[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, welcome back to the Brown Girl Self Care podcast.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Bree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I realize that all the top I'm gonna let you know, this is gonna be a short episode, but what I want to say is that the sound quality is not gonna be great because I'm literally doing this from my phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I didn't have time to plug in the microphone.
[SPEAKER_00]: My schedule has been changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: and maybe I'll share more on that later, but your girl has gone back to working part-time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I guess that's a story for another time, but the reason why I wanted to just quickly upload this little blue note is because I am really going to be in this place where I have to decide which parts of my life I'm going to be enacting a unlaber.
[SPEAKER_00]: move here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love the word Unlabor and I think I might talk about that also at another time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to make this too long but Unlabor is a word that I am going to be using going forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've never heard anyone say Unlabor.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm excited to kind of like build that out and share my thoughts on Unlabor like how we have the
[SPEAKER_00]: labor union.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am going the opposite direction with an unlabor union, but again, that's an episode for another time.
[SPEAKER_00]: The point of it is that I've had some conflicting, you know, I guess energy in my spirit, because
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, things are changing, things are shifting, and I will not and cannot and refuse to labor myself into the ground for anything, you know, be at the podcast, be at the Brown Girls' self-care, brand or community, be it this part-time gig that I am doing, like I really have to prioritize now the things like my output.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really have to be intentional about where I'm laboring
[SPEAKER_00]: okay now more than ever because I don't want to break down my body, I don't want to break down my spirit but the point of this episode is I want to give you a let's say a gentle reminder or if you don't know how about let's give you just a thought that I want you to process because I know a lot of us we are in a season of doing some type of labor.
[SPEAKER_00]: perhaps you are part timing, perhaps you have your own brand, perhaps you are working towards a goal where you can retire in the next 5, 10, 15 years, you know, but we're all in a different place of laboring in some capacity, you know, top of that, we are laboring in the capacity, not only in jobs, but also just being a woman, it requires or it
[SPEAKER_00]: This life demands, I should say, the labor when you're a woman, we are laboring in different ways, emotionally, spiritually, you know, not just physically.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's exhausting.
[SPEAKER_00]: It can be exhausting and draining.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my, the point of this is that.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, if you're like me, like one of the things that I am believing for and I'm so thankful that someone said this because it's something that I now stay every single day is that I believe that I deserve to receive and earn money without having to labor for it, no matter what my circumstances may look like.
[SPEAKER_00]: No matter what my circumstances may look like, because I firmly believe in ease.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in ease for black women.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe in flow and abundance for black women.
[SPEAKER_00]: But someone had mentioned that on threads.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't remember her name.
[SPEAKER_00]: But she said, one thing that she does every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she says, you know, Lord, thank you in advance for money that is sent to me or that I receive.
[SPEAKER_00]: without any labor of my own.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have to work hard for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll have to push through it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to grind myself into the dust.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm adding all those words.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was the gist of it, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So the point of it all is that if you're in a place of having to figure out where you can labor versus unlaborable.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're tired, maybe you're pushing through in certain areas of your life, but the money is not necessarily money, it might be funny, and you're having to make a decision like, okay, am I going to just no matter what push through, even though my feet hurt, a body hurts, a spirit is tired, a head hurts, my back hurts, my arms are tired, like, you know, or I'm dealing with like, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay,
[SPEAKER_00]: fibromyalgia or perimenopause or chronic illness or maybe diabetes or just you know just different things like that just different ailments like that want you to know that if you decide that you're going to pull back in certain areas of your life even if it might have meant extra money to be made I want you to know that you're not betraying yourself by deciding to honor.
[SPEAKER_00]: your body in ways that makes sense for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a betrayal to who you are.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a betrayal to your to your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a betrayal to your the goals you may have.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not a betrayal to
[SPEAKER_00]: you know deciding where to labor and not labor is not a or deciding when to labor and when to not labor is not.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not something that you should feel ashamed or guilty about.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though you know we exist in systems that require or say that we must.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must grind.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: We must do that just to even barely get by for some of us, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I want you to know that.
[SPEAKER_00]: deciding where to put your energy, deciding when to labor versus to unlabor, I like that so much, versus to unlabor, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not, it's not a betrayal.
[SPEAKER_00]: If anything, it's a slap in the face, and it goes against the systems that we were thrust into, and I'm here for that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, you have to, I feel, especially if you're a woman of faith, you have to
[SPEAKER_00]: miracles to happen.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to allow space for God to show you favor and you have to make space for just to align
[SPEAKER_00]: with whatever it is that you're calling in and pushing yourself to get there isn't always the way to go grinding yourself into the dust to get there, staying on that hamster will of labor and exhaustion like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, there will be results that you can get for sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: We know that the more typically you
[SPEAKER_00]: labor.
