On thriving : harnessing joy through life's great labors
(Book)

"A renowned doula and co-founder of Moms in Color shares powerful lessons on healing and thriving through the murky seasons of life in this moving, intimate guide to self-care, identity, mental health, and radical joy. Safe spaces, communion, knowing that we are loved-these are the things we long for. Brandi Sellerz-Jackson found them when she started exploring her encounters with loss and trauma as a way to confront her own grief, and she ended up creating a community for others to unleash their fears and heartaches. Now Brandi shares everything she's learned about the tools we already possess to not just survive but thrive. Comparing our thriving to plant life, she simplifies the complicated-and oftentimes overwhelming-journey as we attempt to grow in an inhospitable environment. Drawing from her experiences as a doula and intimate storytelling from her own life, Brandi guides us through the many phases of life's great labors: relationships, being other(ed), grief and loss, and mental health. In each, we delicately unpack traumas large and small. Brandi doesn't shy away from the pitfalls of these labors, but rather challenges us to actively remain present within them and ask ourselves: What do I need to thrive in the space I'm currently in? In relationships, we explore the meaning of intimacy, release ego, encourage autonomy, and learn to champion our highest joy. In mental health, we traverse the deep navigation of trauma so that we can raise a generation that is free of it. In otherness, we learn to reclaim space when marginalized and see rest as resistance. In grief, we cultivate the deep soil of sadness and allow it to act as a nutrient for our growth. With insightful and vulnerable storytelling, Brandi assures us that in trusting our path and foraging our way through emotions we've long suppressed, we can gather all that we need to thrive right where we are, right now"--