Welcome to the Black Girl Burnout podcast.

Kelly here.

And today I want to talk about how to opt into cultivating safe spaces.

This is an important topic because so many of us as black women are looking

for safe spaces. We are often feel like we are marginalized, pushed to the side, ignored,

or the opposite happens. We're very visible, but for a lot of of negativity and being a black woman doesn't always

feel safe the data and the statistics back that up and we know that the everyday journey of being in

the body of a black woman can be a very traumatic and unsafe experience.

And so in today's episode, I really want us to opt out of struggle by finding ways to create

safe spaces for ourselves and for each other and really opt into that legacy that we have, that a true inheritance of

community and, of course, as always joy. So I know for myself when it comes to cultivating and

finding safe spaces, that has not been easy for me. A lot of this podcast, as you know, is a lot

about my own journey to not be stuck in struggle mentality and to really access a life of joy for

myself. And part of the reason for so long that I didn't feel a lot of joy in my life was directly

linked to the fact that I just didn't feel safe.

I'd had a lot of personal experiences with folks, both in and out of the community,

that had made me feel unsafe. And having a life of that left me scared to be vulnerable,

scared to open up to new folks, and feeling really disempowered about the concept of safety, like that that was beyond something I could provide for myself.

And it really wasn't until I realized I actually can create my own safe space.

And also knowing what that meant to me, being able to define it, and finally then creating

that for others, right? True safe spaces as not just a one-way street. It's not that I only go to

places that feel safe for me. It's also that I create space for other people to feel safe.

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