Show notes –
Join Shannon and Christine as they chat about Emotional and Mental Wellness with their special guest Tracy Reese of Heart Hues.
This week’s resources and references:
ATL Live Networking Agency
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
Submit your Shearo Nominations with subject “My Shearo” to shealoglo@gmail.com
Stillpoint: A Self-Care Playbook for Caregivers to Find Ease, and Time to Breathe, and Reclaim Joy
You can also find Tracy on Meetup at:
The Canvas Club Meetup Group
Show Transcript –
NOTE: While it’s not perfect, we offer this transcription by Otter.ai for those who are hearing impaired or who don’t find listening to a podcast enjoyable or possible.
Christine Gautreaux 0:08
Let’s do this.
Shannon M. 0:08
Okay ladies, welcome to our podcast. I am Shannon Mitchell, a black female, millennial entrepreneur, the founder of shallow glow, a handmade shea butter company. I am a champion for your self care, business care and intentional wellness.
Christine Gautreaux 0:25
And I am Christine Gautreaux, a white social justice advocate, an international speaker, coach and published author who helps you upgrade yourself in community care.
Shannon M. 0:35
Yes. And together we are women connected in wisdom, a podcast grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness. Welcome, welcome to our show.
Christine Gautreaux 0:44
And today we’re talking about emotional and mental wellness. I was reading before we got on Shannon and I were talking as we do pre production. And I was telling her about this article I was reading this week that kind of made me go, Huh, you know, it was New York Times. And it was it’s was entitled, there’s a name for the blog that you’re feeling. It’s called languishing, right, like even that word languishing crazy. And in it, it talks about a sense of stagnation or emptiness. It feels as if you’re muddling through your days looking at your life through a foggy windshield. And they said in the article, it might be the dominant emotion of 2021, with everybody coming out of the pandemic, but not quite be, you know, things are different. Not everybody’s healthy. And well, we’ve got racial tensions and transformation happening. But that’s work. So like, where is it? So? Yeah, one of our listeners, Cecile, who’s going to be a guest coming up last week says, Yes, I talked about languishing with someone else just yesterday,
Shannon M. 1:57
so seal up on it. That’s why you won’t be on our pet podcast.
Christine Gautreaux 2:04
Is it’s that in between between being depressed and being productive,
Shannon M. 2:08
which is Yeah, and I watch this YouTube video when they are maybe it was a Facebook video, I think it was with somebody who I used to work with, and the restaurant industry, and he was talking about, are you productive? Or are you just busy? And I said, dang, that’s a really good question, actually. Because I don’t want to be super tired and worn down and all these places that we get to, and you find out that you weren’t actually doing anything effective. Like Jay Cole talks about, there’s one song he’s like, What is he saying? He says, Good job. You went a long way. But sorry, you went the wrong way. I think you went far. But you went the wrong direction right now. Nobody. And so that’s why we have to be again, I love that we are grounded. We are grounded. And what are we grounded in? If you’re a flower, right, you guys said I was sunflower with Virginia talking about environmental wellness. Did you know that there’s red sunflowers? I didn’t know that. I thought all sunflowers were yellow and yellow ones are really tall. But the red ones I don’t mean to be 710 feet. I’m not 710 feet. You know, unless you’re talking about my Amazon woman. I do have Amazon, too. But I love that where you grounded in and we’re grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness. So they all flow together.
Christine Gautreaux 3:25
I love about red sunflowers today, when you’re our listeners who are listening and maybe not seeing us live, Shannon’s beautiful red shirt, and then our guest today will will when she pops on with what she’s I think that’s perfect. Should we talk about the definition we’re working off of today for mental wellness. All right. Okay, so this definition comes from the universe, according to the University of California. And what they say is it’s important to be attentive to both positive and negative feelings and be able to understand how to handle these emotions. emotional wellness includes the ability to learn and grow from experience, emotional well being encourages autonomy and proper decision making. Right. It’s and it’s so much more than that. We know every week on the show, we pick a different definition or a different you know, and we talk about the different perspectives of it. When you think about emotional and mental wellness. What do you think?
Shannon M. 4:30
Oh, that’s a great question. I think about a lot. One thing I had this opportunity, right, so let me tell you ladies about Linda Linda, this woman, I thought I told her the other day that she brought me into entrepreneurship. And that Linda when I was doing my rounds as a manager because Christine you know, I do my job. Okay, so I’m on the patio, chicken on my guest and I met Linda. She like you Just a firecracker. I got to know you. And she brought me in a network marketing, right? Had a great time in New York traveling the country, Tennessee, Texas doing development doing all this stuff. And she invited me to her Atlanta live media agency Yes. And she asked me to do something for Black History Month. And so I was responsible for memorizing a verse from Zora Neale Hurston forgive me if I’m saying that wrong, right. But that’s the thing with Black history is not always knowing the details and people’s names and the relevant stories, right? We’ll talk about that. That’s what we’re talking about emotional and mental well being. So she asked me to do this recording. And I think I was horrible at it. I’m not an actor, you know, a very genuine person, I work on being very genuine and honest. And so it’s interesting to switch positions, and now having to act in a certain role and just switch automatically. I think it’s amazing that people can do that. I think acting is a great skill. People forget how difficult it is. And they told me to bring out my emotions to act sad. And Christine. I didn’t know how to do it. I was like stuck. And it was horrible. I never even saw the video. I don’t think they released it. And I was like, Wow, all I do is smile. That’s not good. At were the other way. I said wait a minute, where is everybody else? Where is yes, Zora Neale Hurston? Okay, exactly. So that moment, and again, this is a few years ago, you know, I’m deaf. I had been a manager already. I’ve already been over teams of people have already been in leadership roles. And I did a great job in different places for different reasons. But for for me, for myself, it was interesting to learn that there was a disconnect further than I thought it would be if you would have asked me before that, but I had never thought about it. So that’s what No, I don’t remember my quote. And that was a thing, because I didn’t know that I was supposed to memorize it before I got there. And so that was another question of, well, maybe I didn’t perform as well as I could have. Because I didn’t know that I had to do the quote, but again, as a black person, now I’m checking myself. Because again, I have a psychology degree, right. So did I have a blog? And because, you know, again, I like to operate excellently that I have a blog in the fact that I was supposed to do this a certain way. So I came and had a self sabotage moment when I didn’t memorize the quote. And now I’m realizing that there’s a disconnect from the was it that or was it just me like, What was it? You know? So that’s important, I would just go back and look at all of her stuff. If somebody has a question.
