued by fears, phobias, or panic attacks? Do you toss and turn at night with a knot in your stomach, worrying about your job, your family, work, your health, or relationships? Do you suffer from crippling shyness, obsessive doubts, or feelings of insecurity? What you may not realize is that these fears are almost never based on reality. When you're anxious, you're actually fooling yourself, telling yourself things that simply aren't true. See if you can recognize yourself in any of these distortions:

All-or-Nothing Thinking: "My mind will go blank when I give my presentation at work, and everyone will think I'm an idiot."
Fortune Telling: "I just know I'll freeze up and blow it when I take my test."
Mind Reading: "Everyone at this party can see how nervous I am."
Magnification: "Flying is so dangerous. I think this plane is going to crash!"
Should Statements: "I shouldn't be so anxious and insecure. Other people don't feel this way."
Emotional Reasoning: "I feel like I'm on the verge of cracking up!"
Self-Blame: "What's wrong with me? I'm such a loser!"
Mental Filter: "Why can't I get anything done? My life seems like one long procrastination."

Now imagine what it would feel like to live a life that's free of worries and self-doubt; to go to sleep at night feeling peaceful and relaxed; to overcome your shyness and have fun with other people; to give dynamic presentations without worrying yourself sick ahead of time; to enjoy greater creativity, productivity and self-confidence. With these forty techniques, you'll be able to put the lie to the distorted thoughts that plague you and your fears will immediately disappear. Dr. Burns also shares the latest research on the drugs commonly prescribed for anxiety and depression and explains why they may sometimes do more harm than good.

This is not pop psychology but proven, fast-acting techniques that have been shown to be more effective than medications. When Panic Attacks is an indispensable handbook for anyone who's worried sick and sick of worrying.

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drug-free anxiety therapy that can change your life

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psychology / psychopathology / anxieties & phobias

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self-help / self-management / stress management

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personal development and practical advice

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anxiety; psychology; mental health; how to; calm down; cognitive behavior therapy; obsessive compulsive disorder; ocd; ptsd; mood swings; control; change your life; self help books; books about anxiety; self help books for women; psychology books; anxiety and phobia workbook; self help; mindfulness; brain; confidence; stress; meditation; happiness; trauma; panic attacks; anxiety books; anxiety relief books; anxiety relief; self esteem; anxiety disorder; stress management; how to stop worrying; stress relief

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psychology / psychopathology / anxieties & phobias

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self-help / self-management / stress management

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
personal development and practical advice

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When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life

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When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life [Burns M.D., David D.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life

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At Daylio, we believe in transparency and honesty. Data stored in the app's private directories is not accessible by any other apps or processes. Your backups are transferred to the Google Drive or iCloud via the secure (encrypted) channels.

The most important thing is that only Daylio app is able to read your entries. We don't send your data to our servers so we don't have the access to your entries. Also, any other third-party app can't read your data.

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Daylio - Journal, Diary and Mood Tracker

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Self-Care Bullet Journal with Goals Mood Diary & Happiness Tracker

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The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

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Amazon.com: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Audible Audio Edition): Bessel Van der Kolk MD, Sean Pratt, Gildan Media, LLC: Audible Audiobooks

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, 2013 MIRRA KOMAROVSKY AWARD
2012 LETITIA WOODS BROWN MEMORIAL AWARD
2012 ASSOCIATION FOR HUMANIST SOCIOLOGY AWARD
2012 DISTINGUISHED CONTRIBUTION TO SCHOLARSHIP AWARD ASA
2012 C. WRIGHT MILLS AWARD (FINALIST)

Between its founding in 1966 and its formal end in 1980, the Black Panther Party blazed a distinctive trail in American political culture. The Black Panthers are most often remembered for their revolutionary rhetoric and militant action. Here Alondra Nelson deftly recovers an indispensable but lesser-known aspect of the organization's broader struggle for social justice: health care. The Black Panther Party's health activism--its network of free health clinics, its campaign to raise awareness about genetic disease, and its challenges to medical discrimination--was an expression of its founding political philosophy and also a recognition that poor blacks were both underserved by mainstream medicine and overexposed to its harms.

Drawing on extensive historical research as well as interviews with former members of the Black Panther Party, Nelson argues that the Party's focus on health care was both practical and ideological. Building on a long tradition of medical self-sufficiency among African Americans, the Panthers' People's Free Medical Clinics administered basic preventive care, tested for lead poisoning and hypertension, and helped with housing, employment, and social services. In 1971, the party launched a campaign to address sickle-cell anemia. In addition to establishing screening programs and educational outreach efforts, it exposed the racial biases of the medical system that had largely ignored sickle-cell anemia, a disease that predominantly affected people of African descent.

The Black Panther Party's understanding of health as a basic human right and its engagement with the social implications of genetics anticipated current debates about the politics of health and race. That legacy--and that struggle--continues today in the commitment of health activists and the fight for universal health care.

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body and soul: the black panther party and the fight against medical discrimination

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ethnic studies - african american studies

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discrimination in medical care;united states.

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discrimination in medical care - united states

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discrimination in medical care;united states.

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ethnic studies - african american studies

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ethnic studies - african american studies - general

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ethnic studies - american - african american & black studies

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minorities - medical care - united states

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social science / disease & health issues

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social science / ethnic studies / african american studies

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social science/ethnic studies - american - african american & black studies

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ethnic studies - african american studies - general

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social science / disease & health issues

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social science / ethnic studies / african american studies

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social science/ethnic studies - american - african american & black studies

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Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination

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Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination [Nelson, Professor Alondra] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination

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"The stories Nelson presents are familiar to womens history, the civil rights movement, and women of color feminism, but sewn together they tell a broader and connected story of the womens health movement across the United States and its longevity through the 1980s and 1990s.", Journal of American History

"Nelson has written a demanding but important book. She researched her topic well and provides a valuable history of womens health care movements of the 20thcentury.", Choice

