The Giving Garden® Loyalty Program

The Giving Garden® Podcast Episode 10 with Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon and Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez

Click the image below to listen to Episode 10 with special guests, Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon and Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez of Brujas of Brookyln. For a full transcript, scroll further down.

Full transcript of Episode 10

Martina Halloran: Welcome to The Giving Garden podcast where we explore the power of giving, the connections that shape our communities in the acts big and small that help us thrive together. As we step into the holiday season, many of us are preparing to give our time, energy, and love to family and community. But we often forget a simple truth. We can only give when our glass is full. Without grounding ourselves and caring for our own well-being, holiday gatherings can quickly shift from joyful to overwhelming.

That's why today's guests are so important. We're joined by two women whose life's work is devoted to helping us refill that glass. Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez and Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon, the Afro Dominican twin sisters behind Brujas of Brooklyn.

A sacred space they've created for a community of more than 28,000 cycle breakers with the mission to help women of color and all who seek healing, care for themselves, and reclaim joy as a daily practice. They are professors from within the City University of New York's network of schools. They are doulas, certified yoga instructors, and have been featured in outlets like ABC, NPR, Univision, The New York Times, and Oprah Magazine to name a few. Through multi-sensory workshops and accessible grounding practices, they remind us that healing is not only for the individual but can also be beneficial for the collective. Because when we tend to ourselves, we also open the door to deeper connections with our families and communities.

Today, they're here to guide us into the holiday season with practical tools for staying grounded and finding joy for a stress free season ahead. Dr. Miguelina, Dr. Griselda, welcome to The Giving Garden podcast.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: Thank you. Thank you, Martina.

Martina Halloran: Thank you so much. There's so much to talk about, and your body of work is so robust. I'm gonna jump right in, and hopefully, we can ask as many questions as possible in the short time we have together. So you both often speak about grounding. I've heard that language when I've looked at your work.

We talk about grounding a lot. And I think it's such a wonderful term, but so many people don't really know what it means. What does grounding mean from your lens, and why is it so important during the holiday seasons?

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: So this is Griselda. I love the question about grounded grounding. What comes to mind is there's, like a two pronged answer because grounding has, like, two meanings for us. One is in a spiritual sense, grounding is a practice that a person does if they're feeling a little scattered and spacey and maybe anxious, and you do things like touch the earth, put your bare feet on grass. You can sit, like, on sand.

You can touch a stone, something from the natural world, and connect with it with the breath so that then your senses could focus on the sensations, and you could feel calmer. Grounding for us also means staying rooted in your essence, in your background, in your identity, not getting lost in the accolades, the titles, the experiences to the point where you forget where you came from. So staying or remaining grounded means those two things to us.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: And I think the second part of the question was the importance of grounding during the holidays. It's important to remain grounded on a daily basis, you know, like morning practices, connecting with nature, even in a metropolis like New York City where we are, but especially during really high vibrating, high energy, loads of emotion, you know, like the holidays. And in the US, capitalism, etcetera, there's, like, back to back holidays. Right? Halloween is a holiday for us.

Absolutely. It's holiday season starts for us. You know, it's also, like, multibillion dollar industry. It's Halloween. Yep.

Thanksgiving. Then it's Christmas. It's Hanukkah. It's Kwanzaa. It's New Year's.

It's Three Kings Day, Latinx community. And it's a lot. And there's a lot of expectations, and there are a lot of gatherings with family and with friends. And there's a lot of shoulds. You should Mhmm.

Martina Halloran: Oh, gosh. Yes.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: You should purchase this, and I think that you could get lost in that, like, sea of shoulds. So remaining grounded with practices like Gri mentioned, you know, that's really important. And, you know, the elephant in the room when it comes to holiday gatherings, family. You're gonna be around family, and it's a beautiful thing, and it could be a triggering thing for some of these Holidays are exciting. There's so much to do.

Oh my god. I'm gonna see, like, my aunts that I haven't seen since last Christmas. For other people, they approach the holidays with a little bit more dread and a little bit more fear because they fear they're gonna be triggered. So it's extremely important to remain grounded during the holidays. Taking breaks.

If you're in a family gathering, taking breaks, going on walks, trying to find someone like a cousin that you are, like, close with.