Christine Gautreaux 7:41
I’m gonna put there’s a link to her top 25 quotes, put in our show notes. But that popped up that emotional mental wellness is if you are silent about your pain, they’ll kill you and set you enjoyed it.
Shannon M. 7:59
My friend from college Sarah, shout out to Sarah met her in the NAACP on Kennesaw Kennesaw University’s campus. And she told me she’s like, they will make you crazy and call you crazy in the same sentence? And I said, Yes, they will. Look, I told you she crazy. No, no. bodies hanging from trees, Christine bodies, people, you know, buy your house, of course, anybody would be crazy. And we’re dealing with that over and over again.
Christine Gautreaux 8:28
And Cecile is listening and says mental wellness, to me is about maintaining or increasing your capacity to deal with life. We all have the capacity, you don’t get so overwhelmed.
Shannon M. 8:40
And so so there’s that right. So so there’s that part. But Christine, your book talks about also in the work in the work cycle, right, the way that we think about our occupational wellness, to not overextend yourself, by continuing to extend your capacity, and then you end up burnt out when that’s not necessary anyways. So when we talk about the conversations of grace, and being balanced, why we’re supposed to be grounded, I can’t be out here crazy. I have to live my life. You know what I mean? Like things have to continue to grow. My life exceeds expectations. There’s a lot of stuff we’re about to do. So how do you stay in both places at once? When Brianna was asleep? They told the ambulance to leave but calling the ambulance the ambulance was already there. Help was there. You said hey, you know, you go ahead and go home. Well,
Christine Gautreaux 9:28
that was the same thing with joy. George fluid, right. Letting the EMTs help. Yeah,
Shannon M. 9:33
right. So you talk about the verdict. I’m still thinking about the verdict from Brianna’s mate March 13. Do you only you got charged. Imagine how disrespectful that is that you got charged for the bullet that missed, right what type of
Christine Gautreaux 9:49
knife a wellness when systemic racism is so prevalent and it’s a big thing. I know you You just keep talking Okay? Do you want to cast because she is a dear friend of ours and we we say this every week Right? Because almost everybody that comes on the show is a friend if they weren’t, like us, or we when the time we do the move to the time we do the the pre show that we do with all our guests then we become friends but Tracy Reese is one of our members of our manifesting Monday mastermind, and she is a dear friend of ours. And so with our dear friends, I like to read their bios that they submit so we don’t read it. So I am going to read it. And this is what Tracy Reese says about herself. I was artistically inclined from a young age. Even from those early years, my life began to paint some painful hues. Refusing to adopt stereotypes and statistical labels. I moved forward with my life as the daughter of a drug addicted father, unwed teenage mother and a survivor of domestic abuse, divorced parents and a myriad of other hues that forced my God given talents to the background. However, I was prompted to pick up painting just over 17 years ago, it was a way to break out of the routines of being a wife, mother and employee, I learned to use art to express the truest part of myself and process through the challenges of life. I found the creative process to be therapeutic and empowering. As a result, Tracy now helps others to use creative expression to promote emotional wellness and cultivate authenticity, primarily through personal or group coaching, and workshops. She is the owner and founder of heart Hughes LLC. And we want to welcome to the stage Tracy Reese, our friend and an amazing, amazing woman that we are connected to.
Tracy Reese 12:01
Thank you so much, Janet. And Christine is a pleasure honor to be here with you ladies. It really is. Thank you. Oh,
Christine Gautreaux 12:11
what do you think I know you were in the green room listening to us ramble on a little to
Tracy Reese 12:20
me, but I was taking deep breaths. Yeah, I was. I was breathing through it. I personally detach from a lot of the media around these situations and circumstances as a way to promote wellness in my life. And some people will say, Well, you’re out of the loop. No, the loop is a loop. It’s continuous. So get out of you. i The minute I step out that door, I’m very aware and clear about what’s happening out there. We’re become it’s, it’s more approachable now. And we see it more like in our faces now. But I’ve been around for almost 50 years. So I know what what’s out there. It doesn’t take me to listen to a news report to be clear about the world I live in. As a black woman. Higher life. I’ve lived in the South, my entire life. I don’t need a news report to keep me in the loop about means I live in a society or as a color.
