Stress Archives - Mental Health Motivational Speaker Teen Mental Health Speaker

In the above VIDEO, renowned mental health speaker and Amazon bestselling author Jeff Yalden lays out some important pointers to keep you present and centered in the midst of the global COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.

How is your heart?

Are you feeling OK in this time of uncertainty?

How are you doing with your emotions and your triggers?

Jeff says we can’t control COVID-19 or the future. We can’t can’t control people, places or things either, but we can control what we take in. We can control what we ingest.

And he’s not just talking about what we eat or drink.

We can control how much of the news we choose to ingest, for example – or limit the time we spend on things that don’t serve us.

Did you know that feeling overwhelmed is a common symptom of anxiety? The entire world is feeling anxious over the novel coronavirus.

You can choose to limit the noise in your life. Let’s turn down the noise and focus on our self-care.

THE GRATITUDE JOURNAL AND MORE

How about keeping a gratitude journal? This daily practice will help to keep you centered. And even in the most trying times, there is always something to be grateful for.

Even with this COVID-19 situation, we can still be thankful.

As you progress in your gratitude journal, you will start to appreciate things you never really thought about. You might notice a beautiful little tree in your backyard that you never even looked at before – or the way your dog’s eyebrows and ears move when you talk to him.

There are so many things to do every day that can enrich you.

You could write a real letter to a friend. Yes – a snail-mail letter. You can start on that book you always wanted to write.

How about listening to music or catching up on your podcast queue? You can get into a fitness routine. (Yes – you can still go outside. Into the sunshine. By now, we all know about social distancing.)

You can go for a walk or a bike ride, spend time video chatting with family and friends or take a drive.

CREATIVITY, YOGA, MUSIC

De-clutter. Try painting, coloring or drawing. Shoot a video. Set up that YouTube channel you have been thinking about.

Read uplifting books. Get your blog going. Have you ever thought about starting a podcast? It’s quick and easy to get set up.

You can come out the other side of this pandemic as a guitar player.

Jeff practices yoga daily, and he highly recommends that everybody try it. Stretch. Breathe.

The point is this: Downtime because of COVID-19 can become an exercise in personal development.

Watch the above VIDEO for more from Jeff.

THE FAMILY: SHARE YOUR FEELINGS

In the VIDEO, Jeff talks about Dr. Murray Bowen and his Family Systems Theory, which details the family dynamic and mental health. It’s all about how different family members cope with what they are going through in life.

According to Jeff, if we’re not communicating and sharing our thoughts and feelings within the family, we start going outside of it, and that’s where separation happens.

Bullying often comes from our children having to suppress what life throws at them. This can cause them to take their anger and frustration out on others.

Jeff discusses an important point made by his friend, Dr. Alex Crosby at the CDC: The number one statistic for suicide is white males between the ages of 35-50.

According to Jeff, many of these young men were taught not to share their feelings and to “suck it up,” “be tough” or “grind through it.”

“This isn’t healthy,” says Jeff. “When our responsibilities become bigger or our obligations are greater, you have no coping or problem-solving skills.”

It’s critical that we tell our kids that it’s OK to talk about their feelings. The old-school approach is dangerous and simply doesn’t work.

Talk to your children about COVID-19 and pay attention to their concerns.

WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS

COVID-19 is scary. Do what the experts tell you to do. We will get through this.

Make sure to share your feelings with your circle. Communicate. Laugh. Love.

“Find things that you can do that take you away from the stress and bring you closer to what’s beneficial for your overall well-being,” said Jeff.

Resources

ORDER Jeff’s new book, Teen Suicide: The “Why” Behind America’s Suicide Epidemic.

CLICK HERE for Jeff’s online suicide prevention course.

To book Jeff for your school or event, call 800-948-9289

It was an honor to speak at a Marine Corps Ball on a Saturday night, but was it too much for someone who lives with mental illness and needs balance and boundaries?

Marine Corps 1990

Listen – it meant a lot to me that I was invited, and I want to do whatever I can to honor my Marine Corps. It’s been 25 years since I was honorably discharged.

Here’s the deal: I arrived home from travels close to midnight on Friday night. I had to leave my house at noon Saturday to drive the four hours to Rock Hill, SC to speak for 20 minutes and then drive home. I got back home after midnight. On Sunday, I didn’t do anything but rest – watching football and lounging on the couch all day. After the week I had, it was easy to give myself permission to do this. I was in eastern Texas at the beginning of the week and closed it out with a speaking engagement in western Washington – followed by an all-day flight home Friday.

I spoke for free at the Marine Corps Ball and didn’t expect to get paid. Let’s call that giving back. But it gets complicated when I start thinking about travel time, being busy and overwhelmed, free talks versus self-care. I speak for a living, after all.

