Ep 199: Tiny but Mighty Steps Towards Wellness Kim Hester of Life, Strength, and Health on Wellness as an Unschooling Entrepreneur

This week on #fofcpod we are talking about prioritizing wellness amidst entrepreneurship and unschooling with one of our #fofcpod repeat guests, Kim Hester (with the big, beautiful smile!). Kim is co-owner of Life Strength & Health holistic center, and she co-hosts Akilah’s favorite wellness podcast too! In episode 195: Black Unschooling Dads, Kris Richards (Akilah's partner) and Jamal Hester (Kim's partner) had the chance to chat about Black fatherhood and unschooling. In this episode Akilah talks with Kim about the importance of awareness as part of a wellness process, and how all of that is connected to natural learning, deschooling and our capacity to thrive.

WHAT WE DISCUSS:

When you feel good you move through life differently

Kim speaks about pivoting away from toxic environments and the changes that came with that shift. She also touches on the importance of being aware of her feelings and decisions, being consistent with the changes she applied in her routines, and how that all of that showed up in her relationship with her husband, her daughter (SaHura), and in her own mind and body.

Kim and Akilah also speak on decolonizing parenting styles and how they had to question themselves by identifying schoolish patterns in their parents and in themselves that were/are directly influenced by the colonial narrative. They give examples of that, and chat about their experiences with their children and how they felt at a certain point in their adult lives about not having developed the tools to overcome certain realities, like being afraid of making a mistake, that sometimes blocks them from seeing the whole spectrum of possibilities in a given situation.

Awareness and deschooling

Akilah talks about awareness and how it is intrinsically connected with deschooling behaviors that disrupt patterns in order to build up healthy, consent-based, autonomy-nurturing practices. Kim is caring for her partner’s elderly parents, and brings up the way that our awareness of the stressors can be helpful if we acknowledge them and do little things to manage those feelings in our bodies and in our minds.

Kim brings up the importance of movement and changes in environment when possible, especially at this time where we’re more sedentary at home. She talks about unschooling during COVID-19 with SaHura, and the things that give her joy like dancing, summer camp and sharing with her friends. She also describes the deschooling process of her and her family and the ways she and her husband work at being supportive and helpful.

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