Christine Gautreaux 13:33
So Tracy, that’s a great lead in to so how do you have emotional and mental wellness? In the midst of this?
Tracy Reese 13:41
I think what’s been important for me one again, is is managing content intake. Two is not being so attached to the outcomes of these situations. This is a long process. It’s been happening for hundreds and hundreds of years. And I am but one person. So I think you know we we all as advocacy. You know, Christine, you’re your advocate, you the activist. We all have a voice and a say but I feel like managing me is the best way to manage the world around me. So I spend a lot of time trying to just make sure I’m on the right side of the coin, so to speak, and doing my best to care for me make me a priority. So that I I walk out of walk out into the world as my better self, my best self. And I hope and doing so someone catches a hold of that and says oh, she’s encouraging me she’s inspiring me. So that’s that’s how I stay well I try to do my part with me. And then be an example for others around me.
Shannon M. 14:58
Yeah, That’s why Christine like shallow and you know this on your personal and your personal life right shallow is so important for that. Because I, if my name was Brianna, which it could have been right, like man could have been Briana, if I was shot when I was sleep next to my boyfriend, at least that day, I did what I could to take care of myself, because who knows what will happen the next day. And that’s all we really have. And that’s what’s so special to me about spiritual wellness. That’s what you ladies talked about last week, is I can do my part, I drink my water today, you lazy, it’s empty. Okay. Let me make sure that we’re using shallow and that we’re taking deep breaths, like Tracy said, and again, if my will is not set up, if I’m not making the money that I need to make, if I have kids, and they’re doing this and that in the consideration, excuse me. My phone is dying. And and, again, we talked about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Right? If at the bottom is survival, and we have and again, this is all trigger warning, okay? bodies hanging from trees. These are my kids. How do you expect people you’re not immune. So again, if we’re having to pay bills, all this other stuff? That’s why my spiritual wellness is so important because I don’t even carry my own weight. It’s too heavy. I give this to God. God is strong. Both of his arms are the strong arm. Thankfully, he carries my bags. I just look cute. No, I mean. Yeah, I know. I know. You know, and I’m working on it. Because it’s hard when you have bullets coming into your bedroom. FRED HAMPTON wasn’t his girl pregnant, like, it’s hard to go back and hear stories like this. And so this separation, because we, we still have to get our houses together. Because again, I saw this post this could you know, maybe if somebody had a podcast, I will put this on there to put the word out that we should just get life insurance policies because of the life insurance companies were charged the money that it takes to cover it. I don’t want to say that white kids need to start getting shot for the cops, whose kids is being volunteered to know why. Why do it? Why can’t we again have accountability. So we talk about the verdict. Good job. I’m not gonna slap you on the wrist for doing your job because I do my job. We’ve been doing our job. Don’t you see this country that we built?
Christine Gautreaux 17:35
Yeah. And looking for the joy like we talked to last about the sacred looking for the sacred day, every day. And what know about our guests and our friend Tracy Reese’s, her creativity is beautiful. And the processing things using artists enjoy. So Tracy, I’d love for you to tell our listeners a little bit more about that. Like, I’m, I’ve gotten to paint with you before so. But tell folks about like how you use that for emotional mental wellness? Yeah, I will,
Tracy Reese 18:12
I will kind of go back to my bio for just a moment. What I talk about the things that I experienced and we know traumas real, we see it directly and indirectly. But there were things that happened in my life that really caused me to conform, compromise and not feel safe to be myself, express myself and say that things that I felt, I needed to say and at some point, I stopped feeling. I stopped knowing I stopped knowing how to connect kind of what Shannon said is when you say be sad, I didn’t know how to necessarily connect with that. And I understand now that emotional wellness is being able to have a full experience with all those emotions, and be able to process through them in healthy ways. Well, one of the things that and that was kind of intimidated by painting actually, I seen my cousin was a great artist had done some stuff. And I was like, wow, I’ll never be able to do that. And I was a kid. But again about it’s been about 18 years now. I would get visions and my visions would look like rooms and spaces. I love interior design and decor. And I got a vision for a room and I saw a painting in that room and I thought that’s gorgeous. Where would I find something like that and I heard the voice is still I say all this fear. So you will paint it. You You will paint that. And so when I purchased my home, I did my diligence that the hard day I came home and I created an atmosphere where I could process through what I’d seen in my head. This the first time I put paint to canvas with any intention. And I haven’t looked back what I realized There was, there were things that I because of my trauma could not communicate. I did not have a full expression of who I was authentically.
Christine Gautreaux 20:15
Oh, I think we lost her for a second.
Shannon M. 20:18
Yeah, she’ll come back. But now, what’d she say? And it makes perfect sense. Just like she said, I didn’t have a full vision of who I was authentically, right. And we talked about eight dimensions of wellness. So with hair, my hair is locked, right? I fit my hair, all different types of ways I’ve shaved it off, I cut the back of it off, had a perm had a cute little bang. And when I shaved my hair, I didn’t know what it was going to look like when it grew back out. Because I didn’t know what my hair look like, can you imagine you being with yourself every single day and you don’t know what your hair looks like? So imagine emotions and heavier things. You know? Sorry, you bet.