"Jennifer Nelson has written another terrific book! Her history of the antecedents, the evolution, and the political challenges of the women-of-color-led movement for reproductive and sexual healthand its present identity as the Reproductive Justice movement is absolutely indispensable and profoundly important." -- Rickie Solinger,author of Reproductive Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know

"More Than Medicinemakes important contributions to the history of medicine and womens history. It is a welcome addition to both fields of study.", Project Muse

"In the 1960s and & 70s, US feminists worked for a womens health movement that would reach beyond the sex discrimination dominating the mainstream medical system and towards healthcare that valued womens autonomy. The author examines the struggle for abortion rights, as well as the creation of community and women-centered clinics.", Conscience: The Newsjournal of Catholic Opinion

"Makes an important contribution to the growing body of work on the history of health activism. . . . With a deft eye for detail, Nelson grounds her analysis in local stories that take us from Mississippi to Seattle to Atlanta and offer rich stories about womens understanding of reproductive and sexual rights and the negotiationssometimes successful, sometimes unsuccessfulbetween white feminists and women of color. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the history of the womens health movement in a nuanced way, taking full account of the ways race and class shaped feminist organizing and affected womens experiences of reproduction and sexuality." -- Johanna Schoen,Rutgers University

"More Than Medicineis an extensively researched book, focusing on the struggle for feminists to make womens health a priority, to reach out to those in need of health care, and to integrate women friendly policies and provide care to those who have very little access to it.", Metapsychology

"A thoughtful and meticulously researched contribution to the body of knowledge about community-centered health care provision and activism for the past 50 years. Nelson's critical analysis and evaluation of historical source materials provides a rich explanation of the promise and potential of empowerment-based models of health care. By linking the civil rights, new left, and women's movements' strategies into a consistent and comprehensive narrative, she provides fresh insight into how important historical ideas of the 1950s and 1960s had new life breathed into them in the 21st century, proving that the past is indeed prologue. I strongly recommend this book for anyone seeking answers for how to build effective health care solutions for disadvantaged communities." -- Loretta Ross,co-founder, SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

"Nelsons work inMore than Medicineis a solid primer on feminist health and the need for collaboration across social justice platform.", Feminist Collections

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more than medicine: a history of the feminist women's health movement

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health & fitness/women's health - general

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reproductive rights - history - united states

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women's health - history - united states

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women's rights - history - united states

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health & fitness/women's health - general

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More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women's Health Movement

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More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women's Health Movement: 9780814770665: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com

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“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” 

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“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” 

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-Audre Lorde

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In her recent Super Bowl halftime show, Beyoncé, flanked by dancers in black leather and berets, paid tribute to the Black Panther Party, raising the ire of conservatives who associate the Panthers with inflammatory actions and anti-police sentiment.

Founded 50 years ago in Oakland, California, the Black Panthers are remembered for their revolutionary rhetoric. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called them "the greatest threat to internal security of the country." Less well known is the group's history of health activism and early understanding of the link between economic disparities and poor health. As part of a strategy of organizing social services in underserved communities, the Panthers operated more than a dozen clinics across the country and screened thousands for sickle cell anemia.

"It's important to remember there was a time when we really fought as a people to make our communities as strong as possible," says Robert Fullilove, professor of Sociomedical Sciences. "We assumed that we would have to do that ourselves. We weren't going to wait for someone to come in and do it for us."

In 1964 and 1965, Fullilove, then a student at Colgate University, joined Mississippi Freedom Summer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), registering voters and promoting integration in Mississippi and Louisiana. After graduating in 1966, he remained with SNCC as a community organizer in Newark, New Jersey, and soon found the situation in the North was very different. "People in Newark didn't care about Civil Rights," he remembers. "For them, social services were what mattered. What worked in the South did not work in the North."

By contrast, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, as they first called themselves, was organizing around the needs of inner-city blacks, starting with protection from police brutality. According to Alondra Nelson, Columbia University Dean of Social Science and author of Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination, the group's mission soon expanded from armed patrols to "police the police" to include what could be understood as medical self-defense.

Actualizing the self-determinist philosophy of the Black Power era, the Panthers organized a dozen or more "survival programs." Most prominent of these was the Free Breakfast for Children program, which fed more than 20,000 children every week at a time when there weren't any government programs to do the same. The Panthers also opened a school and offered community classes in economics, first aid, and self defense; provided drug and alcohol rehabilitation; gave away groceries and clothing; and escorted seniors to medical appointments.

In April 1970, Panther Chairman Bobby Seale directed all chapters to open healthcare clinics. At its peak, there were clinics in 13 cities where volunteers dispensed basic medical care as well as housing assistance and legal aid. In Winston-Salem, North Carolina, the Panthers even ran an ambulance service. Clinics in Chicago and Los Angeles were established with the help of former members of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, which unlike the Panthers broad social service platform, was narrowly focused on the medical needs of local communities.

"The Black Panther Party was acutely aware of health disparities," says Fullilove. "The language of health disparities did not exist back then, but everyone knew it. What can be done to take care of our kids, to find jobs, to protect ourselves from the police? These issues were at the core of community concerns. Responding to them, made the Panthers very popular."

In her book, Nelson writes that the Black Panthers screened thousands for sickle-cell anemia, a genetic disease predominant in persons of African descent. They were also instrumental in raising awareness around the condition, most notably during a 1972 appearance by Party leaders on an episode of the "Mike Douglas Show," guest hosted by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Around the same time, the Black Panthers became involved with educational outreach and protests to shield communities of color from exploitative research-even before revelations around the Tuskegee syphilis experiment came to light. The group successfully blocked the creation of a UCLA Center for the Study and Reduction of Violence, which had among its proposals an experimental brain surgery purported to remedy aggression.

In 1972, the Panthers' Ten Point Program was formally amended to make health an explicit part of its mission. The new platform called on the government to "provide, free of charge, for the people, health facilities which will not only treat our illnesses, most of which have come about as a result of our oppression, but which will also develop preventive medical programs to guarantee our future survival." At the same time, the Panthers called on health education and research programs to "give black people access to advanced scientific and medical information, so we may provide ourselves with proper medical attention and care."

