“Overextending myself is not stretching myself. I had to accept how difficult it is to monitor the difference. Necessary for me as cutting down on sugar. Crucial. Physically. Psychically. Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” Audre Lorde wrote this while she was actively battling her fight with cancer — a black revolutionary fighting for her community up to her last breath.

We are worked to death by a system that does not give us the time, space or ability to breathe. If we cannot breathe, we cannot speak. This is why self-care, as Audre Lorde declared, is an act of political warfare.

In today’s world we see self-care being capitalized on. It’s promoted by white dominated beauty care, corporate slang, and upper-class society. Self-care is presented as something that can only be attained through pampering and expensive indulgences.

It is laughable to tell the black community that we must take time for ourselves to heal when the system itself is still in place to prevent us from doing so. The same corporations that profit from self-care are the ones telling us our natural hair is unprofessional.

Our community knows firsthand about the pain that has been afflicted upon us. We have been fighting against this pain for generations. It is the same fight that is still active to this day.

The most memorable sound from my childhood came from my mom making breakfast in the kitchen at 5 a.m. before school. Black women, in particular, are taught they must always be working, nurturing and providing.

I struggle with allowing myself to just simply sit down to rest. It’s difficult not to keep myself constantly busy. Our bodies are convinced a bear is chasing us. Maybe it still is. Our minds are always racing through the issues we continue to face in this world and the senselessness of it all.

Our fight is not over. There is more we must do for our community. True self-care is community care. We must lean on and love one another. There is no revolution without rest. We must strategize as a community to get our needs met. After all, it takes a village.