DINA BADAWY
Writer | Community Organizer
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Info
- Creative Strategy and Communication, Consultant at Dina BadawyPublic Relations and Communications | Charlotte, North Carolina Area, USExperience
- 2010 - PresentCreative Strategy and Communication, Consultant / Dina Badawy
Counseled over 20 non-profit and government agencies and helped achieve the following:
○ Increased membership by approximately 22% for a youth-based leadership organization.
○ The creation of 4 award-winning community programs.
○ Identified $6 million of highly relevant funding for a start up organization. - 2009 - 2010Director, Community Initiatives / New York State Diabetes Campaign
- Aug 2007 - Dec 2008"Infect Me Not!" Campaign Coordinator / San Francisco Department of Public Health
- May 2006 - Dec 2006Research Analyst / Perot Systems Government Services
WomensHealth.gov and GirlsHealth.gov
- Jan 2006 - Apr 2006Community Outreach Associate / Earth Day Network
Education-
2005 - 2007Johns Hopkins University - Krieger School of Arts and SciencesMA in Health Communications
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2000 - 2004North Carolina State UniversityBS in Microbiology
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Reading
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Posts
- Apr 03, 13
Yesterday I was sitting in the library, reading Zen Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh’s book “You are Here” about being truly present and all that it unlocks.
One of the mantras touched me so deeply, I started crying in the middle of reading.
“Dear one, I am here for you.”
Our beloved teacher instructs us to operate from this place, to be present for ourselves and others — because the first step to love is recognition. To see, hear, witness the other being, to know both you and they are present too.
I began repeating the matra to myself, specifically to my emotions that overwhelm me, “Dear disempowerment, I am here for you” and for anger, joy, confusion, etc. All the way up to fear, the most daunting emotion of all in my life right now.
After sitting quietly repeating this to myself, I felt so safe. I was in awe at how this ONE statement, vibrating right in the center of me, could transform my anxiety into peace.
Then, it hit me that I’ve felt this feeling before. When I am in prayer.
All the postures that life brings can be found in my prayer positions. The Muslim prayer consists of standing, raising your hands, bending over to your knees, prostrating, head to the ground, seated on your legs, bowing your head to the right and left shoulders, salutations of peace and blessings.
“Dear one, I am here for you.” – God
“Dear one, I am here for you.” – Dina
This is the divine conversation my heart dances softly to at all times, and I never noticed it until today. The recognition that everything in this moment – exists.
Prayer can have 1,000 meanings, one being that throughout all the events we go through in life, symbolized through the postures, God is here.
Whether I raise my hands in amazement. Or I am bent over in pain. Whether I am standing tall with confidence. Or on my knees playing with children. Or kissing the earth with love. Or curled into a bundle, not knowing what to do. Or bracing myself to stand back up. Or saying hello and honoring everything around me. Or cupping my hands to catch the rain…
In every occasion, I say, “Dear one, I am here for you.”
I listen to God singing, “Dear one, I am here for you.”
- Feb 15, 13
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
…She is the ebb and flow of the sea against the shore. Steady, relaxed.
…He is the rise of the sun as the earth turns. Perfect harmony of motion.
…It is the school of fish, swiftly changing direction. Trusting who first moved differently.
I’ve been looking for guidance from God on how to conduct my life ever since I was young. I’ve read a thousand books, attended a hundred lectures, asked people who said they had all the answers in their pocket. But it was so much noise, I couldn’t hear the music.
The answers have been appearing to me in the here and now. Infinite signs I rush by every day, in my effort to meet an appointment or beat 5 o’clock traffic or keep my head down and push through crisis. This year I want to raise my head once in a while.
I witness.
I witness.
The signs in nature. And in my own body. My rhythmic breathing. Heart beating like a drum. Eyes blinking like symbols. Muscles, like a quiet symphony, in miraculous coordination to lift my foot and place it in front of the other. Even pain sings, like a sharp whistle at the start of a new song or directing attention back to the music.
If this is not Divine voice singing …then I have stumbled upon an incredible radio station along the way.
Image: Marcela Diaz
- Nov 08, 12
I’m trying to build my future. I want it to be beautiful and amazing, so for the past few years I’ve been researching self-development, ways to enhance my career, how to love better. I have all the tools I need around me and inside my heart and mind. But I’m so, so scared to move.
