In this episode of Owning Pleasure of Black Women, we dive into the transformative power of boudoir photography with photographer Laquel.

This isn't just about taking sexy pictures—it's about the profound experience of seeing yourself through a lens that celebrates rather than criticizes.

Laquel shares how she creates safe, welcoming spaces for women to explore different sides of themselves, why most women have never experienced professional pampering, and what happens when high-achieving women finally give themselves permission to be seen.

Tune in as we explore the intersection of creativity, rest, self-care, and the revolutionary act of prioritizing yourself—even when guilt shows up. If you're tired of being everyone's photographer but never in the frame yourself, you won't want to miss this one!

Key Takeaways:

1. Self-Care Isn't Selfish—It's Necessary: Laquel shares why creating moments for yourself (whether through photography, gardening, or reading in the tub) isn't indulgent—it's essential for maintaining your sanity and identity, especially during chaotic seasons of life.
2. The Power of Being Seen: Most women never experience professional photography beyond maybe their wedding day. Boudoir sessions offer more than pretty pictures—they reveal parts of yourself that have always existed but you've never gotten to witness.
3. Creative Rest is Real Rest: We discuss creative rest as one of the seven types of rest, and how tapping into your creative side (photography, sewing, reading, gardening) actually restores you in ways sleep alone cannot.

Listen Now:

Ready to discover what becomes possible when you give yourself permission to be seen, celebrated, and pampered? Hit play to explore how boudoir photography is helping women reconnect with parts of themselves they've been too busy to notice!

Links Mentioned:

1. Download the 7-Day Self-Care Reset: Ready to transition from survival mode to thriving? Get started with our free reset designed for high-achieving women who are tired of feeling guilty about prioritizing themselves. [Download here at javerywellness.com/reset]
2. Ready for Deeper Transformation? If this conversation resonated and you're realizing you don't want to carry these patterns alone, our clinicians at Javery Integrative Wellness Services work with women like you every day. Complete your intake form at [javerywellness.com/get-started]
3. Connect with Quail: www.laquelwright.com

Connect with Us:

1. Instagram: @javerywellness
2. Facebook: @JaveryIWS
3. YouTube: @JaveryWellness
4. Website:

In this episode of Owning Pleasure As A Black Woman, we're moving differently this January. Instead of the usual pressure to fix, grind, or reinvent yourself, I'm sharing the three words guiding my 2026: Space, Intuition, and Invest.

Tune in as we explore why creating space isn't selfish—it's essential for capacity. Discover how your intuition didn't disappear, it just got drowned out by years of over-functioning and survival patterns. And learn why investing in yourself before crisis mode isn't indulgent—it's strategic wisdom.

If you're tired of the annual January performance and ready to move through this year with intention instead of pressure, this episode is for you.

● Space = Capacity, Not Laziness: Learn why creating space—internally and externally—is essential for high-achieving women who are constantly running but never truly present. Discover how lack of space shows up as irritability, numbness, and resentment, even toward people and commitments you care about.

● Intuition Is Body-Based Wisdom: Your intuition didn't disappear—it got quieted through years of overriding your body's signals. Explore how to reconnect with the body-based wisdom that helps you make aligned decisions and trust yourself again.

● Investment Is About More Than Money: Discover why choosing support sooner instead of later is strategic, not weak. Learn how investing your time, energy, and resources in yourself before you're depleted creates sustainable thriving instead of constant survival.

Ready to move differently this year? Hit play to discover why creating space, trusting your intuition, and investing in yourself aren't selfish—they're essential for women who are ready to thrive, not just survive.

● Start Therapy with JIWS: Ready to move from understanding to transformation? Our clinicians work with high-achieving women navigating exactly this. Complete the intake form at javerywellness.com/get-started.

● Download the 7-Day Self-Care Reset: Curious about what this work might look like but not ready for therapy yet? Get your free guide designed for women tired of survival mode at javerywellness.com/reset.

● Join Our Email List: Be the first to know about upcoming episodes, resources, and insights for high-achieving women ready to own their pleasure. Sign up here.

1. Instagram: @javerywellness
2. Facebook: @javeryiws
3. YouTube: @javerywellness
4. Website:

In this episode replay of Owning Pleasure As A Black Woman, I'm pulling back the curtain and sharing my personal words for 2025: expand and repurpose.

If you caught our previous episode about choosing words over resolutions, you know how transformative this practice can be. Now I'm walking you through exactly how I selected these words and what they mean for my journey this year.

These words represent my desire to deepen relationships, simplify life, and embrace the growth I've already achieved without adding unnecessary stress.