Martina Halloran: You said something in the beginning about being connected to Earth, especially for us at Dr. Hauschka. We have such a beautiful relationship with Mother Earth. The space of just being connected to the Earth can really ground you and calm you in a way. Mother nature is extremely powerful. A lot of people think, oh, I can get natural skincare or I can get organic apples, but they're not recognizing that being in nature is such a valuable tool, and it's an easily accessible tool.

You can go for a walk. You can see a tree. You can take a moment. You can pause. And I wanna then fast forward into what you said about people can become overwhelmed and triggered when other people in their life are focusing on the holidays with this joy and this anticipation and this excitement.

I think particularly depending on what type of family you come from and culturally I'm Latinx as well. Mexican Americans, holidays are so big, and there's so many expectations, and they're done at such a high level that it can be overwhelming. I grew up with the idea of you should, you should, you should, and it comes into every aspect of your life during the holiday seasons. And it's not just about I should gift. I should do this.

I should host. I should invite this person. And then all of a sudden, you're kind of in this tug of war with yourself because of all the shoulds. And that sea of shoulds can be very overwhelming. But I love the fact that you've out of the gate, you've shared the fact that somebody can really just have a moment, touch a stone, see a tree, go out into nature, and breathe deeply and be able to move past some of these expectations a little bit easier than they would have had they not thought about some grounding practices.

And what does grounding mean for me? Because I'm sure it means something different for everybody. So we're on the holidays. So this question is really about the holidays. And although we talked about it a little bit, this line comes to mind.

And people often say there's, you know, there's songs about it. The holidays are the most wonderful time of the year. For many, it's the most stressful time of the year. One of the things that I recognize is that it is particularly stressful for women. How can you help women?

Because I think the shoulds are often on women versus the male in the family or the male in the household. That should often falls on the shoulders of women during the holidays and every day. But what are some of the tools that you might be able to offer women in particular?

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: I love that we're having this conversation among three Latinas because there's resonance. Right? I sense that a big thing is expectations. That's a start. To kinda go in and look at the expectations you carry around the holidays and do your best to identify what expectations are your own that you've developed and what expectations you've inherited.

So for example, being Dominican, we come from a big family that traditionally gets together in a big way during the holidays. That's starting to change more and more just because of, you know, modern living and also because I think the younger generations are understanding that, like, those really big events take a toll on the women in the family. So now we're doing smaller events. Right? I think that may be a start.

I know that if it it may feel some type of way to be like, oh, but some people really like being in, like, really big family gatherings, but at least for my sister and I, that we are now carrying the torch of the elders in our family. We're doing things smaller scale. Right? And then another important thing in addition to those expectations is delegating. Right?

I think that growing up, I saw my mother and my aunts, my algae mothers take on a lot and then not only not delegate, but then be resentful because they felt like they were carrying a lot and the people around were not, like, doing anything. It wasn't that they were doing anything. They didn't know what to do. Right? So I think that now as a mother and a wife and, again, inheriting the torch soon to become my sister now, the elders for a lot of the generations in our family, we're modeling doing things in smaller scales.

Mhmm. Because that way, we can do things in ways where we can enjoy ourselves. A lot of women during holiday season put in so much work, and they don't enjoy themselves.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: Yeah. I didn't get that until I was an adult. Like, until it was my turn or I started to understand everything my mother was carrying, I'm like, oh my goodness. Mommy is not even enjoying herself. And, you know, I just wanna add on to what Griselda said about delegating.

And ironically, this is something she and I talk about a lot, her giving me advice. If you're gonna delegate, then you have to relinquish control. Yeah. And the way that works for me, and I'm admitting to this, is I also delegate, but I'm like, I would like it if you did it x, y, and z. And then let it go.

And I know that's not an easy task, but we have to learn to delegate and really relinquish control because I think that the burnout that our elders is something that as I'm wearing a t shirt, maybe those that are listening, you can't see. My t shirt says cycle breaker. We're breaking those cycles. I was immediately like, oh, all they have to do is say no. No is a complete sentence, but it's a lot more complex than that.