Tracy Reese 20:59
But, I guess, and I don’t know what parts you got. But I just know through abuse and things of that nature, I become very conforming and compromising. And when I sat down to paint, I was like, wow, this is these are the words, I want to say that I can’t. These are the expressions I want to have that I haven’t been able to articulate. So I realized then that there were other ways to express ourselves and our emotions, that would be healthy. And so I began the work of really painting what I felt when I didn’t know how to say I was sad. What I put on that Canvas was evident through the colors through the through whatever I was painting, you know, it might be a flower, it just may be you know, I’m an abstract artist. So it, it was very telling to me. What showed up on canvas and through creative process was in fact, what was in me.
Shannon M. 22:05
So, I have a question, Christine, what if, excuse me, for cutting you off? Tracy, if you weren’t done? What? You were saying that you were done? Okay, perfect. I’m sorry for interrupting you. What if for children, right? Parents always want to know what’s going on with the kids? How are they really doing? That could be a simple paint time, you know, and give them all the colors and just see which ones they use. And if they use brighter ones, and okay, and if they use darker ones, there might be something that they need, you know, maybe that night you make cinnamon rolls or something and talk about it. Or maybe that night you spend more whatever their love language is, you know, and then you do something for them. And you guys could talk about it. What do you think about that? You think that would help? Because Tracy, you know, we talk about? Well, what if I never had emotional and mental support? Again, if we’re talking about the context of the environment, environmental wellness, if I’ve been shot and hanging from trees, of course, we’re not emotionally and mentally developed and supported, you know, so
Tracy Reese 23:13
slowly, not. Right. Absolutely not.
Christine Gautreaux 23:16
Right. Massive creativity, right. So music are, I think that to I know, in my own life that has helped me to be connected to who I am. Cecile says, Knowing who you are, is the key to everything too many of us don’t. We don’t arts for me, is, um, it’s that way to discover who I am. Right. And I’m so glad you’re listening and participating today. Cecile, she also says too many of us never learned how to explore and find out who we are. We’re often limited by what the adults in our lives believed about themselves in us, right? Yes, I’m lucky when my kids were little. My husband is an incredible artist and I It always made me nervous because he was such a good artist. I didn’t feel like I was creative. One of my favorite stories for when my kids were little, we would always just give him a blank piece of paper and let him draw with whatever pencil or crayons or whatever was around. And one day he came in. And he stopped like I was drawing with Alex she was probably three years old at the time. And he’s like, what is that? And I’m like, that’s a giraffe in a bag because I didn’t know how to draw giraffe. So that I love that question, Shannon and what do you think about that Tracy? Like the bat, how do we access our creativity?
Tracy Reese 24:48
Absolutely. I think when we think about the creative process for most people, they think, Oh, I’m not creative because they don’t they’re not good at visual arts or performing arts but the creative process can look a lot A lot of different ways problem solving is is a creative process. But I absolutely believe so. I think I started cutting out when I talked about the abuse of my past, so I was not emotionally support.
Christine Gautreaux 25:13
Right? Oh, she cut out again.
Tracy Reese 25:15
That was not Oh, that’s why I say, you know, I sat down just on an auction, to start the creative set, and started to discover things about myself, I started to discover abilities, I started to discover emotions, I started to be able to bridge the gap between No, I, I didn’t know who I was. And no, I didn’t know how to communicate what I was feeling. And I was not emotionally supported. I was not given tools. But on an unction, because there was something in me, I sat with myself, and I allow, I allow myself to pass the point of fear or doubt, or even the thought of what someone else would think about it. And I’ve created a process out and I’ve discovered, wow, this is not just therapeutic, but it is informative. It is empowering. And absolutely, I believe, helping kids in that way. I mean, it’s, it’s what kids do. There the I mean, it is real natural and innate to them. They’re not concerned about what it looks like until someone says that looks a certain way, and passes judgment on it, but they are the closest to create a bond that, I think is an excellent way to process out, especially when you don’t have a way to say something
Christine Gautreaux 26:47
about that with poetry and young folks that I’ve worked with before, like poetry and grinding, and I mean, really any kind of creative, but but just giving voice or movement or, or stories, right how the stories and the good stories, too, but especially the stories of pain and heartbreak and like how to process this stuff. And I also love using it for capturing the joy and capturing moments that you know.
Shannon M. 27:25
So that’s something else that’s been helping, right. So you said three, usually people people say three people say five, and definitely the Holy Spirit or Tracy like, I feel like he said 10. So 10 is too much like you have a whole day. Right? That’s it. That’s the first
Tracy Reese 27:43
round, come up.
Shannon M. 27:45
Cuz I promise you, this person cut you off. This person did this. And you pointed out all of those, you know what I mean? But again, it’s about celebrating and that’s so the 10 gratitudes. We talked about holding grief and gratitude. It’s been a lot of grief. It’s been a lot of grief this past year. I’m so glad I’ve been doing these 10 every day because it’s kept it balanced, you know? Yeah. But it’s also about oh, the wins for manifesting Monday. And I think that has kept us focused on Well, how did you win? Actually, let me give a shout out. You know, I have a friend that’s about to graduate. She’s about to graduate as an honor student. She got to hundreds. I think her name is what’s her name and Christine will train there. Yeah, we got to celebrate the wins. And sometimes we like you know what, actually I did this this I graduated with honors twice. I was a resident, a resident assistant at Kennesaw State, we made all this other stuff work, right as women, it can be overwhelming as black people. There’s all this stuff. But we’re still here. And I can read and I can write and that’s why one of my tattoo says free because I’ve been bought. And for me what that means is I got it tattooed on my body, right is because Jesus died for me. And he paid for my sins already. If I go into Gucci, and Gucci buys me some Gucci and he says it’s paid for Guess what? He and I’m filling in a bag and I don’t have to worry about you know and so there’s that but then there’s also by people died for me to be able to read so I’m going to read in English he and I spend your porque esta muy muy firesale cuando tu estan escuela consumes amigos you know what you’re afraid you’re learning. And we’re going to do it every way possible because my life can be abundant too.
Tracy Reese 29:41
I think it was important what you said gratitude and how some people struggle to even find the three the 10 but I think part of emotional wellness is being intentional about connecting to you how you’re feeling, I mean, and even when you’re not emotionally supported. these communities and conversations we’re having is to hopefully give some insight to someone who may not be supported in their environment. But there are resources outside of their environment that they can utilize. But I think to even come to those 10, you have to be intentionally, like intentional about it. And you have to be aware, a lot of us just are so disconnected, we go through our days robotic, and we don’t understand why we’re not Well, well, you are not connecting with you, you’re not connecting with the things inside of you, the whole, like, you’re not connected to your mission to help build resilience. So I think it’s important to even get those 10 Gratitude things out, is checking in and say, Hey, where are you what’s going on? I mean, try to tap into that, and being grateful to say, I’m grateful that I have the awareness to check in, even if I don’t know what I’m finding when I do,
Shannon M. 31:02
right. And it’s okay, because it’s me. And guess what, I can’t go anywhere, I can’t leave. You know, saying I can’t be myself, I’ll be right back. Like, if you don’t take care of yourself, where you gonna be, and people are gonna disappoint you, you disappoint yourself. Like, that’s where we have grace, like, we got to have realistic expectations. That’s why we’re talking about all eight dimensions. So we know how to have the conversation. Because again, this is the first time that we’ve been able to get higher up on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, let’s bring it back relevant, right? Because we’ve been worried about survival. We haven’t this is the first time that we’ve ever gotten this far. So something that I do is again, pay myself first. So I try to remember to do that with my finances, my financial wellness, but it’s about your time too, because it’s about time and financial freedom. So I’m going to give my time to myself in the morning before I pick up my phone. And in that time, on my checklist, is my devotion is meditation. It’s prayer waters on there. And food is on there. They don’t always get checked. Okay. Megan making the bed is on there. Looking at this vision board with this 7500 subscribers we’re about to build. We built it we intentional about this. Okay, but I know the number because I look at my my vision board because it’s on my checklist. And I do that before I look at my phone to find out that they shot somebody else. Yeah, of course. Yeah, you know, it’s probably Yeah, fine. found out about I believe her name is Michaela. She called the cops and got killed by the cops series. Like, let me make sure I drink my water because just for anything.
Tracy Reese 32:47
Yeah, you gotta be a party.
Christine Gautreaux 32:50
Try Absolutely. Tracy what I love what Shannon just said about her wellness practices in the morning for emotional to wellness. What are your morning practices?
Tracy Reese 33:00
Very similar to Shannon’s like, well, first thing I tried to do is one be express gratitude for the fact that I have the day. Yes, Lord. I usually start out with a Thank You, Lord. Oh, here we go here. I know. You this, there’s a whole new day. So it starts out there. But shortly after that is where am I like, physically, how am I feeling? Oh, he looks stiff this morning, you might need to get up and make stretching your priority. You know, mentally if there’s something running through my head, I immediately tried to cover those things in prayer for me and cast that off. Not to be not to ignore it. But if there’s something that is beyond me, that’s bothering me, I try to make sure that’s a part of my night routine. So it doesn’t have to be a part of my morning routine. However, if I wake up with it, I try to give that the attention. So there’s a physical scan, a mental scan, and then I go to there’s usually journaling involved just to kind of set the tone for how I want to start the day. There’s usually some music playing in the background at some point. It’s it’s usually inspiring so that that’s another thing I do in my morning routines and water. So you know, self care and emotional wellness isn’t you know, people say self care as we talk about it now more than it just being going to the spa. But you know, hugely important to me as kind of what Shana said rest, water and movement. I like that. So you know it is I’ve got my wrist I’m up for the They let me hydrate. And at some point I need to move. And then there’s the routine of journaling, meditation prayer, some celebration, inspiration through music. So yeah, I love that.
Shannon M. 35:14
And yeah, I like that. I like that. And I also want to remember to include, right? The Eight Dimensions go into each other. So your mental and emotional is directly affected by your physical. And I’m not talking about oh, just eat well is literally defect affected by the environment in your stomach is called gut psychology. So yes, somebody should be alkaline, if it’s too acidic. If it’s too, anything that is not supposed to be balanced, then it directly affects your psychology, it directly affects your brain, and the way that you think about things, which affects your emotions, and then you bet you, you rationally talk to somebody else. Now that affects your environmental and your social or your occupation, you might get fired if you go off on somebody. Right? So in these situations in the cycles that we get tied to, but it’s directly affected by your gut psychology, and so one, water in the morning is great to refresh your body, right? Whatever wasn’t worked out at night, can be flushed out in the morning, you’re making sure that your stomach literally has what it needs. And when we point to mental and emotional. I also look at I think you asked me what the first thing I think about was right, Christine, when I look at the black neighborhoods, and we talk about nutritional deserts, places that don’t have everything that they need, you’re directly affecting this person’s stomach, which directly affects everything else, because mental and emotional is directly tied to financial wellness. So of course the money is messed up when people are getting locked up. That’s the breadwinner just got killed breadwinner. You know, say talk about opportunity costs. Let’s not talk about wage gaps and all this stuff. Let’s talk about opportunity costs. So water in the morning, we’ll flush all that out make sure that you stay level headed so that you can deal with right Judy? The good psychology I feel so much better. I love how she was saying dancing doesn’t take energy. It makes energy. Right? I love she said that. Shout out to Sonia, am I saying that? Am I saying the wrong name? Christine? First to seal or no for the who’s the dancer that came Sheila your your
Christine Gautreaux 37:35
co author, co author? Yeah.