After years of infighting and infiltration from the FBI's COINTELPRO program, by the early 1970s, the Black Panther Party was in steep decline. Nevertheless, the group's legacy can be credited with programs from the federal School Breakfast Program and campaigns for environmental justice to community-based healthcare and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Too often black history is limited to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Barack Obama, and a linear idea of progress in which things always get better, says Fullilove. "But it's so much more complicated than that. In planning for the future around questions like how communities can mobilize to meet their needs, we need to be sensitive to learn from what was done in the past."
On February 25, join Dr. Fullilove as he recounts his Freedom Summer '64 experience and reflects on this pivotal moment in history.

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The Black Panther Party Stands for Health

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In her recent Super Bowl halftime show, Beyoncé, flanked by dancers in black leather and berets, paid tribute to the Black Panther Party, raising the ire of conservatives who associate the Panthers with inflammatory actions and anti-police sentiment. Founded 50 years ago in Oakland, California, the Black Panthers are remembered for their revolutionary rhetoric.

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From its radical roots to its yuppie-driven middle age to its election-inspired resurgence.

Photo illustration by Slate. Images via K. Kendall/Wikimedia Commons; Wavebreak Media; Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

The articles began to pop up almost immediately after Nov. 8, speaking to readers in a tone of grave concern, like a dear friend comforting you after a breakup or the death of a loved one. " Get off social media," they implored. " Round up your favorite girlfriends and hit some bars, slam some chasers, and take your rage out on some truly regrettable karaoke." " Give yourself a makeover like you're seven years old and at a sleepover." Podcast hosts and media personalities (Slate staff included) shared their own coping methods for perilous times.

Aisha Harris is a Slate culture writer and host of the Slate podcast Represent.

It's not that "self-care"-as the concept of consciously tending to one's own well-being has become known-was invented during the election season. But in 2016, self-care officially crossed over into the mainstream. It was the new chicken soup for the progressive soul. The week after the election, Americans Googled the term almost twice as often as they ever had in years past. Many of them simply wondered, " What is this thing? " Months later, others still wondered where it came from.

Self-care originally caught on as a medical concept. Doctors have long discussed it as a way for patients to treat themselves and exercise healthy habits, most often under the guidance of a health professional. Prior to the late 1960s and early 1970s, these patients were usually mentally ill and elderly people who required long-term care and otherwise had little autonomy. Later, academics began to look for ways for workers in more high-risk and emotionally daunting professions -trauma therapists, social workers, EMTs, and so on-to combat stress brought on by the job. The belief driving this work was that one cannot adequately take on the problems of others without taking care of oneself (by reading for pleasure or taking the occasional vacation, for instance)-a sentiment you still hear from activists today. And that applied not just to physical welfare but to mental and emotional health.

It wasn't until the rise of the women's movement and the civil rights movement that self-care became a political act. Women and people of color viewed controlling their health as a corrective to the failures of a white, patriarchal medical system to properly tend to their needs. Self-care was "a claiming [of] autonomy over the body as a political act against institutional, technocratic, very racist, and sexist medicine," Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, an assistant professor at the New School currently writing a book about the history of American fitness culture, told me.

As Jennifer Nelson wrote in her book, More Than Medicine: A History of the Feminist Women's Health Movement, a push to redefine health care beyond just treatment of the individual body gained steam within various movements in the '60s. Activists saw that poverty was correlated with poor health, and they argued that in order to dismantle hierarchies based upon race, gender, class, and sexual orientation, those groups must be able to live healthy lives. In turn, living healthily "required the involvement of individuals and communities in their own health promotion." Yet while the federally funded Community Health Clinic network and other free clinics popped up around the country, Nelson observed, there still existed rampant sexism, with the female body widely perceived and treated by medical staff as "inherently sick" (if they were middle- or upper-class) or, more disparagingly, as a "vector of disease" (if poor or working-class). This, along with providers' hostile attitudes toward reproductive rights, led women's liberation activists to open their own clinics designed specifically for women's needs.

The women's lib movement, of course, took cues from the civil rights movement in many ways, and as Nelson points out, this was especially true with health care. Civil rights leaders had made health care a priority, with Martin Luther King Jr. saying, " Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman." The Black Panther Party carried this idea forward. Alondra Nelson chronicles the Panthers' efforts on this front in her book Body and Soul, which opens with the Black Community Survival Conference held in Oakland, California, in 1972-"a rally, street fair, and block party" in which speeches were given and information distributed about the party's free community-service programs. Those programs were established both to make up for the dire lack of adequate social-service programs after the waning of the War on Poverty as well as to provide a coping mechanism against the harassment and surveillance that black people suffered at the hands of the police and the federal government. These nationwide clinics recruited nurses, doctors, and students to test for illness and disease rampant within the black community (including lead poisoning and sickle-cell anemia), as well as to provide basic preventive care. For black people and especially black women, this kind of self-care was brought to fill a desperate need. The "survival programs" of the Panthers were about just that: survival.

Both of these movements also coincided with a more niche "wellness" trend, one that was less about procuring the most basic tools for survival and more about improving one's quality of life. It was borne from a disappointment among doctors and nurses with the ways in which traditional Western medicine failed to address the full needs of its patients. The public's attitude toward those who championed a more holistic approach to fitness-one that pushed for " ' positive health' rather than just the absence of illness"-was not unlike that toward hippies. (The trend was particularly concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area.) Petrzela pointed me toward a 1979 60 Minutes segment that opens with Dan Rather saying, " Wellness: Now there's a word you don't hear every day." He goes on to explain, "Wellness is really the ultimate in something called 'self-care,' " before presenting some of the patients and doctors he interviewed with allegations that they were a "cult."

Holistic fitness lifestyles like the one Rather profiled marked the beginning of a new era for self-care, one that disassociated it further from politics. That shift continued in the late '80s and the 1990s, Petrzela notes, when fitness and wellness lifestyles began to move from the fringes of society to the mainstream, becoming more commercialized and associated with the wealthy. Yoga classes suddenly appeared on YMCA schedules and in health clubs, for instance, contributing to what she described as "the lightening of the tone of many of these originally more subversive ideas"-think upper-class moms picking up their kids in Lululemon pants, or Fortune 500 companies touting their wellness centers provided for employees. (Not to mention the fact that, by the 1980s, the Black Panthers and many of their successful community programs had been destroyed by a number of factors, particularly government interference and infighting.)

