Black women are putting their mental health and wellness first more than ever before. Throughout history, Black women have been seen as strong and tough. Now, many are choosing to live the “soft life.”
Soft living focuses on prioritizing mental wellness, self-care, and setting personal boundaries. Black women have been living their best soft lives, and we love to see it.
Delilah Antionette is a community leader who is rewriting the narrative between Black women and wellness. She started the Black Girl’s Healing House Facebook Group in 2018. Since then, Antionette has cultivated a community of over 62,000 Black women looking to welcome more softness into their lives while prioritizing their self-care and mental health.
We had a chance to chat with Antionette about the Black Girl’s Healing House Facebook Group, how travel impacted her journey with wellness, and how other Black women can join the Black Girl’s Healing House movement.
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Where are you from, and how did your city influence your path to Black Girl’s Healing House?
I’m from Mobile, Alabama — the birthplace of Mardi Gras, which most people often don’t know because when we think about Mardi Gras, we think about New Orleans.
My city is rich in culture and history. It’s also rich with beautiful Black women who need healing due to lack of access to care, combined with the stigma behind mental health. Growing up, I saw a lot of Black women in my community dealing with mental illness and trauma due to lack of access to care. Living a soft life seemed impossible. And for me, I wanted to know what it meant to truly live a life of ease and flow. I wanted that so much for the women in my community.
I created the Black Girl’s Healing House Facebook Group to help Black girls that look like me find a safe space where they can feel like they matter in a world that typically overlooks us. My intention is by connecting Black women together, we can heal generations of trauma and inspire a new generation of Black women who can truly live softly.
You started Black Girl’s Healing House in 2018; what was the inspiration behind starting this movement?
The inspiration behind starting Black Girl’s Healing House came from my own personal experience with mental health and wellness. When I got out of college, I was on a healing journey. I would look up healing and wellness centers and go. I would be inspired by the classes, books, crystals, herbs, and teas and how peaceful these environments were. However, as peaceful as they were, I noticed they were not created with a girl like me in mind. In fact, I got the vibe that girls like me weren’t welcomed there.
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Then the idea suddenly came to me to create Black Girl’s Healing House to have a safe space for Black women who were also on that journey. I wanted to build a network of holistic wellness practitioners.
What does Black wellness mean to you?
For me, Black wellness is a part of breaking generational cycles. In my family, we carry cancer, diabetes, mental illness, and heart disease, and we die extremely young. That was mostly because we didn’t value wellness. Wellness looked like attending church instead of therapy, normalizing stress and toxic relationships, and overindulging in fried foods.
For me, Black wellness looks like “Nah. Let’s try something different.”
I go to therapy, eat salads, and go to the gym, and I learned to let go. I inspire the members of our group to do the same. We share our latest gym routines, give updates on our therapy journeys, post healthy recipes, and uplift each other in sisterhood. We are doing what has never been done before in our community by normalizing conversations about our holistic health.
What are your top 3 destinations for aligning yourself mentally, physically, and emotionally?
Our members absolutely love Costa Rica, and some of our members own wellness retreats there on everything from spirituality, yoga, self-care, and sexuality.
For those who do not have a passport yet, our members love to visit Puerto Rico for food and culture and to connect with spirituality and ancestral roots.
And one of our favorite places to go to feel cleansed and connected to the beach and nature is Hawaii.
How has travel impacted your journey with wellness?
Travel is self-care for me, and many people don’t know that traveling helps with spiritual growth. There’s something about changing your environment and opening yourself to new foods and cultures that unlocks your intuition and creativity. In Black Girl’s Healing House, we sometimes host group trips. Traveling helps us create new experiences and learn new perspectives that we can use for our own spiritual growth, and it helps build community.
How can other Black women join the Black Girl’s Healing House movement?
You can join the Black Girl’s Healing House Movement by joining our Facebook Group here.
Follow Delilah Antoinette on Instagram here.
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