Show notes –
Join Shannon & Christine as they chat about Physical Wellness with special guest Candi Dugas.
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https://truecolorstheatre.org/next-narrative-monologue-competition/
Shannon M. 0:08
Hi ladies, I am Shannon Mitchell, a black millennial business owner, the founder of shallow glow LLC, an all natural skincare company that helps you glow from head to toe. I am a champion for your daily self care, business care and intentional wellness. Hey, y’all.
Christine Gautreaux 0:23
I’m Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, and international speaker, coach, published author and dancing social worker who helps you upgrade yourself and community care.
Shannon M. 0:35
Together, we are women connected in wisdom, a podcast grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:39
And we like to get together every week for intentional conversations between us and special guests about how to be wise in business relationships and wellness. How do we be well, in the midst of chaos? How do we do all this right? And it’s more than just one thing, and we like to learn from each other.
Shannon M. 0:58
To start off season 11, we’re talking about physical wellness. And physical wellness is the ability to maintain a quality of life that allows you to thrive in your daily activities without undue fatigue, or physical stress. physical wellness recognizes that our daily choices, habits and behaviors have an impact on our overall health, well being and quality of life.
Christine Gautreaux 1:24
Like even if you say that my body is like giving distressed signals today, like not to make fun of it, but it’s like I’ve been traveling. And you know, when you’ve been traveling by air and by by car and not sleeping in the same beds. And I was when I got here to back to my parents house today. I like felt this little tug in my back. And I’m like what is happening? Because I usually don’t have that right. And I think it is from the car ride. But I’m also like, as you read that definition, it’s it’s sometimes like when people say the word chiropractor, and all of a sudden I know exactly where I’m at. And the the just I think my body’s reacting to that too, because I’ve been off routine the last two weeks. Yeah.
Shannon M. 2:08
Yeah. And that makes sense. You know, and same thing, same thing, especially with everything revving up right as I leave the salary job getting ready for the community and the book tour and they’re all in the retail space. Next. Next. I used to say next month now it’s next week. It’s it’s all been setting up. So really intentional and not judging the signs that I see. But what’s going on What do I need to do? How do I adjust and try to be balanced? Right? I love kombucha because it helps us with that. That just a pH balance. But we talk about work life Django, I guess we could say Django for wellness too. Right and just try for the eight dimensionally. Exactly. Okay. Okay,
Christine Gautreaux 2:51
how fun would that be? Right? I would just take for offices, like, do we need to talk a little on the spiritual wellness, or do we need to take on the physical wellness,
Shannon M. 3:02
a really big one for the in person conference,
Christine Gautreaux 3:04
but this wasn’t? Oh, do you know it? You know, my little makerspace? Heart? I got you. I saw it. Before we pull up our guest, I heard you say it, but I don’t think we’ve told our listenership tell folks that are listening about your retail space, if they are in or around Atlanta, like how can they come meet you and join you and what’s happening there?
Shannon M. 3:28
Yes. So thank you so much for that. Yes, you guys are definitely invited. We are opening our Small Business Saturday at two to eight Auburn Avenue. Super excited to be sponsored by spark and Bank of America to be in the neighborhood. You know, Auburn Avenue is definitely historic in black business. So when I think about, we built rebuilding Black Wall Street and generational wealth and helping people in business, I’m super excited to be part of that. And for all of the entrepreneurs that are going to come up through the spark program after that, but that’s going to be next Saturday, and then we’ll be there every day after that.
Christine Gautreaux 4:07
Saturday, I’m so excited to be there and celebrate with you. I can’t wait to go by product person.
Shannon M. 4:14
Super excited. We have people on the list. So we’re going to be there all day come out and the specifics will be on our social media. So if you follow when we connected in wisdom, you’re already connected to Shiloh glow. If you don’t, it’s JLo glow.com Shayla glow on all social media platforms. And if you have any questions, you can email me and we’ll get you the information that you need.
Christine Gautreaux 4:35
Absolutely, no, you’re gonna have some books there too, my friend.
Shannon M. 4:37
Yes, of course of course because che lo glow is in the book, right? If you do not know, my chapter is on physical wellness and talking about how I needed to be plugged in and didn’t know how to take care of myself. So we were talking about it before the call Christine like where do I start? You know, so yes, come get some product come get the book and the resources in your hand so we can be intentionally well on a daily basis.
Christine Gautreaux 5:00
And we’ll put all that in the show notes too. So don’t worry if you’re driving down in your car. You don’t have to write it down. You can write back on on the website and grab it in the show notes. But yes, I am so excited to bring up our guests today. Are you ready? Yeah, let’s do it. All right, let’s do this Shaw. Doctor candy do God is a New York Times award winning Sedona Atlanta based writer, dramaturg producer and cultural organizer compelled to complete freedom. Every project she curates come from the longing that lives in her breath to help make this world a better place, which includes investing in and collaborating with other creatives. Most recently, she wrapped an eight day wellness retreat and conference called Building freedom, which proposed that for black us Americans to be fully free. We must intend to be holistically healthy and take all necessary steps in between to arrive at this kind of liberation. Additionally, she’s producing for True Colors theater, their next narrative, TM monologue competition for high school students for the 2022 2023 season. Also coming up is a theatrical community event with the Morehouse School of Medicine Initiative. Fathers matter ATL, my side of the story, the black father shares his truth. This is her meaningful work at the intersection of art, community and social justice. When Candy’s not making art or chasing freedom, you’ll find this rare Atlanta native enjoying precious time with her daughter, Jordan, other family and friends and her dogs, Xena manifesting dreams, being one with the universe, questing adventures and making memories. Y’all I am so excited to invite to our stage Dr. Candi Dugas.
