The Lively Lemon

⚠️⚠️ THE LIVELY LEMON IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION⚠️⚠️

We apologize for the lack of content lately. Please be patient as we are in the middle of rebranding and reformatting. Thank you!

🗣 Ways to reduce stress…
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🗣 GM! Here are some ways to help manage or reduce stress…🍋
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April is STRESS AWARENESS month. This month will be focused on stress education and management. Have a WONDERFUL day! 🍋
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🍋RESEARCH: PsychologyToday.com is a website that is great for finding the proper therapist that fits your needs. You can narrow details down to what types of issues the therapists treat, what insurance they accept, even which age group you're looking for.

🍋SET TIME FOR THERAPY: Therapy is NOT at all easy at times. Some days you will leave therapy feeling accomplished other days you may feel sad, angry or confused. Make sure when you schedule your appointments you don't have a lot going on afterwards (like work for example) as you take time to process your feelings and emotions you just experienced from therapy.

🍋HOW COMFORTABLE ARE YOU: After many sessions of therapy if you find yourself still not being able to express yourself freely to your therapist start paying attention as to why you think that is. Are you and your therapist not connecting on a personal level? Do you feel the advice being given is not pertaining to what you're going through? Let your therapist know also what you would like from him/her in return. Its a two way ordeal and lets be honest, you and your insurance are paying for the costs so might as well make it worth your time (and money!).

🍋CONSISTENCY IS KEY: Like it or not therapy takes time.... A LOT of time. Its literally helping you retrain your brain from past traumas and helping you understand while forming new habits. Think of it as exercise for your brain, not just your body. You have to trust the process and give it time. When you find the proper therapist for you it will start to show. Dont give up!

🍋LET IT ALL HANG OUT: I know it isn't easy speaking to a complete stranger about your issues. Building trust with your therapist is important in order for you to be able to open up about things you don't even want to discuss in the first place. Always pay attention to the vibes you are receiving when you are therapist hunting.
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Don’t forget to check on your strong friends folks! The National Su***de Prevention Line is available 24/7 @ 1-800-237-8255. Spread the word to save a life! 🍋
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🗣 | SELF CARE 🍋
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Swipe to learn more about areas of self care and how to help make them flourish. Self care is HUGE when trying to work on your mental health. 🍋
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“First day of school! First day of school!” **in my Nemo voice**
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I would be lying if I told you I wasn’t scared/nervous/doubtful about my first day of graduate school. You grow up having dreams and when you accomplish them it’s like “WHOA! I did it!…. Now what??”. Ya keep going thats what! I’ve always dreamed of making it this far but I’m so hard on myself I never thought I would… or even could. I always remember I’m my biggest critic at the end of the day. I’ve worked so hard to get here all while trying to find myself in the process. Being a mom, working two jobs, school, working on mental/physical/emotional wellness… it’s just been a journey! I’m PROUD of ME! My dream is to help others and it literally brings me so much joy to do so. Don’t stop, keep going, move forward because I PROMISE you there were times I didn’t think I was going to get through and I did… so you will too! 💪🏽
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Recently just spoke about this. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s a DUCK! Don’t ignore your gut. Quick read below.

Letting Go Of Someone Takes Time (But It’s Worth It) Often it’s only after the fact that we discover how little we were getting.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ignored my “gut” about toxic situations and people just to have it eventually turn out exactly how I expected… TOXIC. You know yourself better than anyone so don’t ignore that anxious feeling you have when a certain person’s name comes across your phone screen, when you are having doubts about inviting a certain someone to an event, or when you feel you should no longer be in that relationship. That’s your subconscious giving you a giant “heads up”. 🍋
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Good evening and happy Saturday mental health warriors! 💪🏽
Remember that the healing process not a linear one. Everyday you’re working on your mental health is beautiful progress. No matter how hard it gets, DO. NOT. GIVE. UP. Baby steps are just as important as the big ones. Be proud of yourself! 🤗
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Months back, I made the best decision to cut an individual whom I thought was important to me out of my life. The conversation was then turned on ME as if I did something wrong (I was accused of “looking for a fight”) and I had to explain to this individual that due to the fact they were continuing to be dishonest yet still wanted me in their life, they were no longer going to hear from me and to no longer contact me going forward. I used the exact phrase “I AM PROTECTING MY PEACE”. (By the way, this is a narcissistic trait. These type of people will lie to you to try to keep you around in order to get what they want. In my situation it was because I made this individual feel good about themselves. I praised them for their accomplishments and complimented them on their success on a daily basis so much to to the point that this person would speak to me daily just to receive this type of energy from me). When your peace is disrupted your mind and body will definitely let you know. That “gut feeling” people talk about? Yeah. That’s a REAL thing. Don’t ignore that. Don’t worry about if you’re going to hurt someone else’s feelings, ego, reputation by distancing yourself from them and their bu****it. You yourself also have feelings, an ego, and a reputation… so why does theirs need to come before yours? IT DOESN’T! YOU come first. Don’t feel guilty for cutting off individuals who are making you question why they are still present in your life. It can be very difficult to do so but in the long run you will be happy you did, plus you will begin to see the early signs of toxicity within people and situations. Make those budget cuts and save your money (time⏰/energy🔋) hunny! 😏
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🗣 : For those of you who have never experienced an anxiety or panic attack….it’s awful to say the least. Once the symptoms start (thoughts racing, heavy breathing, rapid heart beat) it’s almost like you have no control of your body for a moment. That short moment can feel like an eternity as well. When coming down from the attack lots of guilt tends to comes to play. You begin to question yourself…
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“Why did that just happen?”, “How come I was unable to stop myself?”, “Will this happen again but even worse? Will someone be around? Will I do it in a public setting next time??”.
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I believe the emotions experienced after an attack is the fact that you were unable to control what was happening to you until it’s happening and even THEN it freaks you out trying to get a grip back on reality. If you know someone who has anxiety/panic attacks remember that when the episode is over they will be feeling pretty hard on themselves for not being able to control this as bad as they want to. Ask the individual if the would like to talk about it or how you may be of assistance during/after the episode. If you are someone who experiences these often remember to BREATH deeply during the episode and when it’s over to do your best to give yourself grace. Say to yourself “I made it through! It’s over. Now let’s assess what may have caused it this time so I can try to be better prepared if it happens again”. Positive self talk really goes a long way and can help turn the negative emotions experienced after attacks into positive lessons.
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It’s amazing to see all of these athletes not be afraid to use their platform to express the importance of mental health. TAKE CARE OF YOU!

