We are all on a spectrum of mental health and everyone will struggle at some point in their life. Let’s build a toolbox for living better.
Beyond Well With Sheila Hamilton is here to listen, affirm and share stories to help you feel less alone in the world.
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Dave Dahl’s sometimes rocky path to recovery has been brutally public. He’s the icon behind Dave’s Killer Bread, a company he sold for $275 million dollars cash in 2015. His highly publicized breakdown prior to the sale made national headlines.
But, as Dave honestly recounts in this interview, recovery is never a straight line. And access to quality, evidence-based, and timely care has never been more important for people in a mental health crisis. Dave’s experience speaks to the importance of making sure that when in crisis, people have a place to go. Many Oregonians don’t.
Here's one opportunity that would create more access to inpatient services. You can help make that happen:
cedarhillshospital.com/our-community/events/
Beyond Well with Sheila Hamilton: Dave Dahl/ The Killer Breadmaker Gets Real
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Dave Dahl speaks openly about his ongoing management of depression and bipolar disorder and the excruciating climb back from a manic episode that nearly ended his life. Dahl’s entrepreneurial journe...Bringing these experiences out in the open to assist others is truly AWESOME! Thank you Dave. Good luck w your journey Sir.
Bless you Dave for coming out and sharing. So many others are going through the samething, and having you there is great encouragement. You're Awesome! 🙏👏❤😊
Appreciate the work you do, Sheila! ✌️
As per Facebook: "spam involves contacting people with unwanted content... This includes sending bulk messages...". This business may be legit, but I didn't solicit your ad and this meets FBs own definition of spam. Contact them, read your Terms of Service, if you contracted out some tech firm to set this up, fire them. Spam is unethical, the people who distribute it are unethical, the people who try to justify it by saying "I paid them for it" are unethical.
Good bread!
You'd think for, say, $2K or so you could hire people to FIX whatever's wrong with you?
Among our favorite conversations from 2019:
How often will the vast emptiness of grief betray, paralyze or simply astonish us? Again and again and again. "There is no closure." @CherylStrayed observes, "Our grief is in direct proportion to our love. "
Beyond Well with Sheila Hamilton: Beyond Well Looks back at 2019 with Cheryl Strayed on Grief
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We are starting 2020 by taking a look back at a few of our favorite shows from 2019. This show was originally released in March of 2019. It features special guest Cheryl Strayed. The message of Cheryl...
@MikeSchmidt believes the criminalization of people suffering from mental illness needs to end. The former Deputy District Attorney talks with Beyond Well about why he's running for Multnomah County District Attorney and how his time as an inner-city school teacher informed his view of the criminal justice system.
#multnomahcounty #District #attorney #Crime #justice #restorative justice #criminalization #mental illness #
Beyond Well with Sheila Hamilton: Mike Schmidt/Seeing Beyond Labels
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Mike Schmidt is running for Multnomah county district attorney with one of the most multi-dimensional views toward the criminalization of the mentally ill we’ve ever heard. Mike’s experience as an...After the Show Notes from Jenna
Doctors only: Dropping the “self” part of self-care.
If you listened to today’s episode on self-care you now know my dirty little secret-- I really hate the concept of “self-care.” I know I’m not supposed to say that as a therapist, especially not here in Portland where people take their self-care regimes very seriously. But, it’s true; my name is Jenna and I don’t like self-care.
While there are several things I find problematic about the concept of self-care, the main difficulty I have is that framing certain behaviors as “self-care” sets us up for failure. By singling out your “self” from all the other selves (loved ones, critters, others in your life) that you care well for, you are setting up an unhelpful distinction between “me” versus “them.” If self-care is distinct from other-care then that distinction forces us to try to balance those competing and apparently distinct sets of behaviors. Someone is always going to be on the losing end of that balancing act.
You don’t say “I really need to carve out time for ‘daughter care’” or “dog care” or “spouse care” or “friend care.” Hopefully caring well for all those people/critters is just how you interact with them. So why should it be any different for your self? You don’t need to carve out any special self-care time for yourself if being caring is just how you interact with your self.
Instead of trying to ensure that we are caring well for ourselves by highlighting the distinction between “me” versus everyone else, I encourage people to do the opposite. I work with people on developing ways to to start seeing themselves as part of the common humanity that they (hopefully) care well for. In other words, I encourage people to drop the “self” part of self-care and instead focus on moving towards a more holistic value of caring well for all those they are in relationship with. And you know who you spend the most time in relationship with? Your self! So be sure to include her in the group of people you are caring well for.
One concrete tool you can use to develop this skill is Lovingkindness Meditation (LKM) , or as it is also called Metta Meditation. In LKM, the task is to practice seeing all beings as being a part of a common humanity and intentionally responding to all beings in that group with kindness and care, regardless of whether that person is a loved one, someone you have difficulty with, yourself, or someone 1⁄2 way around the world.
So, go ahead and treat yourself to that massage or that weekend away. But if what you want is to care well for yourself in a more ongoing and sustainable way, why not commit to 10-15 minutes every day for two weeks of LKM? Just like anything else, it takes some practice. But the data show that just two weeks of daily LKM can have profound effects that last long after you have stopped meditating. If you’re interested in giving it a shot, you can find several free guided LKM recordings here:
www.actwithcompassion.com/compassion_audio_recordings
Audio recordings to develop self-compassion
www.actwithcompassion.com
Dedicated to bringing kindness and compassion to people struggling with shame and self-criticism. This is a community project. Interested in being a part of it? Join us.