Hello, and welcome to Poema Women's Success Coaching. I am Piper Harris and welcome to our podcast. We're going to dig into everything that's going to grow your poema personally, professionally, mentally, and emotionally. So find a comfortable spot and let's learn how you can connect with your poema and put it into action. Hello everyone, and welcome to our newest podcast. It's been a while since I've been on here. I hope this is finding you doing well. So I think I have shared, I'm in the midst of my studies. I'm getting back to my roots of uh becoming a clinical mental health counselor. I'm really excited about this. Uh see licensure in about a year and a half. Um, and it's just been great to get back in the saddle of my passion. And that really is in providing care to individuals, whether you suffer from severe mental illness uh or not, mental health is key. And you know, over the years as a coach, uh I I always laugh because I most of the time hear from clients, boy, this doesn't feel like nutrition coaching, or boy, this doesn't feel like, you know, physical fitness, or boy, this doesn't feel like just coaching me on my career goals. And it's because I really have always approached what all of us are faced with in life around our mental health, that we have to um challenge the belief systems we carry, we have to challenge the behaviors that we have. And I want to act as an ally in an individual's journey and rediscovering and reprogramming and resetting their lives. And so I've always approached that with their mental health. Where is their mental health in those things? And the other peripheral things that they have come to me for, clients have come to me for nutrition, fitness, or coaching of any sort, um, those are really going to, you're going to achieve those when we nail this down, when we get to the core of things. So it's been really great. I'm really excited. I'll be finishing up my first quarter of my master's program here in about five weeks. Just finished one course. That was a lot of fun. But in that, in that, you know, this week, this week is mental illness awareness week. And I really wanted to discuss that today. A couple of different things I wanted to discuss today. They're they're very near and dear to my heart. So I want to talk first about mental illness awareness week. And then there is the culmination of World Mental Health Day on the 10th, October 10th. And really, how can you advocate for yourself? How can you advocate for other others? How can you support others? How we can all engage in self-care. And also the one thing, the one tool I really believe will help individuals, no matter the severity of their mental health or mental illness, and that is to discover the habit of learning, to discover the habit of learning. So we're all gonna we're gonna talk about all of those things today. And I hope that this really spurs conversation for you in your personal life, your professional life, with your friends, your neighbors, your siblings, whatever it may be, that this really spurs a conversation and the idea of embracing individuals that may be really struggling. And listen, all of us are struggling right now, aren't we? I mean, we are still in the middle of this pandemic. We are still in the middle of this pandemic. And not only is the economic loss been just devastating, then what we've got is we've got people that do have mental conditions, mental health conditions, and they are being socially isolated even more so than they were. So, for example, you know, I know I've heard a lot from clients that for them to work from home has been extremely difficult for them because they really needed that social interaction to feel like they were connected and they've been struggling with that. So I've been speaking a lot with clients about that. I have also heard from clients that um, different clients, that they are really struggling with an increase in their anxiety because it's just this constant barrage of information coming after them and at them from the pandemic to the political unrest, to the political environment, what's going to happen in November. I mean, it is so much. And so, regardless of the level of mental condition, mental health condition you might be suffering in, or maybe you don't think you are, mental health, mental health, no matter who you are on the spectrum of severity, it is so very important that we have these conversations, that we support one another, and that we see that intersection in our lives, and whether it's our personal battle with mental illness, how is that going to intersect in our professional lives, our interpersonal lives? How is that going to what about a friend or a family member? And how what's that intersection in our life and to have these open conversations? Because there are people right now, and we know them, we know them. They are challenged daily with what the the grief of losing loved ones, the grief of losing a job, the grief of being socially isolated. So I think it's very important that we talk about mental health and um how you can take action. So with mental illness awareness week, uh there's some great uh offerings out there, excuse me, that help you understand more about what's going on. You can go to the Who, they have a lot of great uh resources out there for World Health Mental Health Day. You can go to the NAMI website, which is the National Alliance of Mental Illness. They've got amazing resource toolkits, suicide prevention, awareness resources, minority mental health awareness. Um, you can also just, there's just so much. There's so much out there. And so I want you to grab a hold of this. So this is from Mental Health America, which is really a fabulous site. They give you uh a lot of resources on understanding several different mental illnesses that you might yourself be suffering from, or have a family, uh co-worker member, anybody that might be suffering from this. So