Dear Ayana Iman: I work in corporate America. I've tried to play politics and I feel like I was criticized.
I stay to myself and come in to get the job done, and then I'm criticized. If I'm not smiling, I'm criticized. If I don't speak to everyone (majority people don't speak), I'm criticized. I never point out my co-worker(s) flaws or their faults but it seems like they have no problem pointing out mine under the guise of "I'm looking out for you, how dare you not appreciate it." I've never asked them to look out. As a matter of fact, they are the ones who project attitudes towards me and I've let it slide.
I've had co-workers who've voiced the frustrations about the job to me and when I agree or slightly voice mine, now I'm called negative. The co-worker(s) are black too, around my age (mid-30s). I feel like I'm stuck in high school, it's Mean Girls, black adult version. Once, I confronted my co-worker, I was professional, she was louder so that people could hear her "going off" on me as if I'm a child, and now I feel that everyone is even weirder when dealing with me because she is manipulative. At this point, I feel like really going into my shell and not dealing with my co-workers.
Hey Girl,
The sad reality of this situation is that we all deal with forms of toxicity at work in one way or another. The silver lining: you have the power to change it. You've already recognized the issues happening at your office, from attitudes to criticisms; this is the first step towards your breakthrough. Before moving forward, my question to you is have you looked in the mirror lately? Seldom, do we recognize our own negative behaviors and become victimized by our thoughts. I want you to really think about your actions to make sure you were in alignment with the policies and positivity.
This clarity will allow you cash checks and not feelings.
Working around people of color is a privilege, especially when diversity is lacking around the country. As the great Zora Neale Hurston once said: "All my skinfolk ain't kinfolk." To make it plain, just because they're black does not mean they are automatically tribe members. A person's skin color does not determine their character. This is one of those situations. I hope you find it in you to give mutual respect as a fundamental right if nothing more. Regardless of color, no one deserves to steal your joy - don't give them your power.
Here are a few survival tips:
Embrace Emotional Intelligence
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Emotional Intelligence (EQ) measures your capacity to be aware of, control, and express one's emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically. It is the key to both personal and professional success. This skill will allow you to manage how you react to situations, as well as, influence others. Some additional ways to increase your EQ is to pause before talking, control your thoughts, embrace criticism, apologize, and give praise to others. Increasing this skill will help you navigate uncomfortable situations by acknowledging not everyone has the mental capacity to do the same.
Affirmations + Self-Care
Your personal space should reflect beauty to promote peace and love. If you have not done this already, spend some time decorating your cubicle or working environment. I personally love affirmations - positive words for change - and think placing them around you could enhance your mood for the better. Affirmations can affirm your self, your job, and the people around you. Ex. I accept responsibility for my own happiness and development.
Also, fresh flowers are great for scent and visuals. Various studies have shown that flowers can improve a person's memory and make them concentrate a lot better in the workplace; buy yourself a small bouquet or indoor plants to place on your desk.
Find Gratitude
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I know it can be tough, but it's worth it to find gratitude for your current place of employment. Gratitude is the ultimate sign of abundance and the more you pay homage to it, the more you receive. This starts with changing your thinking and being appreciative of receiving a paycheck in exchange for your time, or for the clarity you've acquired that you deserve more out of your professional career. Whatever it is, there's value.
"Gratitude is the ultimate sign of abundance and the more you pay homage to it, the more you receive."
Look For New Employment
If you think you've exhausted all possibilities, then it's time to look for employment elsewhere. Use your free time to refresh your resume and network. This is the best time to visualize your next role, the company culture, and benefits. Vision boards are a great way to implement these goals in a tangible productive way.
Just remember, it is not enough to write the vision. Affirmations without action produce no results. Carry that with you and you'll go far.
With Love,
Ayana Iman xx
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For instance, people who have only had sex with their spouse reportedly have a 45 percent greater chance of having a really stable marriage. Another study says that 71 percent of men who have only had one partner are very happy in their marriage as opposed to 65 percent of men who’ve had two or more partners. And still, another report has stated that women with 10 or more partners are most likely to divorce while women with only one partner are the least likely to.
