After months of the pandemic including record unemployment and now civil unrest, many are feeling stressed and full of anxiety.
But as we look towards a rebound, we're finding ways to help you cope and improve your mental health.
“Mental health is so important,” Erin Waller said. “We can’t downplay it.”
Erin Waller created BWF Woman for "beautiful wild free woman" after going through a difficult divorce.
“I'm able to show my scars and as a result, other women who have them don't feel like they're negative and bad,” Waller said. “They're able to come into their own worthiness. Their own value, as a result.”
She's relied on meditation to heal herself and now others.
“It's in meditation that we develop new positive thoughts,” she said. “We're able to change our words. We're able to practice positive self-talk. And that gives us a new relationship with ourselves.”
Waller explains that when we do that, we then have a different relationship with others as well.
“If I am judgmental with myself and I'm always beating myself up and I'm always speaking negatively to me about myself, I'm probably doing that to other people as well,” she said. “And its affecting our relationships outside of me too.”
Meditation can help you feel more peaceful but she says, you must make it a priority.
“Put it on your calendar and make a commitment to it because it's one thing to know it,” she said. “It's another thing to actually do it.”
“You can start with just five minutes a day, preferably when you wake up. Taking 10 deep breaths. To help center your mind.
“One of the things that we do is we breathe in for three counts, we hold for three counts and then we release for three counts.
Waller suggests meditating in a quiet room or even outside in nature, but most importantly.
“You meditate in a space where you feel comfortable, where you can concentrate, and then you just focus on the present,” she said. “You focus on what you can be thankful for. You practice that gratitude and that self-love and you'll feel more connected throughout your day.”