May Is For

Happy Mental Health Awareness Month

We’re five months into 2022, how are you feeling? Other than crime being up in all major cities being likened to the crack era in 1980’s NY, gang crime overridden in the streets of LA (where I am presently) It’s been a wild five months already! I went from being afraid to go outside, to becoming relatively accustomed to helicopters overhead and robberies taking place every day in broad daylight… In other words, this is our “new normal.”

I had a friend in NY tell me how taxing it was to experience the subway shooter incident and just 24 hours ago, a mass shooter identified as a hate crime in Buffalo NY. My cousin is graduating university in Buffalo next weekend. It gets closer and closer to home, so how do we protect our mental health? This has been a theme of mine for the past eight months… You may have noticed in my latest articles.

What I haven’t disclosed as yet is that I recently (within the past year) learnt that my paternal, Grand Uncle has schizophrenia. I always thought he was autistic. On my Mothers side, I had a Grand Uncle who became a drunk after his divorce and eventually just passed away in that state, living in his Mothers basement. I have one sibling and I fear for his mental health very often. I have also learnt that the best way to help is to maintain your own mental health.

When Am I Going to be Strong Enough?

We’re all familiar with the saying, “what doesn’t kill you will only make you stronger,” right? Well, whether it be true for you or not, I find myself feeling very weak this week (no pun intended) I’ve allowed my stressors to wear me thin and my body has protested and I have surrendered to a cold. A sore throat that has lasted five days and counting, ending in one of the worst head colds I’ve had in years. Maybe it’s time for me to read that book- The Body Keeps the Score, as I’m not always as aware as I want to be of the mind-body connection. I need attunement, my spiritual, energetic people know what I’m speaking of… It’s a practice like everything else. Which moves me along to protecting your energy and your space.

It is crucially important that we not only pay attention to our mental health but we pay attention to the mental health of those closest to us, our inner circle, as much as possible. I was fortunate enough to befriend the founder of Change Your Algorithm, a free mental health organization about a year ago. One thing this period of time in the history of our existence has taught us is that we need the support of each other. We were never meant to survive in isolation, yet for some, isolation might seem like the only option… I’m here to let you know that you are never alone.

No One Is Perfect

As a “recovering perfectionist,” I’m here to remind you to give yourself some grace and show yourself the same compassion that you are so readily able to show to others, you deserve it too. You are a vessel of healing. Your very essence is love. Feel it, own it. Love is powerful so practice self-love daily. No one is perfect but you know what is? Practice. Practice, practice, practice, it’ll make the process perfect and perfect is relative to the level of ease, right? When something becomes second nature, we can rightfully admit to have reached a certain level of success. The same can be said of our mental health. Whatever your chosen method, mine being mindfulness at the moment, keep at it.