Welcome to Black Girl Burnout. Kelly here. Today I want to talk about how to opt out of choosing violence. You know that phrase today

I woke up and chose violence? We're going to talk about how to opt out of that. And more

importantly, across two categories, how to opt out of choosing violence against others and then

more importantly, choosing violence against ourselves.

I love that phrase, woke up today and chose violence because it has been so true for me.

Many a time in my life, I have woke up and chose violence.

And obviously, when we use that phrase, we don't mean actual physical violence.

We mean we chose to live in a way, speak in a way, and act in a way that actively is causing someone else pain.

And it's usually like emotional.

And when I say pain, it could be annoyance.

It could be struggle.

It could be that we chosen today to choose violence sometimes against

others in the way that we engage with them, more hostile or more like we're going to get them

today. They deserve it. Give them what we think that they deserve. But sometimes we choose

violence against ourselves. There are times where I woke up and I chose

violence against me. I proceeded to live my life in a way that brought me pain and frustration

and made me get what I thought I deserved, whether I was doing it consciously or unconsciously.

And while I love that phrase, I think it's funny, and I think sometimes it's really fun when

we use it in certain context.

I also want to acknowledge that if we live a life where we're waking up and choosing violence

each day, we are also actively choosing struggle.

And so I want to examine what that means when we choose violence against

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