[SPEAKER_00]: The more money, of course, is going to be on the table, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: But for me personally, like the way that I'm setting my life up, yes, I do have a part-time gig now, but that doesn't mean that I'm still going to go, like I'm going to go all in in all areas of my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've had to make some decisions that still honor me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've had to make some decisions that still honor me because again, now, like I can't necessarily right now being a season or space where I'm going all in or full time on the podcast, because I don't have it in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, this labor that I'm now doing in this specific season with this part time yet, it requires a lot physically.
[SPEAKER_00]: yesterday I did like 15,000 steps.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did 15,000 steps a day before that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I did like 14,000 steps.
[SPEAKER_00]: So somewhere in my life and somewhere in your life, like if you're in a season where things are changing, shifting and more is being required of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have permission to pull back.
[SPEAKER_00]: in other parts of your life, with this knowing that, first of all, you're doing the best that you can, obviously, no matter what that looks like, you're doing the absolute best that you can, but with the understanding that you're deciding to unlabor is going to allow space for more to come into your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I believe that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Things may look a little rocky right now, but when you pull back in honor of your humanity, you pull back an unlaver and honor of your worth, you pull back an unlaver in certain parts of your life, in honor of just realizing that you were not put here to just grind yourself into oblivion.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you pull back you are making space for,
[SPEAKER_00]: favor to now you know intercede or for favor to now be on the table for grace to now be on the table you know I'll tell I'll share this and I don't know if she's listening or not I'm not going to see her name or anything but I know this to be true because I had someone graciously right on time
[SPEAKER_00]: reach out to me and say she wanted to bless me.
[SPEAKER_00]: This was literally just a few days ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she ended up, either Vinmo, I think was catch up.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's ended up catch happy me $200.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was extremely thankful for that because again, since I'm in a new season right now, and things have shifted, I am having to pull back in certain areas of my life, and like I said, I am going in this with the understanding that,
[SPEAKER_00]: no matter what, as I pull back in an unlabored, because I'm allowed to do that, because I see my humanity and me and I also see the humanity in you.
[SPEAKER_00]: When we do that, we are making space for others to pour into us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you're the person that always poured into others financially, emotionally, spiritually, things of that nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay for you to
[SPEAKER_00]: pull back a little bit and fill up your tank, okay, to pull back a little bit and allow others to pour into you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I have found that things just, I don't even believe in coincidences and coincidences anymore.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have found that, like I said, just right on time things will happen, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So being intentional about unlaboring, being intentional about prioritizing yourself, being intentional about
[SPEAKER_00]: saying that, you know, I cannot give my all all the time and I shouldn't have to, even though that can be very hard, obviously, I do feel like when we pull back a bit.
[SPEAKER_00]: It and we surrender and we surrender.
[SPEAKER_00]: Surrender is hard for me because I'm like, why gotta do this?
[SPEAKER_00]: I gotta do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I gotta make sure this happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: That happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this year, 2026 is definitely going to be a year of surrender for me and some shifting and things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to remind myself, and so this is why making this voicemail for you as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to remind myself that me unlaboring, me pulling back, me resting, me just doing what I can to make sure that ease is at the forefront as I navigate all this new stuff that's going on for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: of the life I want to have.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not a like I'm not I'm not trying to say like it's not like I'm like it's not I'm not unit as I am now I'm giving up because now I can't do this when I can't do that I'm not looking at it looking at it in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a time for me to really get grounded.
[SPEAKER_00]: maybe it is for you too, a time to get grounded in stepping back and doing like a analysis of who you are, who you are, who you're becoming, what feels safe for you, how can you get rooted in like this season that you're in right now and away that
[SPEAKER_00]: replenish of you, those good to you, uplift you, energizes you, helps you to feel safe and secure and just again rooted like your foundation like showing up your foundation that is what this season feels like it's asking for me today.
[SPEAKER_00]: getting rooted, you know, it feels like more unlaboring.
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels like more joy in this unlabour as I, you know, figure out what things to keep continuing and in what capacity and what things to release or stop doing or minimize, you know, into what degree and what capacity.
[SPEAKER_00]: you're not betraying your goals, you're not betraying the woman that you're becoming, you're not betraying anything when you decide that I am going to surrender.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excuse me, I'm not gonna push through all areas because I ain't got the energy or the physical, whatever capacity to do it or the bandwidth, you know, I'm saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, if you have to pull back to certain areas, if, like for me, for example, I may not, I may no longer do episodes every Monday.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as you know, the podcast, if I'm not holding onto that schedule, like if I decide which I'm still chewing on if I decide to do now two episodes a month, will I lose listeners probably?
[SPEAKER_00]: I might lose income, you know, things like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I have to do what is best for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to do what is best for me, and I'm not going to
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it doesn't serve me, it doesn't serve you, and it definitely doesn't serve me to show up when I'm exhausted, to feel like I can't be myself, to feel like I've got to push through.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like this whole, the podcast is not for pushing through.
[SPEAKER_00]: This podcast is not for laboring myself to death.
