My journey to Holistic Wellness and navigating Traditional Mental Health services

My journey to Holistic Wellness and navigating Traditional Mental Health services

 Like every journey there was a beginning but fortunately this journey doesn't have an end so you have the pleasure of following along as it continues to evolve to the next step, on and on...

For me, using the term "Holistic Wellness" was not part of a trend or fad, it has been an active embodiment of practices in my everyday life and I use the term confidently knowing the full scope of the practice. To keep it brief I consider holistic wellness to be an integration of my dedication to wellness through engaging the (3) elements of my human body: mind, body and soul. 

I always dabbled within holistic wellness as my personality has always been to be curious, DIY, and in search of happiness. Although to get here and have learned what I have, I also needed to navigate through traditional mental health services and find my own balance for what I know to work for me. 

Navigating Traditional Mental Health Services

Disclaimer, even though I will say that I used to "self-diagnose" and deny the need for support, that doesn't mean that I promote that. My experience is specific to my own life circumstances, being the youngest of 3 and the only daughter I took on people pleasing and perfectionism as a way to connect and seek basic psychosocial support from my family. I always wanted to be "easy-going", helpful, follow the rules and truly just be perfect to cause the least stress and receive the greatest emotional outcome. Truth is, I was VERY much in need of words of affirmation, emotional regulation support and simple connection. 

All these factors stirred up the perfect set of future consequences and circumstances... we skip forward to a 22 year old with anxious attachment, anxiety, depression and chronic illness. Navigated and masked in the best possible way until, I was alone with myself and my thoughts. I slept very little, overworked my body, did not feed my body the most nourishing foods and had horrible work/life balance habits (normal for any 20 sum year old right?) BUT WHY????? --- anyways more on that in a later post. 

I seeked help only because I started grad school and my school provided accessible mental health resources, I was feeling hopeless and endlessly frustrated with my inability to focus, navigate basic life stressors, my irritability that was affecting my relationships and this onset of new lows for me. 

Remember I mentioned I would self-diagnose? well this made it easy for me to communicate what was "wrong" with me to the psychologist/psychiatrist I met with... I downplayed a lot and truthfully I have always been high functioning but less because of my actual capability to sustain it and mostly because of my cultural factors and upbringing. I did the tests, went through the process of making my appointments and pouring my unbearable situation out to a stranger, just to prove that I wasn't "making it up", "being difficult", "wanting an easy way out" like many folx who do not understand mental health would suggest. This process was exhausting and when I finally connected with a therapist and started working with her, I had a breakthrough that set me free...

Back to Holistic Wellness

The truth is, I wanted to access Traditional Mental Health services only to prove what I already knew to be true. I also in part of my grief, pain and depression wanted to be validated and heard without judgement. My biggest mistake was wanting to search for bigger answers, solutions that traditional mental health could NEVER bring me. 

I wanted the secret sauce, the solution to why our society is so in-need, in so much pain and why it was so dang hard to "be happy". Most of the answers to my grand questions were faced in the same way my parents had growing up, "thats just how it is"... Of course different than my parents' responses, in the traditional mental health field, there are great therapists that make the effort to support you through this hopelessness with coping strategies but the answer hit me the same way. Here is where Holistic Wellness makes its grand entrance... my mind had struggled for so many years alone that this was the final step I needed to step into the confidence I feel when sharing about Holistic Wellness... I had placed so much pressure on myself to feel the best, to be grateful and to not feel the way I was feeling. Traditional mental health treatment gave me the push to start to invest in myself FURTHER than my diagnosis, and further than looking forward to meeting with someone who listened to me and made me work for solutions I already knew. 

Where the two meet

Holistic wellness, gave me a challenge to see life for what it is but also nurture my WHOLE self as a daily practice, rather than as a prescription for when something went wrong. Holistic wellness is preventative care whereas I learned traditional mental health (for me) was part of the reaction to heal the damage I did by not being mindful of my overall wellbeing (mind, body, soul). Part of this holistic health care included me working with a life coach that provided me with a culturally sensitive way to explore my identity. I also worked with an amazing spiritual coach who is a therapist and Reiki practitioner seamlessly blending both into a centered soul care experience. Yes, my therapist whom I worked with helped me reframe my thoughts of hopelessness and supported me in being accountable for my emotional regulation BUT without holistic health care I would not have been able to sustain it as an intentional life practice. 

Me sharing a brief snippet of my journey is in hopes to not only advocate for mental health and traditional mental health services BUT ALSO, inviting folx to learn about holistic wellness and how transformative self-awareness and and an integrative treatment approach can be.  

This is also an introduction to what brought me to create: Viviendo una Vida Bonita - a holistic wellness and lifestyle movement that empowers Latine Communities to tomar la vida en nuestras manos, and truly LIVE life. 

Follow me on Instagram to keep up with all things holistic wellness: @viviendounavidabonita 

and @vida.iluminame for more spiritual guidance and energy healing modalities 💛