Candi Dugas 6:57
Thank you. It’s wonderful to be here. Thank you for having me.
Shannon M. 7:01
Absolutely. I love that. So you do a lot, right, like a lot of our experts, but I’m so excited to talk to you about. It’s in our bones in the true color monologue competition that you have going on. I think it’s so important to help the youth with their voice and everything that they have going on, especially right now. So I’ll let you have the stage. And I would love to hear more about what you have going on right now.
Candi Dugas 7:26
Sure, sure. So I think that where we start, I heard y’all talking about where do we start about being healthy and whole physically, as well, as holistically all parts of ourselves is the awareness that we’re actually unwell. And then the desire to do the work to be well. I think we take it, you know, our bodies, and our entire being is so well made, it takes a lot of abuse. If we think about all the things that happen to it before it collapses or get some sort of big disease, there were signs along the way it was, it was a it was a long time before it became a part where your body was like, Look, sit down and take care of yourself before that happens. And so I think we are more often than not disconnected from the ways that our body might be unwell. And, and so once we are aware of that, then we’ve got to decide to do the work to be well. It just doesn’t just doesn’t happen easily so much. I was talking to a friend of mine who is a talk therapist, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapy therapist, therapy counselor. Anyway, LMFT
Shannon M. 8:44
Marriage and Family Therapist,
Candi Dugas 8:46
here we go. Yes. And he was saying what he’s seeing in his practice. I’m glad I’m glad that people are going to his practice. What he’s seeing is that people don’t want to do the work. They’re not really up for all that it takes. And I and as a person who has been doing talk therapy off and on since I was a freshman in college. I know it takes a lot of work, and it’s very uncomfortable. And it’s hard. And there are times in therapy that I have gone up against something. I was like, Oh, I don’t want to deal with that right now. But what’s what’s more important for me is what’s more important for me is are the benefits that come from it and the health and the improvement and the wellness and the growth that I get from it. So I go back and I tackle it again. So I think that’s important for us to know.
Christine Gautreaux 9:38
I love that. In Canada you and I met through alternate routes, social justice organization, based out of Atlanta but a southern based organization and I would love for you to talk about with wellness in your theater work in with the youth that you’re working with. Like how that all comes together because I I see you do it beautifully. And I know it does. So I’d love our listeners to hear from your voice like how that how it all comes together?
Candi Dugas 10:07
Well, I’m excited, this will be my first full season, producing the next narrative monologue competition with true colors. And so I’m excited to see for myself how it’s going to manifest with the students, what we imagine what we’re seeing so far in the early days of the residencies of our teaching artists going into our partner schools, is that the students are very grateful to have someone listen to them and to pay attention to them. Some of the veteran more veteran teaching artists talk about how kids get attention, because they skipped class, or you’re not paying attention in class, or they’re talking in class or you on their phone, or they forgot to turn in an assignment, we get the chance to pay attention to them for who they are. And so before we ever get into any of the coaching around how to perform a monologue, well, we spend some time getting to know each student as a person. And you know, one thing that we know with any of our professions is that we are best we show up best in our work when we are at our best as people. And so I really am excited about the opportunity to invest this kind of awareness in our young people and and pray that it goes a really, really long way toward the kind of people they will become as they grow older and mature into adulthood.
Shannon M. 11:32
Yeah, I think is so important, you know, whether it’s from how to tell a teammate, Hey, I didn’t like the way that you said this, or what was it in that situation, or how just the verbiage in general, you know, being a kitchen manager, you deal with so many different people for different reasons on celebrations, or somebody passing away, or it’s a staff member or somebody that’s come to enjoy themselves, or even as a person. Of course, the personal side, there’s so many different layers of communication and conversation that we have to where if you as an individual don’t know how to articulate stuff that can lead to a lot of deficits and lead to a lot of words, you’re talking about being unwell and certain areas where you may have had support or could have could have had a resource or maybe we’re in a better position, or maybe you weren’t aware of the position that you were in because of lack of connection and lack of communication. So that’s why I’m so excited about what you’re doing with the high schoolers, because I think while they have that structure of the time, when they find out their voice, and then they can go into the world and dictate how they use their time and make their money. I think having a voice that’s been coached and been tweaked and honed will be priceless.
Candi Dugas 12:45
Absolutely. One of the things that we learned in our training with Jade Lambert Smith, who has developed what she calls la Mola. It’s an authentic approach to developing artistry. And one of the things that we include in our process with the students is discoveries, connections and inquiries. And so the reason why she includes that she was telling us is because a student can ask a question and an asking questions is not necessarily supported in every group. And so if a student asks a question, and another student might find it funny and might snicker, then the student who asked the question will shut down and never ask another question again. But in this process of DCI discoveries, connections and inquiries, they get used to constantly asking a question, what did the playwright mean by this to you think? What effect does this have on on another character in this scene, and just constantly constantly inquiring? And that gets them used to asking questions and gets them used to, as you were saying, Shannon, all kinds of responses that you may get from your question. And then the more aware of who we are, the more healed we are, the more confident we can be, and engage in those conversations and ways of communicating with other people. So absolutely. Yeah.