anxiety, bipolar disorder, any sort of psychosis, eating disorders, depression, PTSD, addiction. Um, it obviously there's so many more than these, but it's a great uh website. You can head over to Mental Health America, and they you can just Google in there and they can really help you uh with more resources. So for today, though, I want to talk about the seven actions that you can take during Mental Illness Awareness Week. And this is a wonderful resource. So, number one, what they are suggesting here on Mental Health National website is challenge your beliefs. Challenge your beliefs. So you really need to rethink the way you understand mental health and mental illness. What I would urge you is in your in every everyday interactions, I hear things a lot. Uh, people, you know, half-heartedly say, Oh, yeah, I totally suffer from PTSD, or oh my gosh, I'm so OCD. Be very careful with the words you use because somebody is fighting that. Somebody is fighting that. And I know um even in my life, having struggled with anxiety, when I people I hear people off-handedly say things like that, like, oh gosh, do they understand what it means to manage this? Um, and so challenge your your way of thinking and speaking in regard to mental health and mental illness because you just don't know who's listening and how you could hurt them. You know, it's really interesting. My my son, um, so proud of both my sons, but my eldest son was asked um to work with the special needs program in his middle school. And it was really interesting. He came home one day. He's very excited. He has a special buddy, he loves him so much, and he's just learning and growing to be such an empathetic individual. And I was just so proud of him for his work with these kiddos. And he came home one day and he said, you know, mom, people don't understand that they shouldn't use the word retard. And he goes, I hear kids say that at school all the time. And he's like, and I'm I'm I'm trying to talk to him that this is not okay. And it just really made me think about this number one on these seven actions we can take during mental illness, is we have got to challenge how we speak about others and about what they're fighting. Whether it's, you know, someone with developmental disabilities or someone that's fighting mental illness, we have got to challenge how we think of people that are struggling with these things, that are faced with these things, and how we're speaking about them. And so when my son said that to me, boy, it was like, wow, you know, my kiddo is already working on challenging individuals. And he challenged himself and said, hey, I'm gonna get involved and I'm gonna work with these kids and I'm gonna make a difference in their lives. So this week, I really challenge you to rethink the way you speak of mental illness and really rethink what is mental health and really explore those deeply held beliefs that maybe you shouldn't be holding on to. So any of those isms, right? Racism, sexism, ageism, any of those things, because our beliefs, if if they're very rigid, and I'm not saying you have to accept everyone's beliefs, but you should respect the human and what they are faced with. So you need to challenge some of those set beliefs and say, listen, is this is this placing people in a box that they don't they don't deserve to be placed in? Is this putting something on people, making them less than myself? So challenge your beliefs, just like my kiddos challenging kids into school. So proud of them. So number two, number two, you have got to act on advocacy. You've got to act on advocacy. As I said, there are so many organizations that offer resources and help you to advocate. I have to tell you, in the last couple of weeks, just getting back into everything, it was thrilling to see a bill was passed, um, gosh, I think it was about a week and a half ago, that allowed clinical mental health counselors to have an actual designation when working with the government. So psychologists have had that designation, social workers have had that designation, but clinical mental health counselors have not. And we've received that, which is wonderful when we start working with veterans that we have that specific designation that maybe doesn't sound like a lot to you all, but what it is is it's advocating for the industry. So um clinical mental health counseling is different from psychology, in that psychology focuses a lot on assessments, research. Um, social work really focuses on working with um other community entities and providing resources. Where clinical mental health counseling is that hands-on counseling, working with someone, psychologists do this as well, so do social workers, but it's just a it's a it's a difference in how we're focusing our efforts. So for the clinical mental health counselor, this is uh an enormous win. And they advocated for this. So they're advocated, advocated for us as specialists in the interest industry. So get involved, get involved. If this is something that you may struggle with mental illness, and maybe you're able to advocate on behalf of mental health awareness, or maybe advocate on behalf of someone that you care for. Um, I am really excited. I'm going to be pursuing more work in the trauma field, and I made a great acquaintance, and she and I have been discussing on how we can advocate to create a trauma division for the American Counseling Association because there isn't one, which is crazy to me. And so I'm really excited to begin working as an advocate on behalf of this. Um, another one that I am really deeply, deeply connected to, and that I'm really am focusing efforts on, is becoming an advocate for law enforcement officers. And I know this is gonna ping a lot of you out there that are listening right now, but law enforcement officers, regardless of what you're seeing in the media, and I am married to one, uh, there is very limited resources for mental