10: Creating a Culture of Health, Individual Growth, and Social Change with Tyrone Beverly

In this episode we have our very first guest on the show, Mr. Tyrone Beverly. He is the Founder and Executive Director of Im’Unique, a non-profit organization based out of Denver, Colorado that is dedicated to uniting the community and fostering healthy lifestyles within those communities. Listen in as we discuss Tyrone’s upbringing and how it led him to begin his mind-body journey and the creation of Im’Unique. We also get a chance to hear Tyrone recite and break down the Poetic Flow and hear about the free, upcoming online event, What Happens Next, which will take place August 22nd, 2020.

Links and Resources Mentioned In The Episode

Click HERE to join the email list and receive your FREE Expanding Your Vision guide

Transcript

Ep 10 Creating a Culture of Health, Individual Growth, and Social Change with Tyrone Beverly - 8/20/20

[00:00:00]TaReon Jael:   Welcome to the Wellness for Black Girls podcast, a biweekly podcast that aims to help Black women navigate their holistic health journeys and find calm by sharing empowering mind-body tips and practices from the eight dimensions of wellness. I'm your host, TaReon Jael a Certified Health Educator and Clinical Lab Scientist.  For more information, please visit wellnessforblackgirls.com . While I hope you enjoy listening to and learning from the podcast, please remember that it is not intended to be a substitute for a relationship with a licensed healthcare provider. Now let's get into this episode.

   Thanks for tuning in to episode 10 of the Wellness for Black Girls podcast. I want to start things out [00:01:00] by sharing with you that I recently created a free Easing Anxiety Quick Guide. In the guide you'll find four techniques designed to help you feel grounded and centered during moments of stress. So please be sure to check out the show notes for a link to sign up to receive that freebie

 Today, we have an interview with our very first guest on the show, Mr. Tyrone Beverly. He's the Founder and Executive Director of Im'Unique, a nonprofit organization based out of Denver, Colorado, that's dedicated to uniting the community and fostering healthy lifestyles within those communities. But beyond being the Founder and Executive Director of Im' Unique, Tyrone is a thought provoking yoga instructor, filmmaker, and creator of the poetic flow. 

He's known for [00:02:00] dismantling barriers by providing access to yoga and wellness opportunities that initiate social change. Beverly is the winner of 2019 Martin Luther King Commission Award, he 2016 Yoga Journal Good Karma Award.  And he's a legacy, Lululemon Ambassador. He's been featured on CNN Indonesia, New York Times, and numerous publications for his work in social justice and health and wellness. 

His practice has led him to co-facilitate with New York Times, bestselling author, David Brooks and Yo Yo Ma for Yo Yo Ma's Day of Action Tour.

Mr. Beverly is an inspirational change agent for creating a culture of health, individual growth, and social change. HIs extreme passion for equity, human rights, [00:03:00] unity and physical and social health has kickstarted a wellness movement that unites communities and fosters healthy lifestyles across the nation. 

Both internationally and nationally known Tyrone has touched global communities across the world and has created systematic change to improve the lives of others. His efforts supersede stereotypes and create avenues that permeate social and cultural barriers from a health perspective.

Thus Beverly's life work epitomizes his vision of a future with more problem-solvers and solution-based thinkers that are equipped to deal with the historical and systematic challenges we face as a society.

He reminds us that we have the power to improve our lives and contribute to positive [00:04:00] change. 

Okay. So Tyrone is a multihyphenate, but in addition to all these things, he's married to my best friend, which basically makes him family. He's like a brother to me. My best friend, Dr. LaShica Young-Beverly is amazing in her own right.  So of course, Tyrone is amazing in his own right, as well. I invited Tyrone to be our first guest on the show because I feel that the mission of Im'Unique, which is to create a culture of health, individual growth and social change aligns with the mission of the Wellness for Black Girls community.

During the interview we discussed Tyrone's upbringing and how it led him to begin his mind-body journey and the creation of Im'Unique. We'll also get a chance to hear Tyrone recite and break down the poetic [00:05:00] flow and hear about the upcoming, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?, online event. So I'm excited for you all to hear about Tyrone and the Im'Unique community and all of the great work they're doing.

