Heading into Healing with Style

“Heading into Healing with Style" is a monthly series dedicated to exploring the dynamic and diverse paths of healing and wellness. Our program brings together a vibrant community of individuals eager to share their insights, stories, and experiences related to personal growth and transformation. Each month, we delve into various topics, providing a platform for meaningful discussions and exchanges that inspire and enlighten.

With a blend of expert contributors and participants from all walks of life, our sessions offer a unique blend of information and inspiration. We believe in creating a supportive environment where everyone feels welcome to share and learn. Whether you're beginning your healing journey or seeking new perspectives, "Heading into Healing with Style" encourages you to explore healing with flair and grace. Join us as we pave the way for personal growth and connection together.

Heading into Healing with Style

Season Four

Topics

1. Empathy and Compassion: Deepening interpersonal connections through empathy and compassionate communication.

2. Digital Wellness: Navigating technology mindfully to enhance mental and emotional health.

3. Breathwork Techniques: Harnessing the power of breath to improve physical and mental well-being.

4. Building Healthy Boundaries: Understanding how to set and maintain boundaries for healthier relationships.

5. Synergy of Mind and Body Practices: Integrating mindfulness, movement, and meditation for comprehensive well-being.

6. Exploring Identity and Purpose: Finding your passion and purpose as drivers of personal fulfillment and healing.

7. Positive Psychology: Applying positive psychology principles to cultivate a happier, more meaningful life.

8. Intergenerational Healing: Techniques to address and heal family patterns and trauma.

9. Sacred Spaces at Home: Creating environments that support tranquility, creativity, and healing within your home.

10. Intuitive Eating: Developing a healthier relationship with food by learning to trust your body's natural cues.

EMPATHY & COMPASSION: DEEPENING INTERPERSONAL CONNECTIONS THROUGH EMPATHY AND COMPASSIONATE COMMUNICATION!

The fact that I recently experienced a situation where I felt like all I needed was a little EMPATHY and COMPASSION and didn't receive it, hits a little hard right now!

Me on the other hand, I'm always the one extending grace, empathy, and compassion, because I know how important it is be understood when you feel disregarded and overlooked. There have been countless times where I've had to be okay with being the villain in someone else's story, because they refused to extend that same empathy and compassion that was extended to them when the shoe was on the other foot. BUT the truth is, we can't always expect everyone to treat us like we treat them and there will be many instances where that empathy and compassion is never extended to us, because sometimes "THE STRONG" ones just aren't seen as individuals who deserve or even have a need for empathy & compassion.

WE ALL NEED BOTH at some point, and because of that it's essential that we continue to do our part by actively listening to eachother an truly understanding the feelings and needs of others, by allowing yourself to see their point of view even when you don't necessarily agree. It's okay to disagree and still care about the feelings of another person. It's very possible to have boundaries and still be compassionate. Extending empathy & compassion, does not make you any less of a person. As a matter of fact, it makes you an even better person. Better because you have the power to see things from multiple angles and hold empathy & compassion in your heart for others around you, even with strangers.

Studies show that some of the key elements in building healthy relationships include:

Active listening and understanding. These two items are crucial in the healing journey and can cause a great deal of grief, resentment, disappointment, even feelings of being disregarded!

This is why I'm very intentional about how I handle my conversations. I give grace, because we're all on our journey. I show empathy, because most times I really do know what it feels like and other times, I simply want to understand so that I can showup in this world as my best self at all times!! A little bit of empathy and compassion in your communication can go a mighty long way!