Absolutely terrified. I feel like any wrong move, no matter how little, will result in massively horrific consequences.
This is a new phenomenon. I used to jump into the deep end of the pool…eat random foods I never tried before…I moved to SF within two weeks of getting a job and never having visited the city before…drive around a new place with no map.
I had a very strong sense of security, that everything would be ok. I trusted. And now I don’t trust.
My friend is lying on an ICU hospital bed at the age of 31, paraplegic, multiple infections, and deaf. How does one trust God after seeing the immense suffering he can allow people?
This may seem very callous, heretical, emotional. But it is honest. This is how I feel, and on top of that I feel guilty. That I’m afforded so much privilege to hear and move and think clearly about my plans and paint a future that I want. He has none of these things.
But maybe he also doesn’t have… fear.
Maybe he has trust in the Most High. Pride in how much he has fought to stay alive. Compassion for every being on earth. Sincerity. Peace within despite the chaos without. Maybe he is rich with real treasures of gratitude, humility, perseverance, patience, submission.
Maybe I need to pick up the tools all around me and jump back into action. Instead of watching other people build their homes of faith and feel scared/angry/hopeful/etcetc about their lives over which I have no control, power or true understanding of, I can continue to build mine even WITH the fear. Hmm. A new concept. I’m not hopeless. That fear was once inside me and now I’ve brought it out into the world and placed it on my back. Maybe I will become stronger carrying this fear and will be able to put it down eventually. Smoothly. Peacefully.
Maybe one day I won’t be scared anymore and I’ll turn around and see that step-by-step I built my own strong home of faith, life, and everything that is. Maybe that’s what this is all about.
- Oct 17, 12
Over a year ago, I wrote a post titled Creating space for Love: part 1 where I shared my 5 guiding principles related to maintaining, growing, and receiving love. I repeat those principles inside my head when I feel out of balance and need to focus on love.
“Dina, trust yourself… remember?”
But to be honest, I have another voice in my head that replies pretty angrily quite often.
“Really, TRUST yourself? Like you know anything. If you knew something at all, you’d know to NOT trust yourself because you can be stupid and erratic and dumb sometimes. So DON’T trust yourself.”
Brutal. Mean. But… truthful.
I don’t mean truthful in that I am stupid and erratic and dumb, but that I think I am stupid and erratic and dumb. There is a big difference.
Your thoughts shape your beliefs. Your beliefs shape your attitude/feelings. Your attitude shapes your actions. So in short, thoughts –> action. If you think you’re stupid in a certain instance, guess how you’ll behave?
There’s a lot of hurt that fuels my negative thoughts and beliefs about myself. Past episodes of mistakes, abuses, stumbling and falling have left me with a lot of sores that would have healed naturally, but like a CD that keeps sticking, my mind is quick to replay those sticky parts of my history.
What I’ve realized is that you can remove all the clutter and negative energy from your life, but if you have a gaping hole of sores left, love may feel too raw to be invited in. Almost painful. The moment is to allow healing. My healing Rx:
- Forgive yourself for the negative thoughts that hold you back, they’re just a mechanism you’re using to protect yourself. And that’s beautiful, but inefficient. So say thank you to yourself and find another mechanism to act offensively in a forward motion to encourage healing, not just defensively in protecting yourself from potential hurts.
- Give self-love and all the time your mind/heart/body needs to fully rebuild a new, stronger, and healthier foundation for love to be built upon. Think about all the DOPE stuff you’ve done, where you’ve come from, list 5 things you’ve done today (even as basic as making breakfast or pumping gas). Acknowledgment and respect are acts of love, so give that to yourself in all the ways you’d offer it to someone else.
- Be easy. Y’all know what that means. We all need to go easier on ourselves, even in healing. Especially in this go go go culture where you’re a failure if you’re not producing something or completely exhausted by bedtime. Sometimes the best remedy is to do or say… nothing.
I’ve been allowing myself to heal from sores I had no idea existed until I started this journey of love, and it’s made all the difference in the world. I used to be scared I couldn’t identify love to offer it or receive it, but now as I’m healing, I realize my heart–underneath all the pain and fear–knows what love is… and I’m excited (and super grateful) to be on this road with you!