Tune in for actionable tips on choosing your own words of the year and learning how to expand on the foundation you've already built. If you're ready to grow intentionally without burning out, this episode is your roadmap.

• Why Words Over Resolutions Still Wins: Choosing words instead of specific goals helps you avoid the pass/fail mentality that leaves you feeling like a failure at year's end. Words create alignment and allow for flexible growth in multiple areas of your life—every action that connects to your word is a win, no matter how small.

• My 2025 Word #1—Expand: This word is about growing intentionally in personal life, business, and self-care without adding stress or overwhelm. Expansion means deepening existing relationships, exploring new experiences, and allowing myself to take up more space in areas where I've been playing small. It's not about doing more—it's about going deeper and wider with what already exists.

• My 2025 Word #2—Repurpose: Instead of constantly creating from scratch, this word reminds me to leverage existing work, content, and habits to create a more focused and impactful life. Repurposing honors the foundation I've already built and makes room for strategic growth. It's about working smarter, not harder, and recognizing that I don't need to reinvent the wheel to create value.

How to Choose Your Own Words:

1. Reflect on Where You Are Right Now

1. What areas of your life feel ready for growth?
2. Where have you been playing small or holding back?
3. What foundation have you already built that you can expand upon?
4. What feels heavy or redundant that could be streamlined

2. Choose One or Two Focus Areas (Maximum)

1. Don't overwhelm yourself by trying to expand everywhere at once
2. Pick the areas that feel most alive or most ready for growth
3. Remember: You can expand in different areas throughout the year—you don't have to do everything in January

3. Remember This Critical Truth

1. Healing isn't constant work. At some point, you need to live and enjoy the fruits of your labor
2. You've already done so much internal work—now it's time to experience the life you've been building
3. Expansion doesn't mean more self-improvement projects; it means living more fully in the growth you've already achieved

Questions to Guide Your Journey:

In this episode of Owning Pleasure As A Black Woman, we're replaying our episode about flipping the script on traditional New Year's resolutions.

If you've ever felt like a failure when you didn't hit your specific goals by December 31st, this episode is for you.

I share her personal journey of replacing rigid resolutions with intentional words that guide her year—and how this shift transformed her approach to success, balance, and joy.

Tune in as we explore how choosing just three words can help you make aligned decisions, create sustainable wins, and find more ease in your life.

If you're a high-achieving woman who's tired of the pressure of perfection, you won't want to miss this one!

• The Problem with Resolutions: Traditional resolutions are often too specific and create a pass/fail mentality that ignores all the progress you've made throughout the year. When you don't hit that exact goal (like losing exactly 20 pounds), you feel like a failure—even if you made incredible strides in other ways.

• The Power of Words: Choosing 2-3 intentional words for your year creates flexibility and alignment without the pressure. Words like "active," "easy," "simple," or "fun" allow everything you do to count as a win. There's no right or wrong way to lean into your words—they simply guide your decisions and help you find your "no" when something doesn't align.

• Natasha's 2023 Words—Easy, Simple, and Fun: After a year of making everything harder than it needed to be, Natasha chose these three words to guide her 2023. This practice helped her step away from perfectionism, create better boundaries, make decisions more easily, and reclaim joy in her business and life. The result? More brain space, more fun experiences, and accomplishments that actually felt sustainable.

How to Choose Your Words for 2024:

1. Reflect on 2023

1. What areas of your life feel most stressed or depleted?
2. What do you want to feel more of in the new year?
3. What would you like to decrease or let go of?
4. Consider doing a Wheel of Life assessment to identify which areas need attention (Natasha discovered her "fun" bucket was dangerously low this way)

2. Identify 2-3 Words (Maximum)

1. Keep it simple—more than three words leads back to overwhelm
2. Choose words that represent the opposite of your current stress or the feeling you want to cultivate
3. Examples: Rest, Active, Joy, Simple, Easy, Boundaries, Connection, Presence, Play, Abundance

3. Create Your Decision-Making Filter

1. Use your words as buckets: Does this opportunity/commitment/decision align with my words?
2. If it doesn't fit in one of your word buckets, it's easier to say no
3. This practice helps high achievers get consistent wins without the pressure of one massive goal

4. Build Habits Around Your Words

1. Everything you do throughout the year that aligns with your words...

In this brief holiday message from Owning Pleasure with A Black Woman, we're doing something radical—practicing what we preach.

I share why the podcast is taking an intentional pause through the holidays and invites you to do the same.

If you've been waiting for permission to rest without guilt, consider this it. Tune in for a warm reminder that rest is your birthright, plus details on replayed episodes to help you prepare for 2026 with intention (not just another abandoned resolution list).

