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I hope everyone is doing well and recovering from the massive SoCal heatwave of the past few weeks. I'm also hoping that everyone and their communities are safe from the various wild fires that have been raging. In Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, the Line and Bridge fires affected hundreds of acres. My family home in the San Bernardino county was very close to the line fire and when I tell you that my nervous system was on fire too, I'm not even joking the least bit. I'm still recovering. TMI - I have a stress rash that's slowly going away. I spent several sleepless nights tossing and turning, hoping that our town of Arrowbear and Running Springs would be spared. If you or your business were evacuated, my heart goes out to you. It's so hard to sit with fear, uncertainty and lack of control. The way I sit with uncertainty is with creativity. It's true. In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, your girl over here created a "Coloring with Fear and Uncertainty" coloring book. I laugh at myself because, seriously? I created a coloring book. It's here if you'd like to download it. This time felt a little different as the flames kept getting closer and closer to our town. Firefighters worked around the clock and still today, it's still about 51% contained. We saw videos of them knocking on doors, discussing and preparing for evacuations. Some were even captured on cameras watering plants. They strategized for hours on end and tried to keep the panacea at bay. Although so many ancestor trees and acreage was burned and affected, my home and town are currently safe. I know that living in a mountain town increases the risk of fire dramatically. For today, we are safe and I am eternally grateful for those who spend their working hours keeping us safe and responding to fires.
*New Book Alert* To express my gratitude and cope with uncertainty, I turned to creating a new gratitude book focused on Firefighters. I had the idea of creating this gratitude book so the community can write their thank you letters from different places in the community, such as a local shop, restaurant or library. Once it's filled up, it gets gifted to the local fire station. As a helper myself, people are always asking how they can repay us for the work we do. And honestly, a sincere thank you is all we need to reinforce the reason we came into this work: honoring humanity. I'm giving away book copiesto local businesses and agencies who were affected by the wildfires. Do you own a business that was impacted or know anyone who does? If so, click below to request a book. Or please forward to anyone you know who would like to participate.
*Quantities are limited but you can also purchase one by clicking below. Ideas for community groups:
New updates to the Online Digital Courses CourseI just updated this course to add a few new great opportunities. I talk about how Teachery is now offering a Lifetime Deal for the digital platform. Spoiler alert (because your time is precious): They're selling access to their course platform for $550. This is a steal and I'm a little jealous because it wasn't available when I got Teachery through WAIM Coaching Program (but I still got it for free through the program). Either way, if you're looking for a business investment and don't want to get stuck paying a monthly fee to an online course program, Teachery might be a good option for you. Annnd as with all things affiliate, I will share my links and if you purchase through my link, I will offer you one coaching hour session to help you with your course. Check it out soon before the deal expires. I explain this and more in the course.
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I'm a Latina therapist and writer who loves to talk about mental health & wellness, personal development, and writing & storytelling. Subscribe to my newsletter to be a part of my mental health corner.
So many of us are sitting with clients who carry racism in their bodies. There's the client who stopped sleeping after the raids started in her neighborhood. There's the one who smiles through every meeting at work and then comes to session unable to say why he's so tired. Or like my neighbor's compadre, the one who is undocumented and is no longer able to do meet ups for pizza in the neighborhood -- for fear that he might get deported. Most of our training never gave us language for this,...
Hello Summer, Hello Sunshine! I'm super excited to share with you all the book cover for our book. Stand Up, Speak Up and Heal: Overcome Race-Based Traumatic Stress, Self-Advocate and Stay Grounded is a book written by three women of color, myself Sofia Mendoza, LCSW, Dr. Lisa Bolden @drlisabolden and Dr. Lizbeth Gaona, LCSW @drlizbethgaona. Together, we anchored onto the liberation and DBT and somatic practices that have helped guide us in our work with helping BIPOC clients heal from...
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and I hope that you're tending to your mental health in the best way. I've been tending to my mental health by getting massages! May has been busy with events, talks, and project deadlines for me. Which means that I've been on the computer A LOT. I have so much tension in my neck and shoulders... and even in my calves and thighs. Pretty much everywhere. Yesterday I had my 3rd weekly massage and many parts of it were painful and other parts totally...