So let's go ahead and jump right in.

   So glad to welcome you.  Tyrone, I invited you on the show because on this podcast, Wellness for Black Girls, we talk about various  aspects of holistic  health and wellness. And we like to touch on various topics from environmental wellness, financial wellness, social, intellectual, and all of those things.

 So I feel that the vision for Im'unique, to create a culture of health, individual growth and social change will really resonate with the Wellness for Black Girls Community. So thank you  for being on the show. Really [00:06:00] appreciate it. 

 Tyrone Beverly: Thanks for having me. And thank you for the work that you're doing. It's so critically important right now to have a voice to address everything that you're addressing on this podcast.

I think it's so important to be able to have a platform to have these conversations and  learn from individuals who walk in that journey with you, so we can learn and help each other rise day by day. 

TaReon Jael: Thank you so much for that.  I definitely believe we can learn from each other.  I know you're a veteran in the health and wellness game, so I know that we will learn a lot from you on our discussion today.

So let's jump right into our questions. Some of  the Wellness for Black Girls community may already be familiar with your work  but for those who aren't quite familiar with your story, I was wondering if you could share how you got into yoga, how your yoga journey started. 

 Tyrone Beverly: I think it started a long time ago before I was actually exposed to it. There was always an interest [00:07:00] beyond things that I was exposed to. So growing up, I grew up in an environment that, at times, was violent, plagued with drugs, plagued with people who had really poor relationships. And in the environment I was in I've always thought about things outside the world I was in. I mean I know there's something different that we  are not experiencing under these conditions. And that led me to just really pay attention to myself and saying, sometimes, we travel by way of bicycle or a car or a different kind of vehicle to get us somewhere. But at an early age, I knew that there was a vehicle inside of myself and that was my mind.

And I used to watch a lot of martial arts movies, so Jean-Claude Van Damme and Bruce Lee. People who really took their physical application to the next level and they really utilized their mind to do so. So that was how they travel. And for me, I used to sit and [00:08:00] just watch and just imitate what I would see  on the television.

And I would get away from the environment mentally. And I think that was the seed that was planted as I was a kid. And I started growing up with those visions to just see outside of the conditions I was in. And as I got older, I was looking for a Bruce Lee conditioning tape. I was like, I'm about to take this martial arts thing serious.

I never had a class at that time. I didn't have anyone pushing me into martial arts or exposing me to that lifestyle. But when I had just graduated high school. I was like, I want to take this serious. I want to really get into the training aspect of martial arts. So I went to a blockbuster looking for VHS. Looking for a Bruce Lee videotape. And at the time, they didn't have any. And there was a lady who came up to me. She says, yeah, I don't know if we have anything like that. Actually, I've never seen anything like that in store, but we do have this yoga video and it's kind of like martial arts. So  if you're interested, you [00:09:00] should buy it. It's on sale. It's only like $5. It was a VHS. And I was like, yeah, I don't know about the yoga thing, but anyway, I decided to buy it. And took it home.  Put it in the VCR and I started practicing. It was an hour and a half, and I remember it being so challenging. I was like man, cause I have a background playing sports. I played football, played basketball and I thought I was in pretty good shape. Well, when I got on my mat and I started shaking and I sweating and all. I was like whoa this stuff is powerful and I fell in love with it at that point. And I started practicing every single day. 

I was working in the health club at the time, and on my breaks, I would practice what I learned on a video.

People who would watch me during my breaks were like, "Oh man, what are you over here practicing?" And there was one guy who came up and asks, "Do you mind if I join you?" And I'm like, "Man, I got these [00:10:00] videotapes at the house. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know anything about this stuff." And he's like, "If you don't mind, you look like, you know what you're doing to me. I would love to join you and just learn from you."

And I was like, "All right, man, I told you I don't really know too much about it." So then we started practicing on my breaks, and we did this every day as well. And then other people saw and they started joining in. So we started forming a class without actually having the official class. One day my supervisor says, "You know you can actually get paid to teach what you're doing right now. So if you're interested, you should go get certified and come back and we'll give you a class." And then that's actually what happened. 