[SPEAKER_00]: This podcast is not for pushing through no matter what.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like that's just, that's just not what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's just not what it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I will tell you that if you love this podcast and you want to support me, you are always welcome to send cash apps, love offerings, things like that, go back and listen to episodes, help you know help me in that way, share the app, share the podcast, help me to keep the numbers of them so that, you know, I can still generate some income as I continue doing this work, you know what I'm saying, there's ways for it to work, that that would be more community-based, like the community supporting me,
[SPEAKER_00]: as I continue navigating all of this, you know, but I'm going to surrender into this season, I've decided that, you know, unlaboring more is going to be what I'm doing, and exploring this, this idea of unlaboring in a world that demands our labor and not even just on the job like I said before in a pretty much all areas and aspects.
[SPEAKER_00]: women, black women are required to labor, labor, and labor some more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do the heavy lifting, the emotional support.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I'm saying?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: This goes beyond rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, yeah, just this whole idea of unlaboring.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm flushing that out in my mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: But
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, that that's it in a nutshell.
[SPEAKER_00]: So definitely more to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm still trying to figure things out like I said before, but yeah, that this, you know, might be a little shaky for the next few months.
[SPEAKER_00]: So.
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked for grace as I navigate all that and let me know your thoughts if you listen to this episode if it resonated you can always leave a comment on Spotify I'm a bit behind on my Spotify comments but I will get to them you know your girl is just doing her very best.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, or you can send me an email on at connect.browngirlsselfcare.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, that's connectCO in ECT at browngirlsselfcare.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: But, again, just remind of all that to say, in certain seasons,
[SPEAKER_00]: When we think about seasons, I don't think I said this, but when we're thinking about seasons, we sometimes necessarily only think about the bloom, because the bloom is beautiful, things are shooting up, things are green, and grassy, and lush, like if you plan to get seeds, and the sky is sparkling, and crystal clear, and the sun is up, and it's bright, and all that,
[SPEAKER_00]: the flowers are multicolored and you got sunflowers and and the goners and, you know, willow trees and oak trees, like every in the animals are just nibbling at the ground, like acid tears and frolicing, and all that stuff, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: All that stuff, you think about blooming and harvesting and all that, but, you know,
[SPEAKER_00]: The truth of it is there's going to be seasons where, um, you know, that result of the harvest, you have to get to the point of the harvest and the bloom, you know, and I'm not sure if that's, something that we talk about enough of, but,
[SPEAKER_00]: sometimes you have to or not sometimes all the time all the time like reality check all the time you have to there are things that must happen to get.
[SPEAKER_00]: to that bloom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there are going to be some seasons that you enter in life where you are required to surrender, you're required to pull back, you're required to not go out there and do all the things and plant all the seeds and labor labor labor, labor, and toilet oil,
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, do all these other things that are required for the bloom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thinking of a supernatural bloom instead where the requirements are faith, the requirements are surrender, the requirements are pulling back, the requirements are unlaboring, the requirements are
[SPEAKER_00]: being still for moment or slowing down, slowing down a bit and pivoting and just having faith that even though you aren't physically able to go hard in the paint all the time, which I don't want to do that anyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just sounds exhausting, it sounds exhausting, I don't want to worry about body down.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when you're not going hard in the paint all the time,
[SPEAKER_00]: this supernatural like, or this energetic shift, I guess, is the easiest way to say it requires this shift in your beliefs or shift in.
[SPEAKER_00]: in your energy where you, you are intentional about slowing down and saying, you know, I believe that there will be a bloom that's going to be a supernatural bloom because I need to pull back.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to pull back a bit and I'm going to allow God to step in.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to allow my faith in what I believe in to step in and do this heavy lifting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like in those seasons we really are saying, hey,
[SPEAKER_00]: making room for like some supernatural blooms to happen in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm surrendering to what I'm able to do now, but I can't, I have to leave the rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, up to, up to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's, that's, that's where I feel like I am right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not making this for this episode to be 20 minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I should have just plugged in my microphone, but yeah, that's literally all I have to say right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, just thinking about what it means to labor in this country and unlabor in this country.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what that looks like, what that means, this pulling back, this re-evaluating of, you know, the bloom and harvesting and all that, uh, I feel like, um, that's definitely something that I,
[SPEAKER_00]: this season.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, thank you for listening.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you made it this far, I definitely appreciate you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, you can reach me at connectedbrowngirlsselfcare.com if you want to suggest more topics kind of like along the lines of this or if you have any listener questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, that's it for this week's episode.
[SPEAKER_00]: Have a blessed week and I will definitely definitely see you soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the meantime, continue thinking through some of these things that we talked about today, especially unlavering and what that might mean or look like for you in this season, especially as it relates to not only the pulling back, but the idea of allowing faith to supernaturally help you to bloom and grow and harvest.
[SPEAKER_00]: as you pull back, you know, making space for that, making space for God to step in as you pull back.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will see you very soon.
[SPEAKER_00]: Take care.