Empathy For Minds

      Building strong relationships with others is a very important aspect of maintaining your mental health. Being a human means being an inherently social creature, and our connections with others play a key role in our emotional well being. In this blog I'm going to be talking about why staying connected is so important to our mental health.      First, a reason why staying connected is so important is because of the emotional support it provides. Having a consistent and strong support system means so much and I don't think people realize just how much friends and family can act as your therapy. It's crucial to have a safe space where you can express your feelings, fears, and concerns. Knowing that you have someone to turn to during challenging times is and can be really comforting in those moments.      Next, keeping connected with people can reduce your feelings of isolation. I think this one gets people the most because we get into the mindset of "I don't wan

In this blog I want to bring some light on mental health issues that can take place in the workplace. Starting off with the top two that occur the most in the workplace and those are anxiety and depression. First there are many things that can cause anxiety in a workplace setting from a bad day causing you to feel uneasy about the future of your job to your boss calling you in for a meeting. There are many things that the workplace can do to cause these such feelings like  Toxic culture, excessive demands, unhealthy pressures, or a poorly matched position .  Here are some ways to manage Anxiety in the workplace: 1. Plan ahead. 2. Break each task down into manageable chunks. 3. Give yourself realistic deadlines. 4. Ask for help. 5. Accept that you will experience some anxiety. 6. Take care of yourself. 7. Contact your GP or a mental health doctor. 8. Think about your past jobs to help you plan for the future. Next depression, which I  touch on a little in my previous blog "Post Gra

What is burnout?  Burnout is a state of complete mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. I want to talk about burnout because I've seen it happen so much especially since I've been in college. Burnout has a huge impact on a persons mental health and that can been seen in multiple different ways. This can lead to depression, anxiety, and multiple other mental health issues. Where I've seen it effecting people the most is through affecting relationships and social life.  Some ways you can tell if you are burnt out are if you: Start feeling drained Not feel able to cope with things Not being able to sleep Be sad, angry, irritable, or not care Use more alcohol or other substances More likely to get sick etc. These are just a few ways you can tell if you are experiencing burnout. If you start to experience burnout if it's in a work setting take you annual leave. Go on vacation or just get away to free your mind from work. If it's in another aspect like for me at one

 Im going to switch it up a little for this weeks blog and tell a little story about one of my best friends. The topic for the story today is Post Gradation Depression. I feel this is such an important topic because of the time most of us are in life right now, which is about to graduate this year or next year. Post-graduation depression is described as  depressive symptoms that occur after a person finishes college or university . Although it is not a medically recognized term, it is an experience many young adults may relate to. After many years of education, people may find adjusting to life after university challenging. So my friend after college had a job set up in Indianapolis and she was coming from Washington D.C. where she went to  college at Howard University. So already going from DC to Indianapolis was going to be a huge culture shock. Coming from  a Historically Black College/University was going to be different to living in Carmel Indiana outside of Indianapolis. My frien

 To have negative thoughts it something that is a normal everyday occurrence for most people. It's ok to have a negative thought every once in a while, but it can become a problem when you're having negative thoughts all the time. Things like self doubt and worry can lead to things like stress, anxiety, and depression. Hopefully with some awareness and practice it's possible to overcome these thoughts. The first step is to understand negative thought patterns. These include some cognitive distortions that are irrational or exaggerated ways of thinking. Some common Cognitive distortions include,  All-or-nothing thinking (seeing situations in black-and-white terms, Catastrophizing (expecting the worst-case scenario), Overgeneralization (drawing broad conclusions from single incidents), and Personalization (assuming responsibility for things beyond your control). By recognizing what these thought patterns are we can move forward to change how we think. The next step is to cult

 Learning how to cope with mental health issues is a huge part of our everyday lives. In my last blog I mentioned some ways to cope with mental health but there are so many more that I need to bring to light.  Last blog I talked about some ways to cope like seeking support, self care, and establishing boundaries.  A way to cope with mental health is learning how to manage your stress. This is something that is learned over time and it takes some bad experiences to get a real gage on this. When you know how to manage your stress you start to avoid things that are going to trigger you. This is just coming to really getting to know yourself and what you can handle. Another way to cope is to start a new hobby. Do something that you are actually interested in to get your mind off everything. I think a way that I cope with things is just allowing myself to really focus in on basketball, it's my escape from a lot of things. All my focus and attention gets locked into the game and it's