So I was never really looking to become an instructor, it kind of organically happened just from my interest in mental and physical cultivation, which now is classified as yoga. But I think it's so much beyond what people use in their everyday language to describe what it is. I think it's in many different modalities. It's really [00:11:00] just overcoming the war with ourselves. I think all of us are born into this life and we are faced with so much that we can't prepare for it because we don't even know what's coming our way, but mentally I think yoga and martial arts and many other modalities help us prepare for it. The challenges that lie ahead. And that's how I got started in the practice.

    TaReon Jael: I like how  your practice was very organic.

And it  built up from there. And I think the thing that was very interesting  in your story was how you were practicing and someone saw you practicing someone saw something in you and said, "Hey, you look like, you know what you're doing?  can I join you?"

And it really just grew. And  I think that's very powerf lu . A lot of times when people see things in us that we don't always see.  it just takes one person  to say, Hey, you look like, you know, what you're doing. 

 I want [00:12:00] to get into  the creation of Im'Unique, because I know that that also  came about organically.  I was wondering if you could share with the audience, just how that evolved  and became what it is today. 

  Tyrone Beverly: t's a combination of many things. It's not just one answer to answer that question. It was a culmination of years of me teaching classes and different locations. So when I first started teaching, what I found out is a lot of people couldn't pay for the classes and  sometimes you would see people coming in that couldn't afford it and they would sneak in the back.

And I wouldn't say anything,  There was a lot of people who were at the job, like, Oh, you can't be sneaking in. They have to pay. You can't be just letting people come in. And I'm like, "Why not? This is why this establishment is here. It's for people's wellbeing and for people's health. So let's let them practice and I'll take the burden of not being paid for it.

And outside of that, I started creating [00:13:00] classes in parks and different things. And people showed up, people were really interested. Even if they didn't have the money, they had the interest. And that's one thing that really attracted me to doing the work as people who were interested, but may not have the means to do so.

So often people are ostracized and left out of the health and wellness equation because they don't have the  financial assistance to do so. Or sometimes they just don't have the interest or they don't have the motivation. And you have someone who has both. I think is really important. It's imperative to create platforms for them to experience self-improvement.

So I started having classes in parks, in different venues and people showed up and we started having conversations. And through the years, I just continued to partner with different organizations that continue to do good work. And people always want to know when was the next event? When was the next class?

It's like, okay, let's make this organized so we can continue the work and the service that we're providing for the [00:14:00] community. And then when you look at it from a nonprofit standpoint, a lot of times there's a certain blueprint you're supposed to follow. You're supposed to be this, you're supposed to do this. You're supposed to do this. 

And I was talking to different organizations on the vision. And at the time people didn't really see the vision. And that was the impetus for the name Im'Unique. It wasn't really about saying, "I'm unique." It's saying that the mission and the vision and the work that's going to be done is unique.  In addition to the people who show up are unique as well, because everyone has their own lived experience. Everyone  has been through what they've been through on their own. And we come together as a collective to do the work. So Im'Unique is  multi-faceted, it has many different definitions and is really to address the plight and the conditions that we're in.

Oftentimes people are just in situations where they feel oppressed and in survival mode, and they're more susceptible to operating from a nature solely based on survival. If we create [00:15:00] an organization that creates culture around health that's where I feel that the change will really come. 

And oftentimes when we first got started, people and foundations were saying, "Well, who's your demographic? Who do you service? And what is your goal in mind?"

I'm like everybody is our population. And they would say that can't be the right answer, because you have to have a specific demographic to get funding, to get support. And for me, I felt like when you service people, you service everybody, you service the community, you service the health and wellness of us all. 

And I thought it was critically important to have a very diverse group of people coming together, because some people would say, "Well, you know, I don't want to be around this group of people or that group of people."

And then I would ask the question, "Have you ever been on an airplane? Or have you ever went to the grocery store where people didn't look like you? Or you see the social conflicts that we have in society? And they would say, "Yes, I did." I say, "Does everyone look like you when you get on the airplane?" [00:16:00] They say,  "No." And then when we go to the grocery store, same question, "Does everyone look like you?" They say, "No."

I say, "Have you ever seen a conflict in those places?" And they say, "Yes." 

Well then we have to create a culture wherever you are to be able to plant seeds in people who may be able to influence or alter your life. So let's focus on community and what real community is, is a very collective group of people that live in the same environment and are trying to accomplish the same goal, which is the quality of life.

And that's one thing that we stood on, and early on, we didn't get a lot of support by that mission. People would say, "That's not something that we will support." What we found is that people would say, "We want to focus on the underprivileged." Or what they classified as the "at risk." That's never the language that I supported or used. I think it's very oppressive.

But we did work in different environments where people had those titles. And one thing that I found was when we brought people who had [00:17:00] resources and people who didn't have resources together, those who didn't have resources built relationships with those who did. And they were getting jobs, getting employment. And then we're doing many different things that we thought was going to happen early on.

And once we started finding success in that, then people started saying, "Okay, now I see why this is important." And it was beyond the asana practice, which is the physical application. And they were seeing that community was being built and resources were being reallocated due to exposure of different individuals within different environments.

And that's when we talk about the mission of Im'Unique is to create a culture of health, individual growth, and social change. So that's one thing that we did. And that's one thing that we still stand on today is really building culture, because culture is the only thing that's truly sustainable.

Oftentimes when we think about, you know, what's your sustainable model. So we talk about the foundation of Im'Unique is this mission to create a culture of health, individual growth, and social change. So we put ourselves out of business by creating a [00:18:00] culture that can sustain itself, not by program, but by the way you live every single day.

And that's where we feel like is going to create most of the changes by how we show up in the world every single day. 

TaReon Jael: Like where you said, when you first started and you had the vision, other people couldn't see the vision and you just kept working at it  and building it and making this into something where people could finally see what's possible. Just how it evolved and just grew and continues to grow into community that it is.

  I want to  pivot a little bit and talk about the Poetic Flow and  reassigning energy. So previously on the podcast, we've talked about the mind-body connection and we've touched on  how the mind and body and spirit are all intertwined and how they're all interconnected and I've shared  different [00:19:00] practices that can help  strengthen that connection between the mind and body.  So I was wondering if you could talk to us about reassigning energy and Poetic Flow and if we could  dive into that a little bit more. 

Tyrone Beverly: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question. Thank you. So the Poetic Flow is  predicated on nature. It's based off of the human body. It's based off what we see in our environment.

The thing about the body is that we have the digestive system, reproductive system, skeletal system, and muscular system, and cardiovascular system. You have all these systems that must work harmoniously for our body to function at its highest level. And the moment, one of those systems is compromised, then the entire body is compromised.

So we must learn how to create a system for our life to be able to move effectively and efficiently. And that's really what the Poetic Flow is based off of. So the opening statement of the [00:20:00] Poetic Flow is, "The aim of this movement is to cultivate a sound mind, a sound body, and a harmonious relationship with each."

So if you can create a sound mind and a sound body in a harmonious relationship with nature you're going to move differently through the world. And the way that you create a sound mind is by reassigning energy. And first that translates into being reeducated because our educational system teaches us a lot of toxic behavior that we have to heal from.  It's said that the average adult is recovering from their childhood. Everybody is experiencing some major trauma, some pain that they're still recovering from, and we must learn how to reassign the energy. So we're dealing with neuroplasticity and making new echoes and new patterns in our brain to be able to experience something new, so we're not retraumatized by our past experiences in our tomorrows. 

So those are the things that you [00:21:00] find in this idea of reassigning energy. There's a lot of toxic behavior that we learn along the way, whether it be from movies or just in our environment, in our school setting, socially, the bullying, the words that we use against each other. There's so many different things that can just really tear the spirit out of a person. 

So being able to reassign the energy is critically important for health and wellness. And what that looks like is, if you're angr y , one thing that Einstein used to talk about is that energy does not die. And since energy doesn't die, I feel that it must be reassigned and repurposed to do things that can benefit you.

So when I was in middle school, one thing that I used to see all the young men and young women do when they got mad is they would punch lockers. And they would just...ahhhhh... why? why are all the the kids punching lockers? And then they would say, "Oh, this is what we see on TV." This is a conditioned response. They would say, "This is what we think we're supposed to do. This is how we're supposed to respond to [00:22:00] things not going our way." 

And that's why we must learn to reassign the energy. So now, you don't have to punch a locker, you repurpose that energy into something that's going to be beneficial to you and you write about it and maybe turn that anger into a book. Or if you're in a bad relationship, you write about it and turn it into something that works in your favor, or you go clean the house or you do something that's very productive to be able to say, I'm going to use this energy. I'm going to harness this energy and turn it into something that's going to improve my overall life. And those are the things that, reassigning energy is all about.

So it's not saying that we're going to be able to live a stress free life and everything is going to be perfect. It's saying that there's going to be hard times in this life and it's never going to stop. And it's going to, it's going to attack us from all different angles and  it's our job to figure out what we can do to reassign it, to repurpose it and make it work for our favor, and allow it to be our testimony.  And we begin to share our story with others. So they too [00:23:00] can overcome their lived experience and improve their overall  condition. So that's what, that's what reassigning energy is all about. 

And Poetic Flow, again, is based off  of nature. And when we talk about nature, you hear, sometimes people say, "Oh, I'm a tree hugger. I love nature. I love it." And one thing that we have to realize is when we talk about nature is that it has hurricanes and it has tornadoes and has earthquakes and tsunamis. And I always ask, "Do you love that aspect as well?" And then people will say, "Well not really. Not that aspect. Just the sun, sunrises and sunsets, ocean." 

Well then that means that we don't want to be balanced. And I think the harmony to be in harmony with nature is to say that these two things, these happen as well. And there are going to be tsunamis in our life. Not physically, it's not a tsunami, but mentally, and in our lived experience, we've experienced tsunamis. So being in balance and being at harmony with the things that happen to take place in life.

Everyone's going to have [00:24:00] hurdles, obstacles, and things that they have to go through it. But I think understanding that firsthand that we can go through these things if we learn how to build a system to support ourselves along the way it's going to help us overcome a lot of our hardships. 

And I'll say a little bit  just for the listeners.  I can break it down. 

The beginning of it is, "The aim of this movement is to cultivate a sound mind, sound body in a harmonious relationship with nature. We are connected to a collective awakening  of self-discovery  and mastery. Movement is medicine. We calculate our movements by our daily regimens. We stand on the shoulder of our ancestors and continue the path towards harmony and we reach for the ascended knowledge above us. And honor the knowledge within. We embody the strength of a mountain. Make no mistake we are warriors too. We  reverse our path back to [00:25:00] harmony. We extend ourselves to peace. We rise, like an eagle, peaceful and free. We can only see half the moon, but like Jiva, this is the immortal essence of living, we reassign our energy and bow to a better me. Same way we come in is the same way we come out. Yet something's different physically, spiritually, mentally. And that is me. We experience life between the earth and the sky. We bend and we fold and we unfold to reveal our truth as it's written from within. And no matter what we go through in life we will rise and rise again.

So that's the beginning of the Poetic Flow. Just breaking that down, often when you think about asana and talk about it being based off of nature. So there's a lot more to it. There's another [00:26:00] portion of the Poetic Flow that says, "I embody a Cobra, and I'm still aware of it's venom." And oftentimes when we are embodying what we see in nature, that's really what yoga, the asana practice is about. It's about embodying things that we see in nature.

You have a tree pose, you have the cat, you have a cow, you have a downward dog. So you look into nature and you observe and you learn from nature. And then you apply that to yourself and you look at a tree and you stand tall, strong and you rise, and feed off of the sun. So it really deals with everything that the person has to go through.

Nothing separated, everything, being connected and understanding how you can be serviced by the planet you live on and how you must be mindful of things that don't belong to you, but they belong to a different element within you. That's really what the Poetic Flow is about. It's about teaching you your place on this planet. Seeing where you [00:27:00] can contribute and how you can be in harmony with the world that you live on and how you can be in harmony with yourself and how to regain your own mind, because they've done a really good job of mixing us up and messing us up mentally. And it's up to us  to do the work, to overcome a lot of the conditions that we had to go through growing up in this world.

TaReon Jael: Thank you for that breakdown.  I like how you emphasized our connection  and I believe  it is a huge part of Im'Unique as an organization is our connection to one another. So I want to ask you about,  how Im'Unique is  continuing to keep that connection and community during everything that's going on right now, because  normally you will have sessions  where you can all be together , so I'm just curious to know how you all are continuing to stay connected to one [00:28:00] another and  the community with everything that's going on.

 Tyrone Beverly: That's a really good question and a really important question.  Early on what we were doing is just getting as much gear as we can and helping as much people as we can equip themselves for what was to come. Making sure they had enough food, making sure they had gloves, masks, and all the PPE gear that one may need going through a pandemic. It's not something that I've experienced before personally, but we were definitely prepping for it and trying to do the best that we could and to make sure that people weren't left without. 

And things that we're doing now. I think technology is our friend. We've been able to reach people across the world in a way that we never had before with the live Zoom. Just these conference call platforms that are available to us to have conversations and to also address the racial disparities.  So often,  it gets left out of the conversation of health. Racial issues have always been a major [00:29:00] health disparity, people go to work and they feel ostracized and they feel like they're the only one, they feel constantly under attack by microaggressions and people who purposefully do these things. And we can't say it because  if you speak up, you might lose your job  and that's something that you have to swallow in on a cellular level. It begins to live within you. And  it clears out the pieces within you and it takes vacancy inside of your body and it occupies the space within you creating stress, creating some of the health disparities that we see in so many Black women, Black people in general.

And those are the things that we've been addressing, very consistently around what help along this is. It's so much broader than exercise and healthy eating, but our social relationships are so important. And that's why early on we focused on everybody because we know that some people sometimes let's say if a black person goes into an environment and they're the only one there, like the stress that comes along with [00:30:00] that  is overwhelming. And being able to share that with people who don't look like them, talk about some of the challenges that come along with walking into spaces, where people who cannot relate to you is critically important to just servicing the person who has to walk in there by themselves. So trying to create a better environment for people who have to walk in those spaces, by working with people who are used to those spaces and people who never even thought about what it is for people who have to walk in those spaces alone. 

So having conversations around police brutality, police relations,  so many different things around the issues that are really plaguing our country, plaguing our world. 

We were in a conversation a couple of weeks ago with folks from South Africa and they said  we're watching America right now.  And one thing that we want to tell you is that we removed all of our statutes and we did everything that you're doing right now. We're still in the same situation. We're still plagued with [00:31:00] the racial disparities. And then I was in conversation last week with a young lady from Kenya. She says, you know, out in Kenya that we're about 99% Black and we still face police brutality as well. So now we're talking about something that is a lot deeper than race. It's about power. And it's about privilege and it's about who has the ability to, who has the power to say, who should matter and who shouldn't. So it's so complex, but  those were the conversations that we've been having across the globe  and really just saying, it's time to create something new.

This system is not working for the masses and we're fighting over things that people have died and fought for years ago and  it continues to repeat itself. And it's time to do something that we've never seen before. And that's some of the things that we've been working on is having conversations and continuing to build new systems within a system that's no longer serving us.

 TaReon Jael: Yeah, on the podcast we've talked about  intellectual wellness and [00:32:00] just having discussions and conversations with people from all different backgrounds. So people that offer different perspectives  and we are connected in that way and we can learn and grow from one another. So I appreciate that you all are still having these conversations  and not just locally, but also internationally. And so that's very powerful. So to still go along with the conversations that you're having. I know this upcoming weekend, you are hosting an event called WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? And,  it's going to be conversations and music and things like that. So I was wondering if you could just share with the audience more about that, what to expect and how they can get involved.