It took 9/11 for self-care to begin to reclaim its roots as an act of political resistance, according to Petrzela. The collective trauma of that experience led to a notable increase of studies on the effects of PTSD, and it made psychiatrists expand their criteria for who might be considered to be a PTSD victim, to include even some who had a more indirect experience of witnessing the towers fall or may not have noticed symptoms until years later. Petrzela notes that in the fallout from the attacks there was a "turning inward in a lot of ways":

You see the whole mind-body space in the fitness arena boom after that. And you see-I'm not saying it wasn't commercialized-but there's a kind of sense that taking care of yourself, exercising, eating well, etc. is something really kind of crucial to do in a moment of great political and cultural instability. I think that that seed has been growing in the 21st century.

The rise of blogs hasn't hurt, either. Women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community have been able to carve out spaces for themselves online that were not always open to them before, sharing knowledge and supporting each other in unprecedented ways. For about a year, between 2014 and 2015, the women's blog the Hairpin featured a regular column from Fariha Róisín and Sara Black McCulloch in which they interviewed different women about self-care and what it meant to them. In their inaugural post, Róisín wrote, " This column has a singular purpose: to talk to women about navigating a world where they are their own savior." In those conversations with others and among themselves, they explored not just their regimens, but the struggles they had with practicing something that is often regarded as navel-gazing.

The first time she heard about "self-care" was "right after a pretty awful breakup," Róisín told me via email, when her friends "kept repeating" the phrase to her. At first, she found the idea unrealistic, "because I wasn't conditioned to care for myself." Now, she says, she realizes that "true self-care is figuring out what works for you, and honoring what your needs are, working within your limitations."

With the rise of the women's movement and the civil rights movement, this medical idea became a political one.

In the past few years, self-care has also become a particularly popular topic within the black community once again, appearing frequently in magazines and blogs such as Essence and Madame Noir-not to mention on Solange's 2016 album A Seat at the Table, which featured a song titled "Borderline (An Ode to Self-Care)." Black celebrities (especially women) are frequently asked to expound on their personal self-care routines. The hit series Being Mary Jane, meanwhile, has made this a long-running theme throughout its four seasons: Gabrielle Union's titular protagonist is constantly taking on too many of her family members' emotional and financial burdens (including helping out her teenage niece, a struggling single mother of two kids) while also trying to further her career and maintain her friendships and romantic relationships. She embodies many black women, in that she is expected to be the one who takes care of everyone around her to the detriment of her own physical and mental health. In a recent episode, Mary Jane worries that having finally left her hometown of Atlanta to take a new job in New York City, she's also left her family out to dry, after learning that her niece has gotten herself into trouble again. "I thought you were done playing the rescuer," her brother says.

"So I did the right thing?" she asks, hesitantly.

" Of course you did the right thing."

Monnica Williams, an associate professor in psychological sciences at the University of Connecticut and clinical director for the Behavioral Wellness Clinics in Kentucky, told me that she sees this kind of struggle all the time among women of color. "It's kind of frowned on to think about self-care; people think it's kind of selfish," she said. But this lack of attention to one's own stress levels and diet and fitness can lead to medical issues down the road: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity. Williams has also noticed a recent shift within the medical field toward taking self-care more seriously, with doctors doing more to combat "John Henry-ism-the idea that you face problems by working harder and harder" and not taking time out for yourself.

Another factor that has prompted renewed interest in self-care in the black community is the rise in media attention to police killings of unarmed black people. As Williams wrote in last year, an increasing number of studies have shown that even just seeing these disturbing videos repeated on social media and on the news can trigger the same symptoms as PTSD-especially if the viewer identifies with the victims. In an early episode of the popular BuzzFeed podcast Another Round, from 2015, hosts Tracy Clayton and Heben Nigatu advocated for the importance of self-care in the wake of several police shootings-only to re-air the episode (with an updated intro) following the back-to-back killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile last summer. "There is so much demanded of people in the world, society, and the media (especially for those in the margins)," Clayton told me via email, "and we really wanted [our podcast] to be a soft, safe space for everyone to let their hair down, take a break and reenergize."

That same desire for safe spaces translates to other stigmatized groups as well. Róisín-a queer, Muslim woman of color-said that she "had to find real ways to block the toxicity I felt from the world around me" after the election, which included stepping away from the news and social media. And Jace Harr-a queer writer and mental-health activist who created a viral self-care interactive that challenges its users to check in with themselves (questions include "Have you eaten in the last four hours?" and "Have you taken any medication you need to take?")-believes that the notion of self-care has "really blossomed" after the election. "[It's] become a lot more critical, more of a maintenance activity rather than a reaction to feeling stressed out," he told me. "People are realizing that it's something they need to do every day to deal with the current climate."

As with previous incarnations of self-care, there are those who roll their eyes and criticize proponents for engaging in something they view as extravagant or just lazy. In some instances, they may have a point. Those practicing and encouraging self-care regularly, however, usually echo a famous quote from Audre Lorde's 1988 book of essays, A Burst of Light: "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."

And in some cases, the connection between caring for oneself before you can care for others is crystal clear. Shinise Muse, a counselor and supervisor at Crisis Text Line-a not-for-profit hotline offering support to people experiencing everything from suicidal thoughts to sexual abuse-never encountered the concept of self-care until she started working at the organization two yearsago. At CTL, she told me, employees and counselors are taught that self-care is necessary to avoid burnout and compassion fatigue. Her regimen begins an hour and 15 minutes before her shift begins and includes, among other things, prayer, meditation (she uses an app called Headspace to assist her with this; CTL offers employees a free yearlong subscription), and visualizing and writing down the things she plans to do that day. This practice helps prepare her to help the crisis counselors help those in need. "I do that every day as a reminder to check in with myself and ... know I owe myself myself, as well as giving myself to other people," she tells me.

