Resilience. Re-purposing the Strong Black Woman Archetype

Resilience. Re-purposing the Strong Black Woman Archetype

For as long as I can remember, the women around me have been telling me that I have to be strong. ⁣
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My mother was strong personified. She could do everything from make handmade embroidered wedding dresses, fix the washing machine, studying for a law degree while⁣ working as one of the first black trainee accounts in an iconic London department store, and mother me. ⁣
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This is how I identified and grew up to be a very capable “Strong Black Woman”.⁣
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Now, as much as I am very proud of my mother’s accomplishments and my own, this strong black woman narrative is the very thing that has weakened many a powerful woman, because many girls were not taught, by the elders, how to be strong and soft, powerful and self-loving, and honour their vulnerability.
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While navigating the most traumatic experience of my life, I realised that being the strong Me, alone, was not going to get me through, so I decided to re-purpose my ability to be strong into resilience, as this allowed me to use my strength and take a knee when I needed to, create boundaries, be powerfully vulnerable and self-loving without an apology.⁣

To get to a lived experience of the repurposed strong black woman, I walk the path of what I now call  "Let Art Be Your Becoming in 4 Self Soothing Creative Steps":

 

  1. Support
  2. Self-Love
  3. Spirituality
  4. Security 

⁣All though many people talk about the priority of self-love sometimes we need the SUPPORT to believe this. This could be a person you can talk to about the things you wouldn't normally share with others. It could be a community like a drop in centre or an online space where you convene with like minded people who " just get it" or inspire you and encourage you to grow.

 

Photo: Jason Garcia

Once you find the safe space, places that support your self-love or what some call the "tend and defend" spaces of sisterhood and community, the journey of SELF-LOVE becomes more organic. 

Self-love can be setting boundaries for yourself, for example being intentional about where and how you spend your time, so that you are not exposed to environments or people who don't support your wellbeing. Another example could be not feeling guilty to rest and instead resting not because you need to but because you want to. 

Part of the resilient self-love journey is spending time with yourself and connecting with your SPIRITUALLY (The foundation to my artpiece Spiritual Solitude).

Before I continue, I want to make it clear that spirituality doesn't have to been connected to religion, for me it's more about connecting to the reason why you are here in the world. An example of spiritual connection could be doing yoga, meditation or praying.

Once you have made the journey to Step 3, Step 4 is about putting everything together so you can be autonomous in your SECURITY so that your insecurities become your inner-securities.

To my Regal Sister Queens, honour your strength, power, courage and audacity, and at the same time love yourself, celebrate your vulnerability unabashedly as you journey to re-purposing the Strong Black Woman Archetype. ⁣

As always, give yourself permission to live your hearts vision, create the life you want to live and love and..."Let Art Be Your Becoming"

Before I get back to resting, what is one way you can honour your self-love today?

Let me know by commenting below

 

Love and Light Infinitely, Amja ❤️

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