It's another article for another time about why this all may be the case. For now, I just thought it was important to remind cyberspace that virgins are not obsolete (check out Newsweek’s “Number of Virgins in America Hits Record High” that came out just this past January) and there are some former virgins in this world who not only waited until their wedding night — but, for their own special reasons, are oh so very glad that they did.
Giphy1. Lynn. 28. Married for Three Years.
“I come from a generation of virgins and I’m proud of that. My mom was a virgin when she got married. So was my grandmother. I was raised that my body is a wedding present and so I’ve always seen myself that way. I’m officially out of my newlywed years and while it took about a year for me to really get the hang of things, I like that my husband is the only man that I’ve known. I don’t have anyone to compare him to. I’m not wondering if I’m missing out. He was a virgin too, so we’re not worried about mystery babies or incubated diseases. Sex is peaceful in my home. I’m glad that I waited.”
2. Adina. 35. Married for Eight Years.
“I’ll be real — I was a virgin on a technicality. I think a lot of virgins are because I didn’t have intercourse until marriage — but there was some oral action going on up in here for years. That’s just the truth! It’s not that I don’t think that oral sex is sex — I just liked that I could have the pleasure without worrying about pregnancy…and yes, not wanting to get pregnant is the main reason why I waited until marriage. I will say that giving my husband something that no other man had before did make the wedding night special — awkward, kind of uncomfortable and funny as hell at times but really special. I don’t regret it.”
Giphy3. Marie. 29. Married for Two Years.
“I didn’t plan on being a virgin until marriage. My goal was just to not give it up unless I loved someone — and that didn’t happen until my husband. When he found out that I was a virgin, he didn’t want to risk us dating, having sex, and breaking up. He said that it would have been on his conscience for the rest of his life. So…we waited. I didn’t expect that to make me love and trust him more but it did. If he could guard my heart while dating me, I’m sure he can protect me well now that we’re married. Waiting made me feel safer in my relationship. That is probably the best thing about it.”
4. Eliana. 30. Married for Six Years.
“People like to act like sex isn’t a big deal and that’s a damn lie. Anything that can give you a child or a disease that could end your life isn’t something that you should not care about. It’s not that I wasn’t curious or tempted or that there weren’t times when I didn’t come close, but so many of my friends had regrets about…not really the sex but who they chose to have sex with that I didn’t think it was worth the stress. I do think that if you are going to wait until your wedding night that you should find some wives to talk to because, baby, I was not prepared. I think that is a part of what marriage is about, though — having some things that you learn about, only with your spouse, knowing that it’s not a performance but an experience and since you’re married, you have all of the time in the world. There was a learning curve but we’ve got it down now, ma’am. Thank you very much.”
Giphy5. Krystal. 27. Married for Four Years.
“I’ve always thought it was weird that people think that virginity is only tied to religion. I’m agnostic and I was a virgin until I was 23 because I watched how the college years went for most of my friends and I decided to pass on STIs, unwanted pregnancies, and being caught up in guys who I didn’t see a future with. Life was easier for me not having sex and now I can enjoy my husband without the drama that my friends went through. You don’t need religion to use discernment.”
6. Michelle. 24. Married for One Year.
“I don’t know why people think that being a virgin means that you don’t think a lot about sex or have valid things to say about sex. For me, staying a virgin was hard but the reason was simple: I have a vivid imagination and I didn’t feel like having to think about what I should try or hold back from when it came time to do it. I know women who are like, ‘I’ll have sex with you but won’t suck your d-ck’ or ‘I’ll have sex with you but not in these positions.’ Girl, that man is in your body. What are all of these rules about? If your first time is something that you will never forget, I wanted mine to be no rules, no boundaries — we in this bitch! And that’s just how my wedding night was. I love him. He loves me. We’re gonna do whatever, whenever, however, for the rest of our lives. To me, that’s how sex should be.”
Giphy7. Francine. 33. Married for Four Years.
