Latest / Postcards to the Universe / Dr. Rev. Ahmondra McClendon - The Uncrowned Queen Reclaims Her Throne

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Dr. Rev. Ahmondra McClendon - The Uncrowned Queen Reclaims Her Throne · Postcards to the Universe

0:07
Welcome to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa Capria. Do you believe in magic?
0:13
What if you were told that all you had to do was get a
0:17
little creative and work a magic spell to bring anything you can imagine into your
0:22
life. Here on Postcards to the Universe, we will share manifesting tips,
0:28
postcards, creativity, abundance, and prosperity. Here is your host, Melissa
0:34
Capria. Hey guys, and welcome to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa creating
0:42
the life you crave. How are you guys doing on this Wednesday? I
0:46
hope you are doing well. I've a really, really amazing guest today,
0:52
doctor Reverend Amandra McClendon, and she's going to join me in just a few
0:58
minutes and we're going to be taught, talking about and sharing her story from
1:02
her book called The Uncrowned Queen Reclaims her Throne When a Black Woman Breaks the
1:10
Silence. I just finished it this morning. I got the pleasure of listening
1:14
to it because I love to listen to books, and it's so it touched
1:18
me so deeply. I just loved it so much. So we're going to
1:21
talk about that with her in just a few so just a couple of things
1:26
for my regulars that are on my show, or tune into my show each
1:30
week, or listen to the replays of the show. Thank you so much.
1:34
I hope you keep coming back. I hope you like the guests that
1:38
I have on I try to have a nice variety of people in different topics
1:42
to talk about on my show. And if you're joining me for the first
1:46
time, I want to say a big welcome, thank you for being here
1:51
with me. I also hope you enjoy the show and that you'll keep coming
1:55
back. So just a little bit about me. I am an author,
2:00
artist, I'm a photographer, and I also have a book and it's titled
2:04
Postcards to the Universe, Harness the Universe's power and manifest your dreams. And
2:09
in my book, I have thirty manifesting stories along with photographs that I took
2:16
of the contributors manifesting postcards, and a manifesting postcard is kind of like a
2:23
mini vision board. It's about what we want to bring into our life,
2:25
and I photograph it. So the book includes thirty postcards with the stories of
2:32
what whoever submitted for my book, the people that were kind enough to submit
2:37
when the what they put on their postcard became a reality in their life.
2:42
So that's basically what the book is about. It is broken down into four
2:47
groups, which is love, money, health, and career, but there's
2:53
so much more. And in my book, I have a whole bunch of
2:57
writing exercises and it helps us get clear on what it is we want to
3:00
bring into our life and what is it the feeling that we want, what
3:04
do we want? We're why is it not happening? And so this just
3:07
kind of like helps us get really clear on those issues because that's very important.
3:13
So if you're interested in learning more, and I hope you are,
3:16
go to your favorite bookstore and or you can order it online Postcards to the
3:22
Universe and let me know what you think about it, please, I would
3:25
love to hear it. And also each week I ask people to send me
3:29
a manifesting postcard. They're super fun to make. If you are like,
3:34
what is she talking about? Don't know how to do it? All you
3:37
have to do is go to Postcards to the Universe dot com and I have
3:42
how to make a manifesting postcard along with the address to send it to.
3:46
And if you sign up on the join my movement. You're going to get
3:50
a little free gift, a manifesting ritual about how to manifest and how to
3:54
create a postcard and all the fun things that you could get. So please
3:58
come over there now. If you're on Facebook and you like groups, I
4:02
have a group called Postcards of Love. It's public. It's only uplifting stuff,
4:06
so it's really it's a really nice group. Okay, So I announced
4:12
this a few weeks ago. I have a workshop starting next week. It's
4:15
called Manifesting through Gratitude, a visual journey. It's going to run five weeks
4:23
to two hours of class. It's six to eight pm Eastern time, and
4:28
it's about living a grateful and creative life because I have found, and I've
4:32
mentioned this many times before, that living in gratitude for what we already have,
4:39
the experiences we've already been through, is the fastest and most powerful way
4:44
to bring in more of what we want into our lives because we're grateful for
4:49
things that we maybe take for granted on a daily basis. You know,
4:53
I mean just the use of your own body, if your body is working
4:57
the way it's supposed to work. I mean we that for granted, we
5:00
should be so grateful for that. So that's what we're going to be focusing
5:04
on. And what's really cool about the way that I did the workshop is
5:10
I'm going to be asking you to use your camera phone. We all have
5:14
them pretty much now as part of the work that we're going to be doing.