health counseling to take care of them. And so I really am working on the advocacy of those first responders. We see a lot of care for EMTs, trauma doctors, um, firemen, but boy, there's there's this real odd, I don't know, this this void that cops are just expected to put up with it. And um, I'm really going to be working as an advocate and how I can offer support to law enforcement officers to not only uh to support them through seeing nonstop trauma. I mean, this is they are having repeated exposure to trauma. How can we uplift them in their mental health and ensure that mental illness doesn't take place? And also how we can help support agencies and organizations in our law enforcement officers. So, not every law enforcement officer you see people uh are terrible human beings. There's a terrible human being in any industry, but let's really support these individuals. So, again, number two, act on advocacy. So if you have the voice, use your voice. I am doing the same thing. Number three, start supporting others, start supporting others. You support people, don't you? Uh, somebody has a baby in the neighborhood and you do a meal train. You support them with that, don't you? You support someone that uh had their knee replaced. How are you supporting them? Grabbing their mail, you know, watering their flowers. We support people every single day. So why are we not supporting people during these really challenging times? Really challenging times. We've got to learn to support, so support individuals. So it doesn't necessarily have to be, hey, I'm gonna sit down on the couch and talk to you about your PTSD, but how can you support someone that you know is struggling? How can you support them? So think of those things. You need some ideas, let's chat. You can always reach out to me. I would love to hear from you. Head on over to piperharris.net. You there's a contact form on there. So let's talk if you need help and how do I support others? Number four, number four, and this is enormous. You have got to reset and re-engage with self-care. You've got to find ways to decompress, whether you are suffering uh mental illness in extreme forms, or you're just really feeling um, you know, isolated and struggling with emotions of anxiety or depression right now during the pandemic, you've got to engage in self-care. This is an enormous practice. And fun, in fact, uh, during my first quarter, it's a big talk topic about self-care. What are the things that we do for self-care? And it it's, you know, it really can go all kinds of different ways depending on who you are. What was interesting, I read a study that uh PTSD uh individuals, you can see that they people, depending on the severity of their PTSD and if it's recurrent um symptoms, you can see how much they work out. And so the more that they work out might be the recurrence of symptoms, or they might not work out at all. So it's like this use-shaped curve. So, where can we engage in self-care that's balanced, where it's not severely working out three hours a day? My husband told me about a coworker and he works out like four hours a day. And the first thing that went through my head was, okay, he's using that as something. There's something going on. He's using that. Um, so engage in self-care. Um, I do a lot of different self-care practices on the weekends, about oh, once a month, I'll take a couple hours and say to my husband, hey, you got the kids and the dog. I'm gonna crank my crazy 90s, you know, uh old grunge music and paint my nails. And I love it. Uh yesterday, what I did is I just I the weather is still beautiful, and I thought, you know, I haven't done any crafting for a long time. It's something that I do enjoy doing. I'm refinishing some furniture right now, but I thought I need a new wreath for the front door. And so I Pinterested a wreath and um went to the craft store, got everything I needed, and spent about three hours making this wreath, and it turned out beautifully. Um, but that helped me. I engaged in self-care. But even when I went to the craft store, I turned my music on and I sang along. I didn't care who saw me. I had the music on as I was crafting. It's just an opportunity for me to release whatever's on my mind and just take care of me. So find something that fills you, reset and engage in self-care. It is so very important. So, how can you do that? You know, come up with some things. It doesn't have to be like I just did this with a client the other day. We came up with um the stages that will show her when she's going toward um the more detrimental behaviors and beliefs. And so we we kind of came up with this kind of bullseye idea. These are the things, the levels of how she knows she's teetering on the edge of, you know, kind of falling apart. But then what are those things that she can engage in to try to pull her out of that? So it's very important for you to have a strategy for these times um uh of you know this pandemic and everything that we're all faced with. So, number five, number five, you need to be screened. If you really are concerned that, hey, you know what, I'm I'm really struggling. There's something going on. You know, you're going to your doctor, and um, if you are having a hard time, like your heart's feeling funny, you go to the cardiologist. Or if you're just, you know, every time you eat, you just feel lousy. You're going to the doctor and saying, hey, Doc, is there something going on? Do I have diabetes? We are always being screened, aren't we? We're being screened for our physical health. So you need to understand that it's okay to be screened for our mental health. It is so easy for you to be screened and to get help. Uh, years ago, years ago, I had an advisor in my undergraduate program and his name was Charlie. And he said, Piper, if you're gonna do this, you need to have a counselor. And from that day on, I have always, always had someone in my corner. I