Today marks the 1 year anniversary of starting the Grateful Living podcast with the episode entitled “The Importance of Self-Care”.
The year before, a friend of mine passed from mental illness and I thought to myself, I can’t let the one year anniversary come and not have done anything.
I was scared. As a young professional, coming out saying I have dealt with mental health issues and giving my own advice based on my own experience wasn’t something I ever thought I’d publicly speak about.
Mental health problems to this day are often associated with weakness and craziness, and thus people tend to stay quiet about their own battles.
4 months into my process another friend of mine passed from a mental health battle and my mission became even more clear to me and I started really taking content making seriously.
I realized our society had failed our people. To think suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death for 10–34 individuals is absolutely insane because these are preventable deaths.
1 year later, Grafeful Living has received 6822 plays between the podcast and YouTube channel. To this date, every month, I personally probably get 11–20 text messages sent to me thanking me for something I posted.
I could never imagined any of this.
When I started, I thought maybe 3 people will listen to an episode and it’ll be worth it for those 3 people.
My friends, however you can help society in your own way, do it.
2 hours of volunteering on the weekend at a food pantry, donating money to charity, smiling at strangers, asking a friend how they’re actually, whatever you can do.
Pat, Meg, Trevor, and all the others we’ve lost too soon, we love you. Your light shines on in the people who knew you.
We will remember you and I promise you three, I will do my best through Grateful Living to create a society that looks at mental health differently.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me, connected me with a guest, sent me a supportive text, and most importantly thank you to all the guests who agreed to be on and share their whole self 🙏🏽
For anyone following the GL content, if you have any suggestions for guests or any suggestions, please let me know!
Cheers to Year 2 and continuing to destigmatize and make sure people understand they are loved 💙