Page 19 - RACE HEALER Mag Volume 1 final draft

Another way to avoid this adrenal fatigue is to build our own
virtual and physical spaces to rest and recover. For example,
can breathe deeply, affirm positive experiences, listen to mu-
sic, exercise, eat well and get outside ourselves. If you are a
non-conformist, find others like yourself to create alliances.

You probably realize the mechanisms to counter-act the neg-
ative forces of
chronic and critical
stress, fall into two
major categories
in order to pro-

mote healing and
If we are consciously aware that stressful stimuli stacked on
top of other insults occurring before the aforementioned 20 health: decreasing
minute recovery period, we might purposely seek out partners allostatic load or
for mutual support, take time-outs to as to interrupt the periods increasing resil-
of sustained levels of stress hormones that lead to permanent iency. What may
disease through tissue remodeling. not be as obvious
is that the same
Another approach may be to take proactive steps, such as iden- mechanisms that
tify culture champions, allies and mentors to help distinguish can mitigate health
between serious threats and relatively minor ones. Microag- disparities in stress
gressions need not lead to sustained levels of stress hormones if
the prior experience does not sensitize victims to future events in minority popula-
and interfere with rest and sleep. We are more apt to interrupt tions are inherently
maladaptive behaviors such as self-medication that can lead to beneficial to all of
depression. us.

Get to know the

author

Dr. Gomez is the CEO of LE Gomez Health Equity
Services LLC, in Washington DC. Dr. Gomez works
diligently to bring awareness of the impact of race-
based stress on the health of people of color.