>>We had to take care of the people that were giving first, because that's the first group of people that would burn out because we give from our hearts.

Our hands are an extension of our hearts and if we're giving to our communities, whether it's from a class or a talk or a service, if we're not whole and feeding ourselves from a ability of self care, there's no way we could care for others.

>>Production funding for Racism, Challenging Perceptions, is provided by, Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond, partnering with individuals, families, and businesses to connect local giving to our region's needs and opportunities.

More at CFRichmond.org.

And by, viewers like you, thank you.

(upbeat music) >>As black people have continued to navigate spaces and communities where racial disparities are present, mental health concerns continue to illuminate.

A discussion on the importance of mental health and intentional self care, or soul care as we prefer to say, Sheila, you were the first person to use that verbiage for me.

We'll include these two community healers that are sitting here in the studio, Ashley Williams and Sheila Battle.

Ashley Williams is a yoga therapist and mindfulness educator.

She is the founder of BareSOUL Yoga and Wellness, a community based organization initially created to offer accessible yoga offerings and mindful on life, a curriculum based program dedicated to transforming community for the practice of mindfulness education.

A new venture for Ashley is the Well Collective, a communities based for conscious wellbeing.

The center's intergenerational healing modalities, wellness workshops, yoga, and local Black Source Apothecary.

Sheila Battle is an executive coach and author at Soulful Conversations with Frank and Sheila.

Her professional career includes 28 years of progressive leadership experience in both public and private sectors.

She's an experienced team builder and lifelong learner who enjoys helping.

Sheila has an insatiable passion to see people develop holistically, and not merely on the surface.

She is the creator of the Soul Care Curriculum, which includes a diverse selection of exercises and tools that integrate into the natural flow of real life.

Ashley, when we first got to know each other and you know, and I love that when you talk about BareSOUL, it's more than just yoga, right?

It's much deeper than yoga, the work that you do.

And even as you're creating the Well Collective.

And Sheila, when I think about whether it's Soulful Conversations or, I won't get into the Battle Station, right.

I won't get into that, I'll let you share a little bit more about it.

But just talk to folks about who you are, and beyond who you are, why you do what you do and the purpose behind the work that you do.

>>First, it's great to be here.

And as I enter into this space with honor and divine gratitude, I first enter in with acknowledgment of my grandparents.

I always say that I'm the granddaughter of Marie Virginia Robinson and James Russell Bennett, II, and I am the granddaughter of Betty Ruth Armfield and Franklin Roosevelt Williams, and the daughter of Franklin Roosevelt Williams, Jr. And Wanda Denise Bennett.

And so, that to me is really important as it allows me to enter into this space my identity as a daughter and a sister and a black woman and a black daughter and a black sister, especially as we come into this space talking centering racism, especially over these past couple of years, it's been really important to me to understand that part of me and that like who I am, because that is who I am, because that determines the work in which and how I show up in this world as an entrepreneur and as an educator and all of the things that you beautifully mentioned and that I've worked hard to do.

But, without understanding who I am, that work actually has nothing to, you know, it doesn't really have a strong foundation.

And so, I give homage and honor to my lineage.

But, yoga was a vehicle for me to really step into my own wellness and my own understanding of my identity, my own understanding of connection to myself.

And the more that I was able to step into that, I was then able to understand how that connected to my community, understanding that wellness is our birthright and our foundation, specifically in our country and in our world is that there's some spaces where wellness you know, has not been given.

We've actually had the exact opposite, where our humanity has been taken away just because of systems that have been set up.

And so, trying to just really create space where we can come back into our love, come back into our humanity, come back into our wellness.

>>Wow, she dropped the mic on the first question.

(laughing) >>She did, yes she did.

>>I love it.

Sheila, sister Sheila.

>>Wow, I'm so glad I let you go first.

That was great, that was great.

Okay so, my name is Sheila.

My last name is Battle and my home is affectionately referred to as the Battle Station.

>>Yes.

>>Pre-pandemic, during the pandemic, and post-pandemic, what that means is that my house is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to my community.

And what that can look like is five little kids on their way to the bus stop who need a honey bun and a hug.

Or, it could be a knock on my door at two in the morning with a battered woman on my steps saying, please don't call the police because I love him.

So, my love language is grace.

And so, everything that we do and every encounter we have is filtered through the lens of grace.

