Month: June 2020

DianaK

New Classes: Happiness in Hard Times — the Art of Appreciation

2020 has brought us a seemingly endless series of worries. On top of the “usual” stress of 21st century living, now we are also worried about the pandemic of racism and violence, the COVID-19 pandemic, economy, and divisive politics. We are tired of staying home and wearing masks and we miss seeing our loved ones. 

Right now our brains and nervous systems need more support than ever. 

So right now, Seriously Happy is focused on supporting you more than ever.

We can’t control a lot of things, but we CAN rewire our brains to focus less on the bad stuff and to look for more good stuff. Making simple changes can enhance our relationships, increase our resilience, and even improve our health.

Using tools from improv, laughter yoga, positive psychology, and relational neuroscience, our Happiness in Hard Times classes will give you a chance to learn about and try new techniques you can use right away to improve your well-being. 

In our first class of the series, the Art of Appreciating, you’ll learn a variety of ways to tune in to and savor the good things in life. It’s an interactive and fun way to meet new people and try new tricks to make these hard times just a little bit happier.

Date: Saturday, July 18
Time: 2:00-3:00 pm
Location: Online Everywhere
Suggested donation: $25

OR

Date: Thursday, July 23
Time: 7:00-8:00 pm
Location: Online Everywhere
Suggested donation: $25

To save your spot, click the link below & choose your donation level. Let me know which date you’re interested in and I’ll save your space. 😊

Save me a spot!
2020-07-18T14:00:00

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Art of Appreciation Class

DianaK

My anti-racist work: Being uncomfortable and saying things out loud.

Are you ready for some awkwardness? Oh, good! I have lots to spare. 

Since I don’t usually talk or post publicly about white-body supremacy, racism, and racialized trauma, I promise that I am going to be clunky about it. 

George Floyd mural by Xena Goldman, Cadex Herrera, Greta McLain and other artists. The mural is located near the spot George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.

George Floyd was murdered a couple miles from my house in my beloved city of Minneapolis. We all know that his murder wasn’t the first one like it, nor the last. But this time more people are paying attention and more people are talking about it. Protesting about it. Acting about it.

Lots of people have been talking about and working on this for lots of years. It is long past time that I join them in their work to identify, name, and dismantle systems of racism and white-body supremacy.

Ugh. I keep starting and stopping, writing and deleting. I feel awkward and my gut feels tight. I’m going to keep going. Maybe I’ll make a list. I like lists.

  1. Systems of racism and white-body supremacy have got to go. Now.
  2. It feels scary and strange to notice and name that my chest feels tight and my breathing gets shallow when I let in the truth. The truth of our country’s racist foundation, of my complicity-by-silence, of the ways in which Black, Indigenous, and People of Color/Culture are harassed, harmed, and outright killed in the maintaining of status quo.
  3. I don’t really want to admit how much I don’t know. (Hint: it’s a lot. A lot a lot.)
  4. I super don’t want to admit that I spent a most of my life floating in a cloud of privilege and not really digging in to dismantle the system of white-body supremacy.
  5. It hurts to learn about how much advantage white-body supremacy affords me.
  6. It hurts to accept how much this system really, really hurts BIPOC. Every. Single. Day.
  7. I don’t know how to dismantle racism and white-body supremacy.
  8. I am not sure what I should be doing or what the best path forward is.
  9. Nine seems like a good number of things for a list.

So here’s the thing…

Since 2016 I have been meeting weekly with a wonderful group of middle-aged white women to talk about white-body supremacy, systemic racism, and our own relationships with them. In our group, we’re working to raise our consciousness, heal our own racialized trauma, and be more present in the work to dismantle the system of white-body supremacy.

This work has been and is heartbreaking, overwhelming, hopeful, healing, scary work, and it has become clear to me that I wouldn’t or couldn’t do this work without community. I need other people for support and for accountability. I think we all need community to do this work.

Our group wants to use our years of practice & learning to help anyone who is interested in starting their own embodied anti-racist practice group group. We aren’t experts and don’t have the answers, but we are so happy to share our experiences with you.

If you would like help starting your own embodied anti-racist practice group, please fill out this form. https://forms.gle/8dvyzrw8y7JmWH52A