10/13: Mental Health Awareness Day!

Did you hear about #WorldMentalHealthAwarenessDay?

I did and that stuck out to me because mental health is so vital to everything we do. How else could we sustain a week of being reminding of what already know….

That there’s systems at play that make it hard for us to do things like access preventive health care.

Certain hierarchies protect men who prey on people who they perceive as weak and powerless.

But we if we are not sound of mind and body we won’t defeat these systems and we must do so for the sake of ourselves and the next generation of women. Some of my most read pieces are about mental health, and some of the most listened to episodes of The Currently are the ones where I talk about my own personal development.

My most read piece about mental health was published by Forbes and is one the most read pieces to date on the topic.

I also wrote about parenting with anxiety which is kinda like living with anxiety except you have a little person compelling you to change your act so that you don’t pass this on the next generation. Because in case you didn’t know anxiety has replaced depression as the biggest issue that teens deal with.

My absolute favorite, as of now, on the topic of depression is Leigh Stein’s memoir, Land of Enchantment, the chapter where she describes how her depression first felt could have been written by me (assuming as I was that good of a writer).  

The best mental health advice I can give is this, allow yourself time to think, to process, to feel, to examine. This week I have been practicing the practice of the 10-hour compound. Which means I spend time each day reading, thinking and processing. I spend about an hour in the morning reading, reflecting and about 30 minutes at night reading some more. I’m sharing what i’m reading below.

Read the rest of the newsletter here.