I remember experiencing the effects of being highly stressed all the time, Marie tells Verywell.
I would go to my doctor, and shed say, This is simply stress.
I dont know any other way to tell you.
Gerald Carter
you oughta find a way to manage stress.
They were opening a community center for Harlem residents and offering free services of all kinds.
In 2018, she felt compelled to get trained as a trauma- and grief-informed breathwork practitioner.
Monica Terry
So, in 2019, she started black girls breathing.
Our tour sold out, and that gave me more validation that people really needed this.
We also had virtual sessions going on at the same time, says Marie.
Monica Terry
Pandemic Proves More Need
When the pandemic hit, black girls breathing stopped all in-person sessions.
Each session, Marie leads between 350 to 450 women through breathwork.
We use breathwork as a tool to strengthen that aspect of the nervous system and its automatic response.
Solomon Jones
[This] is hard for a lot of people.
For Black women, its extremely hard, they cant sit still, says Marie.
Then thefinancial strains of COVIDexacerbated the gaps.
black girls breathing
Additionally, many conversations about feeling alone in their struggles with mental health arise.
Thats really soothing and medicine in itself.
Also, it shows its OK to take care of our mental health, says Marie.
She also hopes to utilize the black girls breathing community to help breakhealth disparities.
She aims to partner with leading research institutions to help them collect data about Black women.
There is a lot of stigma toward providing data.
In the meantime, she says her community is growing fiercely in ways she didnt anticipate.
Weve been able to grow our global community because of the pandemic, and we plan to keep going.
American Psychological Association.Stress in America: January 2021 stress snapshot.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Risk for COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death by race/ethnicity.
American Cancer Society.Cancer disparities in the Black community.
Black Women’s Health Imperative.Heart disease in Black women: the big issue you might not know about.
American Heart Association.Heart disease in African American women.
