Reclaiming Rest and Resilience: A Journey in Equity, Authenticity, and Self-Care

In this heartfelt episode of The Equity Hour, host Dr. Tami Dean returns to share an honest reflection on balancing personal wellness with the work of equity and social justice. Reflecting on the challenges and expectations often placed on women, especially those from marginalized communities, Dr. Dean opens up about her own journey to prioritize rest, set boundaries, and give herself the same grace she readily offers to others.

Dr. Dean discusses powerful themes from previous guests, including Katie O'Malley's (S2:E3) candid conversation on mental health and Katie Piotrowski's insights on burnout (S1:E22) . Through these reflections, Dr. Dean calls for a greater awareness of mental health and self-care in high-stakes environments. She emphasizes the need to “check on your strong friends” and reminds us that showing up authentically includes taking time for self-care.

Join Dr. Dean as she recommits to releasing two episodes per month, bringing fresh interviews with inspiring educators, leaders, and change-makers dedicated to creating equitable spaces. This episode is an invitation to embrace imperfection, recognize the power of rest, and lean into community support. Listen, reflect, and discover how to take your own next step in the journey of equity and self-advocacy.

Key Takeaways:

• Embracing rest and resilience as part of the equity journey
• Honoring personal boundaries and redefining productivity
• Insights from previous guests on mental health, burnout, and workplace well-being
• The power of storytelling and using one’s voice to foster community and connection

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Transcript

Tami: 0:32

Hello. Hello everyone. And welcome to a long awaited episode of the equity hour. With me, your host, Dr. Tami Dean. I am. So happy to be back in the space recording and. Reaching out to you. Um, This episode I'm, I'm calling. From my heart. I, this has been something I've been thinking about and pondering and. Working on putting out into the space. For a minute and. Those of you that have been listening. Know, I talk a lot about showing up as your true self and using your voice. To provide space for others to do that. And. In the first episode of this season. Katie O'Malley shared. A very touching story about her own challenges. with mental health and her work environment. And. The response was overwhelming and in support in feeling similar and. In that vein. I want to share some things with you today. I had thought about putting this out on mental health awareness day, and then that came and went. Um, but anyway, here we are. And so. I Get so much joy speaking with the guests on my podcast and interacting with educators. And business professionals on how we make a more equitable and just environment. How do we support each other? How do we build this community? And it is my greatest hope that. Any of you listening will have a takeaway from an episode, will learn something from this episode or any of the episodes that you feel like you can do or try or hear or see yourself. In one or more of the episodes. And so. I say all that today. Um, is I'm sure a lot of us women, especially, and even women from marginalized communities we're always expected. Uh, we just get things done. We do it. We keep plowing forward. Uh, we can high function in trauma. In challenge in. So many aspects of our lives and. Uh, it's no secret that, you know, I believe in therapy, I have a therapist. Um, I'm so grateful for her. And my journey. It's also brought me some awareness around. Myself and how much grace. And thoughtfulness I give to others, but don't always give that to myself. And so some of that of course is rooted. In shame around not doing enough or I should be doing, or I could be doing. And, you know, that really fits the narrative to being a woman. And. We talked about a book, a couple of few episodes back with Katie. Piotrowski on burnout. And I read the book and if you haven't, I highly recommend you read it, but it talks about that as well. Right. We just keep doing and being all the things for all people. And so I say all of that to come to. There has been, you know, a gap in my episodes and I have them recorded. I have some recorded, I need to edit them and put them out. And. Um, I haven't been in a place where I had the capacity to do that. And. I. Wanted to make sure when I put it out, it was right and good. And. In a self-reflection and transparency, because I think that is part of awareness and a part of this journey that we've talked about is, uh, I just needed to do the thing and get it done and do it. And. So, this is my message to you all. Sometimes you just need to do the thing and do it, and it doesn't have to be perfect because we're not perfect. And we're human. And I say all this to like, say check on your strong friends. Um, Because we will often seem. Like we have all the things together and we're doing it, but really in the background. Uh, there might be some challenges. And so. It is nothing to shy away from, or be ashamed of if you need to take some rest. To take care of yourself. Uh, Part of. Being your true self as admitting when you need that rest. And so that's what I did. I took some rest and, just some realization I would love, love, love, love to put out an episode a week. And that is just not in my capacity right now. So I'm going to. Scale it back to where we were, where it was obtainable. I'm going to do two episodes a month. I have some amazing. Interviews already recorded that I'm going to be putting out and finally sharing over the airwaves. thank you for my guests, for your patience. I'm excited to share your voice. And your, thoughts and work with the world. Some great. Wonderful guests. In the wings ready to come up. So. I say all that to say. I always want to walk the walk and talk the talk. And this is me sharing that with you. And so from the bottom of my heart, thank you for listening to my podcast. Thank you for staying with me on this journey. Thank you for sharing this with others. And I appreciate all of my guests that have been on those of you that are yet to come. And please don't hesitate to reach out to me if there is something you're interested in, or if you're doing some of this work and. You'd like to come on the podcast and share it with the world. I appreciate all the work everyone does. And I am. Looking forward to. getting back in the saddle for lack of a better, better word and interacting. Back with you all again. So. Use your voice. Share your story. Uh, because often when we share our story, people can find community and find. Themselves in it too. So thank you so much for listening. Be sure to subscribe. So you don't miss any future episodes. It would mean a lot. If you share this with others, that this podcast would speak to. Take care and have a great day wherever you are. And remember. To use your voice.