Acknowledgments - Who Is Wellness For?

First, thank you to the people, spirits, elders, guides, and ancestors who held it down for me.

For the people who showed me I’m easy to love. Thank you.

Thank you to the Harper Wave team—especially to Julie Will and Emma Kupor. My gratitude to Arsh Raziuddin for the beautiful cover. Thank you also to Monika Woods!

Thank you to my darling friends, some of whom were also early readers: Zeba Blay, Prinita Thevarajah, Fatimah Asghar, Safia Elhillo, James J Robinson, Mimi Zhu, Angela Dimayuga, Ganavya Doraiswamy, Emily Margo, Zenat Begum, Konrad Konczak-Islam, David Ehrlich, Raven Leilani, Clémence Polès, Alês Kot, Fariba Alam, Megan Williams, Marlee Grace, Raneen Bukhari, Hisham Fageeh, Meital Yaniv, Arabelle Sicardi, Shriya Samavai, Hassan Rahim, and Alex Farbstein.

Thank you to my students and everyone who has supported my teaching. I love you all; you made me realize my work has value. Thank you for being such a beautiful reflection of my heart, and for proving that the possibilities of manifesting community are immense. Thank you to everyone who’s ever read and supported me. I feel you in my bones. Thank you to DegrowthNYC for showing me that there are others out there like me who want to fight for revolution . . . and who are actively reimagining ways of being together.

I have immense respect for the writers who taught me how to find my voice. I want to give my thanks to the elders who died while I wrote this manuscript: to Etel Adnan, bell hooks, Nawal El Saadawi, Thich Nhat Hanh, and Joan Didion. It’s been wild to lose so many teachers who paved the way, but I am grateful to have read your words, to be guided toward the truth with the torches that you bore. Thank you immensely to Sebene Selassie, Robin Wall Kimmerer, Arundhati Roy, Vandana Shiva, Gabor Maté, Judith Herman, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Amita Swadhin, in particular, for being beacons of light through this dark path toward liberation. You were all pilgrimages as I wrote this book. Thank you also to James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Susan Sontag, and June Jordan for being the blueprint.

Thank you to the Muslims and South Asians who support me. I write for us.

Thank you to my family. To my lineage, to my ancestors. To my grandparents on both my sides, to Abdul, my twin. I hear your call, I’m listening. Thank you to my mother for bringing me here to do this kind of service. I am grateful for the life you gave me and I am humbled by you, even if I don’t feel it all the time. We are bound together in this mysterious life. Thank you to my father for seeing the magic in me and nurturing it as best you knew how. Thank you for radicalizing me young. Thank you for making me question authority. Thank you for making me challenge white supremacy, for never giving in, for being an example of a man. Of a father. I love you so much and I am so grateful to be your daughter. To Samia, my sister. There are so many parts of me that are just parts I took from you. Thank you for guiding me, for being generous with your love and for showing me that it’s okay to push back, to fight for yourself. We are on such a specific journey together. I am proud of us for surviving so much.

Last, my gratitude to the land. To the sacredness of the work of all land and water defenders. I am beside you and behind you. Thank you for the sacred medicines. For the wisdom keepers who have shared their knowledge via the Earth’s immense wisdom. Thank you to Grandmother ayahuasca, in particular, for your call, for your awakening, for your healing, for your love. I’m so humbled by your teachings. You changed my life.

Thank you, God, for everything. Thank you.

Onward toward revolution,

Fariha, spring 2022