Shannon M. 37:37
And that’s how I feel about running running makes energy. It doesn’t take energy. So the considerations in my morning routine were body, mind and spirit all three of those, take care of yourself because I’m gonna do what I said I was going to do for other people. But somebody else might forget the thing that I asked them to do. Did I do the thing that I asked me to do? Or did you dehydrate your body while you ran around the city for these other people? Yeah, yeah, you’re not erasing.
Christine Gautreaux 38:04
No, on that note, Shannon, like just talking about about the whole thing about we set our intentions and we set our days for emotional mental wellness, like health care, nobody else is going to do that for us. What is your field look like? They’re gonna be coming towards us with the news or they’re what they want from us or near us or what we have to be balanced and grounded for emotional and mental wellness in order to respond. You know, I always for years, I taught parenting classes and we would talk about control like the best girl you can have is self control. And I think about that with care emotional and mental wellness. Yes, like yeah, oh, here comes to my sweetheart. He says I love it. Energy begets energy. Hey, now he’s for the for the dancing because he’s talking about emotional and mental wellness. He got to go do a static dance for the first time since the pandemic it was he went and dance this weekend and community outside it. I think Piedmont Park or somewhere like
Shannon M. 39:26
beautiful right now. Right? Everybody has been great outside
Christine Gautreaux 39:31
dances so Tracy, we could talk to you all day. But what words of wisdom do you have for folks who are struggling right now what what would you give as as some some wisdom for emotional and mental wellness?
Tracy Reese 39:49
Well, I think it’s important to one understand the necessity of prioritizing yourself. I know that that is something we talk About some people struggle with it. But if you are, you know, a for a while I had this whole self here, other people here kind of if I had to put them on a scale, they might have sat side by side. And, you know, I fluctuated up and down. But what I had to realize is that I’m the priority in my life. And we get stuck with that sometimes. And it’s hard to understand, like, how can that sound selfish, or whatever the case may be, but the the better self, when you make yourself a priority. And trying to find tools and resources and ways to do that. Is should be parents. I mean, like, it’s, it’s hugely important. I can’t show up as my best self, if I’m not, if I’m not saying about me first. And I could say so much about that. But for those who are struggling, I think, you know, just if you have a moment to step back and just say this, how are you? investing your time? How are you investing your energy? And are you at the top of that list? And if you’re not working on ways to make it a priority?
Shannon M. 41:23
So how do your How do your paint parties help people with their emotional and mental wellness?
Tracy Reese 41:29
Well, he every every and I column process parties? Yeah, um, because we, I take I go into each of those, those parties with a theme around emotional wellness. And it’s very practical to like, we may do one that talks about how to let go of things that do not serve us well. So there’s usually an icebreaker, some type of fun activity that that prompts my guests to, to explore that. And it’s simple, everyday things that we just overlook, but I bring, I’m able to bring those to the forefront through that through that icebreaker. And then we have conversation about that. And we can come to a quick resolve around one or two things in their lives that may have had them stuck for years. And then we take what we’ve talked about in conversation, that courage we have in those conversations to the canvas. And we talked about how the process of painting or creating parallels to life, but also how the direct, like the theme of the painting correlates with the exercise. So it’s twofold. The artwork, one speaks to the art process and how it parallels with life. And then the painting itself, the theme parallels to the conversation. So we’re able to get through some really hard topics in a very easy and fun way. Yeah. So by the end of it is like, oh,
Christine Gautreaux 42:58
when we’re doing process and fun, right? So chiming in and saying yes, and your best is different from moment to moment. And that’s one of my sayings let go of what doesn’t serve you what’s not in your highest good. I’m so feeling you right now. So yeah,
Tracy Reese 43:16
and when I try to make that easy for people to see and approachable, like we think of letting go things that don’t serve as well, those that that thought process can be very overwhelming. But it is as simple as identifying an object in your home that you love, or something that you’ve had. That’s that doesn’t, that has no value, but let’s explore that. It could be a screwdriver that is broken, or, you know, so let’s look at this one thing that you kept in your life for all these years, that’s taking up space that has no purpose, it doesn’t serve you well. And how are you doing that in other areas of your life? How are you net? We’re relationships and your time and Okay, so we’re gonna throw away that screwdriver. We’re gonna process through the grief of loss, letting you go. Well, I
Shannon M. 44:04
say thank you, I say thank you for your time and your services.
Tracy Reese 44:07
Have Yes. And you have acknowledged it may have served you because I think a lot of times too, there are things that don’t serve us well. But they have at some point, they taught us something. They were there. They were there for a reason. Yeah. They just
Unknown Speaker 44:24
over Yeah.
