Feeling overwhelmed by the weight of depression is an experience I, Mariