By Kimine Mayuzumi At Being Lazy and Slowing Down, we often talk about creating space – for rest, for reflection, for remembering what matters. But what happens when the world feels anything but spacious? When news headlines feel like they’re closing in, and being informed feels necessary but overwhelming? This post grew out of a question someone asked during a recent webinar that I was delivering. It stopped me in my tracks… and felt important…
By Kimine Mayuzumi I am sitting here thinking about one of the best naps I had last week with my partner next to me. You know when a nap is really good? It is when you’re unsure of where you are when you wake up. I call it a power nap. It could happen even for only 13 minutes. Feeling refreshed and energized, I would feel called to spend my precious rest of the day…
By Dana Kanhai In February 2018, I was diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). While the exact cause of SAD is unknown, this type of depression is associated with the changing of the seasons and experiencing less sunlight during the fall and winter. When I was diagnosed, I promptly started light therapy and cognitive behavior therapy which helped tremendously. I finally told my husband how I had been feeling and asked my mother to come…
By M’Balia Thomas Aches and pains are the body’s way of getting our attention. My body has been trying to get my attention for the past five years. I have had a year-long recurring cough, unexplained aches in my joints, wonky blood pressure, and a persistent sense of dis-ease. On more than one occasion, I have spent the night in the ER with symptoms I was sure were signs of a heart attack, but ultimately were…
By Lisette E. Torres As a newly disabled Puerto Rican scholar-activist, I have been grappling with how to continue my scholarship in the academy. I have begun a process of returning to meditation and slowness after stopping due to graduate school. In this multimedia blog post, I narrate my poem that focuses on my use of Taiji as an embodied meditative practice and form of resistance through self-care. As I read my poem aloud, my…