Muse's daily routine is a perfect example of something Petrzela told me. "Caring for the self and caring about society actually can be interconnected," she said. After the past few months, more people have become aware of this fact than ever before.

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How "Self-Care" Went From Radical to Frou-Frou to Radical Once Again

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From its radical roots to its yuppie-driven middle age to its election-inspired resurgence. The articles began to pop up almost immediately after Nov. 8, speaking to readers in a tone of grave concern, like a dear friend comforting you after a breakup or the death of a loved one.

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This is meant to be an interactive flow chart for people who struggle with self care, executive dysfunction, and/or who have trouble reading internal signals. It's designed to take as much of the weight off of you as possible, so each decision is very easy and doesn't require much judgment.

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"To know the truth we must make an effort; we must not seek to deceive our world...You should pay heed to yourself, apply your mind to yourself, be aware of your qualities. And in this way, you will be able to participate in political life." 

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"To know the truth we must make an effort; we must not seek to deceive our world...You should pay heed to yourself, apply your mind to yourself, be aware of your qualities. And in this way, you will be able to participate in political life." 

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-Foucalt

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"Dear friend, you are an Athenian, citizen of the greatest city, more famous than any other for its knowledge and might. Yet are you not ashamed for devoting all your care to increasing your wealth, reputation, and honors, while not caring for or even considering your reason, truth, and constant improvement of your soul?" 

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"Dear friend, you are an Athenian, citizen of the greatest city, more famous than any other for its knowledge and might. Yet are you not ashamed for devoting all your care to increasing your wealth, reputation, and honors, while not caring for or even considering your reason, truth, and constant improvement of your soul?" 

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-Socrates

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Immigrants arriving to the United States from Southern and Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century were deemed “unfit citizens” because they lacked the “ideas and attitudes which befit men to take up . . . the problem of self-care and self-government.”  

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Immigrants arriving to the United States from Southern and Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century were deemed “unfit citizens” because they lacked the “ideas and attitudes which befit men to take up . . . the problem of self-care and self-government.”  

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-Matthew Frye, “Barbarian Virtues”

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Samuel A. Cartwright justified slavery by noting a “debasement of mind, which has rendered the people of Africa unable to take care of themselves.” 

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Samuel A. Cartwright justified slavery by noting a “debasement of mind, which has rendered the people of Africa unable to take care of themselves.” 

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-"Report on the Diseases and Physical Peculiarities of the Negro Race," 1851

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The Politics of Conspicuous Displays of Self-Care

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The Politics of Conspicuous Displays of Self-Care

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I became an anthropologist-voyeur of displays of #selfcare last November, after I saw a picture on Instagram of a redheaded woman rubbing a piece of papaya on her face. "I am obsessed with this natural beauty product," she wrote in the caption. "I rub the skins on my face every morning and I have noticed a HUGE improvement in my complexion. #selfcare." There are 1.6 million images tagged in this way on Instagram and a few million more on Twitter and Tumblr, most of them posted in the past year. Another typical image, posted in early January, shows a woman in an Aqua-Netted chignon, pageant makeup, and a black lacy bra, posing with a bowl of sweet-potato noodles and a plastic mini-jug of ReaLemon lemon juice. (The self-care part of the scene, we're given to understand from the caption, is the spirallized potato.)

"Self-care" rose as collective social practice in 2016 alongside national stress levels. Articles about the art of self-care proliferated to the extent that_ _ The Atlantic ran a guide to online self-care guides. The Times Style section published a think piece on the popularity of the term, which peaked in Google searches the week after the election. Suddenly, one could buy not only a 2017 Self-Care Planner but "self-care temporary tattoos" in the shape of Band-Aids bearing reassurances like "This too shall pass" and "I am enough." In late November, a group of gamers and programmers participated in an online " Self-Care Jam," in which they made affirming ephemera for the Web, including a video game intended to teach people to take care of themselves in the morning and a @selfcare_bot that tweets hourly affirmations ("No matter what, you need to do what's best for you").

"Self-care" is newer in the American lexicon than "self-reliance," but both stem from the puritanical values of self-improvement and self-examination. In 1984, Michel Foucault wrote in " The History of Sexuality, Vol. 3"_ that the notion dates back to the Greeks, noting that in the Alcibiades dialogues, Socrates advises a young man not to attempt political leadership until he has attended to himself. In Plato's Apology,_ Foucault also noted, Socrates claims to have been sent by the gods to remind men to "concern themselves not with their riches, not with their honor, but with themselves and with their souls." This theme was taken up by Seneca, Epictetus, and a host of early Christian thinkers, and provides the foundation of the modern religious and philosophical imperative to "cultivate the self" or "care for the soul." More recently, the philosopher Stanley Cavell has argued that the "grand narrative of American individualism," as it can be traced from William James to Ralph Waldo Emerson to Walt Whitman, echoes this ancient ethos wherein society is organized around the self-cultivating individual.

Historically, in America, full citizenship has rested on an idea of the capacity for self-care. Samuel A. Cartwright, in his "Report on the Diseases and Physical Peculiarities of the Negro Race," from 1851, justified slavery by noting a "debasement of mind, which has rendered the people of Africa unable to take care of themselves." The scholar Matthew Frye Jacobson points out in his book " Barbarian Virtues "_ _that immigrants arriving to the United States from Southern and Eastern Europe in the late nineteenth century were deemed "unfit citizens" because they lacked the "ideas and attitudes which befit men to take up . . . the problem of self-care and self-government." The same arguments were made to deny women the vote. Consequently, self-care in America has always required a certain amount of performance: a person has to be able not only to care for herself but to prove to society that she's doing it.