Yes. Lot more complex when there's a lot of cultural expectation. When you didn't have people, women in particular, around you modeling what it looks like when a woman says no, period. Right? Another thing is learning how to rest.

 

Our mother doesn't know how to Yeah. She she's very Catholic. She prays the rosary, and she was she's like, Migue, can you take the chicken out of the fridge? She'll pray the rosary. Miguelina, Griselda, did you x y and z?

And we're like, mommy, you're supposed to be in prayer or resting. So maybe start the unraveling of that before the holiday start. I love what Griselda said. Sit and make a list. What expectations are mine?

What expectations do not belong to me? They're cultural. The most important thing for me personally, gauge within yourself. Do I wanna do this?

Martina Halloran: Yeah. Both of you have said something so important that isn't just about the holidays. It's about women in general delegating, releasing control, but importantly, finding the space to say no. And that for any woman, I think, is very difficult, especially in the home, especially if you have been the carrier of the traditions, if you have been the provider of the space for the gathering, if you have been the cook, if you have been the baker, if you have traditionally done all these things, when you look at everyday life for women in general, it is a very similar path that there are so many expectations, whether it's at home or in your professional environment, that when I look at Latin women, I think it that is the epitome of superwoman. Right?

Because there are so many expectations, and sometimes we don't even recognize their expectations because we're just doing it. We don't know how to do it any differently. You said something really important. Really start processing and think about this before the holiday and understand what lane and what space you're willing to give and how much you're willing to do within a healthy space for yourself before you even get there. How do you suggest that listeners might be able to pause and dial back into themselves during these situations so they can recognize maybe some of I don't wanna say the warning signs, but maybe some of the flags that are help happening in their own mind that might start to create high stress levels for them.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: I mean, just quickly, I think what I mentioned earlier, doing the work prior to the holidays so that you recognize your patterns. Oh, like, for me, I'll be honest, I start to sweat profusely. I'm, like, stressed out. My pits are sweating. The back of my knees are sweating.

Right? That's my body's response to extreme acute stress. It was just, like, really, really fast. Right? And I think that understanding my body in that way helps me say, you know what?

Let me just let me take a beat. Let me catch my breath. You know, we're breath work teachers, so there's certain techniques that we could do to regulate our nervous system, bring our heart rate down. But, ideally, you wanna do that before the holiday season so that when you're in that the eye of that storm, right, it doesn't catch you by surprise.

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: Martina, I like the way you framed it where, like Mika said, when you're in the eye of the storm and the stress starts to come up, a lot of people don't even notice it. It's Mhmm. Come from legacies of women that modeled being able to carry stress in a way that we thought was, like, gracious. And until, like, they’re so strong. Until their body gives in.

Like, our mother who had a heart attack nineteen years ago, and we were like, woah. But then, yeah, it's from years of wear and tear of the physical and emotional body. Practical, perhaps, tools, I try to put myself okay. Like, it's, you know, the twenty third, December 23, Latinos mostly tend to celebrate Christmas Eve. Mhmm.

And at four. Yeah. I would say trying to get as much rest as possible. I know that's difficult. One thing I like to do, sometimes when I need to take breaks, I'll go into, like, a dark room and just turn on white noise, and I'll put on, like, a 25 timer and just, like, lay in the bed.

You know? It doesn't have to be, like, home and, like, Sage and ringing a bell. All of that is great. But sometimes just sitting in a dark room in silence with a timer so that you don't get lost in taking a break and then coming back out. Because I think a a telltale sign for me, like Mika said, is her pits and the back of her knees is irritability.

Right?

Martina Halloran: I go left. I go from zero to 300.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: Go Gri and I and we go left fast, and that's okay. We're human. But what I wanted to share was my sister and I are very big on ritualizing, brushing our teeth, you know, setting a table. And I think that part of that ritualizing grounds you. It brings you into the present moment.

And more importantly, it creates a sense of gratitude. Yes. If you're overwhelmed, like, literally, I talk to myself. My fiancé just caught me talking to myself in the bathroom. He's like, who?

You're on the phone. I was like, nope. Just here. I was like, cleaning up. Me to me.

Me to me. Me to me. Really, really expressing gratitude. Sometimes legit, I am like, thank you creator for this beautiful pen, and thank you for the sunlight coming into my office. It may seem ridiculous, but gratitude is very powerful.

