Reclaiming Our Own Time in 25 Different Ways

When ROOT (Reclaiming Our Own Time) put out two distinct calls to community leaders of color to reclaim their own rest through sabbatical opportunities, the response was overwhelmingly honest. The ROOT team heard stories of burnout stemming from racial aggression, the pandemic, economic injustice, and years of not seeing progress on issues that truly matter to our communities. They also read so many dream stories of desires, of what rest could look like, of how rest could fill those cups and make whole these wonderful human beings.

In the Continuous and Rhythmic Sabbatical fellowship cohorts, a total of 25 individuals were able to embark on their journeys to radically, powerfully reclaim rest. The two different tracks were designed to ensure people in different walks of life were able to apply and experience restfulness.

• 10 Continuous Sabbatical fellows received $30,000 each to design and implement their own three-month sabbatical. Whereas the Rhythmic Sabbatical fellowship was a 15-person cohort that embarked on a monthly sabbatical experience (ranging from weekend excursions to weeklong trips) for six months to reclaim rest, meant for those who could not take continuous time off or leave their roles. Our cohorts were intergenerational and cut across identities and geographical locations in Minnesota.

In November 2025, both cohorts converged at a celebratory finale to share their experiences with each other, to trade stories and lessons learned, and reflect on how they might bring their learnings forward to continue reclaiming their own time beyond these sabbaticals.

Some of the insights shared:

• There is no one right way to rest. As our environment changes, as we change as people, so do our rest practices.
• We are interconnected. Sometimes it takes a village to rest!
• It can be difficult to know when to make a shift to welcome rest—but it’s always worth it!

The celebration also featured the opportunity to learn about Puerto Rico’s liberatory drumming and dance culture and its Afro-Indigenous roots, shared by the Boriken Cultural Center.

The ROOT team was incredibly grateful and proud of all 25 cohort members for embarking on this life-changing journey. Choosing yourself and rest is not always the easiest choice, yet something so incredibly needed in these times.

Photos by Pa Vang

If you were at the Minnesota Humanities Center on Nov. 9, 2025, you would have found yourself among softly smiling Black and Brown faces, joyfully reclaiming their rest during a time that had been incredibly stressful for many. You might have seen a gentle tear dabbed away as we learned to let go of what no longer served us, and heard laughter or a contented sigh drifting through the hallway as participants moved between sessions, exclaiming, “I really needed that,” and “you’re going to love that one!”

The Self-Care Circuit, a ROOT Heal the Healers retreat, was a restorative half-day that invited community members—particularly caregivers, service providers, advocates, and other healers of color—to pause, reconnect, and refill their personal wells.

Hosted by community leaders and healers Tameka Miller and Ebony Davis, the Sunday retreat provided everyone an opportunity to experience four embodied practices led by local healers of color. These sessions consisted of journaling (Jameelah Crawford), somatic movement (Sonja Fernandez), breathwork (Ka Zoua Xiong of Soul Ya Yoga), and yoga (Ja’Keta Scott of Soul Tree Yoga).

Tameka and Ebony began with a group grounding exercise, reminding everyone that we were all deserving of the rest we sought, and to release what was not serving us—at least for the few hours we were together.

An attendee shared, “The breathwork and the connection to self, I will take with me. I will bring a weekly community breathwork class back into my life. It showed me how much I needed it.”

Throughout the sessions, more than 30 participants found themselves guided back to a place of balance and inner stillness to rest, reflect, and remember that caring for self is the foundation to service, liberation, and our collective future.

The retreat provided the chance to experience a broad variety of healing modalities. Some participants shared that they were able to experience something they had meant to try for the longest time, but never made time to, or were too shy or timid to attempt. Some were also surprised at how much they still enjoyed a practice they hadn’t done for a long time.

Many of the participants themselves were healers in the community. They commented that it was a gift to be on the receiving end, to be poured back into, so they could continue to keep doing their life work of tending and caring for our community at large, given the rate of burnout we are collectively witnessing.

“I realized I have been a healer all my life, and these sessions validate my own abilities. The sessions also fed my spirit as I learned even more skills to engage with difficult situations, particularly in central Minnesota. My spirit and body and mind are constantly needing balance, and it was achieved that day.” — Attendee

The Self-Care Circuit ended with a lot of gratitude, care, and hope for more ways the healing community can keep supporting and tending to each other.

The ROOT team was grateful for the brilliance of Tameka Miller, Ebony Davis, Jameelah Crawford, Sonya Fernandez, Ka Zoua Xiong, and Ja’Keta Scott. Thank you for the gift of abundance and showing up for our healers!