Shannon M. 14:09
And engaged from a whole place, you know, somebody Kandi, and I kind of disagree, but we can still have a conversation or if I need to take space, and sit with myself that night, then I can process it and let it go and keep going. But I think that that’s so important with how we think about it, like we’re storing our energy, you know, you go home, you take a shower, you’re unwinding, you’re getting ready for bed, and I think about releasing all the this type of energy to write the intangible energy that we were talking about before we came on. I think that’s huge. And being able to articulate stuff. I feel like helps you process better.
Candi Dugas 14:48
Yes, yeah. And that one of the other parts to the next narrative monologue competition is that these are brand new commission To pieces that the theater has requested of contemporary playwrights. So this was the brainchild of artistic director Jamil Zhu, right. So believing that we love our classics, we love all of the work that those who have gone before us have created for us. But what’s today’s voice, and I was on a call earlier today with the National in an MC team. And they’ve been talking about how the students are really appreciating that we have contemporary playwrights some that aren’t very far from their ages, writing these pieces that they can engage with about matters that they talk about among themselves, that they’re concerned about. And and there’s a great possibility that any of these playwrights can pop up at any of their regional competitions, and they can talk live with them about what they experienced with these monologues. And so, yeah, kudos to Jamil and the True Colors team for coming up with this idea and making it happen.
Christine Gautreaux 16:00
Well, what I love about that, too, candy is the fact that, you know, traditionally, we’ve used old white dead playwrights as the people, that’s the standard for theater. And I love that that is changing, and especially love that it’s changing on a national and international level. And how exciting and I would be curious about your take on this because, you know, in my I have I have young adult children and I I’m around a lot of youth, and they’re demanding it. I mean, they’re like, Come on y’all, like get with it. We’re, we’re done with and I love that. I just love that so much. And I had a question for you just because I would love our listeners to know like, how did you get involved in theater? How, how did this become your passion, and part of your wellness practice?
Candi Dugas 16:55
You know, it started long before I knew that it would be theater. Um, like a lot of young people, I didn’t go to theater as a kid. We went to the movies, to see the movies, the talking pictures, watched a lot of TV. But, and that was I was an only child of a single mom. So I spent a lot of time around adults or by myself, loads my Barbie dolls. And I would create stories with them. I’m creating worlds. I remember one time my mom and I moved into a house from an apartment, so she didn’t quite have furniture to fill all the rooms. So the front room, that would have been the formal living room or sitting room was empty. And so I took all of my Barbies and all of their things and I created this town and I would create these stories. And then one year for Christmas or my birthday, I got a tape recorder, you know, cassette tape recorder, and I used to make up songs and I’d record myself singing and probably what would be considered monologues then. And so I was in and we didn’t have a typewriter in the home. And so sometimes when my mother my mother was an English teacher, and sometimes when she had projects to do that needed to be typewritten, she bring home a typewriter from the school over the weekend. And I loved it. I just love touching the keys. And I would write stories, short stories and things of that sort on the typewriter. As far as theater officially when I became a senior in high school, I had fulfilled most of my requirements. And so I was looking for classes to fill my schedule that I would get an A not affect my grade point average or anything when it real easy things to do. And so I took drama class, just just take this class, and I loved it. Mrs. lanell Chance was my teacher. And one of the projects that we had, we had to write a script. And so I wrote my first play, looking back and it was so awful. It was some sort of regurgitation of what of watching soap operas with my grandmother is something like that. But that’s how I got started was with that. And I just kept and I realized that my my superpower my primary talent in this whole storytelling world was with dialogue. And so I went to a predominantly white high school Lakeside High School in DeKalb County, and we didn’t have much going on for Black History Month. So inspired by participating in the state of Georgia is History Day competition. I’ve done some sort of slideshow for that. I’ve talked to my teacher said let’s do something for Black History Month beyond showing the slideshow and so talk with Mrs. Chance and all of my classmates. So we wrote the script and we produced a black history. Month play, took that to college did it there everybody loved it and then every year for Black History Month. We because I went to the University of Florida and despite I hate the fact that when I was there, there were like 36,000 students and 2000 of us were black. We had a really robust Black History Month programming. And so I wrote a new play every year at UF until I graduated. And then when I came back to Atlanta, I met Carol Mitchell, Leon, if you want to threes for sisters only event, I was like, How do I get involved in this. And so she sent me to the, one of the precursor organizations that became working title playwrights. That’s when I started taking my playwriting seriously, before it felt more like a hobby. But when I started to interact with professionals, and they say, this is really good, or if I submitted it for talking about the external validation we were talking about earlier, or if I submitted it to a competition, and it was like, oh, okay, I’m a professional player right now. So that’s,
Shannon M. 20:55
that’s what got me going. And I’m glad that you just connected that right. Like, I am the professional because and I was gonna say that, you know, we talked about inner ally here on the podcast, and you said, it wasn’t until I started encountering professionals, and Little did you know, you were the professional helping other young people, you know, so I love a good. I love stories like your story, you know, they’re so inspiring. And in the midst of all the celebrations and the and actually, before we go on, let me go back to the you wrote a new play every year in college, and you didn’t think that you were there yet?
