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Hello friends and colleagues,
To be honest, I feel like I’ve been drinking from a fire hydrant and I am becoming increasingly reminded that it feels like an uphill battle to continuously resource myself against the insidiousness and relentlessness of urgency and scarcity….because it is. I am still working at transforming self-care into community-care. In the meantime, I am practicing saying “no” and practicing taking in micro-moments of beauty and magic.
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~I am looking forward to CIIS Public Programs hosting me for a live, daylong, online, workshop on Saturday, October 15, Healing the Legacy of Historical and Transgenerational Trauma. This workshop provides a synthesis of research presentations and storytelling—the practical and the soulful—and includes guided writing activities, mindfulness practices, and somatic practices.
Scholarships are available for this workshop (applications due by Friday 30th September). CEUs will be available for purchase through this event.
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~On October 18 & 19, I will be presenting the keynote for the YWCA Greater Austin 3rd Annual Mental Health Symposium, Authenticity, and Collective Healing: Mental Health, Social Justice, and Wellness. This program will focus on recognizing that our mental health symptoms are the direct result of the struggles we face in communities with racialized and/or marginalized identities. If you are in the Austin area, I’d love to meet you in-person!
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~I am so incredibly honored to be included on this guest list…..The Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health Program at New College of the University of Toronto is hosting a series of online lectures this fall, given by esteemed scholars and professionals who are leaders in their respective fields. Their work integrates diverse disciplines, traditional and ancient approaches, a wide range of applications, and fosters culturally sensitive and trauma-informed mental health and wellbeing in mindfulness-informed applications. Click here to register for free!
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~Here in the United States, we are celebrating National Hispanic Heritage Month from September 15th - October 15th. This year’s theme is Unidos: Inclusivity for a Stronger Nation, which is intended to encourage all voices to be represented and welcomed to help build stronger communities and a stronger nation. To celebrate, we’re giving away 12 Headspace annual memberships to anyone who identifies as Hispanic, Latinx, Afro-Latinx, Afro-Caribbean, Caribbean, Afro-Cuban, Mexican American, Boricua, Nuyorican, Chicanx, or Indigenous. (If you feel like we have overlooked you, please let us know!) The first 12 people to fill in this Google Form will be contacted by Tyler with your annual Headspace coupon code.
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~Living in rural Alaska, I do not get much exposure to Hispanic or Latinx culture. Because learning/unlearning is a life-long endeavor, I’ve chosen to start with exposing myself to songs in Spanish that are uplifting.
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~I believe that it is important to celebrate and to uphold beauty while also holding the enduring impacts of colonization. We naturally want to protect that which we experience as beautiful, says Dr. Elaine Scarry in her work, On Beauty and Being Just (summarized here in under 7 minutes or an hour lecture here).
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I’m preparing a presentation. The working title is: Witches, bitches & whores: The clinical implications of father-daughter incest as a manifestation of compounded, despotic patriarchal structures of coercive control.
My Geeking-Out Part is preventing me from vomiting in my mouth….and the need for self-care has become non-negotiable. If you’d like to access the references list for the books and journal articles that I’ve been reading, please click here.
I’m looking forward to attending the Northeast Region Biofeedback Society’s annual conference. NRBS is dedicated to supporting individuals who seek to enhance their own wellness by learning about the science and treatment modalities available via biofeedback and neurofeedback.
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These last few years, I have been reconciling the multi-faceted aspects of my own mashed-up cultural identity. Discovering the music made by fellow Vietnamese diaspora - to have my own inner experiences be reflected, expressed, by others who get it - has been so incredibly healing.
Mashup culture - the integration of multiple cultures through art, music, food, language, clothing - is a joyous celebration and re-definition of what it means to be a citizen of the world! I’ve made my own Viet diaspora playlist, which I turn to for self-care. You can listen to it here.
This month I’ve been reading Michelle Zauner’s Crying in H Mart. I recognize so much of my own experience in her story, and feel so fortunate that my mother stayed alive beyond my tumultuous years so that we could repair our fractured relationship. Buy the book here.
My friends, Stephan Wolfert and Dawn Stern, are in town! Not only did I get to see his critically-acclaimed one-person show, Cry Havoc, in person, we got to hang out in the glorious fall weather here in the far north.
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As I sign off for this month, I offer a reminder that who you are is more than enough. Always. And in all ways.
In love,
Linda
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