Living Life Full Force Blog (#LLFF)
Dip into the mind of Sabriya, Life Discovery Expert, along with the minds of guest interviewees and bloggers. Get a crash course on life as we know it.
LET’S TALK MENTAL WELLNESS
"The first important objective in maintaining your zen is acknowledging the 'post-retreat glow', where you are at the height of your relaxation and have a profound sense of peace. Acknowledging this glow and understanding that you are now back in your everyday life helps you better understand how important it is to make this peace and relaxation stick with you even as you go back into your normal routine. This is the first step in maintaining the retreat zen and continuing your wellness journey even once you are finished with the retreat."
“Post-graduation, I've struggled with imposter syndrome, which I attribute to inadequate preparation from the education system. I also find myself grappling with uncertainty about my life direction and whether I'm suited for the current job market.”
“Another stigma I observe is people feeling they don’t deserve treatment because someone else has it worse. ‘My anxiety isn’t THAT bad’. You know? But it doesn’t help anyone if you continue to suffer”
“Mental health is stigmatized as something that is embarrassing. Oftentimes people would rather not talk about mental health because they don't want anyone to know it exists. If mental health is not discussed somehow, it would miraculously go away or maybe not even exist. This is a very dangerous way to handle mental health because the person who is suffering mentally may very well harm himself/herself or someone else.”
While this is easier said than done, taking care of yourself and being preventative when it comes to your mental health is crucial to seeing success in your personal and professional life. If you do not take the time now to disconnect and engage in non-work-related activities that you enjoy, you have the potential to experience burnout, anxiety, insomnia, and many other complications.
“I ask you a question, and you answer it (anonymously, of course!) Then, we discuss the questions and answers in my new blog series called: Building Mental Health as a Community. Like everything in life, our mental health most definitely takes a village of love and support.”
“Hobbies are a fun and easy way to improve your mental health and take some time out of your day to do things truly enjoyable. However, we live in a busy world - we are expected to balance so many things in our everyday lives. How do we fit hobbies into our schedule when it is already packed enough? My solution: finding hobbies that will actually make your life easier (and not take up too much time)!”
“We spend a lot of time thinking of ways to positively affect our mental health and work hard to add mental-health-friendly activities to our everyday routine. However, we do not focus enough energy on removing negative habits from our routines for the betterment of our mental health. With that being said, here are a couple of habits I have identified in my everyday life that has affected my mental health - these may be affecting you as well!”
“While just getting outside to enjoy the weather is so important for our mental health - there are many different ways that we can spice up our relationship with nature and use the beautiful sights around us to our advantage. Keeping and promoting a healthy relationship with nature through exercise or fun activities ensures more positivity and a better mind-body connection”
“Everyone’s anxiety manifests in different ways. For me, I notice fidgeting, nausea, butterflies in my stomach, and headaches. Being able to find comfort objects to have around when I am more anxious than usual helps ground me and reduce extra stress and anxiety. With that being said, here are some of my favorite comfort objects that help bring relief on my more anxious days.”
“Sometimes it can be easy to let our mental and physical health decline when we are overwhelmed and stressed. However, to get ourselves out of the chaos, we need to put our health first. Taking intentional breaks throughout the day and making sure we are nurturing our bodies through sleep and food is essential in beating the chaos of life and making sure that we are putting our best foot forward every single day.”
The business world can be cutthroat. Entrepreneurs frequently burn the candle at both ends growing their business. Sleep deprivation, stress, and exhaustion are par for the course. Self-care – looking after your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing – tends to go out the window. However, that’s not good for you or your business.
What Causes Mood Changes in Winter?
If you usually feel down in the dumps whenever winter arrives, there's a good chance something other than normal mood swings is going on. Medical experts say spending more time indoors and not getting enough sunlight can dampen your mood.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Health, about one in five adults in the U.S. experienced mental illness in 2020. While there are a lot of individual factors that can increase one’s risk of developing a mental illness, the systemic issues that plague today’s society can affect the mental health of the whole population.