>>When I think about the Battle Station and I think about some of the place making that you've done too, Ashley, just in transforming spaces, even in where you show up for your practice.

Talk to that a little bit.

And even in connection to the lineages and the legacy that we have already ushered into the room, just talk about what that means for you all as black women doing and leading this work and how different that looks for you even in how it's presented with folks that you kinda work alongside.

>>It is natural for us to gather.

It is natural for us to wanna be together.

And it doesn't, it's not restricted by blood line.

And so, I only have two children by birth, but I'm the Auntie.

>>Yes.

>>I am the Auntie, and I claim that.

(laughing) I am the Auntie.

And so, this idea of gathering, I was just sharing with some women yesterday, a couple of days ago, that when my mother transitioned, the day after her funeral I woke up and there were 26 kids in my house.

That is my mother alive, for me to bury her and then wake up the next day and there were 26 kids in my house.

That is a testament to what her legacy means in the earth, even after transition.

And so, this idea that we love on and care for and correct and discipline, right, we do the whole thing, and it doesn't matter.

You don't have to be my child for me to mother you.

>>Yes.

>>It's so natural, as a race, right, to understand and to desire that innate connection.

And even bigger, we are interconnected.

So, on a spiritual realm and when we talk about centering humanity, so like racism is a construct, is a systemic construct.

And before that there's this foundation of humanity and humanity is founded in love.

Before that, there's this idea that we're actually just all interconnected.

And we're interconnected in spirit.

We're interconnected in mind and body and soul.

We just show up differently.

And so, I originally wanted to create space for the black community, because there wasn't representation and wellness, specifically in Richmond.

There was specifically in the yoga community when I first begun in 2020.

I sought more representation.

I sought a space of refuge.

I sought more wellness and a space for me to go and work amongst community.

And so, that's where BareSOUL was birthed.

In doing that, by creating a space that allowed people to feel welcome based on their humanity, then created a space where anybody could then show up.

So then it wasn't just about the black community.

It then became about everyone who needed a space to seek refuge.

So then, color lines began to break, backgrounds began to break, ageism and all of those things began to break down.

And so, there's a space where people can actually just connect based on their need for a connection.

>>Yeah, and I love the fact, which both of you all talked about.

You center your experience, and even your need in what the practice looks like, right?

And so, the importance of you centering that first and then the expansion, the importance of you thinkin' about what your, what would your mom do?

>>Yeah.

>>And now, you are showing up and she is showing up through you in that same way.

And so, even kinda connecting to some of the interconnectedness that you all are speakin' on.

So, I'm curious from you all, from you all's perspective really kind of living in this space, where are some ways that you think people are really kinda getting that spirit back, right, kinda makin' sure that they're taking care of themselves amidst everything else that's goin' on?

>>So, this is my jam, you know.

This is my jam right here, this part.

>>Soul care, right.

>>It is, and the cornerstone modality that we use is called 15 minutes of grace.

And so, I feel like I am the advocate, the poster kid, for reclaiming my time.

>>Yes.

>>But, not just reclaiming my time, but preserving my energy.

So, it's not enough just to reclaim your time.

You have to preserve your energy.

And what that means is I get to decide, I get to say how I spend my energy, who I spend my time, my energy on, and who I allow to waste my energy, right.

Who gets to tap in and make a withdrawal and who doesn't, right?

And so, it's not just the time, because you can be away from the people and away from the things and have your mind so clouded with things that aren't nurturing you, that aren't about your wellness.

We teach that wellness is wealth.

And so, this whole idea of, am I pausing throughout the day?

Am I taking this 15 minutes, not to judge, not to condemn, not to compare myself to anybody, for 15 minutes.

It's a discipline.

It sounds like it's easy and when I'm teaching this to people I want it to be presented in a way that makes it assessable and doable.

But, I understand that it's hard to be alone with yourself by yourself for 15 minutes, and that when people are left alone with their own thoughts unsupervised, that it can be dangerous.

But, it is a discipline that we need and our planet is groaning because of hyper activity.

And the pandemic was the panic button that said, okay, if you're all not gonna listen to the cues of your life, we're gonna stop the whole country.

We're gonna stop the whole planet right now just so that you all get this lesson and hear this message, that you're doing too much.

You're going too fast.

You're thinking too hard.

You're not breathing deep enough.

