The Mental Health Moment May 25th, 2020

May 25th, 2020 Transcript – Mental Health Moment 

Transcript by Google Voice Typing – Please excuse errors

Topic – Buzz Words of Mental Health Explained

Welcome welcome to the Mental Health Moment.  It’s Memorial Day Monday what a great opportunity to take some time for your mental health. I’m your host Joe Newman from Life Launch Centers and this is the show where we talk about all things for your mental health. We give tools to help you cope and healthy ways with today’s difficult emotions and today I’ve got on the show with me Kayden Foremaster from producer here at Canyon media thanks again for joining me today so I hope all you out there around you’re on your way to doing something fun this Memorial Day Kayden what is what is a great Memorial Day look like for you for me honestly just comes down to having another day to just spend some time with family of course we got to do the barbecue thing and then family is a big deal to me some one thing that we do is say I live in Enterprise for those of those listeners that don’t know live in Enterprise in a van Enterprise we actually have a family-owned Cemetery that has been in the family for you know over a hundred years so one thing we do for Memorial Day is just go see the grave sites of our lost loved ones so that’s something we try to do in Memorial Day is you know obviously what it’s there for years to remember that we have family we have since lost so so we go up there and we do that as well that’s awesome that can be very very helpful for people’s mental health it can also be very difficult especially when they lost someone recently and sometimes it’s just a hard reminder for those that are really close to us but the celebration of their life to taking the time to remember them is really important and helpful part of my morning for me water has to be a part of Memorial Day I don’t care what form it is you know like I love lakes rivers swimming pool even watermelon you know who got to have like that looks like I’ve got to grill some burgers have some corn on the cob and some watermelon and that’s that rounds out my Memorial Day for that I enjoy all that that sounds that sounds like a party to me so you know any holidays really are a great time to do some self care for our mental health you know all these things were talking about go towards up regulating mood or giving some helping us be present in the moment and build some resilience by doing some hard things are exercising our emotional tools I just threw out there are bunch of what I call mental health buzzwords and honestly I really hate it when people just fluff or just like use Buzz words without really actually putting substance behind them so I want to break them down and give the listener some ideas about how to really use these powerful mental health tools to their benefit so self-care you know like let’s talk about self care for a minute what it what they what do you think self care means for you my first thought was actually towards more like hygiene you know like a you shower everyday brush your teeth being a comb your hair get a haircut you know wash your clothes that guy that type of stuff just just like the cleanliness but I do know I was. There is right yeah go ahead really strong mental benefits for taking care of yourself physically I think that’s what you were talking about right and that’s that’s obviously a big thing for me and like you say it does lead into the mental side of it because when you are you know when you’re clean and you you do focus on the physical things mentally it does actually just kind of feel like you have things put together a little bit I like you’re on top of life a little bit so mindfulness side of it but I think there is self-care both physically and mentally for sure absolutely we talked about taking time for yourself to build your mental health strength okay so like especially parents and we find this a lot with mom feel really guilty when they need to take some mental health time for themselves you know like if they have to disconnect or disengage from their family responsibilities and go you know sneak some some motherhood but but we learn how important it really is that it’s not selfish that’s what I think a lot of moms struggle with as they feel like they’re being selfish by needing to take some time for himself but it’s it’s actually they they perform better doing responsibilities that are required of them and it’s not just moms it sucks like when were if everybody when work or school or whatever is kind of overbearing or too demanding that taking time for yourself to get a kind of relax or calm down or reconnect with your emotions are very very important it is for sure we have the holidays planned into our calendar right nationally I always recognize that taking a day you know like usually seems like they have about one holiday a month so that we have that opportunity to kind of step back from our responsibilities and spend some time doing the things we love spend some time with the people we love and spend some time just reconnecting you know what the world around us do what we were talking about me being present man that is such a huge buzzword right now I hear all the time people over here and it’s almost like there’s not a lot of explanation on how you actually do that I mean what do you expect somebody when they say they’re being present what does that actually this morning right when I first woke up I my alarm went off right and it my alarms on my phone so I shut off the alarm on my phone but when I did so I noticed that I got a bunch of emails while