Tyrone Beverly: Yeah. So WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Is addressing everything that's [00:33:00] going on right now. We have people protesting across the world.  We've been through so much as a people. Think about the inception of this country. It was founded on oppression and that oppression has never left us. That oppression has been here since day one.

And WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Is saying, are we going to continue to allow this to happen? And what are we wanting to do? So it's an open ended question for anyone to answer. We don't have the answer to that question. I feel like it's going to be, it's going to take a collective effort to answer that question, and we're not going to have a plateau or saying we've arrived to where we need to be.

It's going to be a continuous effort. It's going to require everyone to play their part until they no longer have breath in their body. To create a more sane and humane society. So WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Is based off of voice and it is going to address the plight of Black people [00:34:00] and other people who feel the weight of oppression.

And we're going to work with people from all walks of life, no matter what you look like. To be able to design and give voice to the concerns that we all have and be able to, to answer those questions for ourselves within our reach. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? is going to be based off of music to create healing, going to be based off of poetry to create healing, it's going to be based off of storytelling to allow people to tell their stories to create healing and to have a panel discussion to provide resources and information that people may not be privy to. And then at the end, the culmination of that entire experience is going to be a celebratory offering and  more music and more  things that people can do to plug into the work. And to really create more platforms for healing.

 Healing is not a one day thing. It's not a retreat thing. It's something that must take place day in and day out. You don't just say, okay, I healed myself because I went [00:35:00] to a retreat or I had this smoothie, or I went on vacation. Like healing is a daily process. You have to heal from so much every single day. And being able to remind yourself and get those tools to be able , to get into a more  peaceful state of mind, every single day is important. Like using the restroom, like eating a meal, those are the things that we have to continue to keep doing to be in a better state of mind based off of everything that we're faced with every single day. 

So WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? is an event that's an ongoing experience. It's an ongoing mission, it's ongoing movement. That doesn't just stop with that one particular day. Moving forward, bringing in different specialists that can provide  resources. So at the end of the conversation, we're also going to provide a live therapist to be able to deal with stress and the racial trauma that people have experienced, but don't get those kinds of services. So now they can plug in to someone who is a therapist that can really focuse on [00:36:00] race-based trauma. And a lot of therapists don't have that.  They don't have those, they're not credentialed  in that area. And there's a lot of people who are left out of the field of mental health and wellness, because they don't have the providers to be able to provide the service. And now we have that. We have people who specialize in that arena to be able to help people navigate through the traumas of stress and racial disparities. And this is one of the first times we've seen something like that. So we're not going to leave everyone heavy. Oftentimes, we leave some of these conversations heavy, to unpack it at home by yourself. And it's even more overwhelming. And sometimes you need other people to help unpack what you just heard and to be able to help you along the way. So we created an experience to where it's not just a conversation, but it's very action-based and we want to provide people with resource s , things that can improve their overall quality of life.

 TaReon Jael: I love how this event  is a holistic thing.  I like that you mentioned [00:37:00] there will be discussions, but there will also be music and there will be poetry  and therapy  especially you bringing on board therapists who specialize in race based trauma. I think it will be  an amazing introduction for some people who may have never had the opportunity to work with a therapist. And if they have, they may not have had the opportunity to work with a therapist who is experienced , in race-based trauma. It's a beautiful thing. I'm excited to  see it all come together.  

 Tell us how our audience, how our listeners can get involved, how they can tune in to the event.

Tyrone Beverly: So they can go to our website which is www.imunique.org  and you can register online. It's free, and available for anyone who wants to come to listen, to learn, to experience it for themselves. So that's something that they can do [00:38:00] to get involved. And we also have an opening, the opening for the event, we'll bringing in our elders.

So during COVID, when COVID hit, one thing that I seen that really broke me up inside is I've seen a lot of comments that people were making saying things like,  Oh, it's only going to affect the elders, so there's nothing to be really worried about. And when I think about elders, I think of libraries being lost. I think of history being lost and people were okay with that.

