The Mental Health Moment March 16th, 2020

March 16th, 2020 Transcript – Mental Health Moment 

Transcript by Google Voice Typing – Please excuse errors

Topic – Managing Stress

Welcome, Welcome.   It’s mental health Monday and time to take a moment for your mental health.  This is the Mental Health Moment, the show where we talk about what we can do to improve our mental and emotional well being. I’m your host Joe Newman, from Life Launch Centers where we help youth and young adults deal with life’s difficult emotions through group counseling.  These groups really are amazing. Parents, youth and young adults, come together and find that they’re not alone in their struggles. Anxiety, depression, social isolation, all of these difficult emotions that seem to be taking over today, we present education in those groups of how to grow emotional resilience through mindfulness, learning distress tolerance tools and building healthy connections.  These are evidence based tools, research proven methods to overcome debilitating anxiety, depression and other difficult emotions.

If you’re ready to kick anxiety and depression to the curb, simply give Life Launch Centers a call at 833-803-3883.  Or you can learn more on our website at Lifelaunchcenters.com, there’s a lot of great info on there including the archive of all of these radio shows that talk all about our 8 step resilience model curriculum and tips on how to address many of the major mental health risks out there. Again the website is lifelaunchcenters.com.

Today I’ve brought back a previous guest Richard Harder of Lead Smart Consulting to talk about managing stress.  Richard thanks for coming on the show with me today.Thank you Joe, so managing stress it seems to be a very important part of our overall mental health and you’ve been working with individuals corporations organizations for quite some time and knowing how to manage stress so tell me a little bit about your your history with I will thank you Joe not discovered it’s just an observation I think most people would be aware of it but I actually launched in the twenty-first year of my career of leadership and organizational development, it is now being branded lead smart Consulting but there’s been a shift in my area of work I focused a lot on leadership and organizational development management skills is a lot of work life in balance and lesser quality of life among managers and leaders that I’ve worked with another Words Their life’s patterns of managing time and and careers relationships and health as put them off center in so many ways and what I find myself doing when I’ve been engaged as I quickly realized that the very manager the leader that I’m working with have some deep-seated personal problems that are affecting his ability to lead teams and groups isn’t that true I mean the things that we deal with personal life dramatically affect our performance at work there’s no question about that kind of a series of seminars that I called life life centers managing life centers including stress by the way that the relationships the health issues that sometimes are self-imposed not necessary always self-imposed it just creates for individual call TN holiday lead teams with naturally Jo I think we naturally Embrace constancy amid a lot of changes going on are We naturally Embrace in a positive habits, routines and patterns negative habits an inconsistency negative stress and so there is good stress stress is not matter fact I believe that most stress as an emotion is a good thing if we’re not aware of what’s causing it what’s how it’s affected or how to deal with it refer to buy on Cellular in his book stress without distress is eustress would answer in order to build a build like another realm of likes a lifting weights that you have to actually have weights on the dumbbell in order for you to get stronger right you have to have you no willful uncomfortable situations in order to grow and sell at the trick is like you mentioned with these quality of life centers is a you identified here I think what is it six different centers or parts of your life that it’s important for you to have in balance in order to keep I’m stressed healthy and not have it become distress is that what you’re for sure for sure within a fixed and limited amount of time that we all have is 24 a day and 168 a week so on that point I think there’s a lot to be said about time management but I think one is that I think that as a people we need to slow down a little bit there’s nothing wrong with personal downsizing icollege absolutely see that evidence to the roadways were driving I want something with the fact that I’m not part of your hurry just have it on the back of my car and it’s going to take me 15 minutes to get there so I’m going to leave 15 minutes before I