If I think about my clients, I realize that it wasn’t fair to them to push myself and speak at the ball. I wasn’t being fair to myself either. At the end of the day, my self-care should have been more important. I need balance and boundaries in order to prioritize my life and my speaking schedule.

Today I was in the office early, knowing I had a lot of work to catch up on before I fly out to Philadelphia this evening. Mostly, I was working with my media team and taking care of the website.

The website has been a thorn in my side for the past few months. It’s outdated and needs to have all the widgets updated – but before I could do that, I needed to update the PHP. Your guess is as good as mine about what that means. It’s language that computer code geeks know. It’s code that confuses me and I don’t have the patience for it.

The website crashed when I tried to update a plug-in. That’s more than an hour I will never get back, and that’s another reason I am transferring the hosting of the website to a new platform.

Thankfully for Charles Kirkland, my go-to guy in website marketing, he was able to help us make some sense of what we are doing and what we need to do. He was on speed dial a few times today.

Maybe I wouldn’t have stressed about this so much if I got the rest I needed – but I made the decision to speak, pro bono, at the Marine Corps Ball.

Maybe I’m too busy as a professional speaker to do motivational talks for free. I think I should reevaluate my schedule and take a good look at how many times I speak.

My Hilton Honors has me staying at a Hilton hotel 147 nights this year and it’s only November 11. That’s a lot of travel.

It was a very stressful day, but was it really all that stressful considering what many people deal with in their lives?

Living with Mental Illness

I’m a man that lives with major depression, bipolar II disorder and PTSD. Maybe I’m making too much of this. I won’t disagree, but I do that, and it bothers me. A lot.

Why can’t I let it go and just be present and thankful I’m making progress every day? I pride myself on showing up and doing the best I can – but then my expectations are too high.

I’m confused and bothered by this stress.

Change in Medication

Another thing I need to be aware of is my change in medication. I’ve recently switched from Lexapro to Wellbutrin. I don’t know enough to think this could be the cause, but I know enough to be aware that me being on medication is important. It’s good to be reminded of this fact.

Flying off to Philadelphia

So, I’m at the airport and my flight is slightly delayed. That doesn’t bother me, but sometimes it does. I’m getting ready to board and I thought I’d throw some thoughts out on the blog instead of hiding on my social media profiles.

I think I’m going to spend this 90-minute flight to Philadelphia grateful to recognize how I am feeling and letting this go.

I’m going to spend time thankful I got to speak at the Marine Corps Ball. Whether it was a paid talk or a pro bono talk doesn’t matter. I think I need to have more boundaries and balance in my life personally and professionally. I need to focus on the tasks at hand, my time management – and know my schedule months in advance.

Saying no Is a lesson we can all learn. If we don’t say no, it’s too easy to become overwhelmed. When we are overwhelmed not only do we suffer, but those we are closest to suffer as well.

Tomorrow is a New Day

Tomorrow is a new day. Maybe all this could have waited one more day and I could have just been present and enjoyed today – Veterans Day!

Happy Veterans Day to myself and all my fellow veterans. Now I’m bothered I didn’t get to enjoy the day I earned because I was too stressed and overwhelmed.

I’m learning each and every day. This is just another day of living with bipolar. Today, it beat me. Tomorrow, I’m taking back control over my mental illness.

Now this: As I’m getting ready to board, the gate agent just advised us of maintenance, and we are further delayed. There was a bird strike on the plane’s final approach. It could be a lot worse, I guess. Thankfully, I’m not that bird who played chicken with an inbound plane.

Just breathe friends, just breathe.

Who is Jeff Yalden?

Teen Mental Health Motivational and Educational Consultant for School Communities and Mental Health Professionals

Jeff Yalden is highly regarded as one of the top mental health experts in the world primarily focused on education and school communities working with teens, school administration, counselors, teachers, staff, parents and community leaders.

He’s a four-time best-selling author including his latest book, TEEN SUICIDE: The WHY Behind Today’s Suicide Epidemic.

His Podcast: Mental Health and Motivation continues to attract thousands of new subscribers every month for his direct talk and influence on today’s mental health conversations for teens and adults.

You can learn more about Jeff Yalden by visiting his website – www.JeffYalden.com. You can also learn more about Jeff’s Suicide Prevention Online Course for School Communities and Parents, Jeff Yalden University, and follow Jeff on YouTube and Social Media by clicking on the links below:

For more information, please visit www.JeffYalden.com or click on any link below:

Online Suicide Prevention Course for School Communities

Book: Teen Suicide: They WHY Behind America’s Suicide Epidemic

Facebook Page

School Resources

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