So what we're going to do is honor our elders and we're going to listen to their stories as well as we do this work, realizing that they're all interconnected. It's not the youth. Doing the work. Now they've done the work before us and we stand on the shoulder to continue the work that they were doing.

And we are doing this because they were doing this before we were even born. And that's one thing that we have to remember. So that's one thing that we're doing is honoring our elders by providing their voice and uplifting them and making sure that people know how important our elders are. We [00:39:00] need to uplift our elders every single day, because when they leave those stories and those libraries are gone forever. So we're doing all that we can to archive the information to be able to make sure that  their stories live on. And we have Ms. Carlotta Walls LaNier of the Little Rock Nine. We had a beautiful interview with her yesterday. She's going to be a part of the event and she just really walked us through what her experience was like going to school and integrating schools for the country. Like what she did for the U.S. after  Brown versus Bboard, it was extremely powerful  to hear some of the things that she had to go through and seeing what she had to overcome and continue to do the work today and really puts education first.

And I think that's one thing that we should focus on as well as we do this work is education. But what kind of education is really important because  we've pushed education for a really long time, but [00:40:00] I think it's now important. It's even more important to say, what are we learning? Are we learning how to take care of ourselves? Are we learning financial literacy? Are we learning how to eat? Learning how to be in a relationship? And then the biggest problems that we have in our society is we don't know how to communicate. And learning how to communicate effectively. So one thing you talked about earlier is you focus on different pockets, and we love that you're saying that because we agree. We think it's all interconnected from financial literacy, from relationships to our health and wellness. Health and wellness, complete health is everything. There's not one thing that's separated. If you look back into the human body, all those systems must be congruent. And they must work in harmony and that's the way we should be living our lives every single day and not have different pockets and silos to say this is important this day, this is important here.

It's always important. This is continuous effort. So we're building in this experience, all of that. So the moments we'll be addressing all the things that [00:41:00] compromise our health and all the things that improve our health so we can improve our overall quality of life. 

TaReon Jael: Alright,

thank you so much for that.  is there anything else that you want to share with the audience and also,  share how our audience can connect with you.

 Tyrone Beverly: I just want to thank you again for allowing me to be on this show. This is a amazing platform. I love the work that you're doing, I think it is so important. Like I said earlier, this needs to be a conversation that we're in all the time, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how you grow into improving the lives of Black women.

 The way people can connect with me is www.imunique.org and on Instagram @imuniqueunited and on Facebook,  Illustrating Wellness and Union Tour. And that's some of the ways that people can connect. They want to volunteer, get involved to have some of these conversations, or have us come in and help facilitate conversations [00:42:00] or are looking for resources to be able to do the whole program or support people  doing the work and whatever we can do to support someone to continue the efforts.  We love that as well. So those are some of the ways that people can get involved. 

TaReon Jael: All right. Excellent. And so of course, I'm going to leave links in the show notes to all of your platforms, your website, and how people can sign up for WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? So people can also navigate to www.wellnessforblackgirls.com/episodes/10 for show notes to the episode, and also links to  Im'Unique.  

 Thank you so much again, and we'll talk soon. 

So there you have it, our very first interview for the podcast. I hope you enjoyed hearing about Tyrone's story and Im'Unique and all of the great work that they're doing. Be sure to head to [00:43:00] www.wellnessforblackgirls.com and navigate to it episode 10 for the show notes. I've included links to help you connect with the Im'Unique community and sign up for the free, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? online event 

Also I was recently a guest on the Healthy Living with Udy Podcast. During the interview, we discussed the mind-body connection and ways to strengthen it. So I've also included a link to that episode. Please give it a listen and show  Udy some love. She was a gracious host. 

And if you want to keep up with this podcast on social media, follow on Instagram at @wellness4blackgirls and follow my personal IG page @tareonjael. And be sure to sign up, to receive your free copy of the Easing Anxiety Quick [00:44:00] Guide. And let me know if you found any of the mind-body techniques helpful and together we'll continue moving the dimensions of wellness.