These days, millions of Americans are suffering from depression, anxiety, and various other mental and emotional disorders that can leave them feeling stressed, exhausted, helpless, and even suicidal. It’s hard to recognize those feelings in ourselves sometimes, especially when we have busy schedules and are preoccupied with taking care of our families. When you have time to yourself, however, you may begin to feel like you’re alone or that no one understands what you’re going through.
Picture this scenario: You’re genuinely a healthy person, no real immediate threat. However, one day you start to have some pain in your back. You figured it’s because you slept wrong and it’ll go away. But to your surprise, each day you wake up it gets a little worse.
The Seven Dimensions of Wellness include: physical, spiritual, emotional, social, environmental, career, and intellectual. In your daily life, have you ever felt like everything was going great, but for some reason you felt a little off, like something(s) is missing?
What do you think of when you hear the phrase, mind-body wellness? If you’re like me, it’s probably something along the lines of doing what you can to support a healthy lifestyle. During my conversation with Ariana, I came to understand that it’s much more than that and I was amazed at how important it actually is because the benefits of simply knowing about it can make a substantial difference
COLLEGE AND MENTAL HEALTH: A SERIES
“A big mental health moment for him was, ‘When I was going through a breakup at the beginning of college and in a completely new environment I had to make a point to take time for myself and step away from certain activities to ensure my mental health was okay. This impacted how much I valued mental health and made me realize prioritizing it is very important and necessary, especially during times of high stress.’”
“Anthony does believe that there are things that are not already implemented on campus that would better the mental health of the students attending. He thinks that “they should implement a system which allows for no more than two exams in a week, and allows for students to spread out their workload more efficiently, no matter what classes they are taking," to help students relieve stress and school-related anxiety.”
“Another was when a fraternity brother of mine committed suicide. It opened my eyes to the fact that no matter what it appears to be on the outside. Many people struggle with what is going on on the inside, and in order to be yourself and do all that you do, your mental, physical, and emotional health need to be in necessary alignment.”
EXPERIENCE LIFE CHASING AND EXPLORATION
I took a trip abroad to Portugal with little to no planning and booked it less than two months in advance! It was a life-changing adventure!
“I was a bit embarrassed that Ms. Linda had to literally come over to my side of the table and really talk me through how to do the process. My hands were sweaty, and I was nervous. I kept apologizing for my sweaty hands, and she told me not to worry. She tried to help me adjust my stiff fingers, but my uncoordinated hands were not trying to listen. After a few more attempts, she began to cheer as I had finally gotten the hang of it. She happily exclaimed: ‘Yes, you have got it!’ Her African accent was gentle and genuine. I felt like a child again being praised for finally figuring out a problem. I almost called myself dumb for not getting it, yet she cut me off very quickly there.”
“You cannot see what needs to be seen if you do not slow down and give time for one foot in front of the other, in this case, one plant in front of the other. I appreciated that we were forced to start with the leaves, then the flowers, then the twigs in that order as it forced us to see our piece deeply, over and over.”
“The best way to describe my first improv experience was like unzipping myself for a moment, airing out my soul and putting it back into my body. My soul has so many parts. All of these parts matter and they have a place in the world. My whole self matters. My whole self is valuable. Improv reminded me that proverbial humanity is funny. We are naturally hilarious as people, and we are all awkward beings, combing our way through society. I played with a bunch of strangers. They said some wild things. We laughed. We got lost.”
“I focused in on my body as the session got increasingly difficult. I focused in on my breath. I reminded myself over and over: ‘Sabriya, you are capable of this.’ Most times, at home, when things get too hard in a workout, it is easy for me to quit and lose form. In this studio, women of all body types are there, giving it their all with the instructor’s watchful eye, and accountability as well. I was determined not to give up.”
