Are You in “The Sunken Place”?

The concept of the sunken place opened my eyes, and my voice, to something that was hard to put into words before.

Lately, I’ve been obsessed with the movie “Get Out.” Like, so much so that I have been neglecting my work and social life so that I can keep reading about it and analyzing every little detail. And though this obsession has been going on for a couple weeks, I seem to continuously discover something new about the movie. At first, I was feeling guilty that I was wasting so much time in trying to analyze a movie — ingenious as it is, I should be focusing on my life and my goals. Then it occurred to me one reason the movie is resonating more and more, the more I explore it. I am learning about life as a minority — my life — through the movie, which is the most important work I can do right now.

I am finding my own “Sunken Place.” The place where, as a woman, it’s so easy to defer to men and let them set the context — for everything. For how a business should be run. For how vocal I should be. For how I should live my life. The place where, as an Indian-American, it’s so easy to become conscious of the fact that I am seen differently, and thus, doubt myself. Doubt that I can fit in. Doubt that I will be taken seriously as a leader and given as much importance as my white male…