062 - Coping with Our Not-Enoughness: A Personal Response to Anti-Asian Racism

Welcome to The Fully Lived Life podcast! A podcast for those who are longing to pursue the full life and want to break free from anything that holds them back. Listen in as two friends - a psychologist, Dr. Merry, and a life coach, Gillian - talk about life, love, and purpose - with wisdom, humor, and transparency - through the lens of science, psychology, and faith.

This week’s episode is an intentional departure from our normal format. It is a very personal account from Dr. Merry in response to the tragic shooting of 6 Asian women in Atlanta and the rise of anti-Asian racism and violence.

Research shows that there has been a significant increase of hate crimes against Asian-Canadians since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with major cities seeing crime rates that are 600 to 700 percent higher than the previous year!

Since the start of the pandemic, hate crimes against Asian-Canadians have been on the rise as documented in a report released by Statistics Canada in July 2020. Furthermore, Asian women report hate incidents at twice the rate of men, and in many cases, women received verbal harassment that reflects the intersection of racism and sexism.

Listen in and hear Dr. Merry’s vulnerable testimony to her experiences of racism as a woman of colour. Resonate with how she describes the feeling of “not enoughness”.

We offer this up to our listeners even though Dr. Merry is in the midst of processing all of this with no resolution, because we want you, as you feel her pain, to feel your own. Not to solve it, shut it down or fix it, but simply to feel it, accept it, and give yourself a lot of grace and self-compassion. Because we all need it. Life hurts and we hurt each other, many times inadvertently.

Our hope is that there can be solidarity in our common humanity and our suffering, and when we realize how much of what we struggle with is driven by that deep feeling of not enoughness.

For those of us who are Jesus followers, we continue to bring our not-enoughness and brokenness to Jesus, and in his perfect love and complete acceptance of us, we find our enoughness. Not in our performance, success, other people’s acceptance of us, but just in who he says we are and how much he loves us.

We are not offering any Therapeutic Tips or Coaching Tips in this episode, but encourage our listeners to be informed of the rising racist acts and language in our communities and world and be open to conversations about how we can be allies and not bystanders. And for those of you who have experienced racism and oppression, allow what gets stirred up in you to be validated and brought to light.

Links:

Dr. Merry’s book: https://amzn.to/2rCrJyI

Dr. Merry’s website: https://drmerry.com

Dr. Lin & Associates: http://drlinandassociates.com

Gillian’s Website: https://gillianmcshane.com