Check out the articles listed below for more details around EMPATHY & COMPASSION IN OUR INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION AND LEARN WAYS TO HEAL & HELP BUILD HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

1. Set Boundaries, Find Peace. A guide to

Reclaiming Yourself by Nedra Glover Tawaab

2. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by

Stephen Covey

3. It Didnt Start with You. How Inherited Family

Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End

the Cycle by Mark Wolynn

4. Breaking the Chains of Psychological

Slavery by Dr. Na'im Akbar

5. It's A Journey: A Holistic Journal for

Discovering Self by Dr. Ashley Wade

Book reference by Dr. Paul Agui

Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

By James Nestor

App. Reference by Tyra George

Finch Self-Care Pet

Book reference by Stan Zaa

The Sibyls: The First prophetess of mami (Wata): the theft of african prophecy by the Catholic Church

By Mama Zogbé

Robyn Brown

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

by Sonya Renee Taylor

“ I look at Self Care differently because of this book!! - Robyn Brown “

Regardless of space and technique. I love helping people with small spaces and especially those with busy lives figure out how to grow their own food.

Here’s some resources for those looking to just start the garden

Digital Wellness

Quotes:

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."

– Anne Lamott

Books and Articles:

  • Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World

by Cal Newport

  • "The Impact of Screen Time on Health"

    by the American Academy of Pediatrics

Synergy of Mind and Body Practices

Quotes:

"Your body is precious. It is our vehicle for awakening. Treat it with care." – Buddha

Books and Articles:

  • The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

    by Bessel van der Kolk

  • Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Health Care Professionals

    Article in Journal of the American Medical Association

Intergenerational Healing

Quotes:

"Healing ourselves is healing the generations that precede us and come after us." – Maisha Hazzard

Books and Articles:

  • It Didn't Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle

    by Mark Wolynn

  • The Science of Epigenetics and Its Implications for Intergenerational Healing"

    Article in Genetic Psychology JournAl

Digital Wellness

Don Miguel Ruiz's teachings can be applied to mindfulness in the digital age:

- "Don't make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want." – Don Miguel Ruiz

Synergy of Mind and Body Practices

- "The only way to keep and protect love is to give it freely." – Don Miguel Ruiz

Intergenerational Healing

- "The spirit of the individual is determined by his dominating thought habits." – Manuel J. Smith

- "Living is a constant process of deciding what's important, what instills meaning, what's an imperative for progress." – Gloria E. Anzaldúa


To you, from Lyrik Hunter

1. The Art of Journaling

I'm not an expert on paper. I didn' go to college after HS, I stayed home and started a family instead. I didn't go back to college and get several degrees after having children, but what I did do is make a choice to be happy. What that meant for me is, acknowledging that everyone won't know how to accept the choices I make nor will they always understand the WHY. As a kid, I enjoyed my creative writing class. It always gave me a reason to escape whatever was going on around me. Gave me hope that beautiful things can and will happen when you just believe! In my adult years, I learned very quickly that when I was operating in my functioning depressive state and I needed someone to listen to give me sound advice, there was not someone always readily available. So I decided to take a journey back into my journals, and I wrote, and it felt good. I wrote some days when I didn't do a single thing to myself.

When I wasn't eating, sleeping, bathing, or living, I was still writing. Writing when the tears were falling, writing when I felt like one day soon, I would no longer be around to tell my own story, or even see my kids grow up, writing when I felt like no one in the world understood the pain I was feeling or how to fix it.

I thought I was a goner!! I was writing letters and stories to my children because I thought they'd outlive me, and I wanted them to know about me from me.

I'm thankful that I turned back to something that had always been a love of mine as a young kid. Writing out my thoughts and emotions, sparked a healing in me that I wasn't even aware would take place, but when it did, it birthed a new fire in me that I vow to never let turn to ash! Journaling can be whatever it looks like to you as long as you get it out. Holding in our emotions is a lot of pressure ...releasing the pressure, relieves the stress! It's an essential key in the healing journey.

