She needed a NAP!

Meet Lindsey Segal.  She is beautiful, accomplished, charismatic, and my cousin. 

"Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area (California, USA), diversity and disruptive innovation entertained my worldview. My family and community, critical-race and power theory, team sports, open-world gaming, and science fiction informed my core values of integrity, creativity, and community.

With a lifetime of experience interacting with people and technology, I facilitate cultural transformation by auditing, redesigning, and empowering systems to move towards an anti-oppressive and more humane model."

A true BOSS WOMAN in every sense of the word.  But she needed a NAP! 

(Article shared with Lindsey's permission. I pray this helps you the way it helped me.)

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Starting in mid-February, I took 3 weeks off of work due to burnout. I was on a call with a trusted SVP who held up a mirror and granted me the permission I needed to nap. I’m forever grateful for this individual and for the system that enabled me to do so.

Over the course of a year, I’ve experienced losing loved ones, friends, the end of a romantic relationship, moved to San Francisco and back to Oakland, experienced an acquisition,  transitioned from Executive Leadership Development and into the ‘DEI’ space, watched the continued murders and lynchings of Black and brown bodies from my iPhone, observed ‘allies’ and White-bodied supremacy emerge and disappear out of the woodwork, ate countless dinners alone at an 8-foot table, longed for the opportunity to hug, hump, dance, cuddle, sleep, cry, laugh, grieve, banter, cook, explore with others…

The Nap Ministry states “The more you sleep the more you wake up.” During my nap, I connected with  myself and folx I admire, and during my waking hours I’ve come to some gentle reminders and realizations:

1. “Know the rules of the game you opt-in to. If you are playing baseball, recognize that others are there is to play baseball, not soccer,“ Tony Hansmann, mentor, and former CTO @ Pivotal.

2. “It’s okay to lose sight of your North Star or your big arrow. It’s also okay to reimagine. Within this very process, we grieve,” my therapist through @BetterHelp, my coach through @BetterUp. 

3. Work is work. It’s not the totality of your identity. Invest in your passions and have them connected to streams outside of ‘work’ or financial capital, or capitalism. Thank you, Mom, for the constant reminder. 

4. “My experience is my expertise,” storyteller and activist Janaya Future Khan.

5. “The cure for burnout isn’t and can’t be self-care. It has to be all of us caring for each other,” Emily and Amelia Nagoski. Thankful for my family, community, and sponsors.

6. “Human-centered design needs to be applied to all creations. You must know who you are designing for. You must co-create with your user,” Vivianne Castillo, Founder of @HmntyCntrd. And yes, you can prioritize designing your own life.

7. People and entities can their state values. However, the embodiment of values is a whole different thing. A reminder of how much I love and thrive in agile work environments. Thank you, ‘The Agile Manifesto.’

8. Everyone is entering the DEI conversation at a different entry-point. Some are entering with PhDs and convictions found in a failing intergenerational spiritual system. They have the resources to change. Only they can do that. Shoutout to all of my Black and brown brothers and sisters surviving and thriving, and pushing the needle in tech.

9. “For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change,” the one and only, Audre Lorde. 

10. “The act of self-care is to acknowledge the body as an altar: a place of loving worship and devotion. Your physical vessel honoring those who came before, and those who will come after” Siedeh Foxie, found in ‘Black Futures.’ Thank you to all my sensatives, HSPs, and healers.

Moving forward I plan to continue to nap, to emerge myself in the communities that bring me life and joy, and invest the time to seek out those who facilitate 1:1 transformation (therapists, coaches, etc).  If you are experiencing burnout I encourage you to nap.

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Whew! Number 5 almost took me out!  

Thanks Cuz!