5:18
So we're going to be using photography to enhance our gratitude experience. And
5:25
the course is broken down into the themes of our lives where we need to
5:32
maybe pick it up a little bit and gratitude, you know, so we
5:36
can have more of For example, the first week is going to start with
5:41
worthiness, because if we don't feel we're worthy of the things that we want,
5:46
they do not show up, no matter what we think say, if
5:49
we don't feel we deserve it, if we're not in that energetic, spet
5:54
space of worthiness, the love you want, the career change, the abundance
5:59
and finances, it just doesn't come. So that's sets the stone and sets
6:05
the foundation for the work. And then we go into health, and we
6:10
go into money in our money story, and we go into relationships, and
6:15
relationships are not just romantic. It's relationships with family, friends, co workers,
6:20
the like. So if you're interested, and I really hope that you'll
6:24
join me. You could do it from your house. You don't have to
6:27
go anywhere. You can go to find uniquely u dot com forward slash Melissacaprio
6:34
and I'll give you all the information and how to sign up. And that's
6:38
find uniquelyu dot com, fi N d U n I q U e l
6:45
yu dot com my name Melissacaprio, and you'll find it. And I also
6:50
have a link to it on my website Postcards to the Universe, so you
6:54
can go there. So at the end of the course, you're going to
6:57
have such a shift in your life and you're going to you're going to have
7:00
a beautiful visual gratitude journal and we're also going to be doing manifesting postcards in
7:06
the workshop for each area that we're going to be working on. So it's
7:11
going to be a lot of fun. So I really really hope that I
7:15
see you there, and if you have any questions, just reach out to
7:16
me and I'll fill you in on more information. Okay, So each week
7:23
I share a I call them a magical message, and it's usually a postcard
7:28
that has an affirmation that's something that resonates with me, and I love affirmations.
7:32
I've used them in the past. I use them all the time,
7:36
especially when stuff's going on and I really need to pick me up, I
7:40
go for my affirmation. So I like to photograph an affirmation as a postcard,
7:45
and I usually post them on Mondays. So this week's message magical message
7:50
is dream Big. Now, I always go into a kind of little you
7:59
know what I what do I mean by dream big? And you know or
8:01
whatever the affirmation is for what I'm talking about for the show. But it's
8:07
wonderful that today's guest is going to be talking all about this. We're talking
8:13
about, you know, telling your stories and living your big dreams. So
8:18
I don't really need to do that. We're going to do it, but
8:20
we're gonna do it just in the conversation with my guests. So let's get
8:24
to her. Doctor, Reverend Amandra McClendon. It holds a Master of Social
8:33
Work degree from San Francisco State University and a Doctor of Ministry degree from New
8:37
York Theological Seminary. With thirty five plus years and human service delivery, she
8:43
has a unique perspective on life. Although her life is in harmony. Now,
8:48
it wasn't always. For years, she existed within the legacy of silence,
8:56
a generational pattern of behavior. Opening a window into a world where Black
9:01
women suffer in silence, she uncovers the strength, courage, and resiliency they
9:07
exhibit while facing childhood trauma, domestic violence, drug addiction, and paralyzing grief.
9:13
A passionate advocate for healing, she offers a pathway to freedom from the
9:18
African diaspoor who wonder why they live with silenced voices and hurting hearts. She
9:26
created the Original Queen's Sacred Community to facilitate change and strengthen the bonds of sisterhood.
9:33
This community is our tribe and a safe space to speak truth, recognize
9:39
triumphs, and share unconditional look as we heal generational pain and trauma. The
9:46
Uncrowned Queen reclaims her throne when a Black Woman breaks the silence. Is a
9:50
must read for Black women of all ages seeking to better understand themselves and their
9:56
ancestral heritage, and for those interest it and learning more about their challenges.
10:03
This is a quote holding hands and standing on the shoulders of our ancestors,
10:09
we can guide each other out of the dark world of secrets into the daylight
10:13
of truth. Together, we can reclaim our thrones and break the legacy of
10:18
silence. So if you want to find out more about her, go to
10:22
her website. It's it's http forward slash forward slash you see Queen Quean dot
10:31
com. Welcome, doctor Amadra, Thank you so much. Thank you here,
10:39
thank you, thank you. Oh, I'm excited to be in Melissa,
10:41
thank you for inviting me. Oh. I love your book. Like
10:45
I said so, I'm a big listener. I love to listen to audiobooks,
10:48
and I love that you narrated the book. You have a really beautiful
10:52
speaking voice, by the way, So I don't know if you've ever considered,
10:56
you know, adding a podcast to your list of everything that you're already
11:03
doing. But to talk about all of this. But you know, wait
11:07
a minute, Melissa, this is so amazing. I didn't read it.
