Welcome to the Black Girl Burnout podcast, Kelly here.

And today we are going to talk about the phrase, the struggle is real. If you're like me,

I used to say this as practically a mantra. Every day someone would ask me, how are you doing?

I'd be like, girl, the struggle is real. And maybe you said it too. Because here's a thing.

The struggle can be real out here.

You might be coping with multiple different mini crises a day.

You might be worried about your physical health or a pressing assignment at work or the fact that people don't appreciate you at work.

You might be

burnt out of terrible first dates or disappointing partnerships. You may be feeling the burden of

expectation as a black woman of taking care of your family because that let's be real,

that always falls to us. You may be feeling struggle with your body image or your weight.

There is so many different ways that the struggle is 100% real.

But today, I want to challenge you a little bit.

And I want to ask a question.

The struggle is real, but does it have to be? One of the things that changed my life, I had this amazing conversation with one of my

closest friends. And we were talking about the language we used to describe our days. And if it's positive or

negative, and trust me at the time, it was a lot of negativity. I was losing it every day at a job

that was demanding and I didn't feel appreciated in all these different things. And I really thought

to myself and we had this beautiful conversation and we're having this

exchange and it dawned on me a little later in the evening when I processed the conversation.

What if there was a world where struggling was optional?

What if we can opt out of the struggle?

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