—so Shankle’s focus on helping others, especially people of color, heal themselves is as helpful now as much as ever. Her advice on self-care reveals a wisdom honed from years of work in this space: Turn within, but continue to engage with and help your community. And ignore the pressure to get it “right." "People feel the pressure to take care of themselves 100 percent, 100 percent of the time,” she tells SELF, “and that it has to look a certain way. But we all have ups and downs.
There are obviously the challenges of navigating quarantine, but it's been super nourishing for me to redefine my day-to-day. Which often, in New York, is this toxic grind culture and need to perform. When you strip that away, you're really forced to look at yourself and reevaluate: Who am I? What do I do? All those things.
It hasn't been easy. When the pandemic hit, I was doing really well as far as making sure I was tapping in with myself and. It wasn't until everything spiraled with the murders and the racial injustice that I fell off my mark, like, super hard. And I think that's where we acknowledge that we're all human, and just because I'm in the wellness space does not exempt me.
A lot of people don't incorporate community. It can feel really intimidating. You might feel like you just took a class and you have to leave, or maybe there isn't an environment that allows people to come together in community after a class or have a conversation to learn and connect. While HealHaus has only been open for two years, I have been doing this work individually and with my shared community since my early twenties, and I'm 33.