“I began to talk to God. I began to think. I prayed for some divine ideas. I reflected on my life. So much had happened in the last few years. Huge moves, marriage, growth, change. Maybe this was the space where I could think of what was next for my life. Weirdly enough, I kept finding my mind go back blank. I began to feel this feeling inside that I needed to surrender to the nothingness. I began to just allow my body to become limp and my mind to deactivate and for just a few minutes, there was a nirvana approaching. The nirvana of surrender.”
“There were three opening comedians before the headliner, Lev. As I snickered between sips of wine, I began to feel my anxiety subside now that the lights had dimmed and the whispers had stopped. The first comedian did their set, the second one did their set, and there was only one more to go before Lev came out, and I was stoked. As I was listening to the third comedian flow through his set, he pauses, looks directly at me, and announces the question everyone has been wondering,
‘Wait, are you alone?’”
“Like a horse out to the races, the instructor abruptly jumped on stage with her apron and special with the paper plate having my name written on it dedicating the seat and canvas to be paintbrush in hand asking us if it was okay to start a bit early. As soon as we said “yes,” she began spouting off the directions so quickly and all you could do is hyper focus into the moment so you would not get left behind. Use the paper plate to draw the circle moon. Light line here. Shade in there. It was happening rapidly, but I was in my zone! I was loving the fast-paced directions and I was moving along with “Agility” as my middle name.”
“Music blasting, random metal rods in our hands, we were OFF! Now Hannah, she had her rage focus: The unfortunate actions of government and other bad things happening in the world. My mind sadly went blank, but it did not mean I did not enjoy the moment. I was breaking stuff for the sake of breaking stuff, which was freeing. It was so fast that the glasses were shattered within minutes and the rage was coming to a close. We attempted to burst more glasses on the floor, but tiny pieces of shatter were not breaking much further. “
“I slid my shoes off and giggled as I watched the little pygmy goats hopping all around the farm pen. The farm was beautiful with animals in the distance and plenty of sunshine to pull through the day. I felt freedom and silliness in my heart as I found my yoga mat on the floor.
Being there alone, it felt weird. Everyone else had their friend group or partner and well, me…I was an outsider. People were still nice to me, but I did feel like I was in my own world. Refocusing around me, I watched the baby goats running around chasing the workers down for more food. Animal crackers and plants. They craved both with all of their might.”
“But see, that was the problem. This is the Year of the Hummingbird! It is not about failing; it is about doing! It is about moving with the freedom of failing however I please. It is about no wins or losses, just experiences, and lessons. Hummingbirds keep trying flowers for that beautiful nectar. They don't just give up and go hungry for a week; they keep flying, full speed at that!”
“As someone who has spent most of their working career helping others to trust themselves to do what matters most to them, I constantly remind myself that I must practice what I preach. I must fail, so that I have stories to tell. I must win, so that I have stories to tell. I must experiment, learn, and share my results, just like you should too. We need stories to tell. Stories inspire, unwrap possibilities, and bring hope! I am proud to announce my newest and maybe most unhinged experiment yet, ‘The Year of the Hummingbird.’”
“Joy is so much deeper than happiness. It is a decision that you make on a daily basis that remains consistently deep in your soul. When you choose joy, even when happiness is low, you still feel a twinkle in your heart. You feel content with the future in whatever it brings. The littlest hints of good in every single day shine bright despite the bad. You find something to smile about in every situation no matter how bleak.”
Every single person is a captain of their own ship. Every person has a boat. I must be honest here. Every boat is not created equally. Some people have really fancy and fast motors as these boats were passed down to them from the captains before them. Some people have really small rafts that can barely stay afloat, created out of scraps and random items to hopefully keep them from falling apart. Some people have kayaks where they are putting so much effort and energy to row through the tides.