Tracy Reese 44:28
appreciation for that. So those are conversations we have them what I call my process and paying parties and and so it is really really, really the
Christine Gautreaux 44:41
right back to last summer. Before everything was shut down. When we were it may have been two summers ago when we were doing river running. And you were telling me about one of your process parties and one of your exercises which I’m not going to give it away because it’s it took me right that there about letting go of what doesn’t serve us anymore. And we’ll make sure we put in our show notes for our listeners, a link to your website, I’ve had it scrolling across the bottom of the screen, cues llc.com. And we’ll put a link so y’all can find out about Tracy and Ross’s parties and her artwork. She is a incredibly talented artist, I am lucky enough to her pieces and hangs on my living room wall. And I’m a huge fan. And so for the work that you do in this world, and
Shannon M. 45:34
my and my do Tracy have I’ve never seen a bad painting of yours. Okay. What the Instagram I saw the other day look great. Amazing.
Tracy Reese 45:49
creative processes non judgment zone. So definitely true.
Christine Gautreaux 45:54
Well, let’s ask that question for our listeners. You don’t have to be an artist to take your class or
Tracy Reese 46:00
it’s better if you’re not. Yeah. Right. Because you know, we did, it’s our creative zone and and we’re really in our zone, but part of the bigger part of the painting parties is to process and give you a I don’t like to say safe space, because you can’t really create safe spaces for people, you can create brave spaces where they feel courageous enough to say what’s really on their minds and hearts. Yeah, wow. So I think it’s important where we try to create spaces where people can show up and say what they need to say. And even if we don’t agree with it, like we’re inviting them in trying to understand how they got where they are. Like that’s, that’s, that’s a part of emotional wellness too, is you don’t just shoot people, because they just woke up one day and decide they want to shoot shoot somebody, some internal workings that happen. Yeah, well, it’s not to excuse it. But I just I know, there’s inherent evil in the world. However, I do understand that a lot of people are where they are, because they just haven’t taken the time to do the internal work. And that’s why mental and emotional wellness is so important. I couldn’t even grow spiritually in a lot of ways. Because I had trauma that impacted my ability to see God a certain way to see the world and people a certain way. So there’s work to be done. Yeah, we have create spaces where we can do it.
Christine Gautreaux 47:29
Oh, that is a great note to end on. There is work to be done. And we need to create spaces where we can do. Yeah. And Judy is saying she’s so glad to know what you offer. And thank you thanking us for having this conversation today. So Tracy, we’re gonna put you back in the green room. Virtual chocolate. So for you, my friends, and we love you bunches. And I know you’ll be back on our show, because you’re one of our favorite people. Thank you for the word. Wow. Yeah, look forward to it. Wow, we can talk to her for hours.
Shannon M. 48:12
And look, I know we’re at 56 minutes. It’s not going to be long. But I want to talk about it. I want to end the finish by Captain the conversation because we talk about how do you really be well, and operate wisely because we’re women connected in wisdom. So we operate wisely. And how do you do that with emotional and mental intelligence or excuse me, wellness. And I love this tip that I got from headspace. And headspace is an app that I got a subscription to for a year. And that’s how I meditate. I always thought about meditating. But because I’m always thinking about so much. I like having something specific to tell me what to focus on and to breathe and to think about my body weight on the chair and letting it go to and being intentional. And there was one that I was listening to about patients because patients is one of the words for this year. And he said when patients comes I like to listen to the male voice when the patient comes, note it and you know and let it continue on. You don’t always have to buy into every emotion that comes through. You don’t have to respond to everything. Again, if I have a kingdom and I’m the queen I don’t respond to any old thing I’m busy my time is over here. I know where my time is I’m running the king kingdom we have things to do you know there’s, there’s things to build. And when you talk about managing again, I love that I have restaurant manager experience because it taught me so much shout out to all the Papo family like and that’s the where shallow glow started. Let’s I guess we should talk about our sponsor too. But so shallow glow is about women intentionally taking care of ourselves. Of course, women taking care of ourself includes our men taking care of ourselves because We need them into we need the whole community for that community self care. You guys aren’t left out when I say that, but we’re talking about women intentionally taking care of themselves, and especially women that serve other people. And that’s where it started with the servers at pappadeaux. They’re going to the dermatologist, because the chemicals and the soap was burning our hands. He talked about occupational wellness, if you’re going to require me to wash my hands have soap that doesn’t give me one degree burns. You know, can I say that the restaurant workers are here over the quarantine? Is nobody going to say thank you to all these people serving this food. Right. Thank you. You know, so, you know, like, yeah, absolutely. You know, so again, they were going to the dermatologist. And this is what I started giving them so that they could take care of themselves and she loved what was great. It sinks into your skin. And it I love actually being taken care of, you know, we talk about all this stuff, people are supposed to do all this stuff, but I love it when it actually works. And so when I think about my body, I think about my spirit, I think about my mind taking care of those things before everything else that I’m going to face, I don’t have, I don’t have an option. If my mom gets cancer or not, I didn’t get it, I didn’t get to choose on that one, you know, I didn’t get to choose and she wasn’t here for 12 years, I didn’t get a vote, you know. So when I think about are you going to be ashy or not say you know, now doesn’t go with my nails. Even though like,