Check out these tips for healthy Journaling guidance

I would recommend scheduling some individual or group session time with Linda Jones aka The Writing Doula

4. Creative Expression for Healing

In my opinion, all of us have some type of creative gene in us! It takes some of us longer than others to realize it, but with just a little bit of self exploration and evaluation, we find that there is healing in the power we have to create! On most days, I read books, articles, or blogs that appeal to my imagination and creative mind because it not only helps inspire me in my professional writing, but it also helps me release. This process can bloom from many different aspects in my life. Even when I'm writing poetry, it's not always coming out in the form of the poem when it starts. Most times, it starts as a way to release thoughts or kind of balance out my emotions. My expressions may also come out in song or short stories, but for me, it's usually some writing. I can honestly say that I wouldn't be here; had I not had the mindset to write out my feelings.

Aside from wanting to be the best for my children, writing helped to save me from giving up on myself, my children or my loved ones! Taking the time to honor and cater to my mental health by creating in an form, allows me to release those feelings and emotions that have built up inside, and from that release, I'm also able to extract the meat of it and create a spokenword/poetic message, a song, or a word of inspiration for the masses. It's almost like a pay it forward, by sharing what I learned with the hopes that it will assist someone else on their journey, or even just assure them that they're not alone. Healing through art/creativity is a message that I will forever spread because I know first hand what that type of healing looks like. I personally lived that journey!

My motto: " If you're not healing, you're not growing, and if you're not growing, you're dying! #LetsHeal"

Check out one of my favorite community organizations, which serves as a support system in our communities, by bridging the gap, holding space for healing and creating programs that honor a guide families and individuals through the process of healing through art and strengthening self-awareness

8. The Power of Community

If you grew up in the South or even in Texas, you probably head that saying, "IT TAKES A VILLAGE" ...I'm one of those who truly believes our grandparents and elders knew exactly what they were talking about when they told us that! I can remember growing up in the country streets of Midland and never ever feeling like I was alone. Even if my mom or step pops were at work, we had neighbors who looked out for us. They kept us in line and made sure we knew they were watching and wouldn't hesitate to call our parents if we were caught doing anything we weren't supposed to do. Knowing that if we ran out of eggs, sugar, or flour, all we had to do was knock on the neighbors door, and they knew they could do the same!

This is the type of community that is embedded in my soul. That very same aspect of Community applies to our neighborhoods and people we know in the city. If we know someone needs support, we should all band together to help them in any way we can. The power that resides in community is like no other, and I feel like some of us may never know how that feels. The truth is, everyone deserves to be able to say they feel like their community is their family. It's the one thing that we essentially have the power to control. It helps us see different perspectives and points of view when we are evaluating the way we look at life and how we show up for ourselves and others!

Connect with some of our local community organizations in the DFW area

To you, from Dr. Ashley Wade

Two co-authored books are published here.

The modern day griots and Acting on your dreams and visions book and workbook. The book and workbook will be available for purchase on site.

Journey book available on my website plus services.

“Book will be available at Live event”

ASILI magazine 1st edition: mental health article

ASILI magazine 2nd edition: mental health article

Event Take backs from Tyra George

Things that make you hesitate means there is growth beyond that.

Overcoming is the benefit.

Don't fall for the self sabotage.

4 day water fast is necessary.

Continue to water what's yours.

Your gift. Be patient and show yourself grace.

- Dr. Xavier Cooper

Guided journals will challenge your thought process.

Gain power from learning from others. READ A DAMN BOOK!

A photo of younger Tyra.

You open your imagination from reading.

- Dr. Ashley Wade 

Go out and be at peace. Nature walks.

Be arrogant with yourself. Don't be humble. Show up!

If you can't work for someone then you should work on yourself.

- Vern Gavin 

Community is not your friends and family.

Build your best relationships in community.

toinspirepeace.org

Violashouse.com

The doc bookshop

- Lyrik Hunter

Monday is for money and manifestation.

Can't run from your lessons or problems.

Trees don't cry over dead leaves. Learn how to let go of things.

Change is what we're here for.

It feels better when you're moving in your purpose.

- Stan Zaa

Happiness is self made

BOOKS MENTIONED

The Mountain is You

The body keeps the score.

03/09/2025

LiVE Audience

06/07/2025

Online

06/07/2025

Post Park