Key Takeaways:

● Rest is Practice, Not Just Preaching: The JIWS team is taking an intentional holiday pause to model the very principles we teach—that rest is essential, not optional.

● Reflection Over Resolutions: Listen to replayed episodes about setting intentions for the new year that actually stick, moving beyond the typical resolution cycle that fizzles by February.

● From Content to Action: Join the free 7-Day Self-Care Reset to transform what you're learning into actual implementation with practical, guilt-free tools.

Listen Now: Ready to give yourself permission to rest? Hit play to receive your reminder that you don't have to earn your right to pause.

Links Mentioned:

● Join Our 7-Day Self-Care Reset: Transform from consuming content to actual implementation with practical tools to prioritize yourself without guilt. Sign up here: [javerywellness.com/reset]

● Book a Free Consultation: Ready to break free from survival patterns and step into thriving? Schedule a free 15-minute consultation with Javery Integrative Wellness Services here: [javerywellness.com/get-started]

Connect with Us:

● Instagram: @javerywellness

● Facebook: @javeryiws

● YouTube: @javerywellness

● Website: www.javerywellness.com

In this episode of Owning Pleasure As A Black Woman, we challenge the relentless "finish the year strong" messaging that floods social media every December.

I explore why hustle culture was never designed with Black women in mind, what it means to coast into the new year with intention, and how to release the shame around unmet goals.

Tune in as we discuss the invisible labor that never gets counted, why rest is a strategic decision rather than a reward, and what becomes possible when you choose to end the year whole instead of "strong."

If you're exhausted from constantly performing strength you don't feel, tired of measuring your worth by your productivity, or ready to give yourself permission to rest without earning it first, this episode is your invitation to end 2025 softly, slowly, and sanely.

Hustle Culture & Inherited Scripts

• Hustle culture assumes everyone starts from the same place of rest and privilege—but Black women carry invisible labor including emotional work, code-switching, microaggressions, family obligations, and generational expectations that never make it onto anyone's to-do list
• The inherited script of constant motion was survival for our ancestors, but what was necessary for survival then might be stealing your ability to thrive now
• Your humanity is more important than your productivity—you don't need to sprint through December to prove your worth when you've already proven it a thousand times over

Coasting Is a Strategy

• Coasting means honoring your capacity—choosing sustainability over spectacle and longevity over one last push that leaves you depleted in January
• Rest is a strategy, not a reward: you don't have to earn rest by overworking first or be on the brink of burnout to deserve a break
• Like gardens that go dormant in winter to bloom in spring, you are not separate from nature and need seasons of rest too

What Becomes Possible

• When you enter 2026 rested instead of running on empty, you start with actual clarity about what you want, energy to move toward goals with intention, and capacity to say no to what doesn't serve you
• Finishing "whole" instead of "strong" means you valued yourself enough to stop when you needed to and trusted that your worth isn't tied to constant productivity

Releasing Goal Shame

• You're not behind—you're entering a new cycle with more wisdom. Life happened, your capacity shifted, and you made the best decisions you could with the information and energy you had
• Growth that doesn't fit on a vision board still counts: hard conversations, boundaries set, days you survived when surviving felt impossible, moments you chose yourself, times you asked for help
• Making peace with your present reality doesn't mean giving up—it means you can want more AND accept where you are, which actually creates space for genuine movement

Gentle End-of-Year Rituals

• Instead of aggressive goal-setting, try: slow mornings with no agenda, release rituals (write down and symbolically let go of what didn't serve you), journaling your wins (even small ones), permission to sleep without alarm, or declaring a theme word instead of rigid goals
• Words like "ease," "peace," "alignment," "joy," "softness," "authenticity," "pleasure," "trust" can guide decisions without the pressure of specific measurable outcomes

Ready to get inspired? Hit play to discover why you're allowed to end the year softly, how to release the pressure to constantly achieve, and what becomes possible when you choose rest over performance!

Join Our Email List: Be the first to know about upcoming episodes, special...

In this episode of Owning Pleasure As A Black Woman, we explore how your body physically tracks and responds to holiday stress—even when your mind is trying to convince you that you're "fine."

I break down the science of why your body keeps score, identifies the most common physical stress signals during the holiday season (from jaw clenching to immune system crashes), and provides practical tools for moving from overriding your body's wisdom to actually listening to it.

Tune in as we discuss the mind-body connection, inherited patterns of stress response, and what it looks like to build body trust when you've been taught to push through no matter what.

