The Health Resource Network, a US-based non-profit health education organization, launched its first annual Stress Awareness Month campaign in 1992 to raise public awareness of the dangers of stress, as well as coping strategies. Healthcare professionals across the country come together every April to increase public awareness in relation to the causes and cures of our modern stress epidemic. According to the Word Health Organization, stress can be defined as “a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation.”1 Stress is observed to affect both the mind and body. However, we don’t all experience or respond to stress the same way. In this post, I want to explore the subject of race-related stressors alongside coping strategies we can all incorporate into our every day.
I consider race-related stressors to be defined as psychological, emotional, and physical strains resulting from experiences of racism, discrimination, bias, or systematic disenfranchisement. In a widely cited overview of research on race-related stressors, Dr. David Williams (2018) details the “considerable complexity in the association between race and mental health.”2 Some life experiences that are not explicitly linked to racism can still reflect the effects of racism, and impact mental health in “hidden” ways. For example, while the death of a loved one is a widely understood indicator of extreme stress, “the ways in which such exposures are driven by the larger racism in the society is not typically understood and appreciated” (Williams 2018). I personally related to this example: a few years ago, my father passed away due to a delayed medical diagnosis. In experiencing medical neglect as an Black Caribbean man, his health suffered, and our family’s collective wellbeing was detrimentally impacted when we lost him. Grief impacted my ability to keep up with the stress of working four jobs at the time, and it resulted in me taking a month off work. My grief for my father was accompanied by that broader grief and understanding of the ways racism accelerated his mortality.
During this difficult time, I learned firsthand the importance of incorporating stress reducing coping strategies into my everyday life and taking time off to care for myself. Stress reducing coping strategies and techniques can look like any activity that brings a feeling of groundedness or relief from how stress manifests. As I mentioned in the opening paragraph, stress can appear differently for everyone. It might appear like tightness or stiffness in your body, an elevated heart rate, a lingering feeling of dread, or even a lack of focus on your work or inability to complete everyday tasks. Some stress reductions techniques that have resonated with me include:
- A free guided meditation on youtube
- A free guided breathing exercise on youtube
- A walk around your living space
- A walk outside to perhaps a local park and walking trail
- Listening to music
- Moving your body in a way that feels good — this could be yoga, dance, running or exercising
- Journaling
- Connecting with friends and loved ones
- Cooking a filling meal
- Taking a much needed nap
- Being creative — this could look like painting
- Indulging in a hobby of your choosing like reading, writing, or scrapbooking
I think of these coping strategies as something to get through difficult times, and also as strategies to build resilience. For the last several years, the Leah Zallman Center for Immigrant Health Research, a center at ICH, evaluated of the City of Boston Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement’s (MOIA) Weaving Well-being Initiative, which supports immigrant-serving community-based organizations in providing non-clinical mental health services to their communities. In November 2024, as described on p.9 of our 2022-2024 Impact Report, three days after the US Presidential election, LZC and 60+ partners came together in a coffee chat to discuss immigrant mental health and Weaving Well-being. We asked people what strategies they were using to get through that moment of fear and uncertainty (even before the current level of policy-induced harm and terror ICED IN our communities), and I collected and analyzed their responses, creating the following In our graphic that displays difficult emotions vocalized by communities and several strategies to strengthen resilience in uncertain times.
I’d encourage anyone reading this to take time today, whether it’s after your work shifts, classes, or possibly caregiving time, and listen to your body. Does it need guided meditation? Does it need a gentle stretch? Does it need rest? Does it possibly need some yummy food? As I always like to say, in taking care of yourself, you’re taking care of the collective. When navigating race-related stressors, it’s important to cultivate and nourish connections within our communities alongside allies. Despite stressors and structures that we can’t swiftly change, we are all able to care the best we can for ourselves, the communities we care for or are a part of, and our loved ones.
1: World Health Organization. “Stress.” World Health Organization, 21 Feb. 2023, www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/stress.
2: Williams DR. Stress and the Mental Health of Populations of Color: Advancing Our Understanding of Race-related Stressors. J Health Soc Behav. 2018 Dec;59(4):466-485. doi: 10.1177/0022146518814251. PMID: 30484715; PMCID: PMC6532404. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6532404/.
Additional resources referenced:
- Marksberry, Kellie. “What Is Stress?” The American Institute of Stress, 2011, www.stress.org/what-is-stress/.
- Marksberry, Kellie. “Stress Effects” The American Institute of Stress, 2020, www.stress.org/stress-effects/.
- Mental Health America. “Racism and Mental Health” Mental Health America, 27 Jan. 2025, mhanational.org/resources/racism-and-mental-health/.