11:11
I found a woman who has a voice to solving. Oh my god,
11:18
she's so exactly like you. I know, I know, I auditions like
11:24
five different individuals, and yeah, she has a voice. Linda has a
11:31
voice sound just like mine. Thank you, Yes she does. She does
11:37
exactly like you. I had. I'm like I found and the way and
11:41
with her inflection, and you know, especially when you were talking about things
11:46
and traumatic things that have happened to you and and other women in your family
11:50
and your ancestry, and and I was like getting goosebumps because yeah, see,
11:54
you know I would have never known, well good to know. But
11:58
either way, here's either way, so things. So why don't you share
12:03
a little bit about you know, who you are, like a little bit
12:09
about your journey, you know, the things that you talk about in your
12:13
book, and how you claimed your queendom back, how you book and got
12:18
it back. Okay, go ahead, the floor is yours. Thank you
12:24
so much. You know, as I was writing the book, I realized
12:28
that I've been so blessed because I've come through so much. And this is
12:33
a story about healing and transformation and the fact that I lived so many years
12:41
with secrets, Secrets of a twenty plus year drug and alcohol addiction, secrets
12:52
about domestic violence, secrets about childhood trauma, molestation, and as a young
13:00
woman having my best friend murdered and never understanding who did it or why they
13:07
did it, and never speaking about any of that, but living this life
13:13
on the outside as if everything was okay. I was a high achiever,
13:18
I went to college. If you looked at me and you looked at my
13:22
husband, we looked like a perfect couple, like life was well and good,
13:26
and it wasn't. I was living behind a wall of secrets. And
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it wasn't until my twenties, when I was diagnosed with discord lucus erathematosis,
13:39
that I really started to understand if I did not do something, I was
13:46
going to live a life of illness for a long time and possibly die because
13:52
of my illness. And that was when I started to begin to make small
13:56
changes. And then I made a large change, and that large change was
14:01
ending my marriage, which was filled with domestic violence. I ended that marriage,
14:09
returned to school, and also started to do some healing, and as
14:15
a result, I ended up in recovery. I was a practicing in alcoholic,
14:22
which means that I functioned every day. I got up and I went
14:26
to work every day. So in my mind I was fine. I could
14:30
How could I be an addict or an alcoholic if I'm functioning now, I'm
14:33
completing college and I'm an administrator of a large organization. Not realizing or understanding
14:41
that it is a disease, and through a series of events, I ended
14:46
up It's funny, in a meeting, I thought I was going to help
14:50
other people and ended up helping myself. And that is one I stepped into
14:58
recovery. And that is when I started looking at my life truly peeling back
15:05
the curtain and taking a really honest look, like everything isn't okay and I
15:13
am hurting and hurting in a very deep way. And that is when the
15:18
recovery started. And that is also when I would made friends with other women
15:26
in recovery, and we're still friends. That's why sisterhood is so important to
15:31
me. We've been together for thirty five I've been in recovery thirty six years,
15:35
so we've been together all this time, and this is the place where
15:41
I can go to and talk about whatever's going on with me so that I
15:43
don't live with those secrets, because secrets have a tendency to make us do
15:50
other things so that we feel good because the secrets make us feel bad.
15:54
Yeah and now, yeah, so that's my background. So I have a
16:02
question for you. As a black woman. Now, a lot of women,
16:07
just women in general, of all colors, hide our shame. We
16:11
do hide our shame. But the way you talk in the book about the
16:15
ancestry of black women is in the community, which I didn't know until I
16:22
was listening to your book, was there is a code of silence that's sort
16:29
of known, like you don't share your stuff or what happened to you with
16:36
anybody? Right, that's just yours? And where like why do you think
16:44
or why do you think? Like how did that start? Or why do
16:47
you think? That's something that kept carrying on from generation to generation? Right?
16:52
I call it generational patterns of behavior. So, living in Africa the
17:00
homeland, women were revered and we were queens and queen mothers. When we
17:07
were removed, kidnapped, and bought from our homeland to this country, we
17:12
had to learn how to communicate in silence. We had to learn how to
17:18
keep those things to ourselves that might get us beaten or killed. And we
17:26
had to train our children to be quiet also, And so we learned how
17:30
to live with that silence as a way to stay alive. But we formed
17:37
a way to communicate inside of that silence, and it was passed down from
17:42
generation to generation. My grandmother received it, she passed it to my mother,
17:48
and my mother passed it to me. But what happened inside of that,
17:53
we didn't learn how to communicate the pain to each other. We kept
17:59
everything silence. So even though I was holding these secrets from to keep myself
18:07
safe, I wasn't sharing it with someone else. I was just keeping them
18:14
inside. And so what happens when you do that, your body absorbs that
18:19
negative energy and you get sick. And that I believe it's why today heart
18:27
attack and stroke is the number one killer of Black women. And there are
18:33
other legacies. And if you go to my website, you see Queen dot
18:37
com. I just created a brand new e book and it talks about not
18:42
only the legacy of silence, it talks about the legacy of endurance and the
18:48
legacy of mothering. These are other behaviors that black women have as a result
18:56
of how we had to live in this country and how we had to support
19:00
others around us and we never supported ourselves. M and it passed down to
19:07
generation. Yeah, no, it's it was really interesting. So I was
19:12
thinking when I was listening, and I know that you have a deep You're
19:18
very spiritual, you're a minister, you have a deep connection to spirit,
19:19
a deep connection to God. Why do you think that generations ago this happened
19:26
to people from Africa? Why do you think a group was taken and beaten
19:33
and kidnapped and enslave like on the more I'm talking about more in the like
19:41
global, like spiritual, like like you know, like the learning curves or
19:45
like why why did we have to have that? Like why did that even
19:48
have to happen? Do you know? What do you know? Do you
19:52
understand the question I'm trying to ask you, like, like what you know?