have to be there which I had a good friend who he explained it if you don’t ever want to be stressed about time just give yourself 10 extra minutes exactly and it is so nice showing up two appointments 10 minutes early and you sit in your car and you like I was going to gather my thoughts here for a minute and unfortunately a lot of time what happens what do we do now we usually turn to our phone and start busying ourselves with other you know virtual or digital concerns and that just I think adds to the the distress because you’re not actually taking the time to slow down yeah we’ve lost the ability to redefine the word day yeah I mean you just and location like you work wherever you are because you have your phone with you exactly so on the timepiece I would say you know yeah it’s it’s a good to work from the schedule is good to leave on time allow yourself plenty of time but at the the heart of it as far as I’m concerned is the ability to organize your time execute on things that have high value and priority and say no say no without guilt we get really busy yeah we want to be a yes person we want we want to help out a time with my family has a high priority and someone calls and says can you be here at this time at this on my calendar that says it’s a date with my wife I simply say I’m unable to be there and help me schedule done that comes with feeling overworked overcommitted scheduled you’ve had this situation where you say yes and they say thank you and then you realize what I say yes there’s no way I can pull that off I love that and that’s slowing down pay say and all that that is so apparently I realize that just moving here to St George I moved from from Salt Lake area and came down here and I found it was a slower pace really enjoyed it I was like hey this is this is a little bit better here but even even still we we will reschedule ourselves and it’s just that causes anxiety causes frustration and road rage and all that you know these negative emotion that we really affect our overall Mental Health Ty’s healthy okay like it’s helping like we need that for sure yeah that’s awesome I love relationships is another one of these quality of life centers how did it how how important is balance in our relationships to our mental health is very important example of Cochin a logistics manager in the San Francisco Bay Area know what years ago the assignment was to help him as a as a leader of logistics at this large ship Transport company and we had a lot of different discussion 21 coaching engagement I realize that he he disclosed to be some relationship problems had was white with his wife he also does something serious problem and we can talk more about this b**** essentially my question of this manager at the clothes at an engagement I said Matt what one lifestyle change could you make it if you made that lifestyle change what has a profound positive effect on you on your personal life in your family and we address the subject of substance abuse drinking specific and just need to restore his relationship with his wife we just sent her the remainder of our discussions on that relationship building helping to sell for this substance abuse problem restoring a relation of his wife my point there is that once your centered and grounded in your personal life will be much more effective in your professional life I think I think a lot of people get worried that I keep that he would be offended be like I were talking about my job here not my relationships but but if you’re unable to be very effective in helping and realize that those are connected to have the report and relationship of trust within fish before you can ask that kind of a question so it’s it’s it’s kind of build up to that but I was most helpful to him on that front that I could ever have been in his work as a logistics manager within a large company is amazing nice that’s great I love how you address like all these different life centers we still got to talk about, but I’ve got to take a break here, but if you or a loved one is struggling with anxiety, depression, anger, or social isolation,  now is the best time to get help. The group counseling program at Life Launch Centers works wonders for people that have tried therapy, but didn’t help.  The groups overcome barriers and really help them open up, and realize they’re not alone in their struggles, and the proven curriculum teaches them the tools they need to successfully launch into life. So Don’t wait, give us a call we do a free 15 minute phone consultation and we can help strategize with you what would be the best course of action to help your loved one.  The number is 833-803-3883. Next half I’ll come right back with Richard Harder talking about managing stress and improving our mental health. We’ll be back in a minute. 

