We have all experienced the life-altering affects by the pandemic. In THIS INTERVIEW you’ll learn its toll on life coach, speaker, brand ambassador, and award-winning writer Dr. Cheyenne Bryant.
A Doctor of Psychology, author of Mental Detox, and President of the NAACP San Pedro/Wilmington Branch, Dr. Bryant took time to answer our “2000 BC Q&A”, reflecting on her life before COVID-19 and how things have changed personally and professionally since.
Tell us what you miss most from life before COVID-19.
What I missed most would be running our non-profit, The Dr. Bryant Foundation, and its non-profit programs.
We were able to be hands-on with the kids in the community and we were able to have our partnerships, like with the Boys & Girls Club. We provide underprivileged and underserved families with computers and laptops, we had Christmas toy giveaways, and we were bussing kids from the inner city out to professional sports games. Their energy is infectious, and it’s the most amazing thing that you can see!
Where were you when you learned about COVID-19 and how did you respond?
I was at home watching the news. Honestly, I responded in a way where I just figured everything happens for a reason. It’s going to work itself out. What’s meant to come out of it is going to come out of it. I trust the process and, hopefully, the folks who are also involved can trust the process as well.
I do a certain practice everyday that I teach my clients. It’s very positive, it’s very trusting, it’s very solid within “who you are” type principles, and I practice what I preach. I use this principle called “Neutral” where I say no matter what happens in your life, your goal is to attain neutrality toward it all. So, when something like COVID-19 happens, you don’t want to allow it to tank you.
It’s not personal. This what life does to everybody because life has a job. Its job is to bring circumstance and its other job is to bring joy. You have to roll with it neutrally, so when that joy comes in…hit the gas a ride that wave. But don’t ride every wave.
What, for you, have been the personal and professional benefits, and setbacks, from the pandemic?
That’s an interesting question because I, actually, kind of liked the intimacy COVID-19 created for most of us.
A setback was not being able to run our programs where the kids are at the benefit of everything that we do.
Do you have faith in the vaccine?
I have faith that the results of the vaccine will allow people to make better choices when it comes to whether or not they want to have themselves or their kids administered the vaccine. My faith is more in people being able to make the best choice as to whether or not that is something that they’re going to have within their family, within their household.
So, I can’t say I have faith in the vaccine because some folks have had good experiences from it and others haven’t. I don’t think it’s been a long enough time to really see the efficacy of it. It takes time and it takes measurements to come to an effective scale to say if it’s something good or bad.
Who do you talk to the most to keep your spirits up and help you stay optimistic?
This is a really great question!
Myself, and it’s not talking. It’s more sitting. I can feel the pull on my spirit, my inner being when it’s needing more time and attention from me. When it’s needing to be heard. When it’s needing to be realigned and recharged.
That pull feels like anxiety. It feels like fear coming in. When those feelings, those energies start to come into play, I say “Okay, I hear you, self.” And I sit. I sit in wherever there’s a space of quietness and alone time, and I allow that solitude to speak and realign myself. I call that God’s time.
Has the pandemic caused you to value your life and the lives of others more than you did already?
I don’t know about value the lives of others, but I think that it has shown me that things that are most valuable, at least to myself, are the things that you can’t buy. Such as relationships, self-love and self-care, the laughter between yourself and someone else.
It could be the kind smile you can exchange with somebody at a red light. That smile or “have a wonder day” that you can give in the line at a grocery store or at Target that really gets someone through the day, that could be lifechanging for someone who needs that positivity. It’s shined value more on those things.
What about your immediate surroundings have you become more aware of?
I’m more aware of people who need my service. People who need help. When I say “service” I’m not talking about booking a session and paying me.
I was going for a run on Easter and there was an older woman crossing the street in downtown L.A. There was a Metro bus coming, and she had her walker and her suitcase on her walker and the light turned orange. She was halfway across, and you could see the anxiety on her face.
I stopped and I grabbed her suitcase and I said, “C’mon.” She looked at me like, “Oh, my God, an angel.” And I put my hand up to the Metro driver like, “Wait.” The bus driver looked at me and gave me a nod like good deed, good job.
When I got her on the sidewalk I asked, “You okay?” She said, “Yes, oh you’re such a blessing! Happy Easter!” And I said you’re welcome!
I’m more aware of people who need help in that type of manner. The pandemic has been hard on the elderly and the disabled. I’m on the lookout for who needs help and who can I be of service to.
What’s something that had to change because of the pandemic that you hope doesn’t change back once it’s over?
Healthcare providers becoming more of a priority to folks, getting the acknowledgement I think they should have always gotten! |THIS.
[By M.J. Walker]