19:56
Like I can't understand like where somebody said, oh, you know what,
20:00
there's a person whose darker skin than me. I think I'm just going
20:03
to take them and enslave them, Like I just don't understand how that even
20:07
happens. Well, when you if you study it, you find that a
20:15
lot of it was economics. You had a group of individuals who were building
20:21
economies and you and a lot of it has to do with ignorance. They
20:26
did not understand who these people were that was different from them. They didn't
20:32
know who they were. They didn't understand that they had this thriving, rich
20:36
culture. They just knew that they were different than they were, and as
20:41
a result, we can take them away from where they are because they're different
20:45
than us, and we have to be better than them because they're doing things
20:48
differently than we are. And so that justified them being able to go in
20:56
and actually remove individuals from their code, from their land and take them and
21:02
bring them to a place where they could use them for economic game. That's
21:07
it. And not taking the time to understand that these people don't look like
21:15
us, they don't express like us, but they have a vibrant culture and
21:22
this culture is rich, but it's different from hours, and because it's different
21:27
from ours, ours has to be better than theirs. And so as a
21:33
result, we can just do what we what we what we choose to do.
21:37
That's I just, I don't know, It's one of those things that
21:41
you shake your head out that you're just like, I just you just can't
21:44
even believe it actually happened. And you know, systematic racism is still going
21:48
on every day. So it's just yeah, right, And in my book,
21:52
yeah when I I love my life because I have a mother who was
22:00
born in Bermuda and she grew up as a British subject. She had no
22:07
idea what systemic racism was until she moved to this country. Yeah, and
22:15
as a little girl, I grew up understanding what it felt like to live
22:19
inside a systemic racism here in this country. But I also understood what it
22:26
felt like to be inside of a culture where that wasn't present. And that
22:32
was a blessing for me because I saw something that was different than what I
22:37
experienced every day, and I would say things like, it doesn't have to
22:42
be this way, because I know that there's a country where things happened differently.
22:48
Now, I'm not saying Bermuda did not have any type of prejudices,
22:52
but they did not have the systemic racism that's put in place in this country
23:00
the way it is and the way it has been. Ye, go ahead,
23:07
no, no, no, I was. I was just going to
23:10
say that black women have been the rock when we came to this country.
23:15
We came with so many skills we had, you know, just these skills
23:22
that were utilized by those people who held us in captivity, and it was
23:29
left up to us to take care of everybody. We took care of our
23:33
people, and we took care of our captors people, and as a result,
23:37
we did not take care of ourselves and that is still happening to this
23:41
day and this whole book. I share my story and put everything out there
23:49
to give other women the opportunity to see them not alone, that we all
23:56
shared this story, but because our history was hidden from us and kept from
24:00
up a lot of us. I didn't know about the generational patterns of behavior
24:04
until I went deeper into my own healing and realized that this was passed down
24:11
path down. When we understand that, it gives us an opportunity to start
24:18
the healing. You can't start a healing process if you don't know where to
24:22
start, right, Yeah. Yeah, you have to be yeah, and
24:29
you have to be open to um looking at your own stuff and your own
24:34
life and the pain. You have to address the pain and where it came
24:40
from. And for a lot of people, there's a fear around that they
24:44
don't want to so it's easier to number yourself out with drugs and alcohol or
24:49
whatever your vice is, because you don't want to date exactly with that deep
24:55
pain. Yeah. When I was reading the story or listening to the story,
24:57
and I was listening about your mom and how you spoke about Bermuda,
25:00
and then your mom being here and I was thinking, did she ever want
25:04
to go back there or she couldn't go back there? Well, she,
25:10
my mother was amazing. She did not want to go back and live in
25:15
Bermuda. But she never gave up her British citizenship because she said to me,
25:22
I don't know what they're going to do in this country. I want
25:27
to always be able to go home. And so she became a permanent residence,
25:36
but she never gave up her British citizenship. Yeah, because of that
25:40
reason, because of not knowing what was going to happen in this country.