have always seen a therapist. I haven't stopped in over 20 years, um, all over the country, because it is so important for us to not only have that advocate, that ally to help us when things are rough, but it's a proactive tool and it's something to get very comfortable with. I know it's scary. You don't want to be screened. And what does this, what if people found out? What if I'm not strong enough? What if something's really wrong? Those what ifs are going to deter you from going in and being screened. But listen, you get screened from all your physical health conditions. You need to be screened for mental health conditions. There's nothing wrong with it. And there is help for you. There is help for you. So uh there's some other uh ideas that they came up here. You can get help, mental health, get into mental health debates. Um, so spotlighting on mental health when it comes to our presidential debates, that sort of thing. I tend to disagree with this. Um, just simply be because I think that um you can get captured. I have a friend who she said to me, you know, I've uh this is bad. I can't turn off the news. I I'm getting so riled up over these presidential elections. And um, so I do I disagree with this one. I disagree with this one on the website. I really do. Um, but lastly, when you're advocating, there's also an opportunity to advocate with your so your support. You can go and volunteer for many of these organizations, um, and you can give. There's a real need. Um, the mental health industry is absolutely inundated, inundated, and there's just not enough support. Um, I'm on the American Counseling Association, um, the American Mental Health Um Counselors Association. And gosh, all I'm seeing in all of these, um, we have, you know, uh ability to talk with one another. And there is just such a dire need for therapists, um, especially in rural areas. And we we need that you can advocate with your money. Give your time, give your money, give your give volunteering, support, uh, different programs, the screening, the education, the advocacy, you have to give. If if maybe mental health isn't your thing, how else can you give to provide that support to other people? Maybe you're like, oh, Piper, I don't know how I feel about you know, giving to one of these organizations. Okay, great. Have you ever gone and um provided meals? Have you ever gone and worked at a soup kitchen? You are giving, you are giving to individuals that are suffering. They are that are suffering from mental illness. Um, so consider that. There's so many ways. Do you go to goodwill? Goodwill is wonderful in advocating for people with disabilities. You are giving by shopping there. Does that make sense? So there's a lot of opportunity. Don't kind of throw it to the wayside. I don't do this mental health stuff, Piper. I don't do that. I don't want to get involved. There are things that you are already doing. So recognize that and do more of what you're comfortable with, if that makes sense. So as I said, this is mental illness week. And so those are some of the steps that you can really take, really take in some actions in during this mental illness week, which we're rounding out on the 10th. And that's mental health day, World Mental Health Day. And again, it's it's let's let's support one another, especially during this pandemic and what we're seeing. And it has been devastating. It has been devastating. So lastly, you know, what I wanted to talk about, and something that I work with my clients is discovering this lifelong habit of learning. And the reason this is tied to our mental health is I believe learning empowers self-efficacy. So that belief that you can do things, you can overcome things, you can work through things, that self-efficacy, that empowerment of self is so key to our mental health. It really, really is so key to our mental health. And that is really what I love about being a coach. What I know I'm going to love as a licensed professional counselor is it's the empowerment of individuals. It's me saying, hey, I know you need some help. I know you're struggling with some things in your life right now, but I absolutely believe that you can overcome this and let's help develop that. And what's interesting with the work I've done to this point is by empowering my clients into learning, hey, let's learn some new things. Let's develop a self-cat self-care strategy. Maybe they've never done that before. Um, that's learning, learning new things. And by learning new things and creating it as a habit, a lifelong habit of learning, I can see their growth and their empowerment in their lives. And it's just wonderful. It's wonderful to watch. In fact, I had a client and uh she was with me over a year, and um she came to me, she really wasn't sure, you know, gosh, I don't know exactly what I need help with coaching, but I know I need help with coaching. So it was kind of a process of um, where did she need, you know, a little, uh, a little assistance. And what we had discovered during that time is she needed to feel empowered. She uh really struggled with some self-esteem issues, some belief issues. And we we started to discover learning together. She, I said to her, so what piques your interest? And we talk about those things. And it took some time. It took some time with her. I have to say, it took a good bit of time, and it was so awesome. It was towards the end of our time together, probably about eight months in. And she said, Listen, I listened to the best podcast. And she was telling me about what she learned and then what she learned from that podcast and how it spurred her to move forward. And I saw this evolution. I saw this very kind of slow process, the eight months leading up to it. And I was concerned, is she learning? Is it is she being empowered? Am I good enough? Am I helping her? Um, and I just kept, you know, working with her. And then bam, one day she listened