ROOT‘s Rhythmic Sabbatical Fellowship was a six-month, 15-person cohort for movement leaders of color to reclaim rest. From May to November 2025, fellows embarked on monthly sabbatical experiences ranging from weekend excursions to weeklong trips. Throughout their time together, the cohort uplifted why BIPOC folx must embrace rest and restoration as fundamental pieces of all work toward justice.

ROOT Program Manager Susy Morales captured their wisdom and reflections in the illustrations below, featuring common myths about rest in gray speech bubbles surrounded with empowering antidotes to the myths. Check them out!

When we introduced Reclaiming Our Own Time (ROOT) in 2023, the ROOT team boldly put forth their vision:

We are leaders—Black, Indigenous, and people of color. In our well-rested future, we reclaim our own narrative. We celebrate who we are and our rest practices. Our rest is deserved, intergenerational, well-resourced, and for all of us. We rest for our ancestors’ past, present and future. We are connected to ourselves, our people, our rest practices, our youth, and our elders. Our dreams are expansive and vibrant. Our loved ones rest together in fullness. We feel alive and joyful.

This program was a communal dream as much as it was a grant-based initiative, and we are sad to share that, due to losing funding, our ROOT team’s roles are ending. All rest programming, including sabbaticals, Reimagine Rest events, and Heal the Healers series, will be paused for now.

Nexus remains committed to supporting sabbaticals and rest for leaders of color, and we hope to secure additional funding as soon as we are able. We’re grateful for the support of all our funding partners over the last few years, and we look forward to future partnerships supporting this important cause.

As shared by the ROOT team:

“We know from our time with all of you in our generous, abundant, and thriving ecosystem that the work of healing and resting together is so necessary if we want to see ourselves liberated and joyful in the future. We are fortunate here in Minnesota to see a growing number of healers who are nurturing this movement. We have been privileged to be a part of this journey of reclaiming rest alongside so many of you in these past few years.”

Whether you’ve crossed paths with ROOT through a nature walk, creative healing space, virtual conversation, sabbatical fellowship, Heal the Healers retreat, a coffee shop conversation on reclaiming rest, or through a Care Package newsletter, we are grateful you chose to be a part of the rest ecosystem.

If you have any questions, please reach out to root@nexuscp.org or info@nexuscp.org.

Meet the 15 fellows in our inaugural ROOT Rhythmic Sabbatical Fellowship!

Our fellows met and began their rest journey in New Orleans, where we spent time dreaming and authoring different narratives of what rest means to us. Starting our journey together at the end of the Mississippi River, the group got to learn from local healers on how communities in New Orleans understand and practice rest. In addition to engaging with our sabbatical curriculum, fellows spent time with local healers, were welcomed by a jazz band made up of Black elders, ate amazing food cooked by a local catering business, and learned about beading and the history of Masking from Spy Boy Walter of the beautiful Creole Apache tribe.

They also got to gently reclaim rest in their own respective ways, through practices like drumming, dancing, beading, journaling, going to bodies of water, napping, being with their loved ones, and observing spiritual practices, among others. We are excited to continue hosting the group in monthly rest practices!

Before returning to their daily routine, some members of the Rhythmic Sabbatical dropped wisdom that resonated with us. Check out what they say about rest and returning home:

• “Don’t rush to report back or share learnings. Instead, sit with the experience and tell people, ‘I’m still processing.'”
• “Are you just resting to sustain—or to regenerate?”
• “Reset expectations. Don’t meet urgency with urgency.”

We are so honored to be part of this group’s rest journey. We look forward to seeing what grows during our months together!

After many months of dreaming, our first Heal the Healers Convening took place Feb. 27 – March 1 in Saint Paul’s Wellstone Center. The three-day gathering, hosted by our ROOT program, provided a reprieve from the heavy mantle of responsibility we feel as community changemakers—offering nearly 140 BIPOC movement leaders a much-needed space to slow down, dig deep, and let go.

For generations, community healers have supported us through times of joy and times of grief by holding and teaching rest practices. The Heal the Healers Convening was our way to support them.

In opening remarks, Nexus founder and CEO Repa Mekha explained, “The work is sacred; it goes beyond transactional. But at the same time it rewards us in a deep spiritual way, it also pulls from us.” Over a hundred heads nodded in agreement as Repa pointed out the myth we often get caught in: “If you aren’t running yourself into the ground, you must not really be down for the cause.”

But doing community change work requires us to be nourished for the long run. We need deep rest to reconnect with ourselves, our purpose, and our vision. “We are authors,” Repa continued. “We can create the space and experiences we want to have. In this three-day period, we come full—we leave fuller. You are doing sacred work, and you are creating a legacy.”

