Welcome to the Revolution!

Hello, beautiful souls!

Welcome to Revolutionary Abundance, a space crafted with love, intention, and an unwavering belief in the power of healing and liberation. I'm your host, Chelsea, I'm thrilled you're here, and I can't wait to embark on this transformative journey with you.

Our Origin Story: The Synthesis of Self, Spirit, & Community

Revolutionary Abundance isn't just a concept; it's a heartbeat, a response to the world's call for healing and justice. It all began in the heart of rural Appalachian communities, where I found my roots and my purpose. I grew up like most Appalachians: poor in money but rich in community. I was raised by a village alongside of a gaggle of cousins and friends that took care of each other in our weakest moments and I saw and experienced all the consequences of poverty: struggle with addiction, inconsistent housing, trauma, and so on. 

We didn't talk much about being poor, and we certainly didn't talk about politics, but we did talk about how college was my path out of the struggle that I had witnessed all around me. It was during my first years of college, while I faced the loss of a loved one to the for-profit healthcare industry, that I came to understand the impact of policy on our everyday lives and so began my journey into organizing. That was just over a decade ago and since then, I've worked in elections, on issue campaigns, in advocacy organizations and nonprofits. In every setting that I've worked in, I've witnessed the paradoxes within our movement - the stark divide between the professed values of equity, solidarity, and liberation, and the insidious grasp of The Culture of White Supremacist Capitalism, ensnaring both institutions and individuals.

These contradictions caused a series of moral injuries that forced me to face burnout and to heal from the very work which fuels my fire. Reconnecting with Self & Spirit in my journey to strengthen Community unlocked a synthesis between healing the personal and the collective which struck a deep chord within me. The healers and warriors around me, those in community organizing, nonprofits, social justice, social work, and healthcare, we feel the weight of overwhelm and burnout. I feel it too. It's from this very place that the idea of Revolutionary Abundance began to sprout.

“When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us.”

— Bell Hooks

What We Do: Weave Stories, Communities, & Healing

For those of you who don't know me from a previous lifetime, my name is Chelsea White-Hoglen, and I came to this project equipped with both a Bachelor and Master of Social Work, which have honed my passion for incorporating evidence-based healing practices into strategic campaigns and movement design efforts. I understand what it's like on frontlines of the work where trauma and injustice dwells and I've been there, in the trenches, fighting for change and sometimes feeling disheartened.

Our work doesn't have to drain us - in fact, in my controversial opinion, it SHOULDN'T drain us - it should contribute to our sense of power, to our healing, transformation, and rejuvenation. From my own spiral of despair, I found the strength to launch Revolutionary Abundance, a haven for those seeking profound collective healing that goes beyond the boundaries of traditional nonprofit and political structures.

Over the years, outside of traditional academia where I received my degrees, I have had the honor of learning from movement and thought leaders that have introduced me to new ways of thinking and being in my approach to the struggle for shared liberation. It is with much gratitude that I pay tribute to the giants who walked the path ahead of me, so that I may follow in their footsteps and expand the reach of their wisdom and impact. In the work that is shared through Revolutionary Abundance, I will frequently draw on and credit wisdom to sources such as:

• Bell Hooks - Black Appalachian author and educator who pioneered new ways of thinking in regards to race, class, and gender through her writings.
• Resmaa Menakem - social worker, healer, and cultural trauma navigator who fosters the framework of Somatic Abolitionism.
  
• Adrienne Maree Brown - social and environmental justice facilitator, author, creator, and healer who has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas and practices for transformation.
  
• Angela Davis - revolutionary activist, philosopher, academic, and author.
  
• The Just Transition Framework as learned from Climate Justice Alliance and Global Grassroots Justice Alliance
• The various contributors of Dismantling Racism Works and White Supremacy Culture
• The 4 Rs Theory of Transformation as learned from Spirit in Action
• And too many more to possibly list comprehensively here, but who I am eager to share with you as we move forward in this adventure together.