The #selfcare clickholes that have emerged in the last eighteen months are an extreme manifestation of this tendency. Never before have people like @instastefyb been able to provide such immediate photo evidence of their face-mask rituals. ("We wake up, flawless," the caption reads, followed by hashtags like #beauty, #selfcare, and #sorrynotsorry.") The tone of this endlessly renewing digital archive reflects an essential change in the performance of self-care that has taken place in the past fifty years or so. After decades of disuse, the term was repopularized in the seventies and eighties by people of color and queer communities-this time as a gesture of defiance. In 1988, the words of the African-American lesbian writer Audre Lorde became a rallying cry: "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare." In this formulation, self-care was no longer a litmus test for social equality; it was a way to insist to a violent and oppressive culture that you mattered, that you were worthy of care. Lorde's quote remains the mantra of contemporary #selfcare practitioners. "Many of us are poor, many of us are working ourselves into early graves," the writer Evette Dionne, referring to black women, said in an interview with Bitch magazine last year. "And so saying that I matter, that I come first, that what I need and what I want matters I think is a radical act because it goes against everything that we've been conditioned to believe."

In a similar spirit, after the mass shooting at a gay night club in Orlando, L.G.B.T.Q. people across the world started posting selfies under the hashtag #queerselflove. One of the most popular recent self-care memes is the graphic quiz " You Feel Like Shit: An Interactive Self-Care Guide," which was created by Jace Harr, a trans man. Framed as a questionnaire, the survey ranges from simple questions ("Have you eaten recently?") to those especially relevant for people facing oppression and trauma: "Do you feel triggered? Are you feeling dissociated, depersonalized, or derealized?" The week that Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were killed, a young black trans man named Devin-Norelle (@steroidbeyonce) posted a mostly naked self-portrait with the comment "Healing is self-care is self-love, self-indulgence, and self-preservation, because sometimes we need to be reminded that #BlackIsBeautiful." When I asked about the photo, Devin-Norelle told me that making self-care public is "informed by resistance toward the forces that tell me that people like me shouldn't be."

A friend who is a religious ethicist recently pointed me to the philosopher Harry Frankfurt, who, she wrote, suggests that "in order to care about the things and people we love, we have to care and love ourselves, because we have to endorse the cares and loves that we have." "This isn't selfishness," she added. "It's self-endorsement, toward wholehearted loving." This argument sounds similar to the now popular online slogan "Self-care isn't selfish," but it has a different orientation and focus. When you endorse yourself as both vulnerable and worthy, especially when that endorsement feels hard, you can grant that same complex subjectivity to others, even to people whose needs and desires are different from your own. At its best, the #selfcare movement offers opportunities to see and care about vulnerability that's unlike yours.

The irony of the grand online #selfcare-as-politics movement of 2016 is that it was powered by straight, affluent white women, who, although apparently feeling a new vulnerability in the wake of the election, are not traditionally the segment of American society in the greatest need of affirmation. Naturally, the movement has become a market. Further investigations of Papaya Girl showed that her picture was #spon, or sponsored-in this case by a beauty company. In fact, #selfcare is often #spon. When I looked closely at another post, of a blogger having coffee and enjoying a " smooth and balanced" moment, I saw that it was paid for by McDonald's to promote its new "smooth and balanced" coffee blend. A survey of one recent morning's Instagram and Pinterest posts turned up an image by West Elm showing a kitten napping on one of the company's quilts, an ad for Schick Hydro Silk razors, and a link to an article on five-minute "self-care moves " sponsored by eBay, with hyperlinks to essential oils and books of Mary Oliver poetry available for purchase.

All of this might serve a rather different notion of American individualism than what Audre Lorde had in mind. As Laurie Penny recently wrote, for The Baffler, the risk of promoting individual self-care as a solution to existential anxiety or oppression is that victims will become isolated in a futile struggle to solve their own problems rather than to collectively change the systems causing them harm. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that beneath the face masks and yoga asanas, many of the #selfcare posts sound strangely Trump-like. "Completely unconcerned with what's not mine" is a common caption. So is "But first, YOU," and the counterfactual "I can't give you a cup to drink from if mine is empty." I recently spotted another hashtag right next to #selfcare: #lookoutfornumberone. The image was an illustration of a pale, thin girl with a tangle of wildflowers growing from the crown of her head, reaching up with a watering can in one hand to water her own flowers.

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The Politics of Conspicuous Displays of Self-Care

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I became an anthropologist-voyeur of displays of #selfcare last November, after I saw a picture on Instagram of a redheaded woman rubbing a piece of papaya on her face. "I am obsessed with this natural beauty product," she wrote in the caption.

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Home > Topics > Systemic Racism Is a Public Health Crisis

Infographics

Published on: August 17, 2020. Updated on: October 20, 2020.

About the Data Insights

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on the link between systemic racism and health in many communities. This infographic clarifies the relationship between long-standing social and economic inequities and health disparities affecting Black Americans, over the life course and in relation to COVID-19. Black Americans are dying at 2.5 times the rate of White Americans from the virus. Here we review intentional and actionable strategies that can be enacted at the state, local and health care system levels to bring about lasting change.

Systemic Racism Definition: Racial Equity Tools, Racism

COVID-19 Impact Data:

Population Share: The United States Census Bureau

National Death Data: The COVID Tracking Project, The COVID Racial Data Tracker

NOTE: Current as of August 17, 2020

Risk Factors for Black Communities:

Over-Representation in Frontline and Essential Worker Roles: Associated Press

Unequal Health Insurance Access: Changes in Health Coverage by Race and Ethnicity since the ACA, 2010-2018, Kaiser Family Foundation

Hypersegregated Housing: COVID-19 in context: Racism, Segregation, and Racial Inequities in Philadelphia, Drexel University, Urban Health Collaborative

Food Insecurity: Feeding America, Hunger hits African American communities harder

Housing Insecurity: National Alliance to End Homelessness

Wealth: Brookings, Examining the Black-white wealth gap

Education: Adapted from USA Today article, "12 charts show how racial disparities persist across wealth, health, education and beyond"; original data from National Center for Education Statistics

Mass Incarceration: The Color of Justice: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in State Prisons, The Sentencing Project

Stress and Allostatic Load Representation:

Health Disparities:

