Self-Care A-Z: Summer Season of Self-Care - Liberation Through Pleasure & Power
by Mindy Eaves, DSW, CSW, and Erlene Grise-Owens, EdD, LCSW, MSW, MRE
“For everything there is a season.” Reverend Al Sharpton evoked this wisdom at a memorial service for George Floyd, whose death from police violence sparked outrage and activism. Previous blog posts discussed the value of practicing seasonal self-care.
While collective grief continues, summer solstice ushers in a new season. We invite a self-care season of reclaiming the liberating joy of pleasure to (re)access fuller power. Celebration is an important aspect of self-care and social justice. In June, Pride Month celebrates human rights’ progress.
"Juneteenth" (also known as Emancipation Day or Freedom Day) marks a timely opportunity to reclaim the right of jubilation. Early Juneteenth celebrations, despite significant Jim Crow efforts to thwart gatherings, included various activities, such as self-improvement planning as a means to thrive during perilous times. Modern day self-improvement can include consciously choosing to engage radical self-care that acknowledges the importance of pleasure to sustain ourselves in liberatory work, particularly in oppressive spaces.
Fully Human
Amidst planetary desecration, global health crisis, and (inter)national uprising to eradicate racism, attention to self-care is easily dismissed as superfluous and unrealistic. Yet, now is the time to understand self-care as the radical notion of being fully human. Neglecting self-care endangers the sustainability of the intersectional change erupting through tremendous pain toward possibility.
Most in helping/service/activist roles are members of marginalized groups, and many have experienced trauma/abuse, individually and collectively. Oppressive forces convey in ubiquitous ways that: Black lives do not matter; women’s rights are optional; LGBTQIA folx are invisible; the tapestry of difference is dismissed rather than celebrated. Internalized, oppressive messages deplete energy, defeat spirits, and deprive human fullness. Audre Lorde proclaimed, “Caring for yourself is a way to sustain in a world that is hostile to your identity and community.” The oppressor wants us to deny our humanity, expressed in and accessed through pleasure and power.
Pleasure and Liberation
adrienne maree brown is a leader in Pleasure Activism. Listen to her! Make Pleasure Activism—The Politics of Feeling Good a summer reading. Drawing from Black feminist luminaries, brown defines pleasure activism as “the work we do to reclaim our whole, happy, and satisfiable selves from the impacts, delusions, and limitations of oppression and/or supremacy.” Pleasure activism is “learning to make justice and liberation the most pleasurable experiences we can have.”
brown addresses how the concept of pleasure has been perverted as excess and addiction. Pleasure isn’t a narcotic to numb; it’s nutrition to empower. Consumerism portrays pleasure as something to be earned/hoarded; religion, too often, connotes pleasure with guilt. In contrast, pleasure activism promotes pleasure as experiencing “satisfiable enough-ness,” i.e., abundance rather than scarcity. Pleasure activism promotes all the pleasure and none of the guilt or shame.
Pleasure is experienced through erotic expressions, creative flow, sensory mindfulness, sensual savoring, and replenishing rest. Pleasure is found in listening to music that speaks your truth or reading that resonates. It can be as practical as bringing order and cleaning spaces - as profound as experiencing awe in nature’s beauty. Like all self-care, pleasure is integral to our work - from individual introspection to collegial celebrations.
Pleasure is found in solitude and community. Protest includes expressing raging pain of oppression and experiencing liberating pleasure. In Minneapolis, MN, George Floyd demonstrations sparked communal connection through celebrating his life and sacrifice, marked by social justice street art, music, meals, and collaboration. In Louisville, KY, Breonna Taylor protests included celebrating her June birthday. Across the globe, demonstrations include community gatherings, neighborhood clean-ups, compassionate connections - activism flowing from and feeding the human spirit’s propensity for pleasure.
brown asserts, “I don’t think we can really feel for the collective if we can’t feel for ourselves….[One cannot] repress pleasure and expect liberation, satisfaction, or joy.” Too often, we forego even simple pleasures of a luxurious bubble bath, bountiful bouquet, sensual stretch, celebratory ritual, restorative nap, deep breath, and exponential possibilities of pleasurable self-care. If we don’t believe we “deserve” pleasure, can we believe we merit safe environments, equitable pay, joyful work, meaningful power, full human-ness?
Power-Fullness
Self-care is taking back our power! brown observes, “We settle for suffering and self-negation because of oppression.” Sustaining change efforts requires self-fullness, rather than selflessness or self-abnegation.
Self-care replenishes power-fullness through radically (re)claiming pleasures of savoring, soothing, supporting, connecting, celebrating, feeding, luxuriating, loving, liberating, being fully human. Self-care fosters satisfaction, resilience, joy, and courage.
brown cites Grace Lee Boggs, who urged: “Transform yourself to transform the world.” This summer, let’s transform the world, rooted in self-care. With pleasure, we share a transformative self-care movement!
Mindy Eaves, DSW, CSW, is Program Director and Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at Kentucky State University, a Whitney M. Young Scholar, consultant for the Wellness Group ETC, LLC, and co-author and co-editor of The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and other Helping Professionals (Grise-Owens, Miller, & Eaves, 2016, Eds.). Dr. Eaves is a certified social worker and earned her Doctorate of Social Work from the University of St. Thomas. Dr. Eaves has more than 17 years of social work experience in the areas of administration, teaching, clinical social work, and child welfare. Her passion is self-care and cultural competence to ensure sustainability of social workers.
Erlene Grise-Owens, EdD, LCSW, MSW, MRE, is a Partner in The Wellness Group, ETC. This LLC provides evaluation, training, and consultation for organizational wellness and practitioner well-being. Dr. Grise-Owens is lead editor of The A-to-Z Self-Care Handbook for Social Workers and Other Helping Professionals. As a former faculty member and graduate program director, she and a small (but mighty!) group of colleagues implemented an initiative to promote self-care as part of the social work education curriculum. Previously, she served in clinical and administrative roles. She has experience with navigating toxicity and dysfunction, up-close and personal! Likewise, as an educator, she saw students enter the field and quickly burn out. As a dedicated social worker, she believes the well-being of practitioners is a matter of social justice and human rights. Thus, she is on a mission to promote self-care and wellness!