The Women’s Center will host  Love Your Body Day (LYBD) on Oct. 14 as part of National Love Your Body Week. 

This year’s theme is “Navigating 3 Pandemics: How to Love Your Body When There Are So Many Attacks Against It.” The three pandemics are COVID-19, violence against Black bodies and dating violence.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM), and the LYBD theme was chosen to reinforce the importance of bringing awareness to an important issue that not only affects women but our community as a whole. In addition, the LYBD theme acknowledges what currently endangers our bodies and reminds us to take care of ourselves and others in revolutionary ways. 

The mission of the Love Your Body Day Summit is to recognize loneliness, grief and fear and to create an empowering space to work through individual and community healing. A main goal of LYBD is to provide a safe space for important discussions of how to practice self-care and nurture your mental and physical well-being. Even though this year’s LYBD will be virtual, the Women’s Center has compiled a spectacular panel line-up of NC State staff, students and local healthcare professionals.  

This year’s LYBD keynote speaker is Jettana Okoye, LCSW, a well known and highly respected psychotherapist and the founder and CEO of J. Okoye Wellness. Leading with compassion, Okaye serves her clients by seamlessly blending psychotherapy principles with integrative health solutions to promote a well-rounded wellness program.  Her presentation will be “A Conversation on How to Find Safety in Stillness Despite the Reality of Threat.”

LYBD 2020 will give participants the ability to examine the intersections of violence, pandemics and systemic oppression while also creating strategies for revolutionary self care.

• Carlyn Wright-Eakes and Alexius Pearson will help us jump right into this discussion in their session “Intersection of Identity, Violence and Healing.”
• Deborah Dixon, a local Reiki Master and 500 RYT Yoga instructor, will hold two mindfulness sessions involving meditation and yoga for self-reflection and care.
• “Self Love During the Pandemics (Providing Space for Sexual Health and Wellbeing)” by April Smith, counselor education intern in the Women’s Center, will involve developing strategies and techniques for cultivating sexual health and overall wellbeing.
• Our day will wrap up with a presentation on Radical Self Love by Women’s Center Program Intern Staci Bachelor.  This session will help participants recognize and validate signs of grief, loneliness and fear while giving strategies for Radical Self Love as recommended by author, poet and activist Sonya Renee Taylor.

Please consider participating in this day of self-love and self-care. Gift yourself one day of personal and community healing. We are all in this together. For additional information and registration go to go.ncsu.edu/lybd. 

For more information about the Women’s Center or to see what we do visit the Women’s Center website or email us at womens-center@ncsu.edu. 

Staci Batchelor is an undergraduate intern and April Smith is a graduate intern in the Women’s Center.