Health disparities (Hypertension, Diabetes, Obesity): Adapted from CDC analysis and infographic on risk factors

Maternal Mortality: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Reproductive Health, Pregnancy-related Mortality

Actionable Ways to Address Disparities:

Address Provider Bias: "It's Time To Address The Role Of Implicit Bias Within Health Care Delivery, " Health Affairs Blog, January 15, 2020. DOI: 10.1377/hblog20200108.34515

Identify and Correct Racially-Biased Health Care Algorithms: Obermeyer Z, Powers B, Vogeli C and Mullainathan S. "Dissecting Racial Bias in an Algorithm Used to Manage the Health of Populations." Science, 36(6464):447-53, October 25, 2019

Provide Culturally-Competent Care: How to Address COVID-19 in Communities of Color, ASTHO Experts Blog

Diversify Workforce: How Health Equity Gaps Affect COVID-19 Impact, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois

Conduct Community Outreach: HHS Initiatives to Address the Disparate Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans and Other Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Improve Locations of COVID-19 Testing Sites: "In Large Texas Cities, Access To Coronavirus Testing May Depend On Where You Live," NPR Shots

Increase Internet Access and Telehealth Opportunities: HHS Initiatives to Address the Disparate Impact of COVID-19 on African Americans and Other Racial and Ethnic Minorities

Increase Access to and Awareness of Self-Protective Equipment: How Systemic Racism Impacts Coronavirus Racial Disparities, Anti-Defamation League

Incorporate Equity in Value-Based Care Arrangements: How Health Equity Gaps Affect COVID-19 Impact, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois

Strategies for Lasting Change:

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Systemic Racism Is a Public Health Crisis

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Home > Topics > Systemic Racism Is a Public Health Crisis Infographics Published on: August 17, 2020. Updated on: October 20, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on the link between systemic racism and health in many communities.

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Last week, America awoke to not one, but two murders of black males by way of police encounters. For most people of color, it becomes increasingly impossible to escape the flood of news coverage broadcasting gruesome details of the events that led to the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, as well as the subsequent shooting deaths of five police officers at an otherwise peaceful demonstration in Dallas, Texas. For many, these tragedies serve as an ever-present reminder of the racial barriers and biases that impact all of us, particularly people of color.

Of course, it is critical that such encounters are finally receiving the attention they deserve; we can only have these important conversations if we are accurately informed. In fact, media images of peaceful protesters being beaten by police helped turn the tide of the civil rights movement, and our current racial struggles are no less important.

But society-level awareness and individual awareness are very different things. Research shows that experiencing discrimination, especially when chronic in nature, is associated with a host of negative physical and mental health outcomes, including anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even psychosis. We are increasingly beginning to understand that even watching depictions of racial violence can take an emotional and psychological toll. And between the news cycle and ongoing stream of social media, when these events happen, the exposure is constant. Repeated viewing can be particularly harmful among those who have experienced discrimination in the past- especially those who identify with the victims, such as black Americans and other stigmatized groups.

At the Center for Mental Health Disparities at the University of Louisville, we have been conducting research to better understand how people prepare for and cope with racism. In our work, we are constantly surveying people about their responses to racism, which has led us to recognize that black Americans use a range of strategies to cope with racism, some positive and some harmful. For example, we recently conducted a study where black students believed they were required to work on a class project with a white student who espoused racist beliefs. In a region where people love their Confederate flags, this scenario was very believable to our subjects, who had to mentally scramble to decide how to cope with this racial stressor. While some subjects became very distressed, we found that the most resilient students looked at the situation as a challenge. These tended to be students who highly valued their ethnic-minority membership and believed that they could change the views of their white partner through proactive, pro-social methods, such as challenging misconceptions and teaching the other person what black people are really like-in other words, small acts of everyday activism. (Because we stopped the study there, we don't have data on whether these approaches would have worked, though there is promising preliminary research that such techniques have been effective in changing attitudes about around LBGT people.)

When we informed our black student subjects that they would not actually be working with the biased partner, some were disappointed, but most gave a loud sigh of relief. Working to change one person at a time can be rewarding, but it is also draining. The collective fight against racism is as exhausting, especially when it often seems that things don't change. Especially when it continues to play out everywhere you look-in the news, and on your social media accounts.

In wake of these realities, the hardest coping responses to implement are often the simplest in nature. Although the need for action and change is real, self-care is often overlooked as perhaps the most important reaction. Self-care can alleviate some of the pain and give people space to think about upsetting situations in a more helpful way. It may seem simple to recommend that the best thing to do is take better care of yourself, but everything we know about psychology tells us we should all be employing these methods more frequently. Racism is, among other things, a psychological stressor, so one obvious way to combat this is to better care for your psychological needs.

So how do you do this? When a news event means that disturbing messages will be replaying on social media, the best approach is sometimes to unplug and disconnect from the negativity. Locate your support systems-friends, family, even a therapist-and make use of them. Some other excellent ways to recharge include exercise (to help burn off frustration and elevate mood), religious or spiritual practices (e.g., prayer, meditation), seeking distraction from cues of racism (e.g., focusing on family or work), and participating in relaxing activities (e.g. reading, listening to music, massage, etc.). These basic self-care practices can be essential to managing the distress caused by small and large racial injustices alike.

In cases where self-care is neglected, the emotional weight of racism can lead people to engage in negative coping, such as remaining in denial, engaging in substance use, verbal or physical aggression, and perpetual self-blame. For those trapped in a pattern of maladaptive coping, choosing the positive strategies, such as self-care, will be a better route to mental health and the achievement of personal goals in face of racial adversity. For those stuck in a pattern of negative coping or who are unable to move past feelings of traumatization, mental health care from an experienced culturally informed clinician is recommended. Meanwhile, our lab is continuing to conduct research not only on how to cope with racism, but how to reduce it through education, social connection, and empathy.

This past week we were all confronted with ugly images that were particularly distressing to those of us impacted by a legacy of racial historical, cultural, and community traumas. People of color were further tasked with re-entering environments where the threat of racism may be commonplace. Coping with racism is no easy task, especially when many today deny the role of racism in the lives of stigmatized minorities. As we move through these difficult experiences, it will be important for each of us to make choices that reflect positive coping strategies that move us forward as individuals. It is when we are our strongest that we will be most able to create a more compassionate society.

