Welcome to the Black Girl Burnout podcast, Kelly here.

And today we're talking about how to opt into rest for your spirit, really giving

yourself permission to stop carrying the emotions of others, the things that keep us

emotionally exhausted. And we're going to dig a little bit more into why emotional energy is such

an act of rest. We've all been here before. Okay? Come with me on this journey. You're sitting with a friend and they're

venting with their problems. You're smiling and nodding. You're offering your advice. But once

the conversation's finished, you don't feel lighter. You actually feel heavier. You feel like

now you're carrying not only your stress, but their stress too.

Now I want you to think about that happening over and over day after day.

No wonder you feel drained.

In so many ways, black women are expected to be emotional caregivers.

Whether it's that friend or it's feeling like you carry the burdens of a community on your back or your family,

we are constantly holding space for others and yet not taking any time to replenish ourselves.

And that is such a recipe for emotional exhaustion.

And the thing about emotional exhaustion is that it's invisible, right?

It's like whereas people can maybe see when someone's physically being burdened,

you've got too many bags you're carrying around,

or you've got literally too much weight on you from things, that's visible. But when it comes to emotional

exhaustion, part of the reason why it happens is because it's invisible. And we wrestle with

this strong black woman expectation. You know my feelings on that.

I've done extensive episodes about how this lie, this myth and this lie about the need for

black women to be strong and resilient and emotionally available at all times and to be

...