A pivotal moment in my early 20s, having recently been diagnosed with an auto-immune condition, was when a healer-friend said to me, “Amira, this is not your fault, but it is your responsibility.”

His words moved me out of blaming myself and also away from wanting something outside of me to “fix” what was wrong, and into a new relationship with myself. Taking responsibility for my dis-ease changed my life. In hindsight, I could see ways I had co-created the conditions that allowed my health to shift out of balance. As I learned to have response-ability the course of my life changed dramatically—and in ways that shifted me towards greater wholeness, wellbeing and truer expression of my deeper nature. It profoundly shaped my future career, relationships and life-choices. It continues to inform me and challenge me to this day and I imagine it will for the rest of my life.

For me this resonates with what it is to be born into white-body supremacy. It doesn’t have to be my “fault” that I was born into unjust, dehumanizing, violent, racist and sexist interlocking systems of oppression, and it may not feel “fair.” But it is my responsibility. I can see in hindsight the ways in which I have co-created the conditions that have allowed it to continue. I have the ability to respond to this systemic dis-ease and to invite my life to change dramatically in any ways that it needs to do so.