playnext.fm

Living Corporate

Redefining resilience as liberation with Lauren Dike

·20 min·2 clips
Crystal Johnson guides a vagus nerve activation exercise to help Black women feel safe and lower their blood pressure.
The episode opens with host Crystal Johnson leading a somatic exercise involving rocking and eye movements to activate the vagus nerve and calm the nervous system. She introduces the podcast as a love letter to Black women, addressing high stress and mortality rates. Guest Lauren Dike introduces herself as a diversity inclusion and wellness consultant focused on helping Black women heal from misogynoir. They discuss resilience, with Lauren arguing it often rewards suppression and trauma rather than healing for Black women. Lauren traces resilience historically to slavery and post-emancipation struggles, where Black women normalized stress. She references research on skin-deep resilience, which requires pillars like community safety and healthcare access. Crystal shares a story of someone paralyzed by workplace stress, illustrating bodily shutdown. Lauren explains the science behind somatic exercises, noting they can discharge trauma in three to five minutes. She details allostatic load as wear and tear from stress, using a bucket analogy to describe cumulative health impacts like weathering. Crystal shares her personal experience with EMDR therapy after talk therapy failed, highlighting somatic approaches. Lauren offers practical tips such as humming and ear lobe massaging to activate the vagus nerve. The episode concludes with Crystal thanking attendees for the first live event and encouraging a reframed view of resilience as release.

As heard by us

A grounded conversation asks whether resilience can mean healing instead of surviving what should never have been normalized.

Crystal Johnson's conversation reframes resilience for Black women as healing, safety and release, not just endurance. The episode traces how the word can quietly reward emotional suppression, reluctance to be vulnerable, constant caregiving and survival through adversity.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

When resilience starts feeling like another assignment, press play for a softer, sharper definition of liberation.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on
Apple PodcastsSpotify
Play clips from this episodeMore from Living Corporate