And so, this whole idea around 15 minutes of grace and taking this time every day is the biggest gift that you can give yourself, but the ripple is powerful.

The ripple from doing it, the ripple out from your life is powerful and that echo of silence that you spend time in creates the space for your own inner wisdom so that when you are around people you speak from a healed place.

You speak from a whole place.

You don't speak from a place that's anxious and depressed and worried and trying to figure out what you haven't settled yet.

You know, all of those things, those things that we do that create that extra stress in our lives in our bodies.

You know, that's why I love what you do because we carry that stress in our bodies and then we wanna know why our bones are creakin' and you know, why our joints are achin' and why we have a headache and there's no loud noise.

Like so all of that, reclaiming our time, preserving our energy, nurturing our souls, those are the things that are gonna get us through all of the hard conversations.

And so, yeah, it's not just reclaiming your time.

It's preserving your energy and nurturing your soul.

>>The stress that we endure, whether it's generational, whether it's societal, whether it's something that's relational that's right there that's happening in the moment.

All of that shows up and over this past year, not only were we taking, and still to this day in this moment, we're taking in media at a high level.

We're taking in disease.

We're taking in death.

We're taking in the loss of black lives.

We're taking in the loss of lives in general.

We're taking in so much.

We're taking in the workday.

We're taking in family needs.

We're taking it in and our body is holding it.

So, if we don't take those 15 minutes we then have the consequence of what that looks like, which is all of the things that she's already mentioned, the illness, the disease, the dis-ease of what's happening in our body.

We are creatures that are meant to feel and if we're not feeling then we're disconnected.

And so, one of the things that I always say, that reclaiming our space or just the simple practice of mindfulness, it's not a science.

It's actually a way of life.

It's awakening to our lived experience in our everyday life and we are embodied.

And so, if we don't give ourselves 15 minutes, or a moment or a breath, we then continue to die as we're living.

And we actually are worthy.

We, it is our birthright to actually live into our gifts, live into the purpose in which we're supposed to be here.

We can't actually be the entrepreneurs, we can't go to work and play the roles that we're supposed to, that we have on paper.

We can't collect the check.

None of that matters unless we're actually grounded and being able to connect with the here and the now and what's happening, and then saying, this actually is not feeling good to me.

>>You know, it's so interesting 'cause you're segwaying into the next thought.

When I think about you all, who I view as healers, right.

I mean, seriously healers in our community, where do the healers go and what do the healers do?

Right, because you're a bit of a sponge.

You take so much in, just in passing.

Sheila and I had a moment 20 minutes ago.

(laughing) And so, I was just wonder when you're sponging and you're receiving so much and sometimes it's so heavy, what do you all do and what have you all been doing to make sure that you're taken care of yourselves?

>>It's for us first.

So, think about when you're cookin' Thanksgiving dinner and I'm gonna try not to get hungry saying this, but think about when you're cookin' Thanksgiving dinner, what do you do?

You take a clean teaspoon and you taste.

And then you know, okay, it needs a little more salt, it needs a little more this, and then you taste a little bit of macaroni and cheese and you know what that needs.

We have to eat first and then we have to season it for the person that's in front of us.

So, I do 15 minutes of grace, not just so I can tell other people to do it.

I do 15 minutes of grace because if I didn't I couldn't do it.

You know what I mean?

>>Our bodies will tell us when we cannot do it.

>>Exactly, it's not optional.

We give ourselves reasons and excuses not to do it, but what I know about taking care of myself is that my excuses don't excuse me from what needs to be done.

So when I come up with excuses for why I'm not doing, why I'm not resting.

When I come up with excuses for why I just have to have that extra piece of cheesecake, my excuses don't excuse me for what needs to be done.

So, I still need to do it, even if I'm makin' excuses.

And self care starts with self.

So, here's for us first.

>>Absolutely.

>>And if we don't fill our well, I think that's the biggest thing, too, we do a disservice to our community.

That concept of ripple is true.

So if I were to step in front of a group of people, or just enter into this conversation without sitting on my mat this morning or sitting down or taking a moment to sip my tea and just clear my mind, I could come up here and say some things out of my mouth and be like, did you experience the past year?

You know, and taking our moment to feed into ourselves, to create space in our world is so important, and understanding that it's just not easy.

>>You all also make me think about when lookin' at this year and last year and just all that we've been pushin' through, is there anything that you realized you needed that you didn't know before, as I often say, the sendin' makes the systemic pandemic that we're still in.

