You are not alone – Celebrating mental health awareness month

Each year, an average of 150,000 American lives are lost to drug, alcohol, and suicide-related causes. 

At the height of the pandemic last year, substance-abuse deaths increased a devastating 18%, christening 2020 the “deadliest year in drug history.”

If there’s one thing these numbers tell us, it’s that many of us feel alone.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. 

This month, psychologists, wellness teachers, and other mental health experts come together to remind people that they are not alone. 

Despite physical isolation, global unrest, unimaginable loss—we are not alone.

I myself lost my own brother to suicide many years ago. I realized that many experiences and patterns in our shared childhood caused my siblings and me to constantly suppress our emotions and needs. 

Unmet needs manifest in tragic expressions. It was during that inconceivably painful time that my conscious parenting mission started forming. 

Our society requires not just an awareness of mental illness, but a platform to proactively address people’s mental wellness. 

We need tools and strategies for effective communication, managing emotions and distressing situations. 

The best thing we can do is be proactive about mental health and wellbeing.

I would love to share some ways to feel less anxious, more centered, and clear headed. 

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3 Simple Hacks to Immediately Regulate Your Nervous System:

Draw Figure 8s. Take your index and middle finger, keep them together, and make a figure 8 pattern around your eyes. As you apply different pressures, you’ll instantly feel the right and left brain start to integrate. You can even switch up the speed and direction.

Alternate Nostril Breathing. By breathing through one nostril at a time, we can immediately feel a sense of deeper breath, centeredness, and anxiety leaving our bodies. Block the right nostril first, inhale from the left, then block the left and exhale on the right. Start again by inhaling on the right and the cycle continues.

Practice Ha! Exhales. Put your hands into fists, inhale, and on the exhale release all of your breath and energy as you bend forward with HA!. This will calm you down, relax you, and release your nervous energy.

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If you want to learn more about mental health platforms, watch this video from the National Mental Health & Mental Fitness Summit in July 2019:

We’re all on this journey together. Let’s remind each other that we don’t have to walk alone.

Love and Blessings,

Katherine