Every year on June 19th, Black communities across America celebrate freedom. The celebrations honoring the emancipation of the last enslaved people in this country inevitably spark conversations about what liberation actually looks and feels like in policy, in community, in our bodies. But what if rest itself was a form of freedom? And what if the path to it ran straight through self-work?
We recently explored this in a conversation with Dr. Breana Turner (PhD), who describes herself as a translational scientist dedicated to researching Black women’s health inequities and to mending them through her platform Becoming HealthyHer. She began the conversation with a grounding reminder, “Until Black women are free, then no one’s going to be free.”
“Black women are the most disrespected, unprotected individuals in the world, in the country, right, and something that needs to happen, and why I’m so passionate about being able to communicate to a variety of different audiences is that oftentimes Black women don’t understand what we’re actually up against.”
She traces that lack of understanding back to something many of us inherited before we even had the words for it. From an early age, the idea of “figuring it out because someone isn’t always going to be there to help you” became ingrained; a survival strategy passed down through generations, with roots that reach back to slavery itself.
“Black history does not begin with enslavement. However, enslavement has had such reverberating effects on society that we’re still seeing now,” she shares. “Until we have an understanding about the powers that may be that have persisted culturally, then we cannot dispel or break those generational curses, or come up with a better way for us to maneuver in society without that educational reference.”
Thus, frameworks like Dr. Cheryl L. Woods-Giscombé’s “Superwoman Schema” and Dr. Sherman A. James’ “John Henryism” become essential. As Dr. Turner explains, both concepts illuminate the ways racial inequity shapes Black life: our determination to push through with limited resources, our suppression of emotion, our resistance to vulnerability, and the near-reflexive deprioritization of our own care. And while these patterns are often most visible in Black women, they show up across gender lines.
“We’re working twice as hard for half as much…so we’re never going to rest, but it’s revolutionary,” she explains. “Because that rest has a dichotomous relationship with what we’ve grown up to do and be and to feel and to act like.
That’s exactly why, alongside conversations about policy reform and systemic change, rest and self-care deserve a seat at the liberation table. And according to Dr. Turner’s study “Beyond Strength: Black Women’s Perceptions of Physical Activity and Mental Health Through Superwoman Schema and Black Feminist Theory,” younger generations are beginning to claim that seat.
“We’re actually seeing how social media has positively impacted at least Gen Z and millennial Black women, and how they’re leaning more into self-care. Whether that be on TikTok or Instagram, being able to see a Black woman who’s like, ‘I’m going to therapy now,’ or ‘I’ve said no for the first time in forever, and it was absolutely fantastic,’ has allowed for certain cultural shifts to start taking place.”
“They’re changing the way in which they’re pursuing rest, pursuing self care, and also with the understanding that self-care or soft life is not just I’m taking a bubble bath, sometimes it’s doing a lot of self-work,” she added.
Given the very real systemic barriers that have historically made professional mental health care less accessible in Black communities, Dr. Turner encourages people to meet themselves where they are, and to honor the healing traditions that have always existed within our culture.
“One thing the Black community has always relied on is that peer-to-peer support, whether that be at a beauty salon, the barbershop, or churches,” Dr. Turner shared. “We’ve always had just a different swag about us, where we’ve gone about our own healing a different way that might not be as mainstream, and it is okay to still lean into that. And, of course, if you have the means, go to therapy, get the tools that you need, and if that’s not your ministry right now, that’s also okay.”
While she strongly encourages those who are able to find a mental health care professional that can help them navigate the ups and downs of life, if you’re still just trying to “figure it out” on your own here are 3 action items Dr. Turner recommends:
- Tap into “the village” and be a villager
When leaning into the healing power of community, consider reframing the way you “check in” on the strong friends in your group.
“It’s one thing just to be like, ‘Hey, I’m just checking in,’ and it’s another thing to say, ‘I’m holding space for you to just share, and you don’t have to be strong. I’m not going to judge you,’ and see where that takes you,” Dr. Turner shared.
- Hang up your cape and reframe the way you talk about yourself
Instead of labeling yourself as Superman/Superwoman, the translational scientist tells theGrio that the simple action of going from saying “I’m superwoman” to “I am a woman who is super,” brings your humanity back into situations in a world that already tries to act like Black men and women have some form of supernatural resilience to BS.
“Superheroes are able to go very fast all the time, be strong all the time, and they never have to rest, we don’t have that same power. So I like to say, take the cape off. Maybe don’t throw it away because that’s very hard, but put it in the back of your closet, take to the dry cleaner and drop it off for a little bit.
- No is a short but powerful sentence…use it
“No is a complete sentence, and sometimes saying no is a way to take your power back.”
And if you struggle with verbally saying no, she suggests creating a “to-don’t list” just as you would a “to-do” list. This list allows you to outline all the things you’re not going to touch/address, allowing you to get it out of your head in a low-stakes environment.
- Take self inventory
You can’t pour into the world or yourself from an empty cup. And oftentimes those feelings of burnout stem from thinking that all the things we’re juggling in life (work, responsibilities, relationships) are as fragile as glass balls and will shatter the second we put them down. But as Dr. Turner notes, life is filled with a lot more shatter-resistant rubber balls than we think .
“Being able to identify what is glass and what is rubber in your life, what can I give somebody, what can I ask for help with? It doesn’t make you any less of a human, any less of a black woman, any less of a black man,” she concluded. “Utilize that community and figure out how to show up for yourself significantly better, because that’s how we’re going to make collective change.”
Because when one person rests, it gives someone else permission to rest too. And that ripple effect leads to cultural changes and ultimately a personal yet powerful form of freedom.