25:45
Yeah, well, I know it's unbelievable, No, I know. I
25:49
was thinking about that because the way you described it and the way she how
25:53
she was so surprised when she got here, and I was thinking, wow,
25:57
like I wonder if the opportunity wasn't available to her, Like she couldn't
26:02
go back as your grandmother. Her mother was still there, still on living
26:07
there, so there was family still there. But before I really want to
26:11
get into this call to action for black women, and that's going to be
26:18
a deep conversation, so I want to take our break now so I don't
26:22
have to interrupt you. And then when we come back and just a couple
26:26
of minutes we can get into it. Guys, stay tuned, be back
26:30
in a few Conscious Media for conscious minds, O Times host your show on
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Try Ascending Hearts for free Ascending Hearts dot com. Hi, I'm Melissa
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the Life You Crave at four pm Eastern Time. I share tips on creativity,
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abundance and prosperity, and you will be introduced to the coolest guests,
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trailblazers, mystics and creatives who enrich our lives. We'll come back. So
29:38
if you're just joining me today, I'm speaking with doctor Reverend Amendra McClendon and
29:45
we're talking about her book The Uncrowned Queen Reclaims Her Throne when a Black Woman
29:51
breaks the silence. So I want to talk about this call to action that
29:57
you're that you put out with your work, that you put out with your
30:00
book for black women, and you can explain what the African diasporus, because
30:07
it's the first time I've ever heard it, So I know a lot of
30:10
people who are listening wouldn't have any idea what that is. So can you
30:15
share with us absolutely that the diaspor is a word that says anyone living away
30:22
from their particular country, like Africa is our original land. So when I
30:32
say black women from the African diaspor I'm not just referring to African American women.
30:40
I'm speaking to women globally who have an African ancestor. It's from the
30:47
diaspor that's what that means. And I was very mindful that I made sure
30:56
I've said that because black women are everywhere. When we were taken from Africa,
31:06
we went all over the world, and I didn't want my story to
31:11
be limited just to the women living within the United States. I wanted it
31:18
to be a story for all Black women who have ancestral ties to Africa.
31:27
The call to action for me is us reclaiming our heritage, us reclaiming our
31:38
power. We weren't raised to understand that we actually are came from queens.
31:48
That the oldest living remains on the planet is four point four million years old,
31:56
and it was a female from Ethol, Yes, and African female,
32:02
and we are descending from her. Everybody is and Black women weren't allowed to
32:12
understand who we were as queens on the continent. That the first individuals who
32:19
fought those who were who were taking people, give napping people from Africa were
32:23
queens. We're just finding that out now. You can go on Netflix and
32:28
they have they have movies about it. That we come from royalty, and
32:34
so the call to action for me is that we understand who we are and
32:42
we understand it by being together in sisterhood. I lived in Ghana for a
32:46
year and it was in Ghana that I really really began to understand my culture
32:54
and where I come from. And that the women get together all the time
33:00
and they talk and they nurture and they love on each other. That's their
33:06
support. There is no nuclear family, it's an extended family, and so
33:14
that extended family keeps everyone connected, connected also to the ancestors. The other
33:23
part of my call to action is also recognizing our ancestors. In the book,
33:30
every chapter has someone who's dedicated that chapter to a female who has passed
33:38
away to an ancestor, because it's important for us to know whose shoulders we're
33:45
standing on. So that call to action is a call to action not only
33:52
for us to go into our own personal healing and the traumas we've experienced personally,
33:58
but also to look at what we've experienced collectively and to begin to come
34:06
together and to talk about that so that we can reclaim our power. We
34:08
can reclaim our voices and rejoy, rejoicing who we are. That's the call
34:17
to action, and it has to happen quickly because we are suffering. We're
34:23
dying physically and spiritually. And at the same time, great things are happening
34:30
because black women are entering these powerful, powerful positions in the world and it's
34:37
exciting. So it's exciting that we now step up and say, Okay,
34:45
let us all heal together, let us come together, let us actually look
34:49
at what is behind those walls of silence that's hurting us. Yeah, that
34:58
makes sense. I resonated a lot when you were talking about your connection to
35:02
Ghana and your ancestry because I had a similar experience when I was in Italy
35:08
because I'm Italian. I was born here in America, but I'm Italian,
35:13
so there was being, you know, being connected to people of where my
35:19
ancestors came from. It's it's hard to describe the feeling. But when I
35:24
was listening to you describing it, I you know, I understood the connection.
35:29
It was like, it's like a deeper connection when you're connecting to your
35:32
ancestors that you know, your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and you
35:37
keep going came from. And that's still running in our DNA. So I
35:43
really resonated with that. And also the culture talking about the extended family.