How often do you find yourself day-dreaming about the life you have always wanted but your thoughts are immediately followed with all of the reasons why it won’t work out. You are…
CONVERSATIONS WITH AN EXPERT SERIES
“In our fast-paced world, stress has become an unwelcome companion for many. The first step in effectively managing stress is identifying its sources. Today, Gloria will delve into several key points to help you pinpoint the causes of stress in your life and chart a course for effective management.”
“Being able to balance large and small acts of self care in this crazy and chaotic world can help us balance the stress of life and work. Taking mindful moments and asking ourselves what our body needs in the moment can make a large difference in our stress and anxiety levels, even with it being a small thing that is overlooked by many. Putting our minds and our bodies first through the implementation of long-term self care acts is important to ensuring we are able to manage our stress in this post-pandemic world.”
“Good mental health leads to academic and career success. Ashley uses the metaphor of a garden to show the effect of our mental health on our life achievements. “When you have a garden and you are planting new fruits and vegetables, if you're not giving care to those plants [watering, pruning, and plucking weeds] all sorts of insects and weeds are going to take over your garden… if you are taking care of yourself, which could be as simple as going outside or meditating… this is comparable to taking care of your garden.” Taking care of our minds and our bodies is very important. If we don't take care of ourselves, the weeds will grow up in our brain and create burn out because we are not giving ourselves the time or attention we need. Giving ourselves love and grace is essential to success within our lives.”
“Everyone needs someone they can laugh with and cry to, isn’t that what friends are for? Friendships can bring extreme value to your life and create a healthy and positive support system for your toughest life challenges. However, not all friendships are positive and healthy. How do we know when to walk away, and what is the next step?”
“While religion can have strengths and challenges, it is important to have an open mindset and continue to give yourself and others grace as well as compassion. As QuiAnne’ mentioned earlier, professionals should be holistic in their approach to helping someone navigate the challenges of religion and any hardships they have faced. It is also vital to understand how disenfranchised groups can be affected by religion and how personal culture as well as mental health ties into the discussion of religion and how we are impacted by religious practices.”
“Have you ever thought that you were under-qualified for a job offer you received and only got the job because you ‘got lucky?’ Or have you ever felt like a fraud after graduating from college because you believed that you do not deserve your academic achievements? Either way, there is a term to define this. This term is Imposter Syndrome.”
“It is important to find what you value and what is important to you… this can help identify what you do not seek in a relationship” Orlando-based counselor Stephanie says. The more you are sure of what you want and what will benefit you in a relationship, the easier it is to seek out those positive relationships and decipher which ones you should continue to keep.
COMPANY MENTAL WELLNESS
A common trend throughout my college experience is that students were going after careers that made a lot of money. You rarely hear someone say they want to go into a career because it makes them happy. But let's put it this way, if I came to your door and said I was going to give you a large check every 2 weeks but you have to give me your happiness in exchange.
Let’s break your life down into numbers. The average person’s lifespan is about 79 years. Within that time frame, we will spend 26 years sleeping, 7 years trying to go to sleep, 13 years working plus 1 year of overtime, 11 years screen time (tv, social media, etc), 4 years eating, 3 years traveling, 1 year exercising, 1 year for romance, and 1 year socializing. That’s a total of 68 years which means we have 11 years left and so much more that we do in life.
While remote employees and teams have many advantages, they also have challenges that they have to tackle by themselves. From my own experience, these challenges that I have experienced myself and still tend to struggle with on occasion. If you’re working from home and these resonate with you, you’re not alone. Many remote employees struggle with these as well.
As company leaders, it’s crucial to treat your employees as people rather than money makers. Acknowledge that they are probably struggling mentally during a time like this. If you ignore that then you are part of the problem. So ask yourself, are you part of the problem?
The world is starting to realize that just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t extremely detrimental to the overall happiness of our society. We spend most of our day working, whether it be in an office or at home. This means that mental health practices need to be at the forefront of companies.
