Latest / feel your feelings with Ethan Jewell / this mental health advice changed my life
Transcript
- 0:00About a year ago, I reached the lowest place that I've ever been
- 0:03mentally, and I didn't pull myself out in Leaps and Bounds.
- 0:06I didn't jump out of this mental health hole that I was in.
- 0:09No, I crawled out one inch at a time day by day, in Moment by
- 0:15moment and that is the best mental health advice that I have
- 0:20ever received. Hey there, and welcome back to
- 0:24feel your feelings with me. Ethan Jewel.
- 0:26This is a podcast. I started all about mental
- 0:28health, and mental health awareness.
- 0:30Now, I'm not a doctor or a psychologist.
- 0:32A psychiatrist or professional in the mental health field
- 0:35whatsoever. I'm just a guy who has felt some
- 0:38big feelings who has talked to people with big feelings and
- 0:42wants to create a platform to start the conversation around
- 0:45mental health. So thank you so much for tuning
- 0:47in and together. Let's feel some feelings.
- 0:53Now, I just got done with a 16 hour road trip in one day
- 0:57started at five in the morning, just got home at 11 p.m.
- 1:02And the first thing I decided that I want to do is sit down
- 1:05and record this podcast because during this drive, it got me
- 1:09thinking, I took this drive with one other friend and throughout
- 1:12the journey we decided to switch off driving every four hours in
- 1:16order to take the drive in bite-size pieces in manageable
- 1:19pieces instead of going eight hours and eight.
- 1:22Hours to drive the 16 hours. We decided to go for and then 4,
- 1:26and then 4, and then 4. And this made it a lot easier.
- 1:29In fact, I'm able to sit down and record a vodcast after 16
- 1:33hours of straight, driving, because of that.
- 1:35Now, I'm always looking for metaphors and things.
- 1:38I think it's just the poet in me.
- 1:39And I'm always looking for things that I can relate to
- 1:42mental health and this drive as cheesy as it sounds can relate
- 1:46to a topic that I want to talk about today, and that is taking
- 1:49your mental health recovery in your mental health Journey.
- 1:52Me in bite-sized chunks and in baby steps, you see, mental
- 1:56health recovery and trying to grow in mental.
- 1:58Health is a difficult and delicate process and there's no
- 2:02one right way to do it for everybody.
- 2:05Everybody kind of has to figure out their own path and what
- 2:07works for them. However, one thing that I know
- 2:11helps, because I've seen other people do it, and I've read
- 2:14studies about this and I've experienced it.
- 2:16Myself is taking bite-sized, chunks of recovery and going one
- 2:21day, at a time in the same way. That I would have gotten
- 2:23exhausted. If I had to drive eight hours
- 2:25straight today, if you take on a giant task of self growth, and
- 2:30mental health, recovery and try to start working out and
- 2:32journaling, and going to therapy and going out with friends more
- 2:36in this in this Everything at Once to try to improve your
- 2:39mental health and improve your life, you will become exhausted.
- 2:42And what we must do is focus on small steps.
- 2:45You see the way that humans inherently learn think of the
- 2:49phrase, do it in baby steps, a baby learning.
- 2:52To walk is a perfect display of how humans learn in the best way
- 2:56possible. It's by doing it a little bit at
- 2:59a time, a baby crawls. And then it's stumbles and it's
- 3:02slowly Works its way up to walking little tiny baby steps
- 3:07before it is able to fully walk. We can apply this to anything
- 3:10that we are learning how to do. It's unfair to expect yourself
- 3:14to be able to dive headfirst into your mental health Journey
- 3:17when you are inexperienced. So, the best thing you can do
- 3:21for yourself. To take baby steps to go one
- 3:25step at a time. You have to section your self
- 3:28care and Mental Health Care into segments that you can handle do.
- 3:32Whatever is manageable push yourself when possible but do
- 3:36what you can a little bit is better than nothing.
- 3:39So what does this look like in reality?
- 3:41Let's say you're struggling with depression and getting out of
- 3:43bed and brushing your teeth at night or in the morning is
- 3:46difficult. Well, in that case, start with
- 3:49mouthwash, if you can get up and swish some mouthwash wash around
- 3:53your mouth, that's better than nothing at all.