35:47
That's a very Italian thing. Also the extended family is raising, is raising
35:55
the children, and and I realized that we're just we all have similar,
36:00
you know, stories in some ways, and how we can we can heal
36:07
heal this and for black women to get their power back. You know,
36:14
it's interesting because a lot of pop you know, like Beyonce or like these
36:17
the famous popular women, they call themselves queen. Right, that's that's a
36:22
thing I've heard. You know, I am a queen. I am a
36:24
queen. And I never really got it, you know, I just thought,
36:29
well, of course she's a queen, she's Beyonce, you know what
36:31
I mean. Like like it never like I didn't connect it until I was
36:37
listening to your book. It's deeper, and then I went, oh,
36:40
I understand. So how do you feel black women, and especially in America,
36:49
in our country, how do you think they are feeling um right now
36:54
about everything that's going on? Like are they lost? Do they feel us
37:00
in the wind? Do they feel like it's always the same, We're underappreciated,
37:04
undervalued, Like can you can you share that with us a little?
37:07
Well, I can't. Um. Well, first I want to say that
37:10
I didn't. I'm not saying that we don't have power, because we do.
37:15
We have. We are very power. Yeah, we are very powerful.
37:20
So when I say reclaim our throne, it's more of a reclaiming of
37:24
our ancestral ancestral history, the knowledge of who we are, and then reclaiming
37:32
our individual um power to put us first. Right, That's where That's what
37:42
I'm talking about. And as far as how we're feeling, can't speak for
37:45
every black woman, no, of course, just from those in your community
37:51
that you have you're in contact with, exactly in my community, don't.
37:58
We're feeling it's our time. Now, it's our time to just stop with
38:05
the silence to speak what's there, to step up completely and totally and speak
38:14
with an active voice. It's our time. And a lot of that has
38:19
to do with the generations that the younger generations, they are speaking with active
38:24
voices. They do not live under the same and training that I say lived
38:32
under, And a lot of it has to do with their world is different.
38:36
They have a world of social media, they have a world with their
38:38
contacting with people all over the world where I didn't have that. And the
38:45
other really exciting peace for me is that because of social media, the world
38:54
has become smaller and so now we can reach out and we can learn our
39:00
culture. Like he said, you went back to Italy and that there you
39:04
can identify your ancestors. Well, we can't do that. We can.
39:07
I went to Ghana, but I couldn't say that this is where my ancestors
39:14
were. They can't. I can't say that. And so African Americans in
39:17
this country we don't have that type of history connected to us. We have
39:27
to actually go and search it out. And in the meantime, we're living
39:34
inside of the culture here that wants to deny who we are, and we
39:39
created our own culture, and that's happening more and more. We're reclaiming our
39:45
culture. We're stepping up. We're finding these places in this world where we
39:51
have been existing and existing powerfully, and we're bringing that out. We're saying
39:57
this is who we are. And it's a amazing because you see new museums
40:01
being erected, you see our culture being put more in the forefront. That
40:09
is all so powerful for us in reclaiming our culture. That's when I when
40:17
I say reclaiming that throne, reclaiming our queendom, that is it that One
40:25
of the reason I created the Original Queen's Sacred Community was to recreate that sisterhood
40:36
that is available to us in Africa. That coming together, bringing all our
40:44
resources together. Now that's happening big time in the country. I mean,
40:49
there's all kinds of organizations around and there's still individual Black women who aren't a
40:55
part of those. So it's like, Okay, here's another one you can
41:00
join. This one is if we can have as many as we need.
41:02
And so the Original Queen's Sacred Community is just another space for women to come
41:10
into and to begin to have those conversations that they haven't been able to have
41:16
in the past. One of the things that I love when you talk about
41:22
the gratitude journals, I created something very similar and it's called the appreciation journal,
41:29
and it's specifically for us to begin our day by appreciating who we are.
41:37
When I do my gratitude journal, I'm usually talking about me being grateful
41:42
for those things that are external to me. So when I do my appreciation
41:47
journal, I'm appreciating me and my abilities and my qualities and that is a
41:54
great place for us to begin that healing process. And on my website there
42:04
is the ritual and you can go on there you can see the ritual and
42:08
I even created the steps in a downloadable PDF. You can actually download them
42:15
and it walks you through how to do the ritual. And the ritual is
42:20
called the I AM Ritual, the I Appreciate the ritual. Then you can
42:23
do every morning to set your day because it's shining the light on us.
