Session 163: 4 Mental Health Tasks to Prioritize

Published Jul 8, 2020, 7:00 AM
We’re officially at the half way point in the year and July is always an important time as it’s the month that has been coined Minority Mental Health Month. Given the year that has been 2020, it feels like a good time to go back to some of the basics and dig into some of the things that are foundational to taking good care of our mental health. Today I'm sharing 4 priorities for your mental health for the rest of 2020.

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Support for today's podcast comes from Helix. A few months ago, I shared that my husband and I have been searching for our perfect mattress to no avail when serendipity afforded us opportunity to try a Helix mattress. Well, it's been about three months now and I am still loving the sleep that I'm getting on this mattress. The thing I loved most about the ordering process was that we were able to take a two minute quiz that matched our body type and sleep preference to the perfect mattress for us. Ordering was very easy and delivery was super fast. If you're looking for an upgrade to the way you sleep, I definitely encourage you to check out Helix for a mattress ship straight to your door with free no contact delivery, completely free returns, and a one nights sleep trial. And just for y'all, Helix is offering up to two hundred dollars off all mattress orders and two free pillows at Helix sleep dot com slash Therapy for Black Girls. Just go to Helix Sleep dot com slash Therapy for Black Girls, take their two minute sleep quiz and they'll match you to a customized mattress that will give you the best sleep of your life. Now let's get into the showy. Welcome to the Therapy for Black Girls podcast, a weekly conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the small decisions we can make to become the best possible versions of ourselves. I'm your host, Dr Joy hard and Bradford, a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. For more information or to find a therapist in your area, visit our website at Therapy for Black Girls dot com. While I hope you love listening to and learning from the podcast, it is not meant to be a substitute for reallyationship with a licensed mental health professional. Hey, y'all, thanks so much for joining me for session one sixty three of the Therapy for Black Girls podcasts. We're officially at the halfway point in the year. In July is always an important time as it's the month that has been coined Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Now, of course, this is our focus year round, but given what this year has been and the likelihood of what it will continue to be, it feels like an important time for us to dial into some of the basics, some of the foundational things to taking good care of our mental health. So that's what I want to share today for priorities for your mental health for the rest of the first is self compassion. As there continues to be demands made on our time and energy, and as we continue to have to make difficult decisions about work, parenting, our health, it's important to be gentle with ourselves and to remember that we're all just doing the very best that we can. It's not uncommon that when anxiety is high, we're more critical of ourselves, so consider this your reminder to slow down and give yourself some grace. One exercise they can be helpful when you find yourself being overly critical of yourself or dealing with a very difficult situation, is to write a letter addressing what you'd say to a friend who were struggling with a similar situation. What kinds of questions would you ask them about what's happening, What would you want them to make sure they considered, what tone would you use with them? And then practice using those things with yourself. The second thing I want you to prioritize for the rest of this year is further developing your resilience. Resilience is our ability to bounce back from difficult situations. Now, please hear me when I say resilience does not mean that you do not feel and process the weight of whatever the situation is. It means that once that work has been done, this is how you rebound and get back on track. In many ways, self compassion is an important skill in building our resilience, and some other things that are important are making sure that we have healthy ways of managing stress and strain, and an ability to accept that difficult things may happen in our lives, but they don't have to define our lives. Resilience also requires us being flexible with ourselves and with situations. Getting caught up and believing there's only one correct answer or one way to do anything is misguided and can add additional stress to our lives. A good book that might be helpful for you related to building resilience is Renee Brown's Rising Strong. The third task I want you to prioritize in the interests of your mental health for the rest of this year is making space for rest. I don't know about you, but because I haven't really been leaving my house, I think I had it in my mind that I wasn't expending as much energy as I was before March ten. But I had to stop and have a serious conversation with myself, and I'd encourage you to do the same and really look at just how much is going on in your life. Like many of you, I've had tons of Zoom calls, multiple presentations, anxiety about my health and that of my loved ones, anger at the way my brothers and sisters continue to be treated, facilitating some kind of educational experience when my is staying connected to my circles and deciding yet again what we're eating for dinner. When I tell you I had to just set myself down and do some serious examination about what was happening, I'm serious. I'm sharing this in the hopes that you come to this conclusion sooner than I did, and make sure that you're also making time to engage in intentional and restorative rest. Yes, this means doing your absolute best to get six to eight hours of sleep at night, but it also means not saying yes to all of the things, telling your girls you won't be available for the Zoom game night this week, and being okay with perhaps having sandwiches for the third night this week. For many of us, the business of life pre COVID has not resumed, but there are still multiple demands being made on our time and energy, and to meet these demands we must be rest it. And finally, the fourth thing I want you to prioritize this year is joy. Of course hasn't looked anything like we expected, and lots of things have been horrible, but in the midst of it, there have also been some pretty awesome things. Don't forget to center those things too. Celebrate the small and large things that have happened to you and those in your life. Make time to laugh at silly videos, send yourself flowers, dance to your favorite songs, watch the shows that you're embarrassed to talk about publicly. All of those things are important too. Something that might help with this practice is gratitude journaling. Writing down two to three things every morning or evening that you're grateful for can help you to tap into this on a regular basis, which can sometimes give us a much needed perspective. So I'm curious where are you going to start focusing your energy for the rest of this year? Tell me on social media using the hashtag tbg in session, which priority resonates most with you right now and feels like it needs a little bit of your attention. You can share it on Twitter or in your I G stories, and don't forget to share this episode with the other sisters in your circles. If you're looking for a therapist, be sure to check out our therapist directory at Therapy for Black Girls dot com slash directory. And if you want to continue digging into this topic or need a virtual space to just hang out with some mother sisters, come on over and join us in the Yellow Couch Collective, where we take a deeper dive into the topics from the podcast and just about everything else. You can join us at Therapy for Black Girls, com slash y c C. Thank you all so much for joining me again this week. I look forward to continuing this conversation with you all real soon. Take good care.

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The Therapy for Black Girls podcast is a weekly conversation with Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, a license 
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