Latest Podcast Episodes

The Backpacks and Hairwraps podcast has two new episodes of season 1! Episode 2 “Finding Your Purpose” aired two weeks ago. If you’ve been pondering your life’s purpose and/or experiencing an awakening during this year, this episode is especially for you! You can check it out here! Episode 3 “Let’s Talk Mental Health” is also …

Managing Perinatal Depression

With the new light being shined on mental health awareness and the open discussion on postpartum depression (see link to blog post from last year), I want to talk about perinatal depression or depression during pregnancy.  This kind of depression often gets mistaken for the common changes that happen during pregnancy like moodiness and being exhausted …

Embarking on a Conscious Pregnancy Journey

When I got pregnant with Jarvis Jr. back in 2014 shortly after I graduated college, I was an emotional wreck. I had heard the stories about pregnancy hormones but I didn’t know how they would affect me. One minute I was crying, the next minute I was angry, and then the next I was spiraling …

Healing Gestational Diabetes

Growing up, I watched my paternal grandmother stick her fingers several times a day to check her “sugar”. At a young age I became familiar with the notion that diabetes “ran in my family”. Every since I can remember, about age 2, I’ve had a heart and a desire to heal. I grew up wanting …

Tips For Managing Depression

One thing I’ve learned through battling depression over the years is acceptance. Instead off resisting what I’m feeling or going through, I’ve become intentional in accepting what is going on in the present and using that awareness to create change. I’ve shared some of my experiences with depression on the blog in past posts, one …

Ways to Do a Mental Detox

Whenever I would hear someone say anything about detoxing, I would automatically assume that they were referring to a physical detox. They probably were talking about flushing their bodies of toxins by using detox tea, sweating, or whatever their preferred method may have been at the time. While those methods may have produced desired results, …

Not On That Couch

When we begin to have honest and uncomfortable conversations regarding mental health we can heal individually and collectively. Until then mental health remains a taboo subject as I have commonly seen it in the black community. Until then we are left to guess and wonder about the matter much less normalize healing.

Managing Postpartum Depression

After suffering in silence with postpartum depression for nearly a year after giving birth to my firstborn, I was determined to have a much more positive postpartum experience this time around. This Saturday will make three months since birthing Legend and so far I’ve had just that, a more positive postpartum experience. I know a …

Affirmations for Postpartum Depression

After giving birth, a woman’s hormones change altering her emotional state aside from the physical aspects of delivering a life into this world. With my oldest son, I experienced postpartum depression in what seemed like the worst way. It took me almost a year to feel “normal” again. When I got into spiritual healing, I …

Be Present

Picture yourself driving down a busy freeway, you’re looking in your rear view mirror the entire time, and your car eventually crashes into another vehicle right in front of you. What did you expect? There’s a reason that you’re able to see clearly what’s in front of you out of the front windshield and that …

Can I Be Honest?

Featured Painting: “Rage”   Can I Be Honest?   I feel everything so deeply right now I just want to cry My emotions are raging I want to eat a full meal Without stuffing my face I want x amount of sleep I want silence I want peace I don’t want to be touched right now …

Deeper Appreciation

Featured Painting: “Sacral Power” Poetry: “Deeper Appreciation” I love my stretch marks I grew a human I love these extra rolls They keeping me warm My iron is low these days anyway Baby on the boob Sometimes sleep takes Precedence over food But I love it Corinthian Elizabeth “All Gifts in Love” The Book of Corinthian …

15 Affirmations for Depression

In the spiritual sense, depression can have many deeply rooted causes. Some of those causes are: not being able to move on from the past resisting change believing that things should be happening differently and not accepting what is harboring resentment, regret, guilt, and shame deep in the subconscious not processing pain but instead attempting to mask it trying …

Emerging

Featured Painting: “Depression” Emerging Wallowing in a deep dark sea At the hands of my oppressor I was under six feet Doing the most Reaping the lesser Feet kicking at this pavement A victim of my own enslavement Would this be the end of me My demise maybe Any possibility to swim up To the …

15 Affirmations for Anxiety

In one of my latest posts, I provided some methods that I have found helpful in managing anxiety. In the spiritual sense, anxiety can result from a lack of trust. This lack of trust shows up as a lack of trust in God, in self, in others, and in the process of life. Here are …

Poetry Series #1 “Purpose In the Pain”

Stepping Stones  What if you could fast forward to the end   And see that every tear, every failure, every disappointment  Was all worth it?  Would you believe that each twist and turn  Yields a lesson to be learned?  Would you believe that every set back  Is merely a stepping stone?  If you saw all that has to take place   Would you keep on keeping on?  Along the …