I was asleep so first thing I do is I get home what are these emails about never checked my email and it was my wife was getting after me this morning she’s like stop being on your phone just enjoy the morning like it was like she was actually getting pretty fine I’m just trying to see what this is work emails and stopping but she was right you know I was not being present in the moment with with her as my wife and you know our dog was right there in and no I was all went from being asleep at work in a matter of seconds and yeah I was not present in the moment and so I would say you know that’s it that’s a bad example for me but a good example of what it means to actually be present as far as you know just be with those around you and yeah not being on your electronic devices head out of the clouds sometimes and just just focus on the Here and Now that’s so awesome that you said that because you know technology definitely plays a big part in taking us out of the moment and it’s kind of been invading that space for quite some time you know it’s kind of I’m a professional photographer and have been for 20 years and really value good quality pictures and recently I realized how how quick we are to step out of the moment just to take a picture of the moment like we don’t feel like we’re going to be able to remember or or if you know capture a memory of an event unless there’s a picture taken right I’ve heard so often that if there if you didn’t take a picture of it it didn’t happen I got to stay the professional photographer I’ve kind of like a step back from that and and remember how how awesome it is to sit around with friends and family and talk about common experiences without necessarily pulling up a photo or a video of it to watch it to relive it but that connection that happens between individuals as they give their account of a memory or a time that they were together we can help connect us right yeah cuz I mean I look back just looking at like my Instagram feed you can see when I was young and single and didn’t care as much that I was posting a lot of stuff and now that I’m a grown-up I’m married I started to live my life that way I think the last time I posted on Instagram was in February you know it’s been months since I took pictures or you know thought about posting anything else because I’ve learned that as well for myself that living in the moment without having to take pictures is actually kind of a nice thing to do actually remember more just I I pose take a picture OK back to what you’re doing and I know I would rather just be in the moment absolutely and yeah so being present you know some things that we do to help teach youth how to be present because we’re talking about there’s a whole generation here that grew up in a world where they knew nothing but technology right that since the day they were born mom and dad were assaulting reality to post a picture of them a baby’s doing every little step in their life right so we can’t expect anything less from our kids not knowing how to separate that World Order ignore to become mindful or presents in the present moment without giving them the actual house sure we teaches is helping individuals take the time to reconnect with her senses so we’ll say like okay what’s 5 things that you can see right now that are a little details that you may have had not have noticed before and if you kind of like really dive deep into your your surroundings you become more connected and more presents that you smell right now or think about two things that you can taste and you know those it is interesting as you really give time and attention to your senses in your current atmosphere that’s how you become present write so a lot of you know a lot of people end up kind of getting lost I think in the virtual world because there’s not a lot of not all of our senses are connected there you don’t do a lot of smell or or taste is very Visual and audio and even touch screen and your present in the moment you identify you know how this and feels in your toes or how the sunshine feels on your on the back of your neck those things really being present have proven to improve mental health to help you feel more connected with your environment and overall overall happiness so you know I’ve got a few more things I wanted to discuss what I’ve got to kind of take a break here but but these are the things we teaching our counseling groups that life wants dinners if you’re not familiar with life lunch centers we work with Youth and Young adults ages 11 to 26 years old struggling with anxiety depression isolation or other difficult mental health condition when most parents are looking for help for anxiety they immediately think of finding a therapist or that you go to once a week and then they get frustrated their loved one isn’t making any progress there in counseling for 6 months or a year even more the kids usually doesn’t want to go or feels broken or the other weird for having to see a therapist well well that’s why everyone knows that group counseling is the most effective when powerful form of therapy so if you or a loved one it’s true playing with anxiety depression or more difficult transitions in life now really 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 find help in our proven curriculum teaches them the tools they need to successfully cope with difficult emotions throughout their life so don’t wait just give us a call when do a free 15-minute phone consultation 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 we’re coming right back to break down the buzz words of mental health will be back in a minute 