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The Media Needs to Cover Racial Violence. We Don't Have to Read It All.

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Last week, America awoke to not one, but two murders of black males by way of police encounters. For most people of color, it becomes increasingly impossible to escape the flood of news coverage broadcasting gruesome details of the events that led to the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, as well as the subsequent shooting deaths of five police officers at an otherwise peaceful demonstration in Dallas, Texas.

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The Stress in America ™ survey continues to uncover interesting differences in the way women and men experience and manage stress.* While both genders report stress levels beyond what they consider healthy, women are more likely than men to say their already high stress levels are on the rise and they are less likely to believe they are doing a good job of managing their stress.

Women continue to report higher stress levels than men (5.3 vs. 4.6 on a 10-point scale where 1 is "little or no stress" and 10 is "a great deal of stress"). Both genders agree, however, that 3.6 is a healthy level of stress, pushing women nearly two points beyond the level of stress they believe to be healthy.

More women report experiencing extreme stress than men. Twenty-three percent of women report their stress level at an 8, 9 or 10 on a 10-point scale, compared to 16 percent of men.

What's more, women are more likely than men to say their stress is on the rise. More women say their stress levels have increased in the past five years (43 percent vs. 33 percent of men) and in the past year alone (38 percent vs. 32 percent of men).

Men and women both turn to exercise (52 percent for both genders) and listening to music (48 percent for both genders) as their top stress management techniques. However, women are more likely to engage in social and sedentary activities to manage stress such as reading (50 percent vs. 29 percent), spending time with friends or family (43 percent vs. 34 percent) and shopping (18 percent vs. 6 percent). Women are also more likely than men to say they eat to manage stress (27 percent vs. 22 percent).

In fact, men increasingly report doing an excellent or very good job at managing stress (2010: 30 percent; 2011: 35 percent; 2012: 39 percent). While women acknowledge the importance of stress management, few feel they are doing a good job of it. Sixty-eight percent of women say managing stress is important to them, but only 34 percent say they are doing an excellent or very good job at it.

Top sources of stress are the same for men and women, including money (66 percent and 72 percent), work (64 percent and 66 percent) and the economy (60 percent and 62 percent).

*This report focuses only on men (2007 n=771; 2008 n=789; 2009 n=729; 2010 n=530;2011 n=539; 2012 n=929) and women (2007 n=1077; 2008 n=1002; 2009 n=839; 2010 n=604;2011 n=687; 2012 n=1091) within the general population (2007 n=1848; 2008 n=1791; 2009 n=1568;2010 n=1134; 2011 n=1226; 2012 n=2020).

Women are more acutely aware than men of the impact that stress and lifestyle and behavior can have on physical and mental health. At the same time, they report experiencing symptoms of stress more often than men. Despite their attention to these issues, however, they are no more likely to be successful when they try to accomplish healthy living goals.

Eighty-two percent of women believe that stress impacts overall health compared with 75 percent of men. At the same time, women are more likely than men to understand the impact that poor eating habits (80 percent vs. 73 percent), hostility or negativity (75 percent vs. 63 percent) and a lack of sleep can have on health (76 percent vs. 67 percent).

Women are more likely than men to report that they lie awake at night (46 percent vs. 38 percent), overeat or eat unhealthy foods (43 percent vs. 29 percent) and skip meals (31 percent vs. 23 percent) because of stress.

Women are also more likely than men to report symptoms of stress, ranging from feeling depressed or sad to experiencing headaches and changes in sleeping habits. Women are more likely than men to report experiencing the following due to stress:

Fatigue (45 percent vs. 29 percent)

Feeling nervous or anxious (42 percent vs. 27 percent)

Feeling overwhelmed (41 percent vs. 29 percent)

Lacking interest, motivation or energy (39 percent vs. 29 percent)

Feeling depressed or sad (39 percent vs. 28 percent)

Feeling like crying (38 percent vs. 17 percent)

Having headaches (34 percent vs. 20 percent)

Changes in sleeping habits, e.g., oversleeping, difficulty falling asleep, night waking (35 percent vs. 25 percent)

Compared to men, women say they place more importance on having healthy relationships, healthy lifestyles and managing stress. At the same time, women tend to place more importance on healthy living goals. Yet, they are on par with men when it comes to their ability to achieve these goals, which demonstrates a disconnect for women between what they think is important and what they are able to achieve.

Women are more likely than men to say that having good relationships with friends (70 percent vs. 63 percent), getting enough sleep (67 percent vs. 55 percent) and eating healthy (64 percent vs. 55 percent) are important to them.

Women and men are similar in their ability to achieve the healthy living goals they set for themselves. They say they are doing an excellent or very good job at having a good relationship with friends (53 percent of women vs. 49 percent of men), getting enough sleep (32 percent of women vs. 34 percent of men) and eating healthy (36 percent of women vs. 33 percent of men).

Women and men who have been recommended or who have attempted to make a lifestyle or behavior change cite lack of willpower (33 percent for women vs. 28 percent for men) and lack of time (22 percent for both women and men) as the top barriers preventing them from making such a change.

Though women and men both turn to their social networks for support in making lifestyle and behavior changes (12 percent vs. 9 percent), women report getting more value from them. Sixty-three percent of the women who turned to social networks found those networks helpful in making lifestyle changes compared with only 36 percent of men.

While only 6 percent of men and women alike report that they have seen a mental health professional or a psychologist to manage their stress, women are more likely to believe that psychologists can help manage stress (52 percent vs. 41 percent) and make lifestyle and behavior changes (45 percent vs. 38 percent).

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The Stress in America ™ survey continues to uncover interesting differences in the way women and men experience and manage stress.* While both genders report stress levels beyond what they consider healthy, women are more likely than men to say their already high stress levels are on the rise and they are less likely to believe they are doing a good job of managing their stress.