- Oct 04, 12
Your many names arise from
Transformations in life
Like transliterations
That attempt to offer explanations
On how to pronounce
The complexity of
YouYesterday, Yew
Today, Yoo
Tomorrow, YiuAll spoken by the same tongue
Your beautiful life, like a springboard
Potential
Pulled back
For your essence
To jump off each strong release of change
Into the river of identity
Into a different current each timeYou hit the water of now
Splashing magnificence all around
Deep in a world where only echoes of your name are heardSo you came back up for air
To hear clearly, but
Silence abounds
And you climb your way back to the tongue
For a new name
To claim
- Jun 02, 12
I woke up this morning and saw this in the place where I was sleeping. At first I thought I was looking at pieces of shredded paper (not sure why I’d be tearing up paper throughout the night) or bugs. But it’s my own burnt skin off my back. Good morning to you, too!
It’s no surprise; I went to the beach over Memorial Day weekend and got sun-burned. Actually, I got sun-poisoned. I didn’t even know there was such a thing and may have laughed at the term and considered it a pseudo-disease — but this, my friends, is as real a pain, dizziness, sickness, deathly feeling as I have ever felt.
This week I’ve also released 5 pounds (I don’t say “lost” anymore because I’m not going to look for it again and I am not sad it’s gone). That is a lot of change for me for one week. My skin is dry, my face sunken in from not being able to eat from nausea, my brain is frantically trying to calculate if my body can make it through the next 24 hrs after the past week, 3 months of scary stroke-like episodes and 2 years of stress from family health issues.
What the hell??
All I keep thinking about is that others have gone through worse. I have gone through worse. So, why are these changes impacting me so hard? I have a feeling it’s not about the sun-poisoning, weight release, financial or health stresses, but something much deeper.
I am open.
And this breaking open is not a pretty process. I have never been here before. “Here” is a place of complete vulnerability, faith, honesty with who I really am and what I really want. I feel like my insides are completely exposed and what happened to my back is happening to my heart. I’m burning. Set fire to my fears and insecurities. And it is painful and terrifying and boiling and seemingly never-ending.
I sang on stage in front of 250 people. I have a whole new wardrobe. My daily activities are completely different than they’ve ever been. I have no desire for soft drinks. I fell in love.
Radical changes for me, to the point where I was feeling lost. Until I found myself broken open, looking around at the shed weight, clothes, skin. I’m in touch with what I want and who I am… and it is burning.
And then I realize, I am the chick pea.
- May 06, 12
Sleep is for recharge
Or so they say
But please, kill my dreams
Take them away.
I jump into white fire
Ferociously fight villains
Skate on running water
To desperately seek the origin…
Of my subconscious contemplation
For which I am tormented
By visions that crush my bones
And render my reality dented.
Who are these travelers?
Journeying to my mind each night
To tell me grand stories
Command me to take flight.
They are well-meaning strangers
Prophets of life unfolded
Meant to bring my spirit to color
But they leave me so broken.
Please arrange for their power
To be revoked and recalled
Build a bridge, let them cross over
So that I may stand tall
On my own strong legs!
Not columns, built by my fears,
Which are rapidly crumbling
Made soft by my tears.
Here I am taking over the reign
I see your vision! I caress your pain.
Don’t worry as I place my mouth over the fire
There will be no burns as we lift higher.
Celebrate, celebrate as I bring peace to this strife
I won’t kill my dreams, but give breath to my life.
- Mar 18, 12
Today when I got out of the shower, I took a long look at my body. Every part of it and everything about it. I thought about how when I was young, my legs carried me to the bus stop, playground, arcade, library, neighbor’s house… and my arms twisted around in the air as I pranced with gleeful momentum.
What happened to those days?
Now I’m left with scars, and that’s all I would see most of the time. It’s unfortunate how much fear can take away.
For example, when I’d look at my right knee, I would see a patch of dark, rough skin. The size of a quarter. I wouldn’t see the race that I was winning right before I tripped on an unleveled piece of pavement. Or the amazing competitive spirit of a 5th grader who felt like she could do anything. Anything!