42:30
If you shine the light on yourself birth, then you have more energy and
42:36
more power to go out and help others. You're not depleting yourself. Yeah,
42:42
definitely, that's definite. Is funny, Yeah, because when I talk
42:45
about gratitude and in my book, I have a I Am and it's you
42:50
know, and it is appreciating our bodies and who we are, and it's
42:53
and I wrote it in the book to do it's easy to do in the
42:57
shower while you're shower, is okay yea yeah, I love that, Yeah,
43:04
because that's that's claiming and you talk about that about your body, how
43:07
you had to claim back your body and what was what you were told was
43:12
perceived as beautiful and who you are until you really got that that this is
43:16
who I am? So how would you're when you're This is about women first?
43:22
But how is this with how how are men? Like? How can
43:29
men join into this too? Because I imagine there's a lot of black men
43:34
who would love to reclaim their own king you know kingdom, you know king
43:39
kingdom or whatever, you know, queendom or yeah, so are men in
43:45
your group, they well know they're not have the original queens, but they're
43:51
a friend about the original queen. So funny because one of these my best
43:55
friends, he has a tribute in the book and the tributes to his sister
44:01
and thirty years ago when I started to work with women, he helped me
44:07
write my first grant and to get fun so that I could run my group
44:15
and I and it was funny. I have one of my male friends asking,
44:19
but what about us? I go find your own you have to find
44:23
your own almonds, draw us. You get all right, as women happen
44:32
supporting man first, exactly, exactly exactly. And in the book, I
44:39
think I have one, two, two. I think there's four men who've
44:43
honored the women in their lives and so but when you get close to an
44:49
empowered female if you can't do anything but want to heal yourself, and that
44:57
is what happened. That is what happened. That's a great lie, that's
45:01
a great line, that's a great you know, a great sentence. So
45:07
share, share about your name, because that's very significant in your story.
45:14
You or your mother can't get the name Brenda, and you talk about reconciling
45:19
and so how did you know? How did you get your name? And
45:22
how how did that happen? Well, real quickly because it's our wrong or
45:28
yeah, Aly, I went into a space of very very deep pain.
45:36
I had an experience with a man and a woman, and I went into
45:40
a space of very deep pain. And every day I would walk and in
45:45
this rooking meditations this name I'm in draw surface and its surfaces like this is
45:52
who you are and this is a powerful spirit, and not to share it.
45:58
And through a series of event I kept that name inside and didn't share
46:02
it. And then when I did share it, I shared it with an
46:05
individual who told me that when the time was right, I would know WHI
46:10
to share that name with the world. And I was at a conference and
46:16
its events happened where I shared to the whole room that I had lived inside
46:22
of a drug addiction for so many years. And what happened as a result,
46:28
You know, I was able to do all these things, and the
46:30
facilitator helped me understand how powerful that was, that I could function even inside
46:37
of this addiction that was holding me down. And from there I started crying
46:44
and people started hugging me. And that is when this internal power called I'm
46:52
a draw expressed, and it expressed in the form of this energy. And
46:58
when this energy came out of me, women that were in this suckle around
47:02
me actually felt the heat and experienced healing. And that day I was able
47:09
to use that name, share that name in the world. And it's interesting
47:16
because I didn't change my name to Amandraw. I simply added it on because
47:23
my name is Amandra Brenda mcclindon. And so I had to understand that this
47:30
powerful energy is a part of me. And Brenda, the little girl who
47:36
grew up in the project and who had all these different experiences, she's there
47:42
also, And when I was in Africa, they came together and they became
47:47
merged. And I do I love the story you telling. You're in Africa,
47:54
how you're going to different locations at your meeting, oh your friend,
48:00
and they're telling you you're a healer, and you're like, what, I'm
48:02
a wife. Oh yeah, yeah, that you have to read the books.
48:07
This Yeah, experience was so amazing. You know. I ran from
48:13
it, just like so many individuals who we see the calling to do something,
48:17
we run from it because it's unfamiliar and we don't believe we're worthy of
48:22
it, so we run from it. Yeah. I was laughing. Friend.
48:27
You said to your friend, did you tell him? And she's like,
48:30
I'm not telling anybody. I don't know Africa nothing. I was like,
48:36
oh my god, that's how I that was great. Would yeah,
48:45
it was. I would just say if you list me, get the book.
48:50
If you're not sure, go to the website you see, queen dot
48:53
com and you can hear excerpts of the book. I actually have the ex
49:00
there that you could hear, so that you could begin to hear and so
49:04
those women who are not of African descent, I want to say the book
49:09
is there for you to read also so that you could begin to understand who
49:14
we are, because the narratives that are out in the world about black women
49:17
are not narratives that we necessarily wrote, right, And so for you to
49:23
understand us on that deeper level, if you read my story, it opens
49:29
up a world that you may not be privy to, and it would give
49:35
you a much deeper understanding of who we are. Yeah. Well, that's
49:39
what I really enjoyed about the book because the way you laid it out,
49:45
and you you share other people's experiences and stories and you know a lot of
49:52
it, and I've learned. I learned a lot of things that I didn't
49:54
know, and it helped me understand some things that maybe I had questions about
50:00
in the past. You know where this comes from and how this comes from.