I’m gonna drink some water, I’m gonna act like I’m important in case anybody else doesn’t in case, I’m the name that they decide it’s too long to put on the list of the names that they say out loud every day. And so that’s what gives me peace. We talked about environmental wellness, I set a candle, I surround myself with women who take care of themselves and motivate me to take care of myself, because you are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. And that’s how we we be well be wise and be whole in a genuine and healthy way. It’s not a flex for other people. It’s to really be What if black people were actually healthy? What if we could be healthy. But first, we’re down here just trying to survive. And so it’s been a whole attack is to really be able to see the climate of everything and where you are. But also know that there’s another reality. And you can have peace, you can look at the birds and look at the trees and know that you were taken care of. And instead of taking time to smell the roses, I take time and I sing with the birds. Every day they sing. I can sing every day, let me find some things to say thank you for because I can still see my Luxor growing the skin of glowing. We’re at Elon saying like we’re on our podcast, things that you ask for still happening. And in my life, things have been exceeding expectations and a lot of different ways to and some of this trauma too is exceeding expectations, I guess that’s a good way to put it. But if I hold both the grief and the gratitude, and even set down some of the other ways, again, I don’t carry on my way I put that down. So that’s that’s what genuinely helps me. And that’s why when I think about my field and who I want in my field with me, like you ladies were talking about last week, that is the only way that I can actually have it be a beautiful place with trees, and I’m trying to decide what else I want in my field. It’s gonna be a whole thing. But sometimes the field has people running through it with fire and bullets, and they’re coming for your house. Did you know that? Wait a minute, get up and get all this stuff right now. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. So yeah, to be grounded in the eight dimensions of wellness with women connected. And I appreciate you, my friend for being you know, again, because we can’t all wait as as women is not held as black woman, it is not always healthy to have this full conversation every single time. And that has to be okay. It’s not that my silence is agreeing with it. But that’s all I would talk about. I did you know that I started a business. Did you know that I started a podcast, did you know that I needed a will I gotta go set up my life insurance because if I get shot in my sleep, what’s going to happen to the family? We got to get it set up. So you know. Yeah, you help with that. And I appreciate you for being genuine. I would not be able to be comfortable doing this podcast with the white woman in the middle of everything. And you know that and I told you that and that’s why I’m excited for you to be able to genuinely be in this room these rooms with these other people because I wouldn’t bring you with me if you weren’t there helping. And I love that again shout out to wrap it up with Dr. Joe VZ. The shout out she gave you what she wanted award for the 40 under 40. I’m talking about when we were in the room in Atlanta, quarantine. They called you out.
Christine Gautreaux 54:50
One of the last times we were together as a group before everything got shut down. We were celebrating Dr. Joe VC and she was being celebrate is one of the top 40 under 40, under 40, or top 30, under 30.
Shannon M. 55:05
It was I believe it was 40. Under it was 40 under 40 in Atlanta and it was the first event they had, I believe the gentleman that was orchestrating it had moved from out of state. And she was being honored. It was really interesting how she ended up getting the mic.
Christine Gautreaux 55:21
Good that night, we know who was with Dr. Joe VZ.
Shannon M. 55:31
Her husband, yep.
You see, I mean, I gotta get married. I gotta have kids. There’s only things that have to do tell me like, no. Right. And I love that and celebrating, again, celebrating helps balance it, because you got to be realistic. And this is the last thing I’ll say. And we can wrap it up because we got to go do all this stuff, right? But you have to be realistic with what’s going on. If it’s your person in your family that is directly affected by stuff. If it’s you, of course, you have to know where you are in situations, you know. And so when it’s the good stuff, you’re absolutely right, I’m about to celebrate, I’m about to turn up. And it doesn’t have to be. It can look however you want it to look and in whatever way that looks like, especially if it’s healthy. That’s what we’re looking for being wise with our actions. But I need to celebrate if it’s going to be balanced, and it’s going to be grounded because all this other stuff I got to really look at so I can see where I am and know where to go in the next step. Not the whole life, but just the next step together with the community that I have. Well, I
Christine Gautreaux 56:40
love that you said that Shannon because we can do it in incremental steps. Like if just take one. One, we always talk about this at the end of the show. If we do one wisdom in action, like and y’all can tag us on this on our social media on Instagram or Facebook. But you know, give a shout out like what’s your one wisdom and action you’re going to do this week Shannon for emotional and mental wellness.
Shannon M. 57:05
My one wisdom, excuse me, my one action that I’m doing for emotional and mental wellness is oh, I left my planner. On purpose, though, no, but I left. So that so that I would be able to not be so caught up in planning everything. Right. And so sometimes it’s the time to plan. Other times, it’s time to rest and for my emotional and mental wellness. I intentionally am setting aside time to rest. And I know I did that last week, and that’s why it wasn’t on the show. And we’re going to do it again. Because there’s been a lot that’s been going on and I’ve needed that. I’ve seen a little bit more the past few days than I had been before and that’s okay. So time to rest.
Christine Gautreaux 57:56
Tracy from the green room gave us this she’s gonna do hashtag wellness check ins. I love that system in action.
Shannon M. 58:05
We’ll add it that well.
Christine Gautreaux 58:07
We’ll add it absolutely. Because checking in with each other checking in with ourselves and checking in with our community because I think self care and community care are so very, very important.
Shannon M. 58:21
And don’t forget, be well be wise
Christine Gautreaux 58:25
and be whole
Unknown Speaker 58:34
thanks for listening. This has been the women connected and wisdom podcast on-air live on Wednesdays at 5 pm. Eastern via Facebook and YouTube. Be sure to like share and subscribe be part of the conversation and get connected at women connected in wisdom.com.
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