A positive mindset is a powerful thing. Our thoughts shape our feelings, and our feelings influence our actions. Lately, I’ve been realizing how much my mindset plays into my attitude and my behaviors. I’ve also been working on changing my negative thoughts before they turn into negative attitudes or behaviors. For example, I know I’m someone who needs to feel …
Rebuilding Myself
In the face of loss I am rebuilding myself. Y’all, it’s been a while. Over a month since I last blogged. Over a month since I’ve really been engaged on social media for my speaking page. I needed this break. I still feel like I could take a longer break, but I think I am going to come back a …
You Deserve to Be Happy
I don’t know who needs to hear this today, but you deserve to be happy. You deserve to wake up and feel good. You deserve to be passionate, energetic, excited about life. For a very long time, I didn’t believe I could be happy. I didn’t even know what happiness was. I’ve gone between manic and depressive episodes, and I …
Therapy is Cool
This week, I did something for me. I went back to therapy for the first time in over two years. I’d been considering it for awhile, and after experiencing a mental health crisis last month, I finally decided to just do it. I had two sessions this week: first with a psychiatrist to talk about medication management, second with a …
Recognizing Toxic Productivity
Let’s talk about toxic productivity. Last week, I had one of my best friends since childhood as a guest on the 1N5 of Us podcast. She’s a clinical psychology doctoral student, and she brought up the idea of toxic productivity. This concept is one I’d heard of before but hadn’t thought too deeply about. Essentially, toxic productivity is the concept …
Accept Forgiveness from Yourself
CW: self-harm, suicidal thoughts Mental illness is so complex and volatile. One minute, you might feel great, and the next, you might feel like the world is crashing down around you. During my senior year of college, as many of you know, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. While that diagnosis terrified me, it finally gave a name to what …
Mauri Shares Her #WarriorWednesday Story
This week for #WarriorWednesday, Mauri Hogan, a 24-year-old psychology doctoral student at Adler University in Chicago, shared her mental health journey. See what she has to say below, and be sure to listen to this week’s podcast on Saturday to hear more about her story and her experiences! As a clinical psychology doctoral student with a history of anxiety, PTSD, …
Simple Self-Care Practices
Sometimes, life gets difficult and you just don’t have the energy to practice self-care the way you normally do. This week has been a rough week—one of the roughest I’ve had in a while—and I didn’t want to take time to practice self-care. For that reason, this week’s blog is going to represent my own self-care. I’ll be talking about …
Prioritize Your Health
It seems like everyone I know is so busy right now. School is ramping up again, in-person events are re-emerging, and people’s calendars are filling up. Looking at my calendar right now stresses me out. It seems like I have something going on every day for the foreseeable future. Having days that are jam-packed with work and events can be …
Taking a Break
If something is starting to feel more like a chore, it could be a sign for you to take a break. As many of you know, blogging hasn’t been easy for me and I think the word chore definitely describes how I feel about it currently. And I don’t want it to feel that way. So I’m doing what I …