to this podcast and she loved it and she ate it up and it spurred learning. It spurred learning. And I watched how it empowered her thought process and empowered her moving forward. And it was just, it was amazing. And in fact, she was ready to graduate with me not long after that. She had learned how good it felt to be empowered and have that self-efficacy, and it just took some time. So we have got to learn and adopt this lifelong habit of learning. So, here are some things that you can do. Here are some things that you can do. And this will only serve to create a greater mental health, to to be your lifeline when when life does get difficult. Does get difficult. And the caveat I want to say to this, the caveat I want to say to this is if you are struggling, severely struggling, even small struggling, get help. Get help from a licensed professional. There are there are resources. There's people like me. We want to work with you. Don't ever feel like you have to do this on your own. These are just some strategies that I work with some clients. But again, be aware. Get screened. Don't do this on your own. So, number one, number one, we've got to create this lifelong habit of learning because it empowers self-efficacy. So the first thing that's really helpful is you've got to articulate, you've got to articulate the outcomes you'd like to reach. Now, this can be hard. Like I said, this last client that I had, she really didn't know the outcomes that she wanted to reach. She had kind of some peripheral outcomes, but once we dug into it over the months, it that really wasn't the outcome she wanted. The outcome that she really wanted to work toward was the self-efficacy, the empowerment and the self-worth issues. So find someone or spend some time journaling. You've got to articulate the outcomes you'd like to reach. Now, with articulating those outcomes, you have got to set realistic goals. You can't say to me, hey, Piper, I want to be the president of the United States by the next presidential election. You know that's not realistic. So you've got to set those realistic goals that you can realistically reach. And I mean realistic. If you're struggling to uh just get out of bed and shower, your realistic goal is I'm gonna get out of bed before 10 a.m. Um, and I, you know, I might you know shower today. It it doesn't have to be these grandiose, you know, ideas. You've got to set realistic goals based on where you are here and now. You've got to. The third thing you can do is you've got to develop a learning community. So, meaning that it can be through a podcast, it could mean that you join a group that is going to empower you. I had another client that joined a grief group and it was wonderful for her. She learned so much through this community. So find yourself and develop a learning community so you can continue to learn and grow and empowerment. You might not necessarily, you might not um always approve or agree with some of the things that people are teaching you during these learning communities, in these learning communities. But if you're willing to listen and step back, and like my mom used to always say, chew the meat, spit out the bones, take what you need from it. Take what you need from it and be empowered through it. So develop a learning community. I know for myself, obviously, through school, I've got a learning community, but I've got a really dear friend. I've known her for gosh years and years. And she's a licensed mental health counselor in Washington State, but she's a very dear friend. And so she's part of my learning community. So what's great about her, what I learned from her is we've got this very personal side, our faith side. So she and I are always doing devotionals and Bible studies together. But then we have this bi-monthly conversation where we're talking about this is what I'm learning. I'm struggling with this client. What do you think of this? I mean, it's an amazing relationship. And she's helping to refine me. And I hope I'm doing the same for her. So develop a learning community. And I know this can be intimidating. I know it can be intimidating to put yourself out there and say, hey, do you want to have coffee, whatever it may be? You don't have to say, hey, do you want to be my learning community? Um, but it is really important. It is really important to develop that community community. The second or the last thing, second to last thing you need to do is ditch the distractions. What is distracting you? What is distracting you from learning, from taking away it could be this mental illness, mental health issues. So find help. And then lastly, use tech technology to supplement your learning. There's so many wonderful, wonderful opportunities online for you to learn about mental health, mental illness, how you can support others, go after it. There's so many great free resources. So I've got a round out this time. It's a long one today. Um, I encourage you to really, really think about mental illness awareness week. How can you support people in your life? And how can you advocate for those that are in need, especially now? Thanks everybody for joining me, and I will talk to you soon. Hey there. Thanks so much for joining me today. This is Piper Harris with Poema Women's Success Coaching. If you enjoyed today's podcast, I would ask that you please share it on your social media. That would be huge for me. I want to empower you into your poema purpose. This is that God-given purpose, and I know, I know you've been given one. And that's what you're gonna hear on Poema Women's Success Coaching. So share this podcast. I would greatly appreciate it. And remember, you can put your poema purpose into action. And if you have questions, reach out to me, head on over to piperharris.net. There's an easy form on there, and let's chat. So thanks for joining us. And remember, you can discover your poema purpose and put it into action.