Welcome to June: A Season of Expansion
Language. Power. Permission.
Unlearning the Words That Limit Us. Reclaiming the Truth That Liberates Us.
They taught us that language was just grammar and good behavior.
They forgot to mention it was also control.
Conditioning.
Colonization.
This month, we are cracking open the mouth of empire.
Because language has always been more than words. It is spellwork. It is survival. It is structure.
And if we’re not conscious of it, we’ll find ourselves repeating the scripts that supremacy handed us, scripts that silence our truth, police our power, and keep us small.
But June is not a month for smallness.
It is a Season of Expansion.
This month we ask:
What phrases, teachings, or cultural sayings shut down critical thought?
How does language uphold power, and how can we reclaim it for liberation?
Where have we internalized silencing scripts in our relationships, parenting, and leadership?
What does it mean to speak in a way that creates possibility, not limitation?
Here’s How We’re Flowing This Month:
Mondays: Free articles for all subscribers, designed to wake up your spirit and invite you deeper.
Wednesdays & Fridays: Paywalled deep dives and action steps.
Saturdays: Liberation Lessons rooted in the LIBERATE Framework™ (exclusive to paid subscribers).
Mon/Wed/Fri at 9:30 AM EST: Let’s Have The Conversation: a live podcast series where we speak truth, disrupt the narrative, and reclaim our collective voice.
📌 This Month’s Podcast Theme:
“Say That Again: Language, Liberation & the Power to Speak Freely”
Live every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 9:30am EST.
We’re talking back to the silencing. We’re reclaiming the voice. We’re naming the harm and opening space for healing.
Here’s a taste of what’s coming:
Free Articles (Mondays)
“It Is What It Is” and Other Phrases That Police the Spirit (June 2)
Giving Yourself Permission to Be More Than What Survives (June 9)
The Cost of Telling the Truth in Whitewashed Spaces (June 16)
What Are You Really Saying? Words We Teach the Next Generation (June 23)
Paid Deep Dives (Wednesdays & Fridays)
Thought-terminating clichés, religious gaslighting, and how professionalism silences care
Language as control in family, parenting, and politics
Relationship agreements rooted in consent, not control
Vocabulary that liberates, not limits
Liberation Lessons (Saturdays)
Reclaiming Expansive Speech: A Practice Guide (June 7)
Embodied Consent: From Control to Co-Creation (June 14)
Truth-Telling as Spiritual Practice (June 21)
The Decolonized Lexicon (June 28)
We begin Monday, June 2nd.
Let this be the month you speak without shrinking.
Let this be the month you stop translating yourself into the language of power, and instead build a new one rooted in liberation.
Let’s get free… one word at a time.
🎧 Playlist: “Speak Life, Speak Loud: A Soundtrack for Expansion”
A liberation-centered, soul-fed playlist to accompany the journey of unlearning, reclaiming, and rising into your full voice.
In solidarity and liberation,
Desireé B. Stephens, CPS-P
Educator | Counselor | Community Builder
Founder, Make Shi(f)t Happen
New Agreements, New Systems, Deeper Connections
Writer of Liberation Education
Where Reflection Meets Transformation