A dose of inspiration for you!
Since my celebration of 2nd grade teacher Jen Ellis' boundary-setting brilliance last week, I’ve seen many more inspiring examples of other women setting boundaries (my clients! women in my FB group! women celebrities!).
Here’s one of my favorites...
In 2017, Shonda Rhimes (creator of “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Scandal”, and “How to Get Away with Murder”), set a boundary when ABC owner Disney wouldn’t get her one more all-access Disneyland pass for her sister after she’d generated over $2 billion for Disney. 🙄 After a Disney Executive asked her “Don’t you have enough?”, she called her lawyer to move her to Netflix and said she’d find new representation if they didn't do it.
This story recently resurfaced because of Rhimes' massive success with “Bridgerton” on Netflix - it’s had the most views of any series on Netflix in its first month. More than 82 million households watched at least one partial episode in its first 28 days!! Sure sounds like withholding a $154 Disney pass ended up costing Disney way more than THAT! 💥
Other things that are inspiring me these days…
AOC’s powerful Instagram live last week where she shared her experience at the Capitol Building on January 6th. One of the most powerful parts: “These folks who tell us to move on, that it's not a big deal, that we should forget what happened, even telling us that we should apologize - these are the same tactics of abusers.”
This article by the Executive Director of The Breathe Network that examines how the COVID-19 Pandemic may trigger survivors of sexual trauma. I haven't seen any article like this that looks at how the imprint of sexual violence affects both the body and the brain. I’m a proud member of The Breathe Network's Board of Directors.
This article called “How Society Has Turned Its Back on Mothers: This isn’t just about burnout, it’s about betrayal” by Pooja Lakshmin. This article is part of the New York Times’ The Primal Scream series that examines the remote schooling, record unemployment and mental health crisis that so many American working moms are currently facing. A little snippet from the article: “While burnout places the blame (and thus the responsibility) on the individual and tells working moms they aren’t resilient enough, betrayal points directly to the broken structures around them. A critical first step is to remind yourself that the reason you feel guilty, apathetic and exhausted during this worldwide crisis is due to choices that were made by people other than yourself."
I’ve been learning so much from Anti-Racism Daily’s month-long virtual exhibition, “28 Days of Black History.” The exhibition was curated by Camille Bethune-Brown and Shanaé Burch and centers the voices of Black LGBTQ leaders and Black leaders with disabilities who were often left out of our nation’s history. Each daily email includes three parts: 1) An introduction to a moment in Black history; 2) Discussion questions to guide your conversations; and 3) Action items to dismantle anti-Blackness in your community. It’s not too late to join! Join here.
I recently reconnected with a friend of mine that I've known since 1st grade and I've been having the best time recounting so many elementary, middle and high school memories with him. I love remembering who we used to be and sharing who we are now together. It's such a rare and fantastic treat that I feel very grateful for. Yay for former Coloradoans in Georgia!!
I’d love to know - What’s inspiring you these days? Share with me in the comments below.