Welcome back to the mental health the moment I’m your host Joe Newman from Life Launch Centers in studio today with me I have previous gas Richard Harder of Lead Smart Consulting to talk about managing stress and Richard you’ve identified several quality of life centers that you call in the basically areas of life that are vital to have good balance in order to maintain a solid Mental Health state and just a good quality of life so Richard you know last time we talked about time and relationships tell me a little bit about stress you’ve listed this as a Life Center how is stress a Life Center well first of all stress for me is a good thing if I know what’s causing it is a positive form of energy the member number of years ago be in adult swim meet with my youngest daughter the CIA Statewide swimming and she’s doing the backstroke she slips into the water and she said to me. I really feel stressed out right now and I said well how do you feel should I feel butterflies flying in formation that’s a very positive form of stress right there yeah you stress it’s a form of energy so when we think of stress often times you think of it as a negative thing or harmful thing it can be but in most cases it can be a very good thing for you understand it’s caused its source and how to manage it I love that I felt that same thing as an athlete I was a wrestler and you know those minutes before your match you don’t know exactly when it’s going to start and there’s those butterflies and I learned to just smile accept that and transform it into energy so that the minute I could step out on the mat and I was a blow them ready to go in case me even the athletic is that it’s it’s it’s part of life and living lots of things going on in my feeling right now why am I feeling anxious a lot of what’s causing that to take some deep breaths take a walk think about how you’re feeling don’t allow it to overcome you unattended oceans and Sensations and how when you accept them like so you know when an adult World maybe that looks like going on the air for the radio show or some of the stressful situations that you know you have to get up and speak or we already know that causes a lot of stress for people when when you face those situations rather than trying to you know bottle it up or push you away or or get frustrated that you’re feeling that stress so right now I’m sitting here with you on this radio broadcast different right now engaged in this in this conversation but I would be so my point there of course is that when you’re when you’re performing your wanting to do your best when I take public speaking at the University I tell the students that anxiety and stress is your friend just embrace it recognize that it is causing what it is is you’re wanting to do well the right and that the wrestling swimming in East athletic preparing your body to give you the you know the energy to perform well correct and that’s a good thing I love that big one I mean is a big Quality of Life Center and if your finances are out of balance I can really affect your mental health it’s probably join one of these for my experience and Leadership work my professional work as well as some of my work ecclesiastically I think most would understand and realize that finances personally family finances is a major cause of well that leads to stress that lead to dysfunctional relationships my thought and recommendation on that there’s a lot to be said about this and there’s there’s a lot of good information about the ideal of pending pending a PIN to a budget and save regularly I mean the idea of is not about how much you make reset living within your means being very settled knowing that you have a little bit left over even a little bit. Of time a month or whatever can you mean to being self-reliant that’s that’s a very settling thing I met with a couple not too long ago who were had a financial problem the problem was they had $90,000 of consumer credit debt while I’m at home that they just bought couple children facing 90 grand into the monthly interest expense is like $1,800 wow. Very very careful with that I really appreciate that part of this discussion because I found that that happiness really is a choice like it doesn’t really matter how much money you make I see that from a position of having been a very young poor college student and somehow finding just joy in that stage of life right and then as you grow in your career you end up making a little bit more money and enjoying that stage sometimes I get really I get really focused on wanting to get to the next state want to have that larger bank account when I have this amount of money then I’ll be happy right and that never seems to come right you know if you’re not talking much about money that’s a good thing and what I mean by that is that might one of my daughters called you not too many years ago now married with Children did you make good money and I said well honey why do you ask that question she said well I never knew she said because we never talked about money and as a reflection on that that was a good thing we just we weren’t arguing over it we weren’t frustrated about it we had sufficient for our needs yeah we’re trying to save a little bit and live within a budget and that is so fundamental in important that’s awesome because that’s the right now right so that’s where a lot of people I find going to Dad for stuff especially like toys or you know Vacations or some of those kind of things and the the temporary happiness that it provides does not outweigh the long-lasting depression anxiety major major mental health issues in and really weather or whether or not you’re sitting on the beach at in Tahiti or the beach at Sand Hollow off here we really live in an amazing place where we can have some of the most unique World experiences right in our own backyard without spending a lot of that Sweet Sound in a 50th wedding anniversary right I can’t wait to get back to Saint George health and fitness this fitness and health this is another quality of life center that you’ve defined here tell me about how are Health like our physical health plays into our mental health it’s imperative I mean good health tomorrow I mean we can do everything we can to preserve good health regular exercise diet to cop arrests and sometimes we might be stuck with adversity of some catastrophic illness. So I think the mindset of being a Victor versus a victim of a of a health problem is one thing but I like that rather than a victim of a we all know those mud runs in the family members who were affected by the old house can I share real quick because my wife with a couple years ago she was diagnosed with MS and it was a big like shock to us and we felt like that victim thing real fast but now she is amazing she she has become the victor of that illness as she like I love to tell people how you know that you are the concerned about her house and I’m like yeah she has some symptoms and things have changed their life to put in perspective we went rock climbing the other day and she talked to 50 foot in my life climb and she’s doing awesome help health adversity is an issue we all deal with it we just work on faith and work to be to maintain good health informed to take care of yourself get a good annual physical listen to say and it’s a no-brainer that’s the kind of stuff that we talked a lot about these the self-discipline kind of rules in order to maintain your physical health which they know positively affects your mental health absolutely Richard, thank you so much for being on with me today.  This is been so insightful and thank you so much for sharing more about your quality of life centers and tell me how to how do people get a hold of you if they’re interested in learning more.  They can call me at 626-252-7548 as lead smart Consulting Richard Harder that’s awesome I’ve got to wrap it up, and I hope everyone out there got some helpful ideas about how to manage stress and improve our mental health.   If you or your loved one is just overwhelmed with anxiety, depression, isolation or any other difficult emotion, please give us a call at Life Launch Centers.  The number is 833-803-3883. We’re happy to do a free 15 minute phone consultation to help you know what the best course of action would be. there’s a lot of resources out there in a lot of options and and different levels of care people may not be aware of and so that’s a value to talking to someone in the industry that can can make a good referral you maybe maybe group counseling would be a great idea for you maybe it was at that phone consultation will really help you get a good idea of what would be best  The number at Life Launch Centers again is 833-803-3883.  This has been your mental health moment, join us again next time right here on St. George News Radio.  This is Joe Newman signing off from Life Launch Centers. Until next time keep those kids safe, and keep your sanity.