May is Mental Health Awareness month. From some of the webinars that I joined during this lock-down; I am blessed to learn more tips to stay resilient during this pandemic. When I think I am okay, next I am in disequilibrium with news from far and family. I have a few amazing leaders and mentors whom coach me and validated that my vulnerability is part of my strength too.

Some key takeaways are:

1.      Owning your feelings https://mhanational.org/owning-your-feelings – allow ourselves to feel and build our emotional vocabulary. When you are upset that the government should not be doing what they did, acknowledge the feeling that I am upset as this will impact the society and economy. Take a few deep breaths, and make a mental choice to respond to the situation. Do you know that there are 34,000 of emotional vocabulary? (Thanks Cathy Motty!)

2.      Reach out for help – there are phases in my life, I reach out to see counselor and therapist to cope with life issues and to find out it is okay not to be okay. I was so relieved to first watch Brene Brown’s Ted talk, The power of vulnerability (~20min) https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability?language=en

3.      To maximize empathy and minimize “comparative suffering” – it does not mean that people are dying form Covid 19, you cannot feel sorry and angry that your commencement is cancelled. Empathy is not finite. Ask your neighbor how are you… https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-on-comparative-suffering-the-50-50-myth-and-settling-the-ball/ (~25min)

4.      Set up a family gap plan – insightful suggestions from Brene Brown in her podcast above to sleep well, eat well, exercise, no harsh words, no nice words with harsh face, accept an apology with thank you, weave humor and jokes in family, limit the news, and talking about where your capacity is left… This family risk management help to ease and deal with crisis in a sustainable way.

5.      Take turn to support each other – recently I have a few virtual tutorial (Math & English) to a few kids voluntarily. This is how I choose to show up to support parents when are at wits’ end to keep them occupied. I have a ton of fun as it is therapeutic reading story books with them as I grow up without story books reading time. I gain as I give.

#mentalhealthawarenessmonth #empathy #resilience #vulnerability