Welcome back to the mental health in moments on this Memorial Day Monday we’re excited to be with you today and talking about the buzz words of mental help a lot of people right now or are very much aware of mental health and they hear these buzzwords kind of thrown around and there’s not a whole lot of explanation with it so I don’t want to dispel some of the store some of the mystery Behind These buzzwords make sure that people actually able to use these things as Tools in their life so so Kayden you may be heard people talk about mindfulness what does any ideas of what what mindfulness means to you to me and it kind of goes back to what we talked about the first half in about being in the moment but a lot of it is just kind of that just paying attention to what’s going on especially what’s going on in your physical surroundings but also what’s going on in your head you know why am I thinking this specific thought or like what we know why am I angry what’s what’s the what’s the reason behind my emotions at this time or whatever it is you know it’s a lot of that that like it’s not just the physical aspects but definitely in her towards your emotional you know State I guess you could say yeah you’re right on there and those are some really important Concepts their first you’re able to look at your thoughts kind of objectively like you’re able to realize that just because you’re having a thought doesn’t mean that that is you or that you are that thought right something that you especially get kind of wrapped up and they they have feelings or thoughts and they think o that defines me I must be you know upset because I’m having upset feelings right or so what we do is we we do a lot of teaching to help them understand that emotions and Sensations are two different things and you can look at your emotions and your Sensations kind of objectively from a third-party position like like you were removed and being able to non-judgmentally observe these emotions or Sensations happening to you and then you get to choose what you want to do with those emotions or those Sensations stops a lot of lot of kids especially there will be really quick to label themselves like I can’t focus or I have ADD or I have you know and there are definitely like a clinical diagnosis of these things but most often and kind of popular discussion people will throw around those kind of Concepts and label themselves as though they have no power or ability to affect it and so mindfulness is kind of actual practices that you do to become a jective in your analysis of your of your self okay so like I’m becoming aware of your breathing is it important that we teach them some breathing techniques and mindfulness to help lower heart rate so particularly if you’re having a anxiety attack there’s some very helpful breathing practices that can that can lower your heart rate simply by regulating how much you breathe out versus how much you breathe in or you know being aware of your senses we kind of talked about that like you said with being present and and strategically using your senses to regulate mood so for example of identify positive association with with paste or with smell or with touch and so then when you’re in a depressed mood or you’re feeling down or anxious you can actually use these positive stimulus it help upregulate your mood right and so being mindful of what kind of tastes are pleasing to you or what kind of smells are pleasing to you or what kind of touches are pleasing to you than that helps you know so I can go get you know that soda that I really enjoy the taste of or I can get I can go touch that sweater that’s really soft and comforting to me right and use those those senses to help regulate mood through mindfulness a lot of people you know what it comes to that they eat a lot of them resort to their pets or something you know your dog because you know you like to pet your dog away that it feels and you know just the the comfy bu those types of things are good ways to you know, sometimes just counteract those upsetting emotions you might have you know that’s why a lot of emotional support animals are big thing because I really do help like you say with those sensory things that we need that we really crave when we’re in a bad emotional place and I think it again kind of goes back to earlier discussion about technology because of how invasive technology is very very often when someone is feeling down or depressed like this rather than turning to the remote support animal or to some other positive since they turn their phone that’s going to help up regulate their mood but they quickly find out that it kind of just makes them feel worse because they see everybody else is you know highlight reel of their life and then they end up comparing themselves you know in there depressed state that so sure as those devices or the technology I think it’s a tremendously important becoming mine falling and using your senses to to upregulate your mood so how about how about resilience you know we talked a lot about resilience at life on standards are whole curriculum is called the model so what is it you know when you hear resilience in in mental health Kane what does that bring to mind the word resilient resilience even is just stay strong you know not letting everything get you down fighting through things I guess would be at the way that I think of it so when you’re talking about mental health and resilience it’s like that we know when those windows hard emotion start to hit you find ways to get through it you find ways to overcome those things 11 yeah and that’s a interesting thing you I think described it very well and that what we found is that we are able to to talk about it but in today’s youth and young adults they often don’t know if steps so will often like will say you know it’s you going through something hard you got to dust yourself off pick yourself up and move on and there’s been some things I think in culture and society that is have somehow or omitted are learning of how to actually pick ourselves up by the bootstraps right y’all said than done you know right when your self up I mean yeah that’s the end goal but there are smaller goes along the way and really one of the most powerful parts of resilience learning how to pick yourself up in the human connection part the the last step in the resilience model that we teach at life launch centers it’s called building connections and it talks about how when you’re with a person you your brain emits oxytocin which is a happy hormone only there that’s that’s best produced when you head engage in physical touch with another human and and that’s exactly the same thing if you going through something hard how quickly you feel supported when a good friend or family member puts their arm around you or give you a hug and tell you they love you and that you’re awesome where I know that physical touch is really powerful and so it goes towards helping us have the resilience to pick ourselves up and go through those hard things so you know we got up here but you know a lot of these principles we talked about it based out of dialectical behavior therapy is kind of the the newest most helpful and and research kind of therapy out there and that’s kind of what are but I got to wrap it up so I just want to thank you again for being on the show with me today and for all of your great insights of course I appreciate it and we hope everyone out there got some helpful ideas about some things to look forward to and things that you can do right now to improve your mental health we hope that you or your if you know if you or your loved one is struggling or just overwhelmed with anxiety depression or isolation or any other difficulty 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 and we are doing face-to-face groups again thankfully we’ve been able to move two words that end in able to really help you reconnect so jump on her website of life free resources there you know we’re thankful everybody’s joined us this Memorial Day for this mental health moment and join us again next time right here on St George news radio this is Joe Newman signing off from Life on centers until next time keep those kids safe and keep your sanity