One of the questions I get most often when discussing a potential retreat with clients is, “How do you make sure the participants stay engaged?” Our retreats vary from 2 to 8 hours so that’s a valid question. These days, distraction is at an all time high considering many of us are working from home.
Many companies have shifted to working remotely so knowing how to keep your employees productive can seem like a daunting task for company leaders. As a mental empowerment retreat company, we specialize in the topic of productivity and I’m going to let you in on some secrets. Here are 4 ways company leaders can keep their employees productive while working from home:
There are many ways to create a thriving work experience for staff that helps the bottom line and the employees at the same time. Everything starts with understanding the actual needs and desires of team members all the way from the first point of contact. With a workforce-driven focus, this translates to better client services and better production outcomes.
Some people might not even realize what they’re doing at the beginning because unfortunately actions of this kind have been classified as “a part of business.” This perception places the company and its employees on a self-sabotaging path. One of the most important things a company should have is trust.
The pandemic has turned everyone’s world upside down. We were forced into a different world and we have to acknowledge that in order to move forward we must change the way we do things. We have to slow down and check in with ourselves. It’s become way too easy to spiral into darkness and that’s why we have to help each other and lift each other up. That’s the only way we can get through this.
Although I didn’t know it at the time, when I was growing up my parents taught me the importance of mental health. I was always encouraged to talk about my emotions and never questioned the validity of them because I was taught that mental health is just like a broken bone that you can’t see.
EXPLORE PERSONAL JOURNEYS
In a world where finding the bad exceeds looking for the good, people are feeling more lost and depressed than ever. They are often not in the category of being diagnosed with an official disorder, but they still are living with an immense struggle in the day to day.
“Befriend people completely different from you. And I don’t mean just say hi, call them acquaintances, and go about your day. I mean really get to know them. Share your secrets with them. Swap your life stories. Travel with them, even if it’s just a quick road trip. It’s scary to be vulnerable to anyone, let alone to someone completely different from you.”
“No matter where you are in life, there is always a place for you to have a 180. If we could get to a place to say I am okay with being vulnerable, people can support each other. It is always better when you have us verses me.”
Thea Butler, however, chose a unique study abroad path that allowed her to visit Hawaii, Japan, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, and Portugal all in one semester. How? By sailing 26.245 land miles around the world through the Semester at Sea program.
Henry took one of the greatest leaps in his life by living in Germany as an exchange student for a year. Having a deeper perspective of the world around him has made him into the person he is today.
Hannah has been around the world and back. However, her experience in Italy dug into her heart more than anything because it gave her an even closer look of the world around her.
Tamarah never imagined she would live in another country for an entire semester of college. From a small town to seeing the big world, after staying in Europe, her life was forever changed.
“The reason behind my own travels are rooted in my goal to grow as a person. To know myself better, to heal from past struggles, and to mature intellectually by becoming less ignorant and more aware.”
When time stops during tragedy, it is like the world keeps going while you live in a world of despair. But as you recover, tragedy changes you in a way that you cannot explain to others unless they know the pain.
It is not normal for people to take off their life vest when they are not even sure if they can swim. Well, I must be quite odd because my life vest has been ripped to shreds. I better get to paddling and kicking. Diving practice it is!
Okay, so who is this Sabriya girl? And why did she make this thing called Project Passport? I am sure that you have a ton of questions and I hope this article answers most of them. Project Passport really started out as a “That would be really cool IF I did it.” Well now it is a, “I am REALLY doing this” and I am so excited about every minute of it!
“An important thing to remember during this season of gifting and thanks is to continue prioritizing yourself. Don’t burn yourself out going to holiday parties every week if you don’t want to! Sometimes it’s okay to take a break from the festivities for self-care or even just to spend some time alone. Still, try to keep yourself in the forefront of your mind and remember to do check-ins - “How am I feeling?”, “Am I excited to be doing this or am I tired?” Keeping up and checking in with yourself is a great way to make sure that you are prioritizing your own mental health during a season that is hectic and stressful.”