It shifts your perspective, and you can just be like, thank you, creator. Thank you, universe. I'm alive. I'm healthy, etcetera. And that that brings things back to focus because, yeah, sometimes we could get caught up in these first world problems, and we're so overwhelmed.

And, like, my sister and I, admittingly, we do enjoy the holidays, although we do navigate melancholy. Melancholy is very common during the holidays. Yet we do our best to, like, create spaces of joy because we have an extensive family, and there were a lot of elders. My mother's the youngest, and she's 83, and she's the last left. So we've had a lot of loss.

We've lost a lot of aunts, all of our aunts and uncles. Our father passed away. We've had older cousins pass away. So then every year, we are like, okay. Honestly, such and such is here.

We're so grateful that despite so and so not being here, we're still able to get together.

Martina Halloran: I've always felt that gratitude is the foundation for joy. Because when you start being grateful and you're finding that space of gratitude, then all of a sudden, you're able to recognize the joy. People have these huge expectations of themselves, of each other, of family members, of community. And when those expectations aren't met, I think people start to feel deflated, and they're not able to be grateful for what is happening because there's so many beautiful things that can happen during the holidays. I love the idea of ritual because ritual is rhythm.

Ritual gives you a sense of control that you may not feel from my perspective, that you have during the holidays because it's somebody else's house. It's somebody else's menu. Somebody else invited all the people, and you have to be there and participate in a way. And that ritual that you're finding for yourself gives you a little bit of control over more than you think you have control over. The holiday season is so long.

And by the time you get to Christmas Eve, like, you've already had so many things in the holiday season, and fall is also a very difficult time for people. It's early, and it's so dark out. And in the morning, you're waking up, and the sun isn't quite out yet. And that becomes a whole another emotional taxing thing on people leading right up into the holidays when you're expected to be, especially women, you're expected to be vibrant and glorious and exciting, and you're the heart of it all. And it's exhausting.

It's exhausting to do that. And so this, I think this conversation is so valuable not just for the holidays, but for women in everyday life as they're managing households, they're managing themselves, they're managing employment, all of those things that we make look easy, but it is not.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: Just because of the work we've done and we've been on a spiritual journey for a while and then creating, you know, this beautiful platform from it, my sister and I are really comfortable saying no. Right? We still have some a little bit of work to do, but we are comfortable saying no. You said something earlier about if you're the house that constantly hosts, that ended up being me. Like, I have the space.

I love hosting. I'm constantly hosting mainly for friends, but sometimes for family. So I decided to host New Year's one year. Like, friends, family, big event. They were gonna be, like, 50 people in my home.

I have, like, a full basement. Excited. We catered. There was cake. We were ready, and the day before on the thirtieth, I woke up not feeling well.

You had a fever. I had a fever. I I took a COVID test. I didn't have COVID, but like I had a fever. I wasn't feeling well.

And the whole day, was like, what do I do? What do I do? I slept on it. I woke up. I still remember I was sitting right here.

Those that know me know my elephant brain, my elephant mind. I'm sitting right here. It is, like, 7AM, and I have a fever. I'm not feeling good. It's the thirty first, and I'm like, oh my god.

How can I cancel this? So many people made plans. And I look over, my microwave is here. I remember it was like 07:15, and I'm sitting here, Martina, doing like, well, it's gonna be set twelve or sixteen more hours, Miguelina. All you have to give is fifteen more hours.

I was counting, like, in about sixteen or seventeen hours, your house will be empty and you can rest. You and I remember sitting here and being feeling like I'm betraying myself if I do that. I'm going against everything that I teach, that I tell my students, right, that I tell my younger family members, and I had to make the difficult decision. And I was like, y'all, I'm so sorry. And then Grizz was so gracious enough.

She started like, divvying up the food and the cake. Like she took the cake, she took the food, she drove it to somebody's house too. Because then the family was like, all right, we're just gonna stay like the units are just gonna stay by themselves. Right? So I think that for me, that was a really big moment.

