On one of the many days that I needed inspiration, I found the following quote from Harriet Tubman, “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.” This quote gave me just what I needed to empower me to dig a little deeper to focus and achieve my goals for the day.

Harriet’s spirit has not only inspired me, Harriet has also guided Vanessa Garrison and T. Morgan Dixon to found GirlTrek, a national nonprofit organization that inspires and supports African American women and girls to live their healthiest, most fulfilled lives.

In fact, in speaking with Garrison, she shared that the idea for GirlTrek was born one night after venting her frustrations to her close friend about the prevalence of preventable health problems in her family. She reasoned, “ Harriet Tubman literally walked herself to freedom. She came back…the least that we could do is walk for our health.”

GirlTrek attempts to provide black women and girls with a safe space where they can learn to make their health a priority, find healthy role models and learn better eating habits. According to Garrison, this is something that black women have not traditionally done because ”seventy percent of black women serve as heads of households” and often devote their time to caregiving.

The founders chose walking as the vehicle for personal transformation in the African-American  female community because walking allows easy entry into fitness. Walking, unlike going to the gym, takes no money. Walking, unlike lifting weights or high impact aerobics, requires no coordination. All you need is you.

What is also amazing about the mission of GirlTrek is that it rejects the simplistic and unexamined notion that black women do not exercise because they want to preserve their hairstyles. They reject this because they know from research and personal testimony that the convergence of a collective debilitated self-worth, stress, depression, limited resources, and history of marginalization in this country, forced black women to be, as our literary homegirl, Zora Neal Hurston has said, “de mule uh de world.”

But on March 10^th, GirlTrek is leading a movement that will help us reclaim our lives and take our goodness back. In honor of the centennial of Harriet Tubman’s death, GirlTrek will lead the kick-off of a national 8-week commitment to walking 30-minutes a day, five days per week.

What would Harriet want you to do? She would want you to walk yourself to health and when you come back, inspire your mothers, daughters, and sisters to do the same.

I know that I will be part of this movement and will update my progress and commitment to juicy living each week on Fabulous N’ Frugal. Please go to www.girltrek.org for more information about this movement!

DO NOT GET LEFT BEHIND.

 If you are inspired, please “like” and Tweet this post. We need to get the word out.

[info_box type=”alert_box”]Caring for yourself including takes care of your finances.  I encourage all ladies who are serious about self-care to go on The Happy Finances Challenge. In 42 days you can learn to make money decisions that will lead to long-term financial happiness. [/info_box]