I would focus on the injustices of environment, genetics, or my own mistakes. The weight I gained in college from prioritizing two jobs and studies over my nutrition, my bent pinkies from falling in love with the clarinet in middle school, the patch of grey hair on the back of my head, my crooked smile.
Worse than my toxic internal criticisms was that I felt them justified.
My body and I have had a rough relationship. Since I was young, I’ve been told by various societal forces that “the body” is as material as money and things, therefore, I should keep my focus on developing the mind and heart. Be brilliant, be generous, be kind. Don’t be beautiful. That’s superficial and dainty and weak.
But recently there’s been a shift — a massive re-calibration of what I find important in life. I used to be scared that if I paid attention to myself, that would mean I was arrogant or self-obsessed. I spent so much of my 20s giving giving giving to others, I had nothing left to offer myself. There has to be balance.
I woke up last year after a series of events came splashing on my head like a bucket of ice water. A rush to the ER for my dad, the Egyptian revolution, a dear friend’s car accident that resulted in him becoming paraplegic. Extremely painful and difficult reminders of an often forgotten truth; life is short. Sight, sound, the ability to move and feel and think and speak — these are all gifts we are afforded for a certain time before we are offered other gifts. And what better way to make the Gifter know you appreciate their generosity than by using the gifts to the fullest.
As I’m approaching my 30th birthday this summer, I’d like to take a moment and honor that journey to this place of appreciation I’ve developed for humanity, my family and friends, health, career, and everything that exists. I’ve finally completely accepted that we are in a physical world not to reject and despise it, but to see the grace in its wholeness.
Seriously. How could the body or all things material be trivial when they are so majestic? It’s incredible that we are all connected to each other, physically and metaphysically, by being created from the same fabric of existence, but at the same time exhibiting entirely different properties from each other. We are 100% unique and 100% the same, simultaneously. Mind-blowing, brilliant, generous, kind. And beautiful.
- Feb 14, 12
Bright lights guide those who see
With their eyes
But for the wanderer who feels his way
Through the forests of fury
And jungles of jubilation
There is meaning in silence, underneath it allWhere footsteps decorate the ground
Closer, they are deep indentations
Not holes
As something rapidly fills that freshly stamped space
And calls for the rest of us to fallIt is a thing that is magical
Called love
That understands us before we understand ourselvesPerhaps the first to assign its name
Said glove instead
As it shelters us from abuse
Envelopes our expectations
Grants us movement when we should be frozen
From the bitter cold
Because warmth left us to hide behind our shadowsThis was not betrayal
But to teach us of our own fire
Quiet and strong
Which has always been ablaze and always shall
As light
As warmth
As everything
- Oct 03, 11
Because of some whack music, TV shows and movies, I used to believe that Love was silly and empty… a faked expression to justify drama in the world. It’s unfortunate because I wasn’t able to see real Love for its true value for a long time and missed a few chances to be in its embrace. But the cliche is 100% true: I had to be there so I could be here today.
Here is a very new place for me, where I feel connected to the person I meet for the first time like if we’re family, because we are. Where I sleep, eat, and work better because I believe I deserve better. Where I behave and speak kinder to people because I Love them a divine Love, not through a regulation imposed upon me by rules in society or religion. Where I know I am cut from the fabric of Love and therefore need to honor every ounce of it I share with myself and others while I am on earth. This may sound flowery …because it is!
Flowery, poetic, strong, romantic, peaceful — Love is.
Silly, extravagant, worthless, out-of-reach — Love is not.
I began focusing on the activities, things and people that make me come alive. I quickly realized, though, that I had no time or space to do more or add anything to my life! My days were already full, so was my bookshelf, inbox, tummy, heart, and bedroom — and not with the highest-quality things. I needed to drastically reduce the amount of emotional and physical stuff cluttering my existence before I could ever grow.
The below breakdown is a synthesis of what came organically to me through intuition and reading a million books and blogs on organizing different parts of life, like the Zen Habits blog, book on Happiness, and the Energy Project blog.
