 Hello, dear ones! Rev. Alisha here. I've decided to start offering a monthly newsletter article on the Spiritual Theme for the month. My hope is to encourage our congregation to use the theme in new ways so it is woven throughout our tapestry. This month's theme is Intentional Mind. When selecting a theme for May, I tried to be mindful of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) annual Mental Health Awareness Month (MHAW). I chose Intentional Mind for 2025, as the theme to align MHAM with reflections on intentional mental wellness activities. Two Intentional Mind choices I think are especially helpful while we are enmeshed in the difficult circumstances of 2025 are: - Mindsets
- Expectation check-ins
These two skills can ground you and your activities at Tapestry UU of Houston with wisdom, well-being, and achievable goals.
Mental Health Awareness Month 2025 campaign is "In Every Story, There is Strength." So, I would like to share some of my story. Mental health education, advocacy, and promotion of self-care are very important to me. Not only do I live with chronic depression, but also I require daily self-care for a brain disorder called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Mental wellness is an everyday intentional action for me and my loved ones who help care for me. In 1994, I was an undergraduate student at Ball State University. I began having emotional episodes of extreme tearfulness in reaction to thoughts of despair, catastrophizing, and shame. All the while I was struggling to stay awake enough for classes and gaining weight at nearly ten pounds per month. My then-boyfriend and parents helped to guide me to the mental health services on campus. Given my age and symptoms, they diagnosed me with depression and started me on antidepressant medications. However, nothing seemed to help with the symptoms in the coming months. After a year with no real improvement, I saw a new family physician that my parents liked. He was able to diagnose an underlying autoimmune condition that was the root of my symptoms. While the medication he and an endocrinologist were prescribing helped me, over the coming years it became evident that chronic depression was either coinciding with my autoimmune disorder or was the strongest symptom in my experience. I've been cared for by mental health professionals, my loved ones, and various support tools for over thirty years now. I offer gratitude every day because these things have saved me from wanting to end my life on multiple occasions, even in the last year. This is a part of my story that I try to be fairly open about with others because as you can see it creeps into my life repetitively and requires me to redirect my focus to self-care with more vigor. Without people knowing it leaves them wondering what could cause such a change in my usually vibrant personality. Increasing my intentional self-care is one of the ways I heal. I'd like to share about two skills I've used that can help to ground me during difficult times. The first is the use of mindsets. You may have heard of growth mindset or Radical Acceptance from me over the last couple of years, both of which are mindsets that I find useful. A mindset is like a lens you use to view the world. I can easily slip into autopilot on how I view the world around me. Negative mindset is pervasive and studies show we ALL have a strong default of negative thoughts. Intentionally choosing how I view my experiences helps me see the lies in my negative thoughts. It can help you as well as you navigate what is happening around us these days. I encourage you to check yourself on how quickly you see a headline and assume it's true when that headline triggers your fears. If you can intentionally set your mind before reading a headline, watching the news, or doom scrolling, you are better able to wisely navigate the awful tactics being used to spark our worst fears thus generating negative thoughts. Our tapestry Weavers can use intentional mindset activities as a chalice lighting before a meeting, "Intentional Mind" can be a theme for a check-in, or we can encourage each other when we hear someone speaking about with a negative thought mindset. We are a great support to each other and intentional mindset is a super-tool of support and self-care. The other tool I like to use is an expectation check-in. One of my challenges is setting WAY TOO HIGH expectations for myself and others. As my congregation, I bet this is no surprise to you. As we UUs make wise moves to address a injustice, I try to set an hour aside each month to check in on my expectations. One of the best indicators of impending burnout is expectations that are misaligned with reality. In my personal self-care, parenting, team leadership, volunteer efforts, and even pleasure escapes, I check in on my expectations of myself, the actions I take, and my expectations of others. This intentional mind activity can release me from the bondage of unrealistic expectations. At Tapestry, I've noticed the wonderful result of realizing achievable expectations in our SEE Justice Team. They have intentionally focused on providing us small actions we can take to make a difference knowing we are all struggling with big things right now. This wise choice will keep this team and us grounded in wisdom and help us avoid burnout. Dear ones, we have shared our worries, disgust, and grief in these last six months. It is a trying time and yet our Tapestry must continue to be woven. We can sustain and even grow as a community in the coming years, but just like when I'm struggling with the dark aspects of depression, we need to choose intentional self-care to stay wise, well and not burn out. Take some time each month to intentionally review your mindset and expectations. Another thing that can be helpful is to schedule time with me as you need it. You can learn more about my tools or just simply have time with me who will compassionately listen. I keep a calendar with time slots that you can use here: https://calendar.app.google/EX8MVydmeKqdXowo8 More resources are available through NAMI Greater Houston at this link as well: https://www.namigreaterhouston.org/resources/ including information about the May 17th NAMI Walk. The Houston Unitarian Universalist Network is gathering regional UUs to join together to walk. See Andy Savidge, our UU Network of Houston representative for more information. In Service & Peace,
Rev. Alisha
|