If you're experiencing unexplained physical symptoms, chronic exhaustion, or wondering why your body seems to "betray" you during the holidays, this episode will help you understand what's really happening—and how to respond with compassion instead of shame.

Why Your Body Keeps Score

• Your body and mind aren't separate systems—your body is literally processing and storing emotional experiences in real-time through your nervous system
• Survival mode (sympathetic nervous system activation) was designed for short-term threats, but holiday stress keeps you activated for weeks or months, creating chronic physical symptoms
• Black women often inherit patterns of overriding body signals from ancestors who needed to suppress their needs for survival—these aren't personal failures but generational patterns

Common Physical Stress Signals

• The Tension Trio: Jaw clenching (from suppressing what you want to say), shoulder tension (from carrying burdens that aren't yours), and digestive issues (from chronic nervous system activation)
• Sleep and energy disruption aren't about lack of sleep—they're about your nervous system staying in survival mode even when you're lying still
• Getting sick after the holidays isn't coincidence—it's your immune system forcing the rest you won't give yourself permission to take

Moving to Body Attunement

• You override your body because you learned that worth comes from productivity, not wellbeing—and for Black women, displaying vulnerability could feel dangerous
• Building body trust requires separating sensation (data) from story (judgment): "I feel tired" versus "I shouldn't be tired"
• Thank your body for giving you information instead of seeing signals as inconveniences or failures

Practical Tools

• The Body Wisdom Check-In: Four-step practice of pausing, scanning, asking what your body needs, and responding (not overriding)
• Create a Seasonal Stress Response Plan with your primary stress signals, response menu for each signal, daily non-negotiables, support system, and built-in recovery time
• Set three daily alarms for body check-ins—it takes less than two minutes but creates a pattern of listening instead of overriding

Ready to get inspired? Hit play to discover what your body is trying to tell you, why pushing through might be making things worse, and how to build a relationship of trust with your body's wisdom this holiday season!

Join Our Email List: Be the first to know about upcoming episodes, special offers, and more. Get your free 7-Day Self-Care Reset (with Day 4 focused on body reconnection) at javerywellness.com/reset.

Get Started with Therapy: Ready to reconnect with your body's wisdom and break free from patterns of pushing through? Complete an intake form at

In this episode of Owning Pleasure As A Black Woman, we dive into the complex reality of holiday family gatherings for Black women who are always expected to show up, hold it together, and keep the peace.

I share practical strategies for protecting your peace during the holiday season, including specific boundary scripts, energy protection techniques, and permission to redesign traditions around what actually nourishes you.

Tune in as we explore why you've become the default host/mediator/fixer, how to decline obligations without guilt, and what it looks like to enter January with your energy intact instead of completely depleted.

If you're looking to experience a holiday season that doesn't drain your spirit, you won't want to miss this one!

Understanding Your Default Role

• Being capable doesn't mean you're obligated—hosting is emotional, physical, and mental labor that you're allowed to opt out of
• Cultural scripts about service and sacrifice are inherited survival patterns that may no longer serve your ability to thrive
• Someone's disappointment with your boundaries is not your responsibility to manage

Practical Boundary Scripts

• Complete sentences need no justification: "I'm not hosting this year. I need the space to rest."
• For invasive questions: "I'm keeping my dating life private" / "That's not something I'm discussing today" / "I'm not open to body comments today"
• For unmet expectations: "If it doesn't get made, we'll adjust. I'm not picking up the extras this year"

Energy Protection Strategies

• Before events: Drive yourself, set time limits, eat beforehand, and establish a grounding practice
• During events: Take breaks, create physical distance from draining relatives, use the gray rock method, and leave early if needed
• After events: Plan recovery time including quiet evenings, baths, journaling, or full rest days

Holiday Redesign Permission

• You're allowed to change traditions: potlucks, smaller gatherings, catered meals, virtual check-ins, solo holidays, or completely new rituals
• Ask yourself: "If I could design my ideal holiday without worrying about expectations, what would it look like?"
• Small changes create permission for bigger changes—start with one shift this year

Prefer to watch instead of listen? Head over to our YouTube channel to catch the full episode: Watch it here.

Ready to get inspired? Hit play to discover how to protect your peace this holiday season without guilt, navigate family expectations with confidence, and redesign traditions around what actually nourishes you!

Join Our Email List: Be the first to know about upcoming episodes, special offers, and more. Get your free 7-Day Self-Care Reset at javerywellness.com/reset.

Get Started with Therapy: Ready to break free from inherited survival patterns and create

• Instagram: @JaveryWellness
• Facebook: @JaveryIWS
• YouTube: @JaveryWellness
• Website: www.javerywellness.com