In the first half of 2025, reportedly over 300,000 Black women lost their jobs. Months after that report came out, I too lost mine.
I wasn’t surprised when it happened. There had been so many changes within the company in that year alone. So at some point, I knew my job wasn’t safe. Lo and behold, I was right. I had already begun my job hunt even before I got the dreaded call, but it was still a gut punch. I truly enjoyed what I did and I disliked the feeling of having to start back at square one.
Job searching can be daunting and emotionally draining. There’s so many websites to choose from, and an overwhelming number of job posts to scroll through. You apply, anticipate their callbacks and start the process all over again. It’s exhausting.
All this can lead to anxiety and I had it bad. Sometimes, I would find myself doom scrolling through job posts and began to think, What’s the point? I wasn’t going to get any of these jobs anyway. It was negatively impacting my mental health. Every so often I had to give myself a break, some lasting until the next day. However, once I started focusing more on my wellness, I began to approach things differently.
In the last few years, I have sought to improve my mental health, physical health, and my overall quality of life. This includes reading self-help books, practicing meditation, and taking up journaling. I went even further and got certified as a sound healer and a life coach.
Due to making wellness a priority in my life, I have found it useful in my search for employment. But don’t just take my word for it. I reached out to Chinwé Williams, PhD, LPC, CPCS, a trauma and anxiety therapist who has been working with many Black women navigating unemployment, especially in these times.
“Historically, studies show that Black women have higher, more prevalent, more chronic symptoms of anxiety that often show up in a more persistent and intense way than their white counterparts,” she says.
Through her work, she finds where most of the anxiety in Black women comes from. “Part of my background is trauma recovery. I have written courses and presented, probably 50 to 100 times, on how racism is a form of trauma,” she explains. “It’s not in our diagnostic manual as therapists, but we do recognize that. I do think that [it’s] worth pointing out that discrimination, on top of employment instability, financial instability, family burdens, care taking duties, really do contribute to anxiety and also depression in Black women.”
With there being so much uncertainty around the job market, it is easy to let your mental health slip away. With the assistance of Williams, we dive into what helped me reduce my anxiety and the practices that can help you too.
Breathwork
One of my favorite ways to ground myself is by doing breathwork. It’s readily accessible and works instantly. There are several ways to do breathwork, but my go-to way is breathing in for four seconds, holding the breath for four seconds and breathing out for eight seconds. I may do it four or five times in a row or until I feel calm.
While breathwork is a great wellness tool, Williams shares this caveat. “Deep breathing takes time and it takes practice. It is the most effective because it’s the most efficient way, but you have to build that muscle. If you’re already feeling panicky, it doesn’t always work,” she admits.
5-4-3-2-1 Method
If breathwork isn’t your thing or want to learn another grounding practice, she suggests the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. This practice involves focusing on your immediate environment where you look at five things, feel (touch) four things, hear three things, smell two things, and taste one thing.
“It seems sort of silly or abstract, but it actually helps your nervous system to shift your brain’s attention from the anxious or worried thoughts to your body, so you’re grounding yourself in the present moment,” she shares.
Movement
I found that walking outside for 15 minutes or more helps me whenever I’m feeling anxious and Williams explains why. “Movement is a powerful stress reliever because it releases endorphins, it helps improve your mood, it clears your head, and it’s free. If you can’t make it to the gym, if you can’t turn on the yoga app or the YouTube video, just get outside and walk. Research shows that it does not take very long. Ten to 20 minutes, you’ll start to notice a difference,” she shares.
She adds, “Along with movement, this is very Afrocentric: shaking, [dancing], stomping and drumming. These activities resonate with our culture because movement, and these types of musical aspects [are] culturally embedded in our community. It’s a wonderful nonverbal way of releasing stress.”
Humming
Last, but certainly not least, she recommends humming as another way to regulate your nervous system. Humming is something I do almost always unconsciously. It even got me thinking about growing up in Black churches and being around elders as humming was something they often did.
“We do it sometimes [while] driving, listening to music or whatever, but if you can become intentional about humming when you start to feel anxious, the vibration in the back of the throat can actually nudge vagal pathways,” Williams notes. “That’s within your nervous system that signals relaxation. We don’t realize that we hold our jaw very, very tightly. Our throat tends to constrict when we are anxious. We experience dry mouth sometimes when we’re anxious.”
Uncertain times can feel overwhelming, but small, intentional steps like the mentioned practices can help ground you and restore a sense of calm, and that is precious.