“I was too busy for sex. Call it strange but I just had too much on my plate. I think some people go to college and lose it because they didn’t have a real plan. College is something you do and so you go — and then you get distracted. That wasn’t me. I knew what I wanted to do, so, as fine as some of the men were, I wasn’t going to waste my time or my scholarship. Then, once I got my master’s, I was focused on getting a job and buying a house, so I didn’t do a lot of dating then either. I guess the universe didn’t want me out in these streets for too long because once I was ready to have a dating life, after three flop dates, thanks to a set-up, I met my husband, we dated for six months, and got married. It’s weird because I didn’t put much thought into being a virgin until my wedding night while I was living my life but now that you ask, I’m glad that I waited because, since I am such a planner, it’s nice that I don’t see sex as something that wrecked, ruined or even delayed all of the other things that I wanted to do. I never want to see sex as problematic. I think that waiting kept that from happening.”
8. Nya. 31. Married for Six Years.
“I’ll never forget you telling me about that husband who said that the thing that he loved the most about his wife’s body is he believed that when God made her, he had her in mind. When you told me that she wasn’t a Coke bottle shape, that made me feel like I didn’t need to change who I was while waiting for the right man. In all honesty, a part of the reason why I was a virgin for so long is because I had body image issues that I was dealing with. In college, I learned that men talk just as much as women when it comes to stuff like that and I didn’t want different guys ‘sizing me up.’ When I met my husband, he always made me feel not just like I was attractive but that my body was stunning to him — and that made me want to share myself with him. Honestly, the only reason why we waited until our wedding was because we were in a long-distance relationship and didn’t date for long, but it did feel good to know that he didn’t want to ‘test anything out’ before to make sure that he would be happy in that way. He was satisfied with me without sex and that made the wedding night pretty incredible."
Giphy9. Berry. 38. Married for 20 Years.
“It might be weird to hear that, although I was a virgin on my wedding night, I was also ‘abstinent’ when I dated my husband. What I’m saying is that no man had penetrated me before him, but I did mess around quite a bit with guys and it always made things messy — one way or another. When my husband came along, he wasn’t a virgin by any stretch, but he had been abstinent too for a few months. When we saw that this was going somewhere, we made the decision to not do anything sexual until we got engaged and then to not have actual sex until our wedding night. It gave us time to learn intimacy in other ways. It also helped out our relationship because we both travel for work. People think that you don’t need self-control sometimes after marriage and that’s just not true. Anyway, something that I respect about waiting is it ‘programmed’ me to see sex as something that is only for marriage — not due to religion but because I don’t know what intercourse is like without having a husband. I kinda like it.”
10. Chadae. 43. Married for 18 Years.
“It might sound crazy but one of my favorite celebrities has always been Lisa Bonet. I thought she was so pretty on The Cosby Show and I remembered watching a rerun of when Cliff asked her husband if they had sex before marriage and he said that Denise was a virgin on their wedding day. Even though a lot of my friends were having sex, something about that stood out to me — that you can be a beautiful woman, go on dates, have a full life and there doesn’t have to be sex on the table. I also liked how proud Cliff was as a father because, when my husband asked for permission to marry me, my dad didn’t ask if I was still a virgin, but I told him and my mom that I was and he teared up. He said it was because he wanted a man to value me enough to vow himself to me before I gave him my body — and he trusted my husband because he did. It might sound old-fashioned but some things that are ‘old-school’ prevent you from learning things the hard way.”
____
Two of my favorite married couples have been together for over 20 years and the thing that they have in common is both the husbands and wives were virgins on their wedding day. Something that one of the wives has told me is she likes that all she knows is her husband and something that one of the husbands has said is he’s never wondered if he’s missing out on anything because he’s never had anyone to compare his wife to. How sweet is that?
If you are a virgin who is reading this, all of these resolves can definitely provide you with some food for thought before making any decisions about what to do about your own sex life. Because while the power of your sexuality is certainly your choice, should you want to wait — not only should you not feel bad, embarrassed, or even hesitant about that, there are benefits that can come with making such a sober-minded decision.
Virgins still exist. And, like most things in life, virginity has its own rewards. Salute.
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