Help Gina Heal & Rise!

Hi, I'm Gina René, an American R&B Singer/Songwriter, Intentional Rapper "Lyrisista" and Artist of 30 + years. I'm also a Domestic Violence Survivor, a Mother and Women’s Wellness & Creativity Coach, Ceremonial Priestess and Ordained Minister hailing from Créole, Choctaw & European roots, in devoted to the Divine Feminine and wholeness for humanity. I created this campaign to call in support to help my recovery from an unexpected health crisis and to complete the buildout and the official launch of my dream ministry/business I've had to pause due to my health. In the spirit of Women's History Month, your support will not only help me heal but will help change the lives of countless women seeking support in cultivating & reclaiming their creative power, their voice and their wholeness in such a time as this.

It took me several weeks to gather the courage needed to share my story, yet here I am taking a leap of faith to say that I need your help. On New Year's Day of this year, just after my last live performance, I found myself feeling strangely dizzy, exhausted and barely able to get out of bed most days with very little to no energy for my work, daily tasks and nearly of my commitments.

After confirming with my doctor that I have hypoadrenia (adrenal fatigue), we recognize this occurrence as a more serious case than I'd had back in 2019 when I had to rest in bed, prioritize self-care & health treatments (acupuncture, etc.) for 2-3 months. These protocols helped greatly, yet now the issue has resurfaced. In light of the unexpected, I've had to pause my main income sources of my online women's mentorship business and music to focus solely on my health which has led me to require short-term financial support to help cover some of the costs of this unexpected challenge.

Your contributions will enable me to:

Receiving your support will make a significant impact in allowing me the spaciousness to slow down and cultivate a new foundation for a softer work/life integration for optimum health. If you're inspired, or able to give any amount I am truly grateful. Big love for all of you who've believed in me, or supported me and my music and work over the years. Your generosity means more than you know. I am also deeply grateful for my fam (you know who you are) who contributed what they could pre-campaign.

Thank you in advance for your faith & kindness.

For those who prefer to skip the fees/tax:

Venmo me: @Ginarenetrue or

Cash App me: https://www.cash.app/$queenginarene

Also, If you're someone whose been touched by my music, message, or story I ask that you share my campaign with your friends, or followers to help me succeed in the fundraising goal By April 21st, 2023.

“The relationship to the self within is the most important relationship because it is the one that every other relationship is based on.”

~Feather Rose Marie, of Embodied Feminine

Looking back on the past year I now see that I got so busy running my women's business, coaching my new clients, running my first retreat collab with my soul sisters, prepping the launch of my website, working on 2 music projects + 2 albums with Million 7 (The Soul Bath Experience & Gina René & Million 7 ), moving mom twice & helping care for her (she has dementia now), and being there for my daughter that I forgot about my wellness! And how interesting that self-healing is what my whole self-expression offering is based around. Talk about humility. The reality is that adrenal fatigue/burnout is way more prevalent and truly, dare I say, an epidemic, especially amongst women today yet it appears Big Pharma hasn't created a profitable cure thus many western doctors tend to view the illness as illegitimate.

Over the past few years and since the health crisis of 2020, self-care movements have been gaining popularity and one such movement of living a "soft life" that started within the black women's community in 2021 caught my attention once I became unwell and started slowing down.

This movement stands for black & melanated women reclaiming our birthright to a joyful and more balanced slower life, without the hustle like many paradigm-shifting belief systems, the heart of this movement has been misunderstood in some circles because of the traditional "work, work/push through" mentality being so deeply ingrained in our American culture. It's not about "not working", but beginning to view our work and lives from a holistic, or whole systems approach spoken on eloquently by the young entrepreneur Chloe Hakim Moore, which includes honoring our humanity and holistic needs.

It's only natural in a time of fake news. etc. to be discerning about new trends, yet the popularity of true self-care and wellness, in my opinion, shows that the collective of humanity is at a turning point for physical and spiritual wholeness and the return of the feminine (aka natural ways) are upon us.