I was sad, but I knew that I didn't have the capacity. I also didn't wanna compromise anyone because I did have a fever. Right? And the second thing I wanted to add, something that works for me, I have a very peculiar relationship with time. I can be a procrastinator.

I could put stuff off. And then, like, for example, I have a walk in closet. I'm blessed with a walk in closet. Instead of putting my stuff away when I'm done, I just throw it in the closet. I close it.

That's my thing.

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: You're the only one that does that. No. The only one.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: I spend, like, three hours on a Saturday afternoon when I can be doing something else, cleaning this closet. So what I do is I put timers, and I'm like, Miguelina, we're gonna in twenty minutes on a Wednesday, you could do a lot, because I'll be like, I don't have time. I have all this grating to do, and Grizz and I have a meeting for Brujas, and we have that podcast episode. Twenty minutes, you can do a lot. The same thing when you're cooking, prepping, hosting.

Say, you know what? I'm gonna put a timer for half an hour, and I'm gonna make sure this task gets done in half an hour because if you are like me, a half an hour task can take you two hours because the music is playing, and maybe you're sipping on a little something, and oh my god, Instagram. And but really honing in on those thirty minutes, it can help you complete a task that would have taken you longer. And it for me, it just alleviates more alleviates the stress.

Martina Halloran: The stress. Absolutely. You said two really important things. We kind of came back to the no and getting comfortable with saying no. And that's not easy.

And I think you said something really important in that conversation that if you don't say no at some point, in some situation, you're betraying yourself. And it's so hard to say no because it feels so negative. And I had a similar situation, and I don't think I've ever said no professionally ever. Because I always feel like it's on me. I'm gonna let the team down.

They need this. And I was in Germany, and this is gonna be the beauty of Dr. Hauschka as well as a company, as an organization. I was getting ready for a surgery, and I wasn't feeling well. I was literally in Germany. I was coming back.

I was gonna have this surgery the next week. And as I was there, I was getting progressively sicker and sicker and sicker and sicker. I woke up the next day, and I should have stayed along with some of my global colleagues, and my team was coming home ahead of me. And I woke up and I said, I just can't. There is no way that I can stay here.

I was so physically ill. So I reached out to the board. And the board was like, oh my gosh. Get on a plane now. Go home.

And, like, was like, the team is the team gonna get you on a plane? Is the team gonna get you home? Because I was actually getting sicker by the minute. And I had to take a step back when I went through the surgery, and I was really reflective. And I thought, you know what?

It would have been okay to say no to not even get on the plane and go to go to Germany in the beginning. And I think you have to have a little bit of faith, and you have to have a little bit of confidence in that boundaries are healthy and that health is your priority. And even though we're expected to do so much, that the support from I fortunately work in an incredible organization that really believes in the health and wellness of people first over profit. So we have that luxury. But because I'm given that so much gratitude in this space, I feel like I should be doing more.

And that is what led me to get on this plane to Germany when I should have been home resting before my surgery. So I think it's really hard to say no when you don't wanna let anybody down. Women, when they get stronger at saying no in establishing boundaries and establishing space for themselves to accomplish the things that are good and healthy for them. Like if it's cleaning a closet or if it's taking fifteen minutes, because you're eliminating stress for yourself that allows you to be healthier and whole. And I think we're not good at that as women.

And we need to get better at it because there's nothing wrong with no. It just means that you cannot simply do it, and you don't have the capacity. And it goes back to the expectation. I think there's such an expectation that we will always have this tremendous capacity to get things done from sunup to sundown. As I think about this conversation, I know that you do things such as the forty day sadhana.

For somebody who's new and is listening, might not be familiar, How could they possibly start maybe a shorter version of that to be able to work up to a bigger, more robust, deeper practice for themselves?

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: One thing that comes to mind so my sister and I have worked with this amazing woman called Shariyah Asani, and she's a mental health practitioner, a life coach. And in my time working with her, this was five years ago. Wow. She had me come up with a list of non-negotiables. Things, right, that, like, are important to you, whether it's making sure you eat breakfast, journaling Going on walks.

Going on walks. I have, like, a rebounder, like a baby a little trampoline. Jumping on it for, like, two minutes. She just had me it was fun doing this. And then, you know, Miguelina and I tend to be type a.

