There is a liberation within you that you can access at any time, but first you have to identify how you’re chained.
Here’s How Internalized Oppression Shows Up In Our Lives:
No matter how loved and supported I felt by my parents, and no matter how much pride and self-worth they instilled in me as a Black girl, witnessing and being on alert that the energy could shift and violence could happen at any moment was traumatic.
Capitalism teaches us that our value is based on what we can do or produce for other people. So we overwork ourselves, don’t set boundaries, and people please to prove our worth and value — often feeling guilty or “lazy” for needing rest.
Patriarchy and Sexism devalues the voice of women and femme folks so we learned to silence ourselves, make ourselves smaller, to not advocate for ourselves…to dim our light with hopes that that’ll make us less of a target.
Heteronormativity, Homophobia, Queerphobia, and Transphobia presumes that there’s only one right way to be, one right way to love, and that we must center other people’s comfort over our own truth. So we feel shame and anxiety about our desires, and we suppress the most intimate parts of who we are.
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DEAR ONE,
Freedom is Your birthright.
In order to set yourself free, you’ve got to identify what’s keeping you bound, break the chains of self-limiting beliefs, and allow the truth of who you are to emerge.
the chain
“My worth and value is based on what I do and produce for other people.”
“I’m not good enough.”
“I’m not smart enough to make good choices for myself.”
the liberating truth
“I Am worthy of love, care, and connection – of all things good, simply because I am. There’s nothing I have to do to prove my worth. I am worthy of EVERYTHING!
Always have been and always will be.”
“I’m fully capable of caring for myself and I have an abundance of skills + resources around me. I have everything I need to decide the next best step.”
We are more practiced in oppression than we are in liberation.
The chain tells you that you have to prove you are worthy of love by being perfect and pleasing other people, but the truth of who you are is that you are Love itself…that you are worthy of everything.
Liberation,
Healing, and Joy
Erika's Philosophies for Personal and Collective Healing
There is a liberation that exists within us that we can access at any time.
We are free. Unfortunately, there are systems of oppression that we bump up against externally, and that we’ve internalized, that have us believing and experiencing the lie that we are not.
Healing does not have to take long.
Healing does not have to take long…it’s the resistance to it that keeps us stuck in patterns of self-sabotage…prolonging our suffering.
Healing cannot happen in isolation.
Perfectionism is what has us believing that we aren’t worthy of care, love or connection until we can present ourselves as “healed, whole” human beings. And it’s this belief that keeps us in isolation, trying to work on ourselves, by ourselves, or hiding our shame and guilt behind a mask. And that can only get us so far. We’re going to need to reach for our people, beloved community, our ancestors, the Land, and Divine Spirit/God/Goddess, etc. to support us along our journey, to get us where we desire to be, and that’s ok.
We’ve got to get to the root.
There’s nothing surface level about this work. Being in a practice of liberation requires that we get to the root of where the lies of internalized oppression reside in our mind, body and spirit – through a process of unearthing, understanding, and unchaining. And we must do it with each and every lie to truly set ourselves free.
Energy work is an essential healing modality.
When we find that we “know better” on the intellectual level, but our actions aren’t lining up with what we know, that’s often times a sign that we’re stuck in a somatic pattern. As trauma is stored in our bodies, we can’t just talk about it or pray about it to get out of a trauma response pattern, we must use energy exercises to clear it from our bodies…so we can choose something different.
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learn more about
The Unchained Living Process
A Liberatory Framework that moves you from the chains of self-limiting beliefs to the liberating truths that will set you free.
STEP ONE
STEP TWO
STEP THREE
We can't move toward liberation without naming the chains we're carrying.
Phase 1 of our work begins by unearthing any of the lies/chains (self-limiting beliefs) keeping you bound from embodying your most full and authentic self. Here, you'll identify the lie that's most present in your life and we'll start there.
Understanding the lie requires that we get to the root.
In Phase 2, we'll identify how the lie was spread (parent/ teacher/ intimate partner/ society), how the lie manifests in your life (people pleasing/ overworking/hiding, etc.), and develop a politicized understanding of self-limiting beliefs by naming the systems of oppression that contribute to them; i.e. understanding the correlation between feelings of unworthiness & “not doing enough” and capitalism; and the connection between imposter syndrome / perfectionism and white supremacy. Once we can see it all, the key question is this: Does that feel like liberation?
Anything that you believe about yourself that doesn't feel like liberation is a lie.
Therefore, in order to break the chain, in Phase 3, we’ll use a practice of visioning what liberation looks, feels, and sounds like for you - in contrast to how the chain manifests itself in your behaviors and mindset. Once that’s clear, I’ll support you in the practice of choosing to embody the liberation that already exists within you - moment by moment, and more often than choosing the old pattern of the chain.
“Before working with Erika, I was stuck.
I felt purposeless...and I couldn't figure out how to get out of it.”
– Nyesha Trusty
INSIDE THE UNCHAINED 90-DAY COACHING EXPERIENCE
The Unchained 90-Day Private Coaching Experience Includes:
• Twelve 50-minute One-on-One Sessions
• Unlimited virtual access via text and emails
• Six 15-minute ‘laser coaching’ calls between sessions
• Fierce Accountability and Support to reach milestones and stay on track between sessions
• Bonus: 30 Day Progress check-in upon completion.