Candi Dugas 21:31
Because I didn’t take you know, beyond my drama class in high school, which again, still, in my mind, yeah, was an easy a casual thing, right. I didn’t take drama in college. I didn’t really participate with the college’s Theatre Department. This was something that I did as a part of community, you know, the Black Student Union, and it was their community activism.
Christine Gautreaux 21:57
Yeah, yeah. Under a different bucket, even though Yeah, yeah.
Shannon M. 22:04
English teacher.
Candi Dugas 22:05
I know in my paternal grandmother was a librarian and my maternal grandmother told hold.
Shannon M. 22:13
Well, audible storytelling, okay, women connected in wisdom. You see this, Christine is when I write candy is oh, it’s always like, when you actually, this is actually how I accidentally stumbled upon my purpose. You know, it’s always connected through generations when we just lay it out this beautiful. Yeah,
Christine Gautreaux 22:31
another connection. I want to name real quick before I forget, my middle name is lanell. And I don’t know that I’ve ever heard another person, my aunt has that name. But when you said lanell chance, my whole body just lit up. Because I don’t know that I’ve ever heard that name spoken outside of my family. So thank you for that. I want to honor her. And what a wild thing.
Candi Dugas 22:56
Oh, you’re welcome. Absolutely. Yeah, love connections. Like that happens all the time in my work, actually. And so I’m glad to add this to, to that experience. Oh, my grandmother, my paternal grandmother that was a librarian, and I think also taught English in some ways. She passed away when I was 13. And I only recently learned that she produced plays at the school where she was no one ever told me before. So that’s, that was exciting for me to learn. And I said, okay, okay, I get it honest. All right.
Shannon M. 23:32
I love it. And so what I was gonna say to before we gave some moments for the celebration of everything that you’ve done already, was talking about the connection, right? Because we keep going. And as when we were doing all this stuff, five classes and three jobs and college, I was doing all this stuff. And after I’ve been doing this, right. But before the show, we were talking a little bit about the trauma that happens, and it happens on a daily basis, right? What happens when you’re like, Hey, I’m an Amazon best seller, and somebody responds the wrong way. Or maybe you’re questioning how you share, you know? So I would love for you to talk a little bit more about it’s in your bones and how to how you help people deal with that on a daily basis as they share their voice.
Candi Dugas 24:14
Tell me more about your question. Like if someone comes to me with some sort of experience that is not affirming or something
Shannon M. 24:24
like why No, not necessarily. So what I mean is how you were saying the daily trauma that might happen sometimes right and knowing that it’s in our bones and actively being intentional about being whole operating from a well place and doing that while while still keeping your voice intact.
Candi Dugas 24:42
I think what I know about awareness is that you cannot make anyone become aware. That is part of our own individual journeys. And we know this from from the work that we do with addictions, no matter what your Drug of choices whether it’s food, sex, you know, what we categorize as drugs. We can not work, we can overwork, gambling, all those kinds of things. We net as much as we love the person who may be living with the addiction, until they come to the awareness themselves. Every I mean, I guess what we do helps, maybe. But it’s not until they decide I need to manage my life differently that any significant and sustainable change happens. And so when I talk with other wellness practitioners, about how this is, you know, we’re chopping it up. And we’re coming up to these realizations and stuff like that, how do we share it? How do we help people be better, because we know what we know about individual awareness. I’ve decided, the way that I approach that is I put out content and thank God for the Internet and stuff like that now it’s more accessible to people. So right now I’m in this meditation kick, I am recording and publishing meditations that live primarily on YouTube, and I promote it on my social media sites. So that when people are ready, they will, the content will be there and they can engage in it, and then contact me or any of the other practitioners for more information or when they when they’re ready to take steps. So I think that’s, that’s how I do it. And you know, what I was gonna say earlier, you talked about the social justice being a part of the plays that we produced and the artistry that we produce, no, every essay, okay, I’ve written all these plays about social justice topics, let me do something fun and light. And inevitably, then these themes of social justice start to come through and so I’ve accepted that as a part of it. And I let it live alongside So you’re absolutely on point with that so that’s what I do. I do what I love that you out there and let it be for the people when they’re ready. You tell
Christine Gautreaux 27:05
folks your YouTube channel it’s a we’ll have it in there in the show notes. But can you tell folks listening your YouTube channel to find those meditations?
Candi Dugas 27:13
Yes, candy do got and Associates and you know, YouTube is coming up now we will let you have handles. Yep. on there. So I just recently created the handle is called candy do God collective because we’re going to be changing the name really soon. So you should give it if, if, if YouTube’s made it live and it’s going to be at Kenny do ca collective if not just Google Kandi Dagon associates.
Christine Gautreaux 27:39
I love that. And we’ll have that in the show notes. So folks can click on that. Yeah, yeah, cuz our new handle is gonna be women connecting wisdom. But y’all
Shannon M. 27:51
are, okay, so more about what you were talking about candy with, because what we like to do, too, right? What the eight dimensions of wellness is show people how they’re intersectional in ways that you might not think. So right now we’re talking about the true colors and the monologue competition, we talked a little bit about, it’s in your bones and things that you do to help balance that, but how else is your work connected to physical wellness?
Candi Dugas 28:21
Well, I think I did a video about why black people need to meditate. I don’t, I think that I think that meditation is a wonderful tool for helping us to relax and to be in touch with ourselves, that too many black people do not practice and aren’t aware of it’s, you know, if, if we’re, we’re the typical black person, we’re not monolithic. But if you’re the typical black person, you probably came up through the church in some way through Protestant church in some way, in meditation is not a part of it, you know, that’s, that’s, that’s for Eastern traditions. That’s what white people do. That’s, you know, all these other kinds of other labels that you might put on it. And we’re not that familiar with it. But it’s, so I did that I did that video on why we should meditate. And it talked about the post traumatic stress and post traumatic slave syndrome that we have experienced through our ancestors, because the if the trauma has not been cleared or healed, we’ve inherited it. And then on top of that, are all of the tension and the stress that we have of living while black. And what that creates for us is living in a perpetual flight or fight mode. That’s a temporary thing that our body does to protect us. But if we can think about what that means to live like that day in and day out, and the stress that it puts on our bodies and our soul systems if they go into overdrive, and it creates this awful, awful cycle within ourselves, cortisol is our primary stress hormone. And when we have that operating in abundance, it creates these conditions that lead to anxiety, depression, digestive problems, headaches, muscle tension and pain, heart disease, heart attack, high blood pressure, stroke, sleep problems, weight gain, memory and concentration issues. And what really pisses me off about this is that black people get blamed for having poor health. And then we can blame ourselves for having poor eating habits, not exercising, whatever, whatever, when there is a nugget of our conditions. That risks in the fact that we live in perpetual fight or flight and our cortisol levels. Levels are all over the place, and it creates these conditions. And so you can’t blame the victim for this. Hey, y’all, this
Christine Gautreaux 31:04
is a great place to take a break. Take a deep breath, and hear from our awesome sponsors that make women connected and wisdom podcast possible. Shannon, we are so grateful that Shayla glow is the sponsor of the women connected in wisdom podcast. And I wanted to take this moment to ask you when you think about the people who use Shayla glow, where are we talking about?
Shannon M. 31:29
That’s a good question. I think about three groups really one group that’s removing hair, right, so whether you’re using laser hair removal, waxing, shaving, you got to make sure that you’re putting back what you’re taking out the second group, I think about those with dry skin, and the problems that that might cause right, the scars, itching, burning, whatever the situation is, you definitely need all three steps, right? The exfoliation making sure you’re taking the dead skin cells off the oil, putting in the moisture, and then the shea butter with the aloe sealing it helping you heal those things help both groups, right. And third, for the third group is those with chronic illness. You know, the story is personally from cancer and different diseases that our population is dealing with on a daily basis throughout families as individuals. So I’m thinking about my mom and my grandmother and those around me with the same generational ties, right, and what positive healthy habits, we can start to make sure that we’re maintaining our wellness, especially because the skin is like the cape, the exterior the the shield for your immune system. So with COVID We have to be intentional about covering ourselves. And those are the groups I think about.
Christine Gautreaux 32:41
I love it. And you know what else I love about your product? It’s all natural, handmade, and it smells great, y’all, so yay.
Shannon M. 32:51
Yes, Esthetician tested and approved. Yes. Yes. What about you? When you think about your company? What groups of people do you think about?
Christine Gautreaux 33:01
Well, you know, I work with individual coaching clients, I work in community classes and with corporate teams, and with all of them, I use a strength based embodied approach to help folks connect with themselves and access joy, reduce burnout, and build resilience. You know, especially during these times, I think we need it, I think we need all the hashtag partnership power we can get.
Candi Dugas 33:23
Yes. So along with why black people should meditate, I also have a video. That’s my first meditation called that somebody before me named this point is meditation. It’s a combination of a bedtime story, and a meditation. And so if we’re not sleeping at night, what can we do during that time, a lot of experts say get up, move away from your bed, and go to some other place in your house. And so I’m offering this meditation is something that you can do, don’t toss and turn in your bed. I mean, there’s some other things like create a certain kind of atmosphere for you to sleep yadda yadda yadda. But if you’re in the middle of it, and you’re waking up in the middle of night, you’re scrolling through on your phone, stop scrolling, and taking in stimulation that way, go and find a tool that can help you release. And then if you fall asleep, you’ve got some good stuff coming in. So if you’re if you’re watching the TV, you don’t have any idea when you fall asleep, what’s going to be on after you, you know, in the next show that this way, you know you’re taking in some things that will be helpful to you and contribute to your overall health. Those are the kinds of things that I’m doing to help us with that. And I’m working on a longer meditation. It’s going to be like an hour long and then I’ll loop it so it can last for about three hours. Sometimes you can wake up at three in the morning, and you’re not going to go back to sleep. It gives you something to accompany you and I like to hear voice Is of color. So I’m contributing to the library of voices of color, so that I can hear a voice like mine in my head. And it can take in more good stuff like that. It’ll expel all the other stuff that’s not helpful. That’s even toxic, and contribute to our overall
Christine Gautreaux 35:19
health. That it’s so awesome. Are you? So that’s on YouTube? Right? Yes. Are you on Insight Timer yet?
Candi Dugas 35:28
I have not. I have not. I’ve looked at those, you know, because you want to see what else is out there. And had in the back of my mind, how do I get on Insight Timer, but right now I’m building the library, because there are only there, I think I have maybe 11 or 12, meditation videos total nice, you know, over time, and maybe five that are more recent. So I’m working on building that library.
Christine Gautreaux 35:56
So cool.
Shannon M. 35:57
I love that I love that, especially the meditation, because I have I have a degree in psychology. So I’m really intentional about screen time that 30 minutes before I go to bed, you know, hopefully, my phone shouldn’t even be near me. And that we try not to should and you know, do that to ourselves about rules that we have to follow. But I definitely try to have the stimulation away. But sometimes you might be on the phone, or if I do remove myself from the space that asleep, which is why they say that, right? If you’re sleeping or relaxing in this area, you need to be active somewhere else, I will be scrolling. So I love to have a meditation to listen to in the longer version, the shorter version, I’m gonna have to check that out.
Candi Dugas 36:36
Absolutely. And give me some feedback, let me know what you’d like to hear what’s helpful to you. And, you know, this is this is part of that, that pings my ears, when I how we should create a life that’s whole and healthy. I am I’m aware as much as I can be of how inaccessible that is, from the people who need it the most. You know, some people are living in one rooms, and they don’t have separate rooms for active and inactive. They don’t have access to quality food, they live in food deserts. And you know, and so it’s I don’t know how to overcome those barriers, I just recognize that they are there.
Shannon M. 37:19
Yeah. And I hear what you’re saying, you know, and that’s part of what I love about Stillpoint Christine’s first book, she talks about separating, and you know, you have to do that like what’s in my control, and what is outside of my control what that I have to, for me give to God and let go of because I can’t hold I don’t hold the whole world in my hands, you know, but I think that what you’re doing is amazing, because it is the ripple effect, you know, it is the ripple effect of the person that might only have a cell phone in their one bedroom apartment, will be walking down the street next to that homeless person who doesn’t have a phone and be able to give them that space or the light or whatever they got from it because they got it from you. And that’s the ripple and the way that we exponentiated our influence. And you know, it’ll take care of itself. But it’s so important because and I’ve mentioned it a couple of times on the different shows, I read this book, after one year coming back from New Jersey that my boyfriend’s grandfather gave me about the anti slavery, the anti lynching culture. In America, was it? No, I think I’m getting the name of the book wrong. But it was talking about the culture of silence, right around lynching around slavery around everything that’s happened. And so as a psychology person, I’m thinking about conditioning, right? I’m like, That makes perfect sense. If we’re not talking about all this stuff, of course, we’re not talking about almost anything, right? Because if this is very important, and I can’t bring it up, or I get or I bring it up and something happens, or nothing happens, how was just like the the question in the classroom, like you said, somebody has a question, it’s going to shut it down. What does that mean? But that doesn’t go away? That goes somewhere, right? So we’re talking about goes internally, maybe for generations, if we don’t know how to clear it, we don’t know how to process it. We don’t know how to verbalize it. That means there’s things that we know and don’t know, that we’re dealing with. And we know that on a biological level anyways, right? But the emotional and the spiritual. And the physical part of it, is why I’m so happy that you’re doing what you’re doing and with the high schoolers and why Shayla was so important. And sometimes it’s been difficult for me to connect that how you checking on your body on a daily basis can do all this stuff for you. But that’s how it’s like, where am I at? Just like Christine says such a part of your body that feels good. That’s interplay, right, such a part that might have a little bit of pain and breathe in between those two places. And what do I need to do next? And we might want to conquer the whole world, but that’s all I have control over or am I have time for that day, so it’s going to have to be okay, and we keep going to the next one.
Candi Dugas 39:53
Absolutely. Yeah. That’s very nice.
Christine Gautreaux 39:56
I keep circling back around to something you said at the very beginning. And then candy about how we have to identify there’s a problem. Right? I was thinking about this, I was thinking about generational trauma. And we talked a little bit before the show about the book, the body keeps score. And I, I’ve been having conversations this week, I’m in Texas doing some elder care. And, you know, my dad was a Vietnam vet, and never had therapy from that never had and I’m seeing the results. 30 years later, well, that’s not true. 50 years later, how old am I now? Because I was born when he was overseas. But just recognizing when we don’t identify that there’s a problem, that there’s a wounding that there’s a you know, and especially what you’re saying, Shannon, and what you reference, Candy about, you know, slavery and the atrocity atrocities that have happened every day still, and the anti blackness in America, and that, that fight or flight, because when you said that I was, of course, I was thinking about my dad and the fighter flight and Vietnam, and that never really healed from that. And we’re seeing the effects on his body 50 years later, and way too young. But, you know, I, I was trained as a therapist, and I’ve been asking for therapy for years. And they’re like, Oh, we don’t provide that, or we don’t provide that, you know, I think they’re getting better in some systems. But I’m really, I don’t know, this whole last two weeks, I’ve been thinking about the VA system. And I was even thinking about our health care system. And when you said that it really resonated with me about blaming the victim, and that, especially black people in America are blamed for their heart condition and this or that, and they talk about what they eat, and who y’all like, we got some work to do. Like, we got some serious work to do around these systems. Yeah, so
Shannon M. 42:00
yeah, and so much. So I remember, I went to one of my professors, office hours in college, and I said, I don’t know what to do, you know, the education system, health care, all these systems, we were just naming that I see things and opportunities that I would like to address, right. And now as an entrepreneur, it makes sense, you see the problem, you provide a solution, but I don’t know what to do, how am I going to be all these places? He said, Well, you can either work inside the system or outside the system. And that really helped me, you know, sometimes I’m in it, sometimes I’m out of it, depending on what we’re talking about in the season. But that’s how I see it, and again, the rubble will go out. And if we operate our best from a health place, then we do the best we can, and the rest of it will take care of itself. You know, but I hear what you’re saying to Christine about seeing the results later. And what does that mean to process it? And that’s why I’m thankful for our conversations that we have to but again, women connected in wisdom, right? So I do my part. And they can do you been Doctor, do God’s been doing something completely different and helping on her side, Christine’s been to the UN and all around the world doing different stuff, and then together, okay, I can rest a little bit more I can sleep and listen to a bedtime meditation, because I know somebody else has got it. And there’s some hope, you know, well,
Christine Gautreaux 43:18
what gives me hope is what you’re doing candy with the youth and like introducing these monologues and them having their voice like I know the power of theater and the power of giving somebody their voice and being able to tell their story. Like who it took me years to be able to start telling my story and be you know, therapy and yours and all the things and that I had the privilege and access to those tools, right when I realized, oh, wait, the world doesn’t what? Or look at that. Right. And, and just, I don’t know, I’m in awe of the work that you’re doing with the UN. how can listeners support you in this work? Is there something they can do to support this valuable work?
Candi Dugas 44:03
Well, if you have, if there are listeners out there who would like to financially support this work, you can go to a couple of places. One you can go to true colors theater.org. And there and since we just finished celebrating the 20, the 20th anniversary of producing artistic excellence at the intersection of social consciousness and our activism. You can donate there and you don’t know but you might be able to specify that the gift is for the next narrative monologue competition and for high school students. We’re just getting started with this season. It will culminate at the end of March March 24 and 26th. March 26th Is the competition for the Atlanta Regional portion of this whole national process that we’re a part of, and we’ll send our top two winners to New York and the students Uh, expenses, all of those are paid by the program, they get to perform and compete at the historic Apollo Theater. And as Jamil likes to say they get to rub the stump at so many before us have rubs, they have workshops that go to a Broadway play. And so if you’d like to support that financially, you can do that. That way, you can become a subscriber. True Colors, make sure that we produce plays about black people, and that are important to our history. We’re in the middle of what’s called the sankofa seasons, Sankofa is an African ideology that we have to look back in order to know how to move forward. And so we’re reclaiming our narratives and all of those kinds of things. And so support this work with your dollars and, and or get on our mailing list, so that you can know about what’s going on. And that helps as well. For the work that I do, you can support the artistry, my I call it the artistry of candy do guy you can support that and donate that. And it can be tax deductible. If you do it through my fiscal agent, which is Fractured Atlas, I don’t know a direct link for that. So maybe we can get with y’all put it in the show notes. And you bet. And you can support the work that I do. Because I enjoy the fact that I’m able to help bring artistry to the community and in ways that we can move beyond experiencing the performance to actually making a difference in folks lives. And that’s an you mentioned in my bio, that’s where the work with Morehouse School of Medicine comes in. It’s really, really sad how states like Georgia, there’s one other state that’s particularly hard on fathers, especially if they’re not married to the mother of their children when they try to be a part of their children’s lives. And so, father’s matter, ATL is about as an initiative that’s about making father friendly spaces for dads, especially dads of color, and especially black dads. So I’m always I always got my fingers in the hands, you know, in the pot or something like that. So,
Christine Gautreaux 47:08
Yay, I’m so glad you do. Yes.
Shannon M. 47:11
And I want to give a little space for that too, right? Because we’re women connected in wisdom. And even though we have connected and wisdom press ways that we are expanding out to make sure that the men know that they are included. I just want to get some space for it. Right, Christine, you were talking about your dad. I think I wrote it in the book. So we a lot of times we talk about my mom being sick and then passing away but my dad had cancer too. And my dad is actually who raised me. So for me growing up as a young lady, it was we’re talking about the single moms, my dad is out here every day, you know, like making it work and no energy against my mom, because that’s that wasn’t the situation, but it was, what about the credit for the men? You know, so the men being well, and then having their voice so they can articulate what their needs are and where they need to start to get better? I think is it priceless as well, of course, you know, because everything we do as women is also to benefit them in the families and everything else. So I’m super excited to be connected. Ooh, so candy. Every week, we do a wisdom in action. So it’s an actionable item related to the dimension of wellness that we’re talking about. So for the this week, the next seven days, what are you doing for your personal physical wellness?
Candi Dugas 48:27
As I mentioned before we started the show that I joined a kickball league I asked you did yeah, that was my favorite game that we played in PE and so I hadn’t played kickball in decades. And so I joined this league it’s go kickball, right? And I think there are several cities across the country. And then we’ve got several leagues across Metro Atlanta and it’s been a blast. So in the next seven days, we’re going to play we’re going to have our playoffs on Sunday. And and I’ve also been enjoying well you asked me when I’m getting ready to do so I’m getting ready to slow down a little bit because the last several days have been very, very full of wonderful theater events celebrating with true colors or 20th anniversary celebrating with the Atlanta theater community with our Atlanta Tony’s call the Suzie bass awards. So then moving into a little bit of downtime before we go into December spending time with family enjoying the fall which is my favorite season. Wrapping up real good and going to just hang out in the park with my dogs Xena doing things like that that I enjoy. That’s what I’ll be doing over the next seven days.
Shannon M. 49:41
Yeah. Oh, I love that for me my hashtag that i What did I say? Oh, I like the work up to it. We were talking about Christine kickball story before and ramping up to and stretching and making sure that we’re mindful. So we have a lot of stuff coming, right, we’re about to start the book tour, we’re about to do the retail space, I’m about to rev up this production and everything else. So slow incremental steps and building the system. So sustainable is what I’m working on.
Christine Gautreaux 50:17
I love that Shannon stretch. Yeah, I think my hashtag this week is gonna be rest in ground. Because I will be traveling home tomorrow after two weeks of, of doing a lot. And so that taking the time to rest and renew, before I jump into the next thing, and so that’s going to be my wisdom and action. Because often I have a history of going from one thing to the next. And my body is very clear with me right now or it when you get home, you got to rest. So that’s what I’m going to do.
Shannon M. 50:54
Thank you so much. Thank you to God for your time. It’s been a pleasure talking to you about everything you have going on. I’m looking forward to I want to come on March 26, the Atlanta regional competition, so I’m gonna see if we can make I want
Christine Gautreaux 51:07
to ask, Is it open to the public? Can we hit? Okay, cool.
Candi Dugas 51:11
Yeah. Yeah, please do. Ah, it’s something about young people. I mean, I mean, younger than college, right? It’s about the aha moments and their growth and how how passion comes through them at their age in this physical life that is airy moving. So yes, please, please stay in touch. That’s another reason to join the true colors. Mailing List is to stay in touch with with those dates that are coming up. And, and then the website will have more information, the closer we get to march. Love to see y’all there.
Christine Gautreaux 51:55
be so fun. Oh, let’s do it, man. Let’s do it. Thank you so much for coming and chatting with us. We are so grateful to be connected to you and the work that you’re doing in the world. And, and we and we’re lucky, because we’re local. So we may get to see you out and about and, and just so grateful for doing incredible work, but also doing incredible work in Atlanta. Like,
Candi Dugas 52:21
thank you so much for having me. I love what y’all are doing and connecting women in wisdom and being wise and well is with one of my mentors. Dr. Velma love calls it as far as our ancestors, but we can be wise and well, too. So absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. All right. See you soon.
Christine Gautreaux 52:40
Good conversation. Yeah, I’m so full. I like what I was. There’s things I want to still just like savor out of that conversation. Definitely. Putting it on our calendar and going to that I love when it’s a local guests. I mean, I love talking to people all over the world. But when somebody’s local, you’re like, Oh, we can just be like, That’s cool. Let’s do that. Right.
Shannon M. 53:06
And I mean, soon we’re gonna be going to state to state and stuff, you know, doing these book tours and seeing our different people. So maybe Sotiria we got out there, we get out there to New Mexico up there to
Christine Gautreaux 53:16
areas in North Carolina. She’s up remember, she’s got the coffee shop in North Carolina, which we need to slowly road trip
Shannon M. 53:22
to go see her are. So I’m excited. You know, the talk about physical wellness was great. And it’s just reaffirming for everything that we do. Hey, you know, okay, this happened today. How did I start today? How do I want it to go? What actually happened? And then what do I need to do to make sure I have what I need at the end of it?
Christine Gautreaux 53:41
Yeah, I love this. Yes. As always, my friend. I am so grateful to be in connection with you. And oh, you know what we haven’t told listeners yet. What have we not told them? We’re taking next week off? Oh, yeah, we’re gonna take next week off duty to rest. And so if you are used to joining us live, y’all, we got 92 episodes that you can check out and we only know of two to three people that have listened to all 92. So go back and catch up with one you missed.
Shannon M. 54:12
Yeah, and just to get ahead of it. Also, if you if you would make connected and wisdom on your schedule every week, two weeks in December, we will be gone as well. Okay, so the second thing, the next Wednesday after that, we’re going to be traveling and resting and rejuvenating, like Christine said, and we’ll be here after that. Well, and
Christine Gautreaux 54:31
I just want to say to our listeners, we adore you all and we’re grateful you’re here with us. And last year, we didn’t do a good job of taking time off and we are practicing what we talked about. So that is why we’re being upfront with it and this is what we’re doing and and we’re gonna miss you because you know this is a part of our routine and we’re going to look forward to being renewed when we come back and just so grateful, grateful for everything we’ve been receiving and people that have been just commenting and In giving us support and know that if you haven’t already all like and subscribe, it makes a difference where you listen to our podcast to like and subscribe so you know when we’re coming live and also if you love us leave us a review
Shannon M. 55:12
because it helps. Yeah, it does. Okay, thank you so much for joining us for the first episode of season 11. And don’t forget
Unknown Speaker 55:20
be well be wise and be whole, see ya soon.
Satimara 55:32
Thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on air live on Wednesdays at 5pm. Eastern via Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to like, share and subscribe be part of the conversation and get connected at women connected in wisdom.com.
