Exploring Mindfulness

That's a wrap on season 1! For the finale, I have my good friend Jasmine interview me about the podcast and talking about mental health on the interwebs! We are nearing the end of #PTSDAwarenessmonth so I felt it was even more important to speak for the finale. I am a person living with PTSD who has a podcast. I am a person who has a mental illness, but I am way more than that illness. I am a person who likes to hear other people's stories. I am a person who wants to be heard and wants other people to be heard. I am a dog lover. I am a dancer. I am a Filipino woman. When you listen to the episode, I don't necessarily talk about all of those things, but please note them. My hope that when people listen to the podcast, all the topics we speak about get humanized. Mental health and mental illness always get dehumanized somehow. It becomes this abstract concept that people don't know how to approach so we just end up pushing it away. All my guests who have come on my show are human beings with whole lives. They are real people sharing their real experiences and stories. I am forever grateful for the opportunities I have had to listen and open my own mind. Thank you! If you want to support the show, you can go to my website in my bio and donate. Also, I am preordering my Golden Goddess Affirmation cards for Asian women on my site. That money will also help support the podcast. If you want to be on the next season, hit me up! I love talking about mental health!!! https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/support-thethoughtfulbeast/ https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/product/ggaffirmations/

Hi and welcome to the ready to talk podcast! I am your host the thoughtful beast. Today we are going to be listening to a very dear friend of mine about his struggles with loneliness as a gay asian man @EdrianPenguino . It's pride month, which makes this even more important. Please remember that Pride month isn't just about parades and fun. The first pride was a riot, and our LGBTQ+ community still needs our support.  Statistics from www.americanprogress.org: More than 1 in 3 LGBTQ Americans faced discrimination of some kind in the past year, including more than 3 in 5 transgender Americans. To avoid the experience of discrimination, more than half of LGBTQ Americans report hiding a personal relationship, and about one-fifth to one-third have altered other aspects of their personal or work lives. 15 percent of LGBTQ Americans report postponing or avoiding medical treatment due to discrimination, including nearly 3 in 10 transgender individuals. Statistics from www.stonewall.org.uk Only half of lesbian, gay and bi people (46 per cent) and trans people (47 per cent) feel able to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity to everyone in their family.  One in five LGBT people have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity in the last 12 months Four in five LGBT people who have experienced a hate crime or incident didn’t report it to the police We need to be able to really listen and see our LGBTQ+ communities as a whole. That means their joys and their struggles.  Find Edrian https://www.instagram.com/edrianpenguino/ https://www.youtube.com/c/EdrianPangilinan Find Me:  https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/ https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/product/ggaffirmations/

It's PTSD awareness month so I am actually going to rerelease a podcast episode that we had earlier on. It's about living with cPTSD, and I want to have it again because living with cPTSD is a big part of my life. It shaped a lot of who I am growing up in mostly horrible ways. It took a long time for me to discover who I am outside of what that illness made me. There are still parts of myself that I am still untangling from my cPTSD today. Experiencing trauma is not like experiencing stress. There is not good trauma like there is good stress aka stress that is normal and helps you build your mental or physical stress. Trauma is debilitating. It might be the origin story for many super heroes in cartoons, but in real life, most people end up struggling to live their lives as normal as possible. Abuse, rape, seeing people die, having to kill someone for your job, being maimed and all those horrible things are not normal. They do not make you stronger. Mental illness is not a super power Remember, not everyone survives trauma. Not everyone lives a good life or even normal life after trauma. Some people live in fear the rest of their lives. Some people become lonely horrible people. Some people will never be able to hold a job again. Does that mean people cannot be strong or live normal lives after trauma? No, but they figure out how to be strong despite the trauma. People can cope and survive trauma with support from family, friends, society and professionals. Stigmatizing PTSD, cPTSD and trauma helps no one. We need to understand what these things are so we can help each other, stop intergenerational trauma, break the cycles of abuse and just be better as a people.  Christelle: https://www.instagram.com/sd.christelle Me: www.TheThoughtfulBeast.com

Today, we are going to listen to one of my first live shows I recorded during 2020 because I think it's a perfect way to end Mental Health Awarness Month and AAPI month. Ignatius @iii.ignatius , my fellow Asian mental health advocate is on the podcast today. He is one of my favorite people to discuss mental health with, and today we are going to talk about exploring mindfulness. Link in bio! Find Ignatius: https://www.instagram.com/iii.ignatius Find Me: https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/ready-to-talk-podcast https://www.instagram.com/thethoughtfulbeast #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #AAPI

Everyone has mental health, including our children! Today, I have Lisa on the podcast to talk about not just her mental health, but how she as a teacher introduces the topic to her students. This episode was recorded in 2020 so think about how our kids' mental health was doing then. Though people are getting vaccinated and we are able to see each other more, let's think about how their mental health is still important to talk about now! Link in my bio! Find Me: https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/ready-to-talk-podcast

In this week's episode of the "Ready to Talk", Tanya is with me to talk about living with anxiety!!! Honestly, this talk is hilarious because we had technical issues while we were recording the episode. Don't worry because I will edit all that out, but it was so funny because it was an anxiety inducing situation. Irony, my friends!   Find Tanya: https://www.instagram.com/tanyalewisdance/ Find Me: https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/ready-to-talk-podcast

In this week's episode of the "Ready to Talk", I have Joseph of @Ikat.voices to talk about substituting student care with succulents and fluffies aka mental health care for college students! This is a very important conversation in how our college educational systems are treating our children. There were a lot of things Joseph said that I related to, and you will get to hear my own experience with getting treatment in college. Link in bio!!! Find Joseph: https://www.instagram.com/ikat.voices/ https://www.ikatvoices.com Find Me: https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/ready-to-talk-podcast

In this week's episode of the "Ready to Talk", I have Flex  to talk about colonial mentality! It's a thing, and if it a thing you do not know about, then this episode will be super helpful for you. Understanding colonial mentality will help us understand how we might continue to uphold white supremacy without knowing it. Take a listen and tell me what you think! Link in bio! Find Flex:  https://www.instagram.com/videogaymer/ https://videogaymer.com/ Find Me: https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/ready-to-talk-podcast

In this week's episode of the "Ready to Talk", I have Toni @toniiilynnn  to talk about self-preservation and protecting your mental health. This is such a relevant talk because we live in a hustle culture so please take a listen! Link is in my bio! Find Tina: https://www.instagram.com/toniiilynnn/ soultrysisters.com Find Me: https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/ready-to-talk-podcast

In this week's episode of the "Ready to Talk", I have Tina @blueowlcounselin on to talk about therapy!!! Tina is a therapist. I am a gal who goes to therapy and therefore I think this will be a very helpful discussion for those looking interested in going to therapy or wondering what it's like.  Find Tina: https://www.instagram.com/blueowlcounseling/ https://www.blueowlcounseling.com/blog Find Me:  https://thethoughtfulbeast.com/ready-to-talk-podcast