ROOT Co-director Rosalva Mujwid Hernandez designed the Convening alongside community healers Felicia Washington Sy, Casandra Clark Mazariegos, and Aja King. Their goal was to offer a sacred space where healers could come together and nourish one another; see each other; practice ways of rest, reclaiming, and healing; and replenish their journey.

Through 24 workshops centered around art, somatic movement, spirituality, and mending wounds, the Convening provided creative ways to reflect, opportunities to connect, and spaces to process grief.

After many hugs, singing for liberation, and supporting a cacao healing ceremony, Rosalva’s biggest takeaway was that “radical love is the pathway to liberation. We all show up as we are—some with prickly armor, some with open arms, others with open wounds. And this space we curated can hold all.”

Rosalva kicked off the Convening by warmly sharing ROOT’s vision and her personal rest journey guided by her great grandmother, grandmother, and mother. “My mother is a curandera descendant from a strong line of women healers, and I felt disconnected from that power. So I spent the last year learning in collective spaces across Minnesota, New Mexico, Mexico, and Texas. I dreamt a calling that my job was to bring healers together and that it would be a long journey and imperfect one. My role is in collective leadership—supporting from within, not in front—and that’s what I have leaned into this past year as Heal the Healers took shape.”

Attendee Reflections

Several attendees shared that they often hold roles of healers, changemakers, activists, and caregivers in their circles. The opportunity to be part of the Convening was their way of choosing to pour back into their own cups to receive much-needed healing, and to know that it is equally important to spend time caring for themselves if they are fighting and building toward collective liberation.

“The Heal the Healers Convening was exactly what I needed before heading into six weeks in Korea. Such good medicine was shared through tears, laughter, warm embraces, sacred wisdom, and embodied practice. I carry these with me and wield a protective shield. I feel loved and filled with a loving spirit.”

“I have never experienced such a sense of community the way I did during this Convening. Though I walked in on day one to a room full of strangers, by the end of the day, most of us were already building meaningful connections. The workshops provided the opportunity to be creative, vocal and vulnerable while also very educational. I came in this space differently abled and felt nothing but safe and secure from the second I arrived. By the end of day three, we were family. We laughed, cried, broke bread and shared our fears, dreams, and wishes.”

For generations, community healers have supported us through times of joy and times of grief by holding and teaching rest practices. And at Nexus, we are committed to supporting them.

Our ROOT (Reclaiming Our Own Time) team recently sat down with Rev. Shewon McGee, LMT, BS, to learn more about her work as a healer.

Shewon is an intuitive bodywork practitioner, death doula, and spiritual life coach who aims to bring her clients closer to self awareness. She seeks to share her wisdom and journey of attaining a stress-free existence through reflective healing and learning how to authentically check in with oneself. She is also an ordained, nondenominational minister.

What gaps in the healing space are you able to remedy?

Shewon fills a need in the healing community through being Black, non-religious, and having direct experience witnessing death. Particularly in the death doula space, there is a need for more Black representation: doulas who offer nondenominational support, and healers who have had first-hand experience with supporting someone’s transition to death.

How can we start listening to ourselves authentically?

Shewon emphasizes that listening to yourself isn’t difficult—but surrounded by the noise of the world and others’ voices, we convince ourselves that it is. If you try to make connection with yourself and it feels difficult, repeated practice can help this process feel more natural.

What is the goal of your work as a death doula?

As a death doula, Shewon does not seek to make death less scary. Death is scary, and there’s no way around that. However, she does seek to help others reclaim death as a community experience. As Shewon explains, “We used to be in contact with death more frequently than in contemporary times, and today, many of us are detached from it.”

To learn more about Rev. Shewon McGee and her work, visit her website.

Last year, we introduced the ROOT Continuous Sabbatical Fellowship: three-month sabbaticals for 10 BIPOC movement leaders in Minnesota. Now, we’re excited to offer the Rhythmic Sabbatical Fellowship, designed from community input and geared toward those who cannot take a continuous block of time off.

The Rhythmic Sabbatical is a six-month program running May to November 2025. Fifteen applicants who meet the eligibility criteria will be randomly selected. They will:

• Join monthly rest experiences ranging from a weekend to 10 days, within Minnesota and out of state
• Receive a modest financial stipend & rest resources
• Work with coaches, healing practitioners & other guides

Applications open Monday, March 3 and close Monday, March 24. We will be accepting both individual and group applications.

Interested in applying? Mark your calendar for one of our upcoming information sessions:

• March 6 at noon
• March 12 at noon

Learn more about the experience, see eligibility requirements, and read FAQs on our program page!