Self love is a phrase we hear all the time…but what does it actually look like to live it every single day?

In this soul-nourishing episode of Diamonds from Darkness, Syrie D is getting real about what self love truly means for Black women, beyond the aesthetics, beyond the social media version, and into the everyday choices that shape our healing, our peace, and our sense of worth.

Together, we unpack:

💎 Why self love can feel uncomfortable or unfamiliar
💎 The unspoken pressures Black women carry and how they impact our ability to choose ourselves
💎 What self love actually looks like in real life — through boundaries, rest, self-talk, and daily choices
💎 Simple, practical ways to begin showing up for yourself with compassion and intention

This episode is a reminder that self love isn’t about perfection, it’s about presence, honesty, and choosing yourself again and again.

✨ Plus, we close with a powerful GEM Within journaling prompt to help you reconnect with your needs, your voice, and the version of you that deserves to be deeply loved and supported.

If you’ve been pouring into everyone else and forgetting yourself in the process… this episode is for you.

What if therapy wasn’t something you turned to only when you were falling apart… but something you embraced to stay whole?

In this powerful and affirming conversation, I sit down with Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Adriana Londono, to talk honestly about Black women’s mental health, the weight of the “Strong Black Woman” narrative, and the boundaries we struggle to set when we’re used to being everything for everyone.

Together, we unpack:

• Why therapy is maintenance — not a last resort

• How burnout can hide behind strength and responsibility

• The emotional cost of always being the dependable one

• What healthy boundaries really look like for Black women

• How to seek support without shame

This episode is a reminder that you do not have to be in crisis to deserve care. Therapy is not proof that you’re broken — it’s evidence that you value your wellness.

You are allowed to rest.
You are allowed to ask for help.
You are allowed to maintain your mental health before it reaches a breaking point.

Take a breath. Press play. And let this be part of your maintenance.

Emotional labor is the weight we carry quietly; the planning, the anticipating, the fixing, the holding it together for everyone else.

In this episode of Diamonds from Darkness, we’re naming the silent burden so many Black women live with every day. We explore what emotional labor really looks like, how it shows up in our daily lives, our bodies, and our mental health, and why being “the strong one” often comes at a hidden cost.

We talk about:
✨ How emotional labor fuels burnout, anxiety, and exhaustion
✨ Why guilt keeps us overextended and stuck in survival mode
✨ How to redefine strength without sacrificing yourself
✨ What real support actually looks like—and how to ask for it
✨ How to build a life where you don’t have to carry everything alone

This is a conversation for the woman who’s tired of being strong, tired of holding it all together, and ready to choose rest, softness, and support without guilt.

You are not weak.
You are not broken.
You are responding to an abnormal amount of emotional responsibility.

Pull up, take a breath, and let’s talk about what healing really looks like...together. 💎✨

What if this season of exhaustion, emotional heaviness, and shifting identity isn’t you falling apart—but your soul asking you to slow down?

In this deeply reflective episode of Diamonds from Darkness, host Syrie D holds space for the quiet, often unspoken realities many Black women face during seasons of perimenopause—especially when the body, mind, and spirit begin requesting rest.

We explore how change can feel like unraveling before it feels like becoming, and why so many women, particularly Black women, carry immense emotional and mental loads in silence. From the emotional impact of perimenopause to the lifelong conditioning to “stay strong,” this episode names what so many feel but rarely say out loud.

Through the G.E.M.S. philosophy pillars, this conversation centers on:
💎 Mindfulness — noticing your fatigue, your feelings, and your limits without judgment
💎 Expression — giving yourself permission to speak your needs, release pressure, and stop performing strength
💎 Rest as resistance, recalibration, and rebuilding

This episode is a reminder that:
✨ Rest is not weakness
✨ Transition is not loss—it is becoming
✨ You are allowed to choose yourself without guilt or explanation

If you’ve been feeling the shift… if your emotions have been heavy… if your spirit has been calling for quiet—this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen in, breathe deeply, and remember: your soul is requesting rest, and you are allowed to answer. 💎

As we enter 2026, many Black women are carrying survival, burnout, and expectations we never chose.

In this episode of Diamonds from Darkness, Syrie D explores Reset, Refocus, and Rebuild through the G.E.M.S. philosophy—Growth, Expression, Mindfulness, and Strength. You’ll learn how to release survival mode, set boundaries that protect your mental health, refocus your energy toward alignment, and rebuild a life that truly supports you.

This episode includes practical tools, reflective questions, and a guided closing meditation to help you step into the year grounded and whole.

✨ You are not behind—you are becoming.
💎 You are the gem.

Grief is heavy! And too often, Black women are expected to carry it quietly and alone. In this episode of Diamonds from Darkness, I’m joined by a licensed clinical therapist, Shavon Thomas who specializes in supporting Black women through grief, loss, and emotional transitions.

Together, we explore how grief shows up in Black women’s lives, how therapy is viewed and experienced within the Black community, and the unique barriers and breakthroughs Black women face when seeking mental health support. We also discuss healthy coping strategies, emotional processing, and how therapy can be a powerful tool for healing, not a sign of weakness.

This conversation creates space to honor pain without shame, release the pressure to always “be strong,” and find strength through culturally affirming care and community support.

If you’re navigating loss, questioning therapy, or learning how to better cope with your mental health, this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen in and remember—you don’t have to carry it alone.

In this deeply personal and vulnerable episode, we explore a kind of grief we rarely speak about, the grief of losing someone who is still alive.

After the passing of my father, I began witnessing a slow and heartbreaking shift in my mother, the woman who once held everything together. Grief didn’t just change her. It unraveled her. And suddenly, I found myself stepping into a role I never expected: caring for the woman who once cared for me.

This episode is for anyone who has had to carry emotional weight that was once not theirs. For the daughters who became the caretakers. For the women grieving someone whose body is present but whose spirit feels far away. For those navigating love, resentment, compassion, fatigue, and the quiet ache of longing.

✨ GEM of the Week:
Growth isn’t always upward — sometimes it’s learning to stay grounded while love gets heavy.

We’ll explore:
• The slow unraveling of a parent after loss
• How unhealed childhood wounds echo into adulthood
• What it feels like to parent your parent
• The coexistence of love and resentment
• Learning to care for someone without losing yourself

There is no neat ending here...only honesty, softness, and truth-telling. If you are carrying this too… you are not alone.

I see you.

In this deeply personal and vulnerable episode of Diamonds from Darkness, host Syrie D steps away from the polished motivation and speaks from the raw middle of her journey — inside a quiet sadness.

This isn’t the clinical breakdown of bipolar depression.
This is what it feels like.

The kind of sadness that doesn’t always look like tears — but rather stillness, silence, and the invisible weight that makes even getting out of bed feel like an act of survival.

Syrie opens up about:

• The fog-like distance of moving through life but not feeling fully present

• The guilt of wanting to show up for family while fighting an internal heaviness

• The myth that Black women must always be strong, composed, and “fine”

• Why bipolar depression is not laziness, weakness, or a lack of gratitude

• And how grace, in this season, looks small, quiet, and imperfect

This episode honors the Black woman who is tired.
Who is doing her best.

Who is surviving in a world that demands her strength, even when she is running on empty.