By Jae Lin Sometimes, things can get so stressful and burdensome and overwhelming; the universe says it’ll all balance out, but it doesn’t always feel like it; when life is too much, it’s everything all at once. For those of us who live at the intersections of identities that have been marginalized, it’s understandable and easy to feel overwhelmed for …
Permission to Eat: Balancing Culture and Chronic Illness
By ena ganguly I was diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, PCOS, when I was in high school. It’s a really common chronic illness that creates insulin resistance and sensitivity in the body, along with cysts in the ovaries, hair loss, and weight gain. I read and reread materials related to PCOS to see if I could control it somehow, …
Four Quick Tips on How to Be Fat Positive
By ena ganguly Body positivity is a cultural push to include all types of bodies into visibility, inclusion, and mainstream culture. The push is a response to the overt fatphobia running rampant in all aspects of culture, not just in the states, but globally. What is fatphobia? Literally, it’s the irrational fear of fat people or fatness. In action, it’s …
The Road to Meditation for Those Who Can’t Sit Still
By ena ganguly No matter if you have meditated or not, you know or heard something about the practice. Perhaps you think of sitting cross legged, hands on your knees, eyes closed. Or maybe you think of chanting ‘Om’ with a long necklace of beads around your neck. Meditation is an act of gaining peace that, I believe, we need. …
10 Resources for When Therapy Isn’t an Option
By Jae Lin Therapy can be beneficial for many people, especially those currently experiencing mental health struggles impacting their everyday lives. However, there are many barriers to accessing traditional therapies, especially for queer people of color, including stigma, discrimination, healthcare insurance access, a lack of job flexibility for scheduling appointments, and the often high financial costs. Because of these institutional …
Coping as Self Care
By ena ganguly I wake up in the morning and drink two bottles of water. I put essential oil in my diffuser before bed. During the weekends, I do my skin care routine. I do laundry. I call my mamma. I go grocery shopping and I cook. I go to therapy. I eat ice cream and it’s midnight. These are …
How to Eat Well on a Budget
By ena ganguly Like most everyone, I have a complicated relationship with food. Going down the health aisle is faintly triggering to me. Whenever I do, I am reminded of how we, as people of color, nourished our bodies with what the earth gave us. Quinoa from South America. Salt from South Asia. Chia seeds from Guatemala. And how those …
Queering Reproductive Justice
By Dena Robinson Reproductive Justice, a concept created by black women, specifically by SisterSong, is defined as “the human right to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities.” While indigenous women, women of color, black women, and trans individuals have always fought for reproductive justice, the term …
On Pride as QTPOC
By ena ganguly For the month of Pride, it is important for us to document the narratives, hardships, and joys of the vast queer and transgender people of color communities. Indeed, our struggles meet at the intersections of colonialism and slavery, heterosexism, transphobia, xenophobia, and racism. As in almost all communities, a racial, class and gender hierarchy exists within the …