Is there anything that you didn't realize you needed more of that has really come to light to you in these last say two years?

>>For me it was leisure.

So, and the acknowledgment, the acceptance that I could create space for it and really be present with it.

And so, and I say that in the sense that you know, we have this culture that we do need to be doing the thing, and I teach, right, I teach being present.

And for me it was to really accept and find gratitude and joy in those moments of joy, accept and find gratitude in those moments of things that really filled my cup, accept and find gratitude in those moments.

It doesn't matter how small it was.

So like, could I really find moments in like really enjoying a cup of tea?

Could I find joy in just like going outside and like being in a garden for the first time that I like grew a garden?

Could I find joy in sitting on my porch and like looking out at my neighborhood and having a conversation with my neighbors?

Could I find joy in taking a trip, right?

That one moment that we could take a trip during this past couple of years.

But, could I really sit and really feel what gratitude felt like in my body no matter how big or small that moment was?

>>I was stumped when you first asked this question 'cause I was goin', hmmm.

>>I have everything I need.

>>Not because I live from a place of gratitude I'm always looking at what I have versus what I don't.

And so, when that's the lens through which you live your life it kinda stumped me.

But, you know what came to me was play?

It hit me during this pandemic that I don't know how to play yet.

And even though I'm around all of these kids, but what I'm doing for them is always you know, Auntieisms and motherly and it's cooking and it's hugs and it's you know, Auntie, can I talk to you about this boy or can I talk to you about my grades?

It's always instructional.

It's always in that way.

But, to just play, like to just get three packs of Uno cards and put 'em all together and play, or to get on the XBox and just, that's what I'm learning.

Now, I haven't mastered it.

Y'all pray for me.

I haven't mastered it, but I respect the value add that play gives.

And I'm learning how to make space for it, to open myself up for it.

So now when the kids say, or my husband says, come on, let's go do blah blah blah, instead of me goin', no, I have to go do this or I have to go do that, I'm learning how to say, yeah, yeah, let's go do that.

Let's go do that.

>>Even as I look at your work you have such a beautiful weaving of spirituality in your work and the way you show up no matter where you are, you're able to connect in that way, I know the answer, but I'll ask the question.

Like, how has that been important for you?

Like why is that necessary like just when you look at your purpose, right, and kinda makin' sure that you're weavin' that intersectionality?

>>Wow, so I'm an inclusive person, right.

And so, while I have a specified faith confession that's ever growing, right, and ever being informed, I wanted to create spaces for people who didn't.

And it wasn't enough to just say all the things and use all the lingo with people who already understand it.

It was really important to me to bring folks who didn't have the language, who didn't know all the things into a space and say, this is for you, too.

We teach people how to wrap language around their emotions, not just so that they can name them, but so that they can accurately communicate what they need, because it's hard for you to say what you need if you can't name how you feel.

And so, this work, it's spiritually informed because it's your inner witness that helps guide you through it.

I'm just there to walk alongside you.

But, we help people tap into that because I believe you already do know, but you've been layered with so many things that keep you from hearing.

And so, we create the space for people to hear.

>>Thank you, sister, so much.

This conversation, I needed this.

I feel like this was a personal one for me.

You know, I think the things that you all have highlighted, just a few points that came to mind.

I love your words, and two were love and liberation, right.

It's really a love and liberation movement that's happening.

Sheila, when you talk about the 15 minutes of grace, very tangible practice that I know I apply in a very, in a mindfulness way.

I may not get all my whole 15 minutes together at the same time.

>>It's okay.

>>But, in the car heading here, just bein' still, right.

And so, I think when I think about that.

And then another thing, and I think you shared this, Ashley, our bodies are the soul of our experiences.

When you view yourself in that way you give a little bit more care and kinda delicate approach to what you take in, prioritizin' the time.

And so, I just thank you all for sharing so much, imparting so much good, honest guidance and wisdom here today, and just thank you all for bein' with us.

>>Thank you for having us.

>>Thank you.

>>Gratitude.

>>Absolutely, absolutely.

>>All right.

>>Production funding for Racism, Challenging Perceptions, is provided by Community Foundation for a Greater Richmond, partnering with individuals, families and businesses to connect local giving to our region's needs and opportunities.

More at CFRichmond.org.

And by, viewers like you, thank you.