More of My Story

As I write all this I am feeling very vulnerable because I rarely share the details of my personal life outside of key moments in the women’s work I do and I’m also someone who if I’m gonna be real I’m gonna go all in. The truth is that I have struggled with depression and ADHD symptoms most of my adult life yet have learned to mask them from most of my interactions due to the stigmas around mental health up until recently. Both of these challenges have affected my ability to show up fully present & follow through with some of my key creative works, life goals and dreams in general. In other words, it’s been hard to be me. I've been having a really hard time and i didn't know how to share it before now. Although I know I’m not alone in having a neuro-divergent brain and being a highly sensitive person (HSP), yet I’m noticing that I still feel a lot of shame around it. Now I'm recognizing why I got into a pattern of isolating myself (outside of performing and key gatherings) for many years, way before the quarantine.

Since getting adrenal fatigue in January I've become aware that a big part of the true cause of my symptoms is related to unhealed PTSD & trauma from a domestic violence & abusive, narcissistic relationship both myself and my daughter were victims of 7 years ago which has left deep, long-term effects on each of our mental health that only now am I beginning to unpack in therapy. This, in combination with all of the patterns of relating that stem from lifelong patterns of caretaking, people pleasing, overgiving, self-abandonment and denial of my own needs and coming to face some deep ancestral trauma, internalized racism & "othering" issues around my mixed heritage/identity (how I "fit in" and belong to "which" tribe) all bring to light why I've faced the many challenges I have in fully owning and embracing all of who I am. And to do so in a commonly divisive and emotionally unsafe, quick to "cancel" you culture has made it easier to play safe and small.

Me, my daughter, Evan Rachel Wood and other survivors lobbying at the state capital for The Phoenix act in 2019.

All of these issues I've shared point to that which has led up to my current health crisis/opportunity. For years I've had an inner battle going on and truthfully I've gotten used to hiding, which I recognize as an unconscious form of self-harm that society has made easy to do. In seeing this now I'm able and choose to take full responsibility for my growth and my life. For it is only in acknowledging what is present, that we can fully heal and research shows that our brains change when we experience trauma and that you can’t fully heal until this is addressed.

Looking at all of this I can see that these experiences and circumstances have greatly affected every area of my life and my ability and capacity to be fully present and feel fully safe in my body with and around others which have highly impacted my health and well-being at a foundational level, let alone my music, relationships and business endeavors. Now I’m understanding why I have had an excruciatingly challenging time showing up fully for my art and my works over the past 7 years. And it's no wonder because my trauma and mental health issues that happened exactly 7 years ago hadn't yet been given the space and support to heal because I simply wasn't ready then. I am now, thus I'm seeing it. Wow.

According to the widely known and popular theory by psychologist Abraham Maslow in his hierarchy of human needs, people have an inborn desire to be all they can be, aka self-actualized. To achieve this ultimate goal, however, it appears that many basic human needs must be met. This includes the need for security & safety in which health and well-being are the main aspects that I am now deeply aware of within my own experience as I type this to you.

Why Women Don't Speak up

The sheer act of writing all of this and speaking my needs out loud as a woman in a patriarchal-conditioned world that tells me I am “selfish” if I am not focused solely on the needs of others, brings a feeling of utter terror to my stomach & ego. Ugh.. and at the same time, many of us are learning that there is such a thing as healthy selfishness, which has more to do with preserving our mental, emotional and physical well-being, more than anything else. This is a huge paradigm shift for me and the western world’s mentality and I've decided to speak up for myself on behalf of all women as a practice in breaking through society’s false conditioning.

By advocating for my needs, and desires and valuing myself in this way I am challenging the deep and long-held collective belief that we are somehow taking away from someone else when we choose to honor ourselves. As my friend Jemineye said “who am I and who are you to judge another’s life? My life is my responsibility and I know that I am here to celebrate the beauty of life!” This is what matters and I am remembering as I write this it’s ok and necessary to ask for help in life.

What I know is if I chose to continue not speaking up for myself, then I’d be consciously prolonging my silent suffering and supporting the very conditions that got me into this health crisis in the first place. I'd also be passing a destructive belief system onto my daughter and future generations of women that says ok to play small, and pretend we don't have needs and dreams worth standing for.