So we tend to be. We we're so it's like, you know, which a lot of

Martina Halloran: Many successful especially many successful Latin women are type a.

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: You have to be. Right? Like, unfortunately, unfortunately, I'm proud to be type a. I'm learning how to scale it back. Right?

But the point I'm bringing up type a is because then there's listeners that are type a that are taking notes, they're like, I wanna go above and beyond to do this. And it's like Shade was like, just pick one of those things on your list of nonnegotiable, one, and promise yourself for seven days you're gonna do one of those things. And not every day. It could be one nonnegotiable today, I'm gonna jump on the rebounder for a minute. The next day is I'm gonna sit with a five minute timer, and I'm gonna journal.

The day after is I'm going to go on, like, a twenty minute walk. The practice that can build up to something more consistent and bigger is promising yourself that you're gonna do something for yourself even if it's for five minutes every day for seven days.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: And it goes back to the conversation about betrayal, which, I mean, some people may take it and they may feel heavy, but it's true. Like, you honor yourself when you say, today, I'm gonna jump on the rebounder for a minute. Today, I'm gonna take a walk for twenty minutes out in some sunshine. Right? And the interesting thing about life within the context of the holidays and in general, it's like we clench our pearls.

I can't believe this person betrayed me. You know, I can't believe x y and z, but then we seldom sit and look at the ways we betray ourselves, and I think that these forty day sadhanas, which you're asking ways to build up to it, they're so powerful because for forty consecutive days, you are showing up for yourself for twenty to twenty five minutes a day and practicing a specific meditation. By day 40, your nervous system is not the same nervous system. You're not the same person. So personally, I think the way I would answer that question, how to build up to that, for me is the mornings.

The mornings are very sacred. Right? And I'm not a mother yet, but, you know, Griselda has done a beautiful job of modeling, like, a mom that has boundaries and puts herself in a predicament where she could give from a overflowing place. And it's really cute because she wakes up extra early, but then her Virgo son wakes up early too and sometimes they bicker, like, they bicker. She wakes up and she's like, why are you up?

And then he was like, I woke up, and mommy was already up. And he's like super annoyed because she has taught him, like Yeah. To this is a more this is what I need.

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: Sacred space. And we

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: say sacred space, and his thing is, right, he he's 11, but he's been doing this since he was, seven, eight years old. His thing is, I'm like, why do you wake up at five in the morning, 04:30 when he was younger? He's like, if I wake up at 04:30 or five, I can play video games, I can read my book, I can just do fun stuff before I go to school. And that's so how can you get like a nine or 10 year old can teach us so much, because for me, it's the mornings. Mhmm.

Warm cup of water with lemon. Right? It's the just sometimes I just sit here. I sit here on this couch, silence. Right?

Maybe it's working out. Maybe it's fifteen minutes of journaling. Maybe it's five minutes of meditation, some breath work. But starting going back to that word ritual, ritualizing your mornings really builds up, like, this momentum so then then you can do an extensive forty day practice. Megan and

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: I are very we tend to be reasonable because we put ourselves in the shoes of people that are starting a spiritual journey

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: Mhmm.

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: Or maybe new to this concept of, like, wellness as a space, as a way to fill your cup, and it can overflow. So although we listed a lot of things, we're ritualizing the morning and the and, you know, journaling and doing what you need to do. The bottom line is to make sure that you're doing something really special for yourself every day for at least a minute. And really special doesn't mean I'm gonna go online and spend a $150 on something I like. That can be it.

Right? But it can just be like, I'm going to drink a warm cup of water first thing before I, you know, down the macchiato with a croissant. That sounds so good. But

Martina Halloran: The way you're framing this is you are creating access for wellness. You know, something that I think is so important for everybody is access. Sometimes there's so many obstacles to access things in life. And the things you're talking about, you really can anybody can have access. And the idea of ritual, nonnegotiable, I love.

When you think about that, people often have non negotiables at work, but they don't have nonnegotiable for themselves in their personal space, which I love that this type a er was taking notes. I love that that we're having a conversation that is really open and accessible to anybody. And it brings me to the next thing. I love this so much. I love this so much.

