We Have Agency

WE HAVE AGENCY: We Control Our Self-Perceptions

WORDS BY | Dr. AYEESHA HANKINS, PHD

Our 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

“We play a vital role in our own development and self-renewal, but to be an agent, we need other agents.”

- Dr. Ayeesha Hankins, PHD

our current behavior. It requires the consideration of what we need to do now to produce specific future results. The third strategy is selfregulation. It involves implementing our action plans and managing stressors and setbacks that arise. Managing our motivation is also key to self-regulation. The fourth strategy is self-reflection. It is the examination of the soundness of our thoughts, results, and effort. Reflection on our action allows us to adjust our efforts to achieve our desired future. With consistent practice, these strategies become new habits. We start to operate as agents.

We have the power to control how we see ourselves. Our answers to questions like, “Who am I?,” “What do I deserve?,” “What is my value?,” and “What am I capable of?” matter most. Once we have made our own conclusions about us, then we can engage with other credible sources. Only certain people have the right to give us feedback on who we are or who we can become. We control who we allow to influence us. We determine who is credible and who is not. Credible people are competent. They have skills that we lack, and they can provide encouragement.

An individual that commands their self-perceptions is an example of a credible source. They are cognizant of the influence that others have on them and they act as agents. They create social environments, both real and virtual, that affirm who they are. They filter the news from the noise. They take control of their self-perceptions. They protect them and they can help others do the same.

We play a vital role in our own development and self-renewal, but to be an agent, we need other agents. As we continue to isolate at home, we must find other men and women who can build us up. I have outlined several strategies on how to build agency. Pick one strategy and start small. Consider how you can incorporate it into your daily life. Do you need help maintaining a positive self-perception? Or are there other areas of your life that you need to exercise a greater degree of control? Find an agent to help you. Our personal agency enables us to work together via collective agency. We pool our knowledge, skills, and resources together and help each other grow.

COVD-19 has affected us all in a variety of ways. We are mourning our individual and collective losses. We are feeling fear and uncertainty. We are working through trauma. We are adjusting to a new normal at our jobs and in our homes. As we work to heal and thrive, I hope that we can protect the truth of who we are as individuals and as a community. And remember, we have our capacity for self-determination. We can control the quality and direction of our lives. We can control our selfperceptions.

Dr. Hankins runs a consultancy that teaches Black women how to 10x their confidence and believe in their capabilities, so they can achieve more. Website: www.ayeeshahankins.com

THE CURE FOR ALL DISEASES

WORDS BY | MICHELE DARR

In the shadows of the COVID-19 pandemic and the seemingly irrefutable methods and practices of the medical/pharmaceutical industrial complex, the work of the late, great Dr. Sebi is more relevant than ever before.

Born Alfredo Bowman in Honduras on Nov. 26, 1933, Dr. Sebi came to the United States battling asthma, diabetes, impotence, and obesity. Failing to find relief via conventional doctors practicing Western medicine, he spent the next 3 decades studying herbal medicine in North America, South America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Based upon the simple premise that acid and mucus are the basis for all sickness and disease, Dr. Sebi’s methodology supports the human body’s natural ability to heal by creating an alkaline atmosphere in the body utilizing plant foods, minerals and herbs. According to the website, https://drsebiscellfood.com/ methodology/:

“In Western medical research, diseases are a result of the host being infected with a “germ”, “virus”, or “bacteria”. In their approach to treating these “infestations”, inorganic, carcinogenic chemicals are employed…. By consistently utilizing the same premise and methods, they have consistently yielded ineffective results….in the 400-year tradition of the European philosophy of medicine, their approach in treating disease has yet to produce any cures.”

The website goes on to reveal the differences in the African approach to treatment that consistently lends favorably to healing from even the most virulent and, according to Western medical practitioners, “incurable” diseases.

In 1987, Dr. Sebi began advertising his treatment and cures for cancer, AIDS, HIV, herpes, diabetes, paralysis, and several other diseases in the Amsterdam News, the Village Voice, and the New York Post newspapers. Attracting the attention of the New York Attorney General, Robert Abrams, Sebi was ordered to remove the ads and when he refused, he was arrested on charges of practicing medicine without a license, selling products not approved by the FDA, and fraudulently claiming that he could cure AIDS and other diseases. Despite support from the American Heart Association and other credible medical groups, he was charged with fraud and a court date was set. After being implored to retain legal counsel, he chose instead to defend himself against one of the toughest prosecutors in the country.

After a thorough and well-documented presentation before the court, the judge remained unconvinced, demanding that Sebi provide testimony from one of each of his patients who could testify that he or she had been cured of diseases deemed “fatal” by the established medical industry. He responded immediately by producing 77 patients and, after hearing their powerful witness about being cured of their diseases, the jury found Sebi not guilty. He was acquitted on all counts.

Sebi passed away in 2016 at the age of 82, renewing public interest in the good doctor and his life work. Several celebrities who attempted to introduce and publicize the Dr.s work before AND after his sudden and unexpected demise,

also met untimely deaths, including Lisa “LeftEye” Lopes, Teddy Pendergrass and Michael Jackson. Most recently, rapper Nipsey Hussle, who had famously announced he was working on a documentary film about Sebi, was shot dead outside of his clothing store in L.A. In addition, since 2016, over 100 natural and holistic doctors and healthcare practitioners nationwide have also been murdered in cold blood or met unusually mysterious and/or violent deaths.

Far from anything that can be considered a conspiracy theory, is the hard, cold, capitalist reality that the holistic healthcare and healing industry is a looming threat to the multi-billiondollar medical/pharmaceutical industrial complex, whose cash cow is in sickness, not cures. Despite numerous attempts to neutralize and silence Dr. Sebi and others whose professions liberate us from the treadmill of disease and suffering, Dr. Sebi’s Cell Food continues to grow and thrive as do the practices of holistic Doctors bravely continuing to prevail and spread the word.