I Am Still Here: Writing Our Way Into Black History

February 10, 2026
Person writing in a notebook at a wooden table near a window; soft light.

Why This Month and This Practice Are Personal

Black History Month has always held a personal significance for me. As a Black woman, I learned resilience from kitchen‐table stories, quiet sacrifices, and the daily choice to keep showing up when the world felt heavy. Guided journaling became a space where I could hold grief and joy simultaneously. It helped me name what my body already knew: I come from brilliance, I’ve survived so much, and my creativity is a lifeline.


From Love of Learning to a Living Journal What supported me most weren’t random questions, but prompts rooted in time‐tested ideas about how to live well. I began studying cultural concepts from communities that treat the work of living with intention: Ubuntu from Southern Africa (interconnectedness), Fika from Sweden (intentional pause), Kaizen from Japan (continuous improvement), and Sisu from Finland (inner courage).


Life in Practice grew from the meeting point of guided journaling and this global wisdom. Each month centers one concept and explores it through prompts, gentle self‐care practices, and simple mantras. Instead of telling you to “journal more,” it offers a clear, themed path that meets you where you are.


How Life in Practice Works

I wanted Life in Practice to feel like a steady companion - something you can return to during busy mornings, quiet evenings, or small pauses between responsibilities. Each month opens with an introduction to the theme, followed by weekly posts with daily prompts, self‐care actions, and mantras. There’s a mid‐month check‐in to help you adjust and an end‐of‐month reflection to honor your progress.


Journaling is proven to support emotional processing, reduce stress, and help people make meaning from their experiences. This practice turns that research into something simple and humane: a few sentences at a time that help you see yourself more clearly.


Ubuntu and the Heart of Black History Month

February’s theme is Ubuntu, which sits at the center of Black History Month’s focus on resilience, brilliance, and creativity. Often expressed as “I am because we are”, Ubuntu reminds us that we become ourselves through the people who raised us, challenged us, protected us, and made room for us. This month’s prompts invite you to notice where you’ve been deeply seen, name the values you inherited from your community, and practice inclusion, mutual support, shared laughter, and the courage to admire others out loud.


Sankofa, Chi, and Your Ongoing Story

Later in the year, Sankofa invites you to “go back and get it”, retrieving lessons, strengths, and unfinished grief from your past. Chi, from Igbo cosmology, turns your attention to the spark within you - your purpose, your gifts, and the environments where you feel most yourself. These Black-rooted philosophies sit alongside concepts like Fika, Kaizen, and Sisu as essential threads, reminding us that Black cultures have long offered profound language for surviving, thriving, and imagining new futures.


Resilience, Brilliance, and Creativity in Your Own Handwriting

For me, celebrating resilience means recognizing the ways you’ve bent without breaking and giving yourself tools, like guided journaling, to keep bending back toward wholeness. Celebrating brilliance means honoring the wisdom you carry, the values you’ve inherited, and the gifts you offer, even when no one is clapping. Celebrating creativity means making deliberate space for joy, imagination, and possibility, even when the world is loud and demanding. A few minutes of writing each day can become a quiet act of resistance and renewal, a way of saying, “My story matters. My mind and heart deserve care. I am still becoming.”

In this season of honoring Black history, Life in Practice is my offering: a year-long guided journal that helps you weave resilience, brilliance, and creativity into the fabric of your everyday life and keep writing the next chapter, one prompt at a time.


Join the practice ➡️lifeinpracticejournal.substack.com

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