This is so powerful when I read this and I heard this, you talk about joy as a form of resistance.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: Amen. Yes.

Martina Halloran: That is so powerful, and joy is available to anybody. That statement in itself is so powerful, and I would love for you to share a little bit with our listeners. Where does that come from? And from your lens, what does that mean?

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: Personally, Gri and I, we show up, and it's our Aries moon. And we're bubbly, and we're bright, and we're, like, the life of the party. And it's like, oh my god. You're so kind. You're so warm.

And sometimes you create so much joy. Sometimes people can interpret that as, you don't have problems. You must be nice.

Martina Halloran: Be nice. Yeah.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: The joy that we embody and share with the world comes from pain and comes from hardships, comes from last year, a month apart, each of us suffering an ectopic pregnancy. Like, comes from like just health scares, comes from relationships falling apart, comes from being in abusive romantic relationships. So on a micro level, we embody joy because if nah, y'all, we would fall apart. Independent of what we navigate in our individual lives, the state of the world is one that if you don't cultivate joy, this world, especially these days, is going to swallow you whole, and it's not gonna spit you back out. It's gonna swallow you whole.

So for me, it is imperative to create joy and not on some, like, a Pollyanna, like, everything's fine. Everything's fine. I love that. I love that cartoon. It's like the dog, like, in front of his laptop with a cup of coffee, and there's, like, flames in the back.

It's like he's, like, shell shocked. Like, everything's fine. Not that, but creating it from a sense of like, wow. I felt really good after I said x. I felt really good after I did y within the context of joy because it is lifesaving.

Now what I was gonna say, Greet, and I'm kinda telling you how to

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: Please tell me what to

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: how to answer the question. On a deeper ancestral, like, enslaved ancestor.

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: Like, I love the question about joy as a form of resistance, like, to tell listeners a little bit about that. Like, why not? Like, simply put, like, why not be joyous? Right? Especially from people women.

Right? One of the classes I teach within the City College of New York is called Decolonizing the Witch. So I bring students on a journey of what women have had to endure, powerful women, herbalists, the seers. Right? The Midwives.

 

The midwives, the masters of reproductive cycles. Those were the ones that were really dangerous to the men that were starting to create this framework for what we now understand to be capitalism. And they were ostracized, some of them were killed. And they were generations of magic that were repressed to the point where we're now finding it accessible to reclaim some of that magic. But, you know, if we if you're a woman, if you're a person of color that comes from legacies of enslavement and disenfranchisement, immigrants, immigrants themselves or offspring, children of immigrant that have had to fight so hard to come to the a a different country, you know, whether in Europe or The United States, and build a life for themselves.

Like, if you're products of any of those groups, why not? Like, because we were not supposed to be here. We were not supposed to be here, you know. And on top of that, when  I start to feel guilt at resting because it's still there, when I start to feel guilt because life seems to unfold for me in a way that just seems so magical sometimes, I had to remember, like, no. This is what my great grandmother prayed for.

Right? This is what my mother left her entire village, literally, of 11 brothers and sisters and her mother in the late seventies to come to this country with very little money, with no access to English, and a very small network of people here to now build this empire, which is these two three, because she my brother as well, successful, builds homes with his bare hands with no type of formal training, right, that she was able to, like, birth so many worlds. Why wouldn't I be joyous because my mother wasn't able to be? One of the things that I think is really interesting about this paradigm of dehumanization that we've lived in for hundreds of years is that it breeds guilt in people that choose to be joyous. But also, like we were saying earlier, my sister and I, like so many other listeners perhaps can relate.

They sometimes feel like they receive some slack from people because it's like you're just always so happy.

Dr. Miguelina Rodriguez: And I wanna, like, I wanted to add to that. No. I'm not always happy. No. And two, I'm always peaceful, but I'm not always happy.

I'm always grateful. Not always most of the time. Right? One thing that I wanted to add, admittingly, I love the holidays. I love Christmas.

I'm like, I am not December 1. We playing Yeah. Not even December. Well, my fiancé is December 1. If it was up to me, it would be right after Thanksgiving, but, know, I gave it a break.