The reverberation of past collective trauma still lives in our psyches and cells, which explains the guttural pain I felt earlier and why they say courage does not mean a lack of fear but means acting despite fear. I say this because as we know historically, choosing to be courageous comes with risk, and this risk usually means challenging and often upsetting, or offending the status quo, or the accepted narrative of the masses. The fact that this narrative that has managed to keep womankind (or honoring our human nature) playing small in so many areas of life that utterly enrages and makes me want to be even more courageous and bold at the thought of this mentality’s stronghold on our true power and beauty! Arrrgh! ( I Am Woman, hear me Roar!) Lol

This whole patriarchal belief system itself is a psychological battle between the wounded masculine (Violence/Domination/Force) and nature herself (Woman/ Mother/Life), but more on this in my new blog (coming soon!)

From "Good Girl" to a Queen Reborn

The narrative of people pleasing and care-taking/serving others “despite” ourselves, aka being a “good girl” as we now know is a lie and yet it runs so deep. This lie, aka b.s. (belief system) is the very reason why we see fewer women in both our personal lives and the workplace not speaking up when something’s intrinsically needed or when something’s wrong and it's also why we're not asking and standing for our worth in dollars and in “sense” (our intuitive knowing) around our needs and desires being highly valuable and indisputably recognized as the most basic requirement for our well-being and that of the collective! Only with our cup being regularly replenished can we can show up fully and thrive in our connections, love and support of and with our families, communities and the greater world.

Although revealing my struggles is humbling, I want to share that in coming to face the reality of this health crisis I'm finding myself feeling deeply grateful because it's gifting me the opportunity to slow down and reflect within and re-evaluate everything. This has me tending (finally!) to these deeper underlying issues that have been the root cause of stress patterns and relationship/life challenges for many years!

In reflecting on all of this I'm also turning 48 this year and amid peri-menopause years which brings a whole new awareness of the desire & need to slow the funk down and do things differently. And I must say that with all this (shiFt) I've been growing through and coming to face at this time, I'm feeling very liberated inside because I know who I am and I'm ready to embrace it all! To me, this is what makes a Queen, Reborn.

THE PERSONAL IS UNIVERSAL

A Message for Women's History Month

In the spirit of honoring women during women’s history month, I recognize my story is not unique but rather a universal one for women worldwide. Why? ..because it symbolically holds the potential of magnifying awareness in the collective consciousness of humanity worldwide of the undeniable value of prioritizing the needs of our precious, finite human bodies. They are our true life partners & together, we are the keepers of our wellness.

To prioritize true self-care and wellness is a paradigm shift that is a vital revolution that starts with how we treat and prioritize our bodies' physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs as women first, for we all came from a woman (womb carriers). Women are the life givers, the creators, the wisdom keepers, the spiritual homemakers, way showers and the new paradigm shapers.

As we rise to the occasion of practicing honoring our value we are teaching others and the world how to treat us. Then and only then will we set the tone for a renewed value system of natural wellness as a foundation for all people. It's been happening and the tipping point is reaching the collective. We are witnessing it now all over the world. We are the keepers and protectors of our peace. Life herself is calling us forth. Let's practice this together and pass it on.

For those who are still reading this, thank you for your time. For those who decide to contribute, I welcome all forms of encouragement & positive support– as donations, sharing my campaign, and kind messages, etc. Please note that I only have the capacity for loving and compassionate support at this time which I thank you all in advance for honoring.

As I continue to heal and gain new perspectives, I look forward to sharing my growth with those I inspire and serve in my women's work and music in being a practitioner of alternative ways of walking, living and being a healthier, more balanced woman and human in this world.

Thank You from the depths of my heart!

Gina René

My Music & Links

Contribute to my music on Ko-Fi

Youtube

Facebook

Instagram

Upcoming Shows & My Women's Offerings

For those curious about upcoming shows or my women's offerings, note that I'll be hosting & participating in key events only ( and as my energy rejuvenates) that support my wellness path and my sharing this with others, specifically within and for the BIPOC community and intentional spaces and events. Follow my social links above to stay up to date on these and more.

For serious inquiries on other ways you can support send an email or FB message