Ep. 118: Artist Rommy Torrico

09/03/17 • 53 min

Rommy Torrico is an undocumented trans activist and artist. They shared how her journey into being more intentional with self-care began as they moved away from their blood family. They discuss how growing up, their self-care was largely rooted in spiritual practices. Next, they explain the concept of "chosen family" and we discuss building supportive communities when traditional ones aren't available to us. They then explain what it means to be undocumented, how it feels, and the challenges to your mental health that comes with it. Then, we discuss the importance of community care in different communities. Rommy then discusses their journey as an activist from being more involved in direct actions, to taking more space to rest, and, now, using their art as activism. We then discuss privilege and self-care, including the privilege of having access to vocabulary. Finally, we circle back to the importance of boundaries and how we find them.

Previous Episode

Ep. 117: Carla Gaskins-Nathan of Auburn Seminary

Carla Gaskins-Nathan is a massage therapist and healer in resident at Auburn Seminary. She shares how her journey into self-care began as she got sick after working too much. That burnout led her to explore the limits of Western medicine and how Eastern medicine provides a framework to think more holistically about self-care. We discuss how Eastern medicine conceptualizes energy and how Carla came to think about protecting and preserving her energy. Next, we discuss how boundaries are fundamental for having time to engage in self-care. We also discuss how tropes around resiliency prevent people from taking care of themselves. Then we discuss privilege and self-care. Specifically, how self-care has been commodified and appropriated from communities that have always known how to do self-care. Then, we discuss how self-care doesn't happen alone and how our environments and the people around us shape our ability to do self-care. Finally, we discuss spirituality, religion, and self-care.

The transcription for this episode is available here.