My Five Guiding Principles
- Fear is not real, so let it go. You either believe in fear or in Love, so if you are afraid of disappointing yourself or your loved ones, what people will say about you, illness, giving up control, or whatever it is that plagues you, you have to let it go. Stop feeding fear. Feed Love and you will grow stronger and have space for more goodness to come in.
- Believe in abundance. I call myself a believer in the merciful, bountiful God, yet I am so scared to let go of certain people or things because I feel like that’s all there is. The hypocrisy. Endless, abundant energy means even in the little things, if you get rid of something bad for you, you will find something else good for you to replace it. Don’t be a hypocrite.
- Trust yourself. You were not asked to be created, as far as we’re aware, and look at how awesome you are. If you don’t believe you’re awesome, there are other blog posts out there to treat stupid thoughts like that but I won’t allow that kind of stuff here. You have come this far in life, your body works hard every day, you’ve struggled to do the most with what you’ve got. Give yourself credit. Don’t trust in the judgment of others, your own relentless self-criticisms, or advertising in the media… it is all based in fear. And fear does not exist, remember? So don’t let a non-existent thing ruin the most important kind of trust you should absolutely have: for yourself. Start trusting yourself right now.
- Stop making excuses, start making Love. I don’t mean sex, although if the opportunity is present right now please shut down your computer immediately. But I mean the powerful stuff that pushes people to do remarkable things like move to a different country to be with their partner, lift a 2 ton car because their child is stuck underneath, or lose 350 pounds. At the root of every miraculous action is Love. Passports and adrenaline and gyms are tools… but Love is the source. Don’t forget it, because it makes every excuse completely insignificant. “Are these extra pair of sneakers more valuable than Love for myself?”
- Be honest. Sometimes without rhyme or reason, something makes sense to do… like, to watch an old movie, write a letter to a friend, not partake in an activity. Refer to principle number 4: Trust yourself. You know yourself better than anyone on earth, so if your heart is telling you to do something, you know if it’s coming from a place of fear or Love. In every decision you are about to make, ask yourself: is the intention revolving around the axis of Love? You know what to do with that information.
Everyone has their own guiding principles whether they are internal or described in writing, but our lives all essentially run parallel to each other so I think this list will look similar to yours or something else you’ve read. Part 2 will be a more descriptive and concrete reflection on what I’ve done in the past year. I’ll include pictures too!I hope these blog posts are beneficial for you as you begin working to redefine Love in your life or continue your efforts! Thanks for your inspiration!
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Tweets
- @HausofBlush you're welcome! =)
- RT @democracynow: Protests Mark 100th Day of Guantánamo Hunger Strike http://t.co/eCTjd31Rns
- I want to have a show, something between Oprah, Ellen, Tavis Smiley, Travel, Charlie Rose, and SoYouThinkYouCanDance.
- @mmbilal aw way back huh! Alaa it's only a matter of time... @HausofBlush
- @mmbilal @HausofBlush ohhh my. that cleopatra neck piece. Who's your dope designer friend?
- "All learning begins w/ignorance" ...YES | @MHarrisPerry My advice to graduates: Be ignorant, make mistakes http://t.co/SAIbJkUnXt #nerdland
- Reading with hot chocolate & rain
- RT @nytimes: It turns out that we are only 10 percent human: http://t.co/3tYg6XihqX
- RT @StephenAtHome: !
- Charlotte Bobcats going back to the Hornets!! http://t.co/lWu5zDr7lr
- RT @fatbellybella: B 4 day things come to me.
- Love. | "My Notes to Two Strangers" http://t.co/rIe3XxM4Dq
- RT @ImamZaidShakir: 'Rajab is the month to sow the seeds; Sha’ban is the month to irrigate the crop; & Ramadan is the month to reap the har…
- "I wish I could be as smooth in everyday life as you are, making music with your feet." -Twitch @official_tWitch ...AMEEN.
- Watching "So You Think You Can Dance" with le pops... hearts smiles #tistheseasontobedancing
- RT @common: The more you love your decisions, the less you need others to love them.
- RT @iamlizagarza: remain a romantic
- L'amour est l'enfant de la liberté -- Love is the child of freedom. Never of domination.
- A Final Embrace: The Most Haunting Photograph from Bangladesh http://t.co/wNexrxYkXy via @TIMEPictures
