Where Womanhood Meets Wellness

Unlearning Survival and Embracing Stewardship in This Season

---

BY SIMONE SNEAD

For the longest time, I thought “wellness” was about what you could see — the gym membership, the green smoothie in a supercute glass with a glass straw, keeping up with the latest skin-care routines. That’s what I thought it meant to “take care of myself.”

But as I’ve grown into my womanhood, I’ve realized wellness is so much more than a checklist. It’s not just about the outside, it’s about how I care for my heart, my mind, my emotions, and my spirit.

And let me tell you, I am preaching to myself right now because sissssss… I need some rest. I’ve been running on E lately trying to juggle work, school, and everything in between and my body has been trying to tell me, “Girl, slow down.”

Being a woman, especially a Black woman, has meant unlearning the idea that being strong means always pushing through. I grew up thinking resilience meant keeping it all together for everyone else, even if it meant running myself ragged. But that’s not strength; that’s SURVIVAL.

I’m constantly on a hamster wheel that just keeps going.

I’m learning that true strength looks like slowing down long enough to listen to my body. It’s giving myself permission to nap in the middle of the day if I need to, to set boundaries without apology, to ask for help instead of proving I can do it all. It looks like movement that feels joyful instead of punishing, and it looks like saying no to one more commitment when my soul is craving stillness.

The truth is, wellness doesn’t look the same in every season. Some days it’s Pilates and a green juice. Other days it’s a blanket, a candle, and that phone on DND. Sometimes it’s laughing way too loud with my girlfriends, and sometimes it’s a quiet walk by myself to breathe.

I’m still figuring it out, but I know this: womanhood and wellness go hand in hand. Taking care of myself isn’t selfish, IT’S STEWARDSHIP. God entrusted me with this body, this heart, this mind. Caring for them is part of my worship and part of becoming the woman I’m called to be.