With a decade as a body liberation facilitator and a lifetime of lived experience as a fat, biracial, queer, neurodivergent person, Tiana Dodson is well-versed in what it is to exist in a multiply-marginalized body. As an active co-creator of the Syllabus for Liberation, her work addresses how personal, community, and global liberation depend upon each other. Through her consulting services, group offerings, and public speaking, Tiana highlights the ways these systems of oppression are bound together and how we can push back against them.
Do you ever doubt yourself, [FIRST NAME GOES HERE]?
Hey Reader.
Has it ever happened to you where you think you're doing a really crappy job, but your friends are really positive and complimentary about that very same thing?
This happens to me... a lot.
Because I'm apparently in a super deep, self-doubting season of life. Can you relate?
In the face of all that is going on in the world, where so many people are suffering in so many different (and similar) ways, everything feels horrible. I'm constantly criticizing myself about how much I'm not doing, how much better I could do the things I do do, and how maybe none of this matters anyway. Ugh.
But I've got wonderful friends. Oh gods, do I have a set of wonderful friends. I'm so grateful that I've been fortunate enough to be loved by these gorgeous people. And I'm so glad that I have made it a practice to do the work of cultivating and deepening these relationships.
Because when I feel like nothing is going well (and I'm feeling that *so often* right now), I've got this small group of folks around me that I can reach out to, share the heaviness that I'm feeling, and be gently gathered up and encouraged.
This is the beauty of community built around care and compassion.
But, even when we love others well and want to care for them, we can sometimes cast the doubts that we are feeling in our own lives on them, if we mean to or not.
Because, the truth is that sometimes we don't have capacity to examine ourselves or stay in the discomfort of the mess that we are in at the moment.
And there's nothing inherently wrong about that.
But, we do need to find ways to bring ourselves back to that self-examination and practice doing it again and again.
This is something I've been practicing myself recently (because OMG my liiiiiiiiife!!!), so it's been on my mind a lot.
Thus, in the quiet of tidying my kitchen one morning, I had some thoughts and decided to share them with you in this newly released podcast episode, Come Back to Yourself.
I hope you enjoy it... because I almost didn't release it (hello critical self!).
And if you do give it a listen, I'd love to hear your thoughts. Just reply to this email and feel free to share what came up for you while you listened, if it resonated for you, or even if you disagree with your whole chest (because there's space for that, too).
I'll talk to you soon, lovely.
In love, liberation, and solidarity,
Want to support my work?
If you'd like to support my work but don't have the cash or capacity to join a program, you can put a little something in my tip jar here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/tianadodson
And if cash isn't available, you can always recommend my work, share my social media posts, or forward this email to a friend.
Thank you so much for being here!!!
Sent with big fat love from a messy desk and a neurodivergent mind.
If you loved what you read, share it with your friends!
You are receiving this email because you subscribed at www.tianadodson.com, made a purchase from us, or attended an event we hosted or were featured in... and we're so happy you're here!
Tiana Dodson
With a decade as a body liberation facilitator and a lifetime of lived experience as a fat, biracial, queer, neurodivergent person, Tiana Dodson is well-versed in what it is to exist in a multiply-marginalized body. As an active co-creator of the Syllabus for Liberation, her work addresses how personal, community, and global liberation depend upon each other. Through her consulting services, group offerings, and public speaking, Tiana highlights the ways these systems of oppression are bound together and how we can push back against them.
Hey Reader! Years ago, I got into the work of Gretchen Rubin. She's somebody who did lots of research around happiness and even published a book about it. One big thing I took away from her work (nothing about happiness, somehow), was that I was an Obliger. Here's what her quiz results say about folks like me, "Obligers meet outer expectations, but struggle to meet inner expectations. Of all the Tendencies, Obligers are the biggest group, and the ones whom people count on the most. They put a...
Hey Reader. [read this with your ears by clicking here] Do you ever catch yourself sliding down the YouTube rabbit hole of videos that you're watching for "curiosity" or "entertainment" sake, yet are thinly veiled self-punishments because you spend the entire time judging yourself for what you aren't doing already but think you should be? No? Just me?? Well, that's fine. Because if you keep reading I'll tell you more about the wild landscape that is inside my brain and maybe you'll find...
Happy 44th unbirthday to you, Reader! (unless it actually IS your birthday today and then YAAAYYYY!!! Happy Birthday to yoooooouuuu!!!) I'm not a big birthday celebrator... I think it has to do with the fact that I put so much into producing birthdays for my child. But mostly it probably has to do more with the facts that I'm just mentally and emotionally busy right now and most of the people I really want to do stuff with live across oceans from me. Le sigh. Either way, I'm sharing my...