But I decorate my home. And when I say I love Christmas, believe it or not, I always put a Christmas tree. My Christmas tree isn't always overflowing with gifts because I'm also not gonna break the bank because a lot of people get into a lot of debt because, again, the should. I really do love Christmas, particularly decorating it and, oh my god, Christmas carols, and let's hang out, and let's get there's so many gatherings. And to Griselda's point, I used to feel guilty because I was so joyous, and there were people that weren't.

Tone it down, Miguelina. Tone it down because, you know, so and so's mom just died earlier this year, so they're not happy with the holidays. Tone it down, Miguelina, because, you know, so and so doesn't have a good relationship with their father, so the holidays are tricky. Tone it down. And then I had to learn that, like, that is dark energy trying to, like, siphon.

Right. We really need people on a genuine level to express gratitude and joy during the holidays. To invite people. Hey. You have a messed up relationship with your family.

Come to my family.

Martina Halloran: Absolutely. I think that's a common thing for people who love the holidays. My home is Christmas on steroids. I love the holidays. I have a theme every year, but I do understand there's so many people that don't find that joy.

And what I've tried to do, a ritual that I've tried to create is that I take one thing from my childhood that was so joyful for me. And so when anybody comes to my home during the holidays, they get Mexican hot chocolate. It's such a beautiful memory, and it's warm, and it's the perfect time of the year. And sometimes I invite people to try and make it themselves or I send them home with a block of traditional chocolate. And I know that it's hard for people.

But what I will say as we kind of wrap this up is that this idea of ritual, gratitude, and joy, I think is such a universal message. And it's one that lives beyond the holidays. And your work has been incredible in this idea that, you know, you can find the space even in a hectic space to really care for yourself and then be able to come back to the situation in a more joyful, grateful space. I can't thank you all enough. This has been incredible.

And I wanna as we close the conversation, I'm reminded that the holidays are not just about what we give to others, but also about how we care for ourselves in the process. I think that's so important. The Brujas of Brooklyn have shown us that grounding isn't a luxury. It's a necessity. When we breathe, when we pause, when we tend to our own well-being, we create the foundation for more authentic connections with family, friends, and community.

Their work reminds us that joy itself can be a practice, one we return to even in stressful moments. By reclaiming joy and centering self-care, we not only refill our own glass, we also model for others what it looks like to live with presence, compassion, and strength. So as you move through this holiday season, may you remember to ground yourself, protect your peace, and embrace joy as your gift both to yourself and people who we love. For listeners who wanna continue learning, I think this is really important, from your community or wanna join your community, what's the best way to connect with you in the work of Brujas of Brooklyn?

Dr. Griselda Rodriguez-Solomon: Brujasofbrooklyn.com, and that's “brujas” with a “j”, b r u j a s, brujasofbrooklyn.com, and Brujas of Brooklyn across all platforms, Instagram and TikTok. Yes. And Facebook.

Martina Halloran: Fantastic. From all of us at The Giving Garden podcast, thank you for listening, and may your days ahead be rooted, joyful, and full. Thank you. As we close this conversation, I'm reminded that the holidays are not just about what we give to others, but also how we care for ourselves in the process. The Brewhouse of Brooklyn have shown us that grounding isn't a luxury.

It's a necessity. When we breathe, when we pause, intend to our own well-being, we create the foundation for more authentic connections with family, friends, and community. Their work reminds us that joy itself can be a practice, one we return to even in stressful moments. By reclaiming joy and centering self-care, we not only refill our glass, we also model for others what it looks like to live with presence, compassion, and strength. So as you move through the holiday season, may you remember to ground yourself, protect your peace, and embrace joy as your gift to both yourself and the people you love.

From all of us at The Giving Garden podcast, thank you for listening, and may your days ahead be rooted, joyful, and full.

Thank you for listening to The Giving Garden podcast. I hope you're leaving inspired, because even the smallest act can spark positive change. If you've enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to like, subscribe, and share. The Giving Garden Podcast is produced by Edwin Batista and edited by Steven West.

A special thanks to Helen Polisi for her guidance and generosity. The Giving Garden Podcast is brought to you by Dr. Hauschka Skin Care USA, pioneers in natural skincare for over fifty years and home to The Giving Garden Loyalty Program. Visit drhauschka.com to learn more.