When we prioritize the needs of the spirit, the body seems to care for itself. 35 year old Erika was diagnosed with herpes during pregnancy of her first born of her five children. This was originally going to be on my other podcast, Selfed, but herpes was a big part of this conversation unexpectedly. Erika’s youngest makes an appearance throughout. I felt this conversation was more important to have than to wait until her son maybe went to bed. As mentioned, she’s a full time working single mom, so there will be some background noise. There’s a trigger warning given for this episode in reference to abuse. We talk about a lot of real shit about men and women, abuse and bystanders, government assistance, prioritizing your mental health, and miracles and intuition. We even touch a little on relationships. You get a heavy dose of the realness here in this episode and I appreciate your willingness to come on this long ride. If you like this then you’ll like Selfed, the podcast.

Anyone curious about parenting, Erika listed some resources useful for us.

Episode Resources:

https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/this-doctor-wants-you-consider-racist-origins-birth-control-pill

Dr. Jolene Brighton touches on  the history of birth control in this article and I think this is a food place to start for someone who’s interested in how we got to where we are with birth control. She also has written great books and articles on the importance of hormonal balance and has a whole practice dedicated to this. 

Taking Charge of Your Fertility- this is a book that discusses the female reproductive system and the health benefits we can get from observations of our physical body and how it communicates with us not just on reproduction but tracking our fertility and watching the patterns can also help us with other areas of our health 

Instagram accounts that help with these and birth in general:

ebbirth

drjolenebrighton

decolonisingcontraception

tallersalud

dr.avivaromm

famtasticfertility

fertilitycharting

A note from the guest:

There’s a lot of talk about being a high value man floating around the internet, and for the general population, I think we may fall into the trap of avoiding simply identifying our existing value while chasing MORE of something unattainable for us. This episode of Something a positive for a positive People goes into personal aspects such as how much money I make, when I realized I have nothing to contribute to an environment, questioning my value, and then discovering that I have value, just some places it’s prevalent and others it is not!

THE COMEDIAN WAS JASON BANKS!

I've put a pause on my social media posting for Something Positive for Positive People in order to make space for awareness of actions to take regarding the Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade which protected people's access to abortion. Herpes conversations take the back seat because to human rights and it just doesn't feel right posting as if nothing happened, or is happening.

This manifesto began as what was supposed to just be a journal entry, but it felt like things bubbling up inside me were able to come to my awareness as the pen rolled over the paper. The women around me emphasized the silence of men heavily and with some conversations, I realize there's a major distrust in the masculine on the liberal side of things, whereas the conservative side doesn't have that. Rebuilding trust in the masculine requires the masculine to be vulnerable and identify itself apart from the language we've given to it limiting it only in relation to pursuing wholeness through the reconnecting to the feminine.