This is the greatest gymnast of all time. And she is currently the best athlete in the world. A 4x Gold Medalist at 24yrs old. Some Things they’ve done to her:

1.) Changed the rules to make it more “fair” for others
2.) Said she’s “too good” and blamed her, saying her stunts encouraged others to perform dangerously during competition
3.) Scrutinized her height and build
4.) Told her she would be rated differently than other gymnasts due to being “too good”

There is more I could add.. and she STILL put the country on her back. She qualified to
win Gold in ALL 6 gymnastic competitions, a feat no American gymnast had qualified for in nearly 30 years. But on Sunday, her and other team members made uncharacteristic errors. It happens to the best of us. Yet when the team did not perform up to par, some tried to blame her, in spite of her having already won by landslide in qualifiers.

If you know her story, you know she is NOT weak mentally. She is human. They have tried to beat her down for being better at what she does that what anyone else does. It’s not about the bad day they had. Since qualifiers, they’ve tried to drag her for being a nearly perfect athlete, something we have NEVER seen.

“It wasn't an easy day or my best but I got through it. I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times," Biles said on Instagram. “I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn't affect me but damn sometimes it's hard hahaha! The olympics is no joke!" she added.

Whether she competes in the rest of the games or not, we will support this beautiful, talented, and mentally TOUGH black woman. It is not WEAK to put your mental health first. In fact, it’s the strongest thing one can do, when they know things are on the line.

No one is or will ever be better. Simone is forever the 🐐



CC: Wellness for the Culture, LLC

BOUNDARIES ARE IMPORTANT ‼️

If someone or something isn’t giving you joy, helping you grow, or adding value to your life they gotta go. Period. You have one life to live, so live it how YOU want to. Not how others want you to. Healthy boundaries help protect your peace. 🍋
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Taking breaks to take care of your mental health is 🔑.

Following a win in her opening match at the Olympics, Naomi Osaka says she's "happy again" after taking a break from tennis to focus on her mental health.

https://es.pn/3rAMyox

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July is ! Join us as we highlight
, mental health supports created by
BIPOC and QTBIPOC, for BIPOC and QTBIPOC. Learn more: mentalhealthmn.org/news/july-is-black-indigenous-and-people-of-color-bipoc-month/

Naomi Osaka has a suggestion for how athletes' mental health could be handled.

I really wanted to share this post as a video experience but given the fact that I’m still healing through some things I was unable to bring myself to do so as it’s too emotionally impacting at this time. 🍋
As stated before, this platform is meant to be a RAW experience. I don’t feel the need to hide my struggles because everyone is struggling with SOMETHING even during their healing process. If my struggle can help someone else not feel alone I will always share. I’m no longer embarrassed of the things I dealt with in my past. I was learning and still am. There is no book on how we should live life. We just grow through what we go through.
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With that being said, I will continue to stress how important it is to make sure you have the proper support system surrounding you. If you don’t, it can just lead to more damaging experiences causing you to feel even more depressed, anxious, etc. I was trying to build a life with someone who didn’t understand mental health nor did he try to seek to understand it even when he was (and still is) struggling with mental health issues himself. Communication about mental wellness is extremely important when you plan to have strong relationships with one another - whether that be romantic, friendly, or family.
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As a minority, what does mental health mean to you? 🤔

| to be educated and find access to available resources. Have a great Wednesday my mental health warriors! 💪🏽
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‼️MAJOR 🔑☝🏽

CONTROL from a narcissist stems from their insecurities. Victims from narcissist abuse began to suffer from anxiety and PTSD due to walking on eggshells and trying to please their abuser to avoid conflict. for personal experiences…🍋
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Happy Independence Day to all my mental health warriors! 🇺🇸
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