Although I have always seen community organizing as a vehicle for collective healing, it wasn't until my most recent face-off with the cycle of burnout that I realized how tremendous the impact is of our internal healing work on the external world. I cannot overemphasize the role of fear/trauma in upholding The Culture™️. When I use the term "The Culture™️," what I am referring to is The Culture™️ of dominance, of hierarchy, of oppression, of Heteropatriarchal White Supremacist Capitalism and Settler Colonialism. The Culture™️ is what we are all organizing against in one way or another, as we seek to balance the scales so that none of us have to struggle to survive.

It required ten full years of community organizing for me to realize that my actions, my interactions, my activism, my vision were all guided that entire time by my unhealed wounds. Trauma is a tricky thing, because we can't "out think" it or just get over it. In the words of Resmaa Menakem, borrowed from his book My Grandmother's Hands, 

"Contrary to what many people believe, trauma is not primarily an emotional response. Trauma always happens in the body... Our rational brain can't stop it from occurring, and it can't talk our body out of it. Trauma can cause us to react to present events in ways that seem wildly inappropriate, overly charged, or otherwise out of proportion."

- Resmaa Menakem, My Grandmother's Hands

The people in power under The Culture™️ understand this concept and have hijacked it, capitalized on it (pun fully intended) to prevent us from stepping into our fully power personally and collectively. When they increase the cost of housing so we stay anxious about keeping a roof over our head: that's trauma. When they pay us poverty-level paychecks so we have to work 2, 3, or even 4 jobs to scrape by: that's trauma. When they withhold access to healthcare, physical or mental: that's trauma. I could go on, and on, but I think you get the picture.

After being immersed in trauma, they can safely assume that we will react from that trauma as opposed to our values - because trauma doesn't give a flying f*** about our values. We're traumatized, so we lash out by pointing the finger at each other, based on our race or gender or political party something else. We're traumatized, so we fall into a pit of despair (commonly referred to as the "flee" mechanism) and more often than not attempt to numb our grief and our pain with substances that never quite seem to do the trick. We're traumatized so we buy into the myths and illusions of consumerism, binary thinking, one "right way" of being, and they begin to replace our connection with Self, Spirit, & Community.

It requires deep intention and action to uproot The Culture™️ from ourselves and our movement spaces. 

In fact, I might even go as far as to say that this work of reconnection and healing is, in fact, the very work that we are being called to do as a movement. What if we can truly heal the world from the inside, out?

The Framework of Healing and Liberation

At Revolutionary Abundance, our content is built upon evidence-based practices and grounded in frameworks that invite personal and collective healing:

1. Reconnecting with Self: We believe that healing begins with nurturing and loving ourselves, and going even further to explore what healing means for us in our unique experiences and upbringing. Our content will guide you through journaling prompts, meditations, somatic exercises, and more to foster a deeper connection with yourself.

2. Reconnecting with Spirit: Beyond the tangible, we delve into the spiritual aspects of healing and decolonizing. We don't claim or stick to any organized religion, but instead we explore what it means to reconnect with our ancestral traditions and cultural practices, the Spirit within ourselves, and the Spirit of the land on which we live and grow. We'll explore holistic practices and insights that rejuvenate the soul and empower you to navigate the world with renewed resilience and insight.

3. Reconnecting with Community: Community is the bedrock of change, and healing cannot happen in isolation. "Self care" is often The Culture™️'s way of further traumatizing us and removing us from Community Care on which we depend. We'll provide you with strategies and resources for finding your people and sense of belonging, engaging with others on divisive or politically charged topics, bridging divides and fostering unity.

When you subscribe to our email list, you'll get updates with these transformative practices, expert insights, and a supportive community dedicated to your well-being every few weeks.

So, dear friend, are you ready to embark on this journey of healing, connection, and liberation? We're here to support you, nurture you, and walk with you towards a brighter, more just future. Subscribe, engage, and let's explore Revolutionary Abundance together. Together, we can heal ourselves and the world.