50:04
And I love when a book does that for me because I'm a big
50:08
I'm a I'm like a sponge. I'm such a reader. I've always been
50:13
a reader. That's what I love about books. So when somebody else's experience
50:19
that I have no knowledge of and can't don't understand, and I can read
50:22
it from someone else and I learned something about them, it makes me feel
50:27
like a richer person inside. That's just yeah, yeah, yeah, And
50:31
that was one of my goals in writing the book. It took a while
50:37
to lay it out in such a way that because I wanted to be a
50:43
book, like at the end of the Red chapter there's questions. I wanted
50:46
to be a book that pro that helped individuals questions themselves and heel and to
50:54
actually see how I feel, what I had to go through in it to
51:00
get to where I am today. And I'm still killing you know, I'm
51:04
still It never stops, it always keeps moving forward. And I am available,
51:12
you know, for people it can contact me through the website. I
51:16
am available. And the other thing I want to make sure I say is
51:22
that inside of Original Queens, there is another group called the Legacy Group,
51:28
and the Legacy Group is for those individuals who feel that they need a much
51:32
deeper healing. I have friends who are licensed clinical social workers and they will
51:37
be a part of that group because when you get to dealing with deep healing,
51:45
it's the time sometimes where you need professionals to work with you, and
51:51
so that is available there. I don't want anyone to believe or feel like
51:55
this is something easy, and it's because it can be something very deep,
52:00
very important, that we provide the support that individual with me. Yeah,
52:09
oh yeah, no, it's deep. I mean I was. There were
52:13
moments where I was I had tears in my eyes and crying listening to some
52:16
of the stories because you know, you can hear it and you can imagine
52:21
it, you know, so I can't even with someone for the person who
52:23
had to experience it. And then you talk about an experience with your stepfather
52:29
and how you forgave him, and I thought, wow, you know,
52:32
because when I was listening to this story, I was like mad. I
52:36
was so mad, you know. And that's when you know it's a good
52:43
book when you get emotional about it, you know, as you're listening to
52:46
it. So but I know that's part of your ministry is you have to
52:52
heal the things that have happened to you, so you can help facilitate the
52:57
healing and others, yeah, if you don't. And I learned that it
53:02
was in recovery that I actually broke that through that wall, I should say,
53:08
yeah, and learned that forgiveness is for me. It's not so much
53:14
for the other. You never forget, but the forgiveness allows me to move
53:19
forward without anger and hatred being buried deep in my spirit and my soul.
53:25
So yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true, and we forget that
53:30
because it's not letting the other person off the hook and saying what they did
53:35
was okay. That's not what forgiveness is, you know, right. A
53:38
lot of people have a hard time with that because they're thinking, well,
53:40
I'm saying it's okay. No, you're not. You're just saying I'm not
53:45
gonna let you take up any more space in my body and in my mind,
53:50
my emotions, right, and a minute to get there too. You
53:53
know, it takes time to get there, you and so if you're not
53:59
in that place right now, it's okay. Yeah, just know that you
54:02
can get there that you know it hurt, whatever, your trauma won't be
54:08
there forever unless you hold it in place. Yeah, you hold it,
54:14
Yeah, and that you And the thing I really loved about your book the
54:17
most was you are showing us that we have the power within ourselves to heal
54:28
ourselves. We don't need to go you know, I mean, we may
54:31
need to help to get there and find whatever helps you, but but we
54:37
still have the ability to do it. Right, We could still do it.
54:40
You know, you don't have to be the victim your whole life,
54:44
right, And that's what I really exactly got out of your book. I
54:47
mean, I just I really really connected with it, and I'm so glad
54:52
our friend Diana connected us. I know. I am so happy also that
54:59
I I got a chance to connect with you and we will continue to work
55:02
together. I'm sure, I am definitely sure that yes we will. Is
55:09
there anything you want to just give a quick say out loud before we wrap
55:14
up, I just want to say, go to my website, you see
55:19
Queen dot com. Look around, download the new eat book, download the
55:25
steps to the ritual, contact me, join the original Queens, either as
55:31
the African American woman or as a friend of the Queens. Get into action.
55:38
Thank you, Amadraft. Oh, thank you, Amadra. Was such
55:42
a pleasure speaking with you today. Yeah, guys, go over and check
55:45
her out and sign up from my workshop next week at Fine technicallyu dot com.
55:51
Thanks everyone for listening to Postcards to the Universe with Melissa creating the life
55:55
you create. And I'm wishing everyone a wonderful week filled with joy, abundance
56:00
and love. Thank you, bye guys, next week. Peace,