HEALTH AND WELLNESS
WE HAVE AGENCY: We Control Our Self-Perceptions ORDSW BY |
D r . YESHA HANKIS, PHD
O
ur self-perceptions influence the quality and direction of our lives. The messages reflected in the faces and voices of neighbors, bosses, or store clerks impact us. What others believe about us, influences what we believe about ourselves. We can all recall a time when our confidence was shattered, or our selfesteem undermined by the words or actions of others. The battle for our self-perception is real. When Black men and women are brutally killed by the police without justice and our community is labeled as predisposed to COVID-19, it is hard not to let these realities affect how we see ourselves. We must create our self-perceptions. This is not a simple or one-time task. It is ongoing and sometimes difficult. But it is something we can learn. To protect our identity, we must act as an agent. We must build our personal agency. Agency is our belief that we can exercise some degree of control over the quality and content of our lives. It is the conviction that we can override environmental influences and shape our future. Agency is part of our humanness. It is fundamental to who we are, and a skill we can cultivate. There are four strategies to build our agency. The first is intentionality. We set intentions for our future by envisioning our desired outcomes. We decide how we want our lives to improve. The second is forethought. We use forethought by creating goals and defining how to turn them into reality. This includes making action plans that direct 18
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“We play a vital role in our ow n d ev e l o p m e n t a n d self-renewal, but to be an agent, we need other agents.� - Dr. Ayeesha Hankins, PHD