- 3:55If you're struggling to get out of bed but want to go to the gym
- 3:58instead, just get out of bed and take a few steps around your
- 4:01room. That's better than nothing at
- 4:04all. Small steps are how we begin to
- 4:07be successful. It's within our nature.
- 4:09It's within our instincts. It's how we learn.
- 4:12So, to better display this, I want to share with you my own
- 4:15journey and how I got started in mental health growth.
- 4:19Now once again, I'm not a professional, I'm 20 years.
- 4:22And I've only been doing this for three or four years, I've
- 4:25only really been focusing on mental health, and mental health
- 4:28awareness, for three or four years.
- 4:29However, this is what has worked for me.
- 4:32And I've seen it work for other people.
- 4:34I started small first, I started working on my inner awareness
- 4:38and it was as simple as identifying.
- 4:40A feeling when it came up, if I started feeling irritated or
- 4:44down or depressed or angry, I would identify that feeling and
- 4:48figure out why I was feeling it. I began to slowly learn about
- 4:52Out my feelings before I did anything about them.
- 4:55Then, as I was struggling with depression, I thought that I had
- 4:58to go to therapy and I had to go to the gym and I had to journal
- 5:01and I had to write and I had to create poetry and Ida create art
- 5:04and that was the only way for me to get over this depression.
- 5:07However, what helped me the most was simply getting outside of my
- 5:12house and that's what I began to do on days were doing anything
- 5:16else. Sounded too overwhelming or too
- 5:18daunting. I would put in my headphones.
- 5:20I would put in music that I enjoyed And I would walk for
- 5:24maybe 5 or 10 minutes. This would physically remove me
- 5:28from that state. It would physically remove me
- 5:30from my depression room and bed and it would simply get me
- 5:33moving. And that was my first step.
- 5:35My next step was then talking to my friends and family about my
- 5:39mental health and understanding that my next step was writing
- 5:42poetry and further understanding myself in the inner workings of
- 5:46my brain. And then after that, I went to
- 5:48therapy after that, I began to develop techniques to combat
- 5:52Myself down and help deal with depressive episodes and I
- 5:55figured out what works for me. And at the end of the day that
- 6:00has to be your goal, you have to take baby steps One Day at a
- 6:04Time. Start small, start with the
- 6:06smallest task of self-care and self-discovery and self growth
- 6:10that you possibly can start tiny.
- 6:13So small that it feels silly to even do and make it a habit.
- 6:17And then grow on that habit, figure out what the next step is
- 6:21how it helps you win. Helps you why?
- 6:23It helps you and expand on it. Create a routine.
- 6:27This is how we can help deal with mental illnesses.
- 6:31Is this a guaranteed cure? Absolutely not.
- 6:34But life isn't about curing our problems often.
- 6:38We have to struggle and fight with our mental health, for our
- 6:40whole lives. But what we must do is
- 6:43understand the things that we struggle with understand how to
- 6:46deal with them and be able to counteract them as much as
- 6:50possible. It's an act of fight in the only
- 6:53way that you can begin to fight it is through baby steps.
- 6:57I know recovery sounds overwhelming taking those first
- 7:01steps is terrifying, but anyone can do it and I know you are
- 7:06capable. So I challenge you starting
- 7:09today. Find one, tiny minuscule piece
- 7:13of self-care that you can do to make a part of your regular
- 7:17routine. If you can commit to that, if
- 7:19you can make yourself commit to one tiny task, Then eventually
- 7:24you will be able to commit to an entire routine that has the
- 7:27potential to change your life and trust me.
- 7:31It changed mine, that's going to wrap it up for today's episode.
- 7:34Thank you so much for tuning in and being here with me today, if
- 7:38you need help, feeling your feelings, please check out my
- 7:41music on all platforms. Ethan Jewel, it's raw, emotional
- 7:45spoken, word, poetry that will speak directly to your heart.
- 7:49Please send me a message on my Instagram at Jewel, boy
- 7:51underscore. And tell me what you thought
- 7:53about today's episode. So, please take care of
- 7:56yourself. Thank you so much for being
- 7:58here. And as always, thank you for
- 8:01feeling your feelings. I'll see you next time.
- 7:52And tell me what you thought about today's episode.
- 7:54So, please take care of yourself.
- 7:57Thank you so much for being here.
- 7:59And as always, thank you for feeling your feelings.
- 8:03I'll see you next time.