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Remember summer as a kid?
It was all bikes and lemonade stands and trying to figure out how to turn boredom into a business plan.
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It would have save me a lot of last minute scrambles for cash for allowances.
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I'm so excited to introduce Therapy by Headspace.
We know finding the right therapist can be overwhelming.
So we've made it easier.
Now you can connect with a licensed therapist directly in the Headspace app for as low as zero dollars with insurance.
Between sessions you'll have access to Headspace's mental health tools, from guided meditations to EBB, our empathetic AI companion.
To celebrate, we're dedicating this week on radio Headspace to therapy.
You'll hear from some of the most influential voices in the reshape how we think about care connection and healing.
I hope you find it meaningful.
Hey, y 'all, I'm Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, and welcome to Radio Headspace and to Monday.
I'm a psychologist, author, speaker, and the host of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. I've spent over 10 years helping people through the ins and outs of life as a psychologist. But I know not everyone has easy access to a therapist to help them navigate life.
So this week is going to be just that.
I'm sharing my biggest mental health takeaways from my experience as a psychologist and host of the podcast. We'll cover things like how to handle imposter syndrome, navigating friendships as an adult, and coping with anxiety.
Today we're gonna get into the basics and discuss why mental health is key to living a full, happy life and our overall wellness.
I think that one of the main reasons that people neglect their mental health is that we aren't always given an opportunity to learn about what it means to take care of our mental health.
I think that so many conversations for so long have only focused on mental illness.
So things like the symptoms of depression, the symptoms of anxiety, what does it look like to have a bipolar episode?
And of course those things are worthy, but there's also all of these other things that contribute to our mental health, like paying attention to our support system and setting boundaries.
And so I think it has really just been an issue of people not knowing that mental health was something that we actually all had and that we had a responsibility to take care of.
And so in my family, lots of the women have made comments throughout my life.
When I was younger, my cousins and I would often hear my mom and our aunties talk about having bad nerves.
And so as a little person, I didn't necessarily know what that meant.
And only through grad school and as I became older, did I realize that what a lot of the women in my family actually were struggling with was anxiety.
And so it has been really cool as I've gotten older, been able to talk with my family more about mental health, so many people have now been able to engage in treatment related to anxiety.
So whether that be therapy or taking medication, but I think, again, that is an example of not necessarily having the language to describe what we were feeling and instead calling it bad nerves.
So if there were three things I would say that people really should pay attention to in terms of taking care of their mental health, I would say the first one is sleep, the second one is asking for help, and then the third one is setting boundaries and saying no more often.
I think that people don't realize how important good quality sleep is to maintaining our mental health.
So we often talk as therapists, about working with clients on what we call sleep hygiene.
And that really means paying attention to like all the things that you're doing to make sure that you get good quality sleep.
So it could be helpful to do an audit of what your sleep hygiene routine looks like.
Like what time are you going to bed at night?
What is the best temperature for you trying to experiment with those things?
I also encourage people not to look at things as if they are broken, right?
These may just be small steps that you want to take, again, to have a more optimal, more optimized mental health.
The second one is asking for help.
Many of us have been taught that asking for help is a bad thing.
And I think particularly for people of color, there has been this idea that we had to have this superhuman power, that if we do not look like we have it all together, then people will kind of frown upon us and make it seem as if we are not worthy of accolades and those kinds of things.
And I think when you don't ask for help, you don't allow people to show up for you in the ways that you have likely shown up for them.
Also, we are not able to do everything all by ourselves.
None of us are perfect.
And so asking for help is a great opportunity for you to receive some assistance, but also to really allow people to show up for you.
And then the third one, in terms of setting boundaries and saying no. I think that again, this is something that we often miss.
And I love that we are having more conversations recently about what it looks like to actually set boundaries.
One of the largest misconceptions about setting boundaries is that it has to be this aggressive, you know, kind of earth -shattering kind of experience.
When really setting boundaries is just a great way for you to vocalize and let people know what kinds of things feel okay to you and what kinds of things are going to be necessary to continue in a relationship with you.
And so if you think about how often you are saying yes to other things, you also have to look at what that means in terms of what you're saying.
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No two for yourself.
And again, mental health is something that we all have, that we all have to take care of.
And all of the things that work for me won't necessarily be the things that work for you, but it is important to find the things that do work for you.
That's all for me today.
If you'd like to hear more from me, check out my podcast, Therapy for Black Girls.
Tomorrow, we'll talk about positive goal -setting and expectation management.
Have a great day and I'll see you back here then.
time.
