The WELLTH EXCHANGE | March 2026

Where healing, joy, wellbeing, and liberation are shared as our true wealth.

Somatics + Rest + Nourishment + Storytelling + Community

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 The Weight of the Crown: 

Learning to Lead Without Carrying Everything

Five Things I Learned Launching WELLTH Labs

There’s something humbling about building something new. Not the kind of humility that comes from failure. But the kind that comes from listening more closely to the moment we’re living in.

Over the past year, I’ve been developing WELLTH Labs - locally rooted spaces designed to support wellbeing, healing, and community for Black women navigating the stressors of this racialized world.

The idea is simple, but not small. Bring women together in a safe, intentional environment. Introduce practices that support emotional and physical release. Create moments where we can step out of survival mode and reconnect with ourselves and each other.

In January, I planned to host a WELLTH Lab in Charlotte. A winter Storm Warning prompted a postponement. We rescheduled for March. We also scheduled a WELLTH Lab in Seattle. Ambitious, I know.

Three women registered for Charlotte, and one for Seattle. After reviewing the numbers and reflecting on the kind of experience WELLTH Labs are meant to be, I made the decision to postpone the event.

Some people might read that and think: “That must feel discouraging.” Honestly, it doesn’t. Because building something meaningful is rarely a straight line. Sometimes what looks like a setback is actually a moment of learning.

And as I reflected on this experience, I realized that launching WELLTH Labs has already taught me several important lessons about community, wellbeing, and the probable realities Black women are navigating right now. So I want to share five of them.

Lesson 1: Timing Matters

We are living through an incredibly heavy moment. The political climate continues to shift in ways that are unsettling for many communities. The news cycle rarely slows down. Violence, conflicts, and injustices around the world reach us through our phones daily. Here in the United States, we are also watching civil rights protections erode, economic pressures rise, and social divisions deepen.

At the same time, many people are navigating their own personal realities:

• Layoffs.

• Rising costs of living.

• Career transitions.

• Starting businesses.

• Caring for family members.

• Holding communities together.

For Black women in particular, these pressures often overlap. We are frequently expected to lead, to organize, to care, to show up with strength for others - even while we are navigating our own stress and uncertainty.

When you step back and look at the broader landscape, it’s not surprising that people may hesitate to commit to something new, even something designed to support their wellbeing.

Sometimes it isn’t a lack of interest. Sometimes it’s simply that the timing of an offering doesn’t align with where people are emotionally, mentally, or financially in that moment. Understanding timing is part of the work.

Lesson 2: Building Community Takes Time

WELLTH Labs are not just events. They are meant to be containers for community. Spaces where people feel comfortable enough to breathe a little deeper, tell the truth about how they’re doing, and explore practices that support healing. That kind of environment doesn’t emerge overnight.

It grows slowly. Through trust. Through conversations. Through shared experiences.

Many of the spaces where Black women historically experienced this kind of connection - churches, beauty salons, civic organizations, neighborhood gatherings - have changed or diminished over time. Some still exist, of course. But many people today are navigating their lives with less consistent community infrastructure than previous generations had.

Part of what WELLTH Labs are attempting to do is rebuild some of that connective tissue. But rebuilding community takes patience. It requires showing up again and again, even when the response is quiet at first.

Lesson 3: We Are All Carrying More Than We Realize

One of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is the idea of weathering. Public health researcher Dr. Arline Geronimus introduced this concept to describe how chronic exposure to stress - particularly stress connected to racism and systemic inequality - can affect the body over time.

Weathering isn’t always dramatic. Often it shows up quietly. Fatigue that doesn’t go away. Difficulty concentrating. Tension in the body. A sense that you’re always on edge, even when nothing specific is wrong.

Many Black women have become so accustomed to carrying stress that we barely notice it anymore. We just keep going. We keep performing. We keep meeting expectations. But underneath that constant motion, something else may be happening: our nervous systems rarely get a chance to fully rest.

WELLTH Labs were designed with this reality in mind. Not as luxury retreats.

Not as productivity workshops. But as spaces where women can pause long enough to reconnect with their bodies, their breath, and their own sense of agency.

Lesson 4: Language Matters

Another thing I’ve been reflecting on is how we talk about wellbeing. The wellness industry often uses language that feels distant from everyday experience. Words like “optimization,” “mindfulness,” or “self-care routines.”

But many Black women I know would not describe what they’re carrying in those terms. They might say: “I’m tired.” Or “I’ve been holding a lot.” Or “I just need a break.”

Part of my work moving forward is thinking more deeply about how WELLTH speaks to the lived reality of the women I hope to serve. Not in academic language. But in language that feels honest and familiar. Language that recognizes the quiet exhaustion many people feel without turning that exhaustion into another problem they have to solve.

Lesson 5: The Vision Is Still Worth Building

Even with the postponed Labs, I remain deeply committed to the vision behind WELLTH. Because the need for spaces of care and reflection is not disappearing. If anything, it’s becoming more visible. Everywhere I look, I see signs that people are searching for ways to reconnect with themselves and with each other.

• Line dancing gatherings across the South.

• Trail rides and cultural festivals.

• Book clubs and healing circles.

• Informal sisterhood gatherings.

These are all expressions of something deeply human:

A desire to be together.

A desire to feel seen.

A desire to experience joy and rest in community.

WELLTH Labs are simply one more way of cultivating that possibility.

A Mirror, Not a Judgment

If there’s one question I’ve been holding lately, it’s this: What might this moment say about the possible state of Black women’s wellbeing? Not as a criticism. Not as a diagnosis. Just as a mirror.

Many of us are navigating environments that require constant performance.

At work. In leadership roles. In families. In our communities. When everyone turns to you for strength, it can become difficult to identify where you go to receive support yourself.

That’s part of what WELLTH is exploring. Not just wellness practices....the deeper question of how we create sustainable ways of caring for ourselves and each other.

Spoken Word

“The Weight We Carry”

I was taught that leadership

meant standing tall

even when the ground beneath me

was shaking.

To show strength

even when my spirit whispered

rest.

To answer every call

solve every problem

hold every room together

like mortar between bricks.

Somewhere along the way

I learned to carry

more than my name.

I carried the team.

I carried the vision.

I carried the weight of speaking truth to power.

And because I was a Black woman

they called it strength.

They called it resilience.

They called it

“you’re so strong.”

But strength

is a beautiful word

when it isn’t being used

to justify your exhaustion.

Because leadership

should not feel like

slow erosion.

It should not feel like

you are the bridge

everyone walks across

without ever asking

if the bridge is tired.

I am learning now

that leadership is not

how much you can carry.

Leadership is knowing

when to set something down.

Knowing when to breathe

before you break.

Knowing when the most radical act

is to say:

I will not be the Superwoman

this world keeps asking me to be.

Because the women who came before me

did not survive

so I could inherit

only the labor.

They survived

so I could inherit

the freedom

to rest.

So now I am practicing

a new kind of leadership.

One where my body

is not the sacrifice.

One where rest

is not a reward.

One where I remember

that even the strongest women

deserve somewhere

to lay their armor down.

Journaling Prompt

What would leadership look like in my life if rest, care, and sustainability were part of the job description?

CLOSING

Leadership, especially for Black women, often comes with invisible weight. We lead in our workplaces. In our families. In our communities. In movements for justice and change. Leadership should not require us to sacrifice our bodies, our joy, or our peace.

Part of what WELLTH is exploring is how we create spaces where leadership and wellbeing can coexist. Where strength is not measured by how much we endure, but by how intentionally we care for ourselves and each other.

Call to Action

Growing the Black Wellbeing & Healing Directory

Healing doesn’t only happen in Labs - it happens every day in the hands, hearts, kitchens, studios, and sacred spaces of those who hold our communities. The Black Wellbeing & Healing Directory is a living, searchable hub for Black practitioners, creatives, food healers, and Black-owned spaces offering culturally rooted care. If you serve Black communities through healing, wellbeing, culture, or space, you belong here. Joining brings visibility, connection, collaboration, and opportunities to partner in WELLTH Labs and beyond.

Add yourself or suggest someone:  https://experiencewellth.com/amplifying

Until next month...#findyourWELLTH