Welcome to the Black Girl Burnout podcast, Kelly here.

And today I want to talk about how to opt into gratitude as a radical act of self-care.

I don't know about you all, but this year has been a lot. And for many people,

even as we wrap up the year, things don't feel particularly better. They feel worse. They

feel anxiety producing. There's just a lot going on. And if you have been feeling overwhelmed,

lost, and unsure what the future hold, or if it's even a good future, this episode hopefully

will be a reminder to center gratitude, but to look at it as a radical act of self-care.

All across the media, we are seeing a lot of trends.

I particularly am seeing, for example, on TikTok, that black women opting out has become something that is trending. And as you know,

if you've been listening to this podcast, we've been ahead of the curve here at Black Girl

Burnout and as listeners of Black Girl burnout, you've been on the journey to opting out.

So when elections don't go the way, maybe you thought it would,

when it looks like the treatment of black women is about what we thought it would be,

it has never been a more important time to rededicate yourself to the opt out, but to do that

with gratitude. Because after all, the opt-out isn't

about vengeance or anger, though feeling angry is a normal emotion, but the opt-out is about joy.

It's about understanding that by letting go, by no longer being trapped by the messages we get

from the world around us and from the systems that do not serve us, by liberating ourselves from

that, it is a path to joy. And as I've said before, joy and gratitude are linked.

I've never met a joyless, grateful person. And this week's episodes are all about how to find

joy and gratitude, even when things are not going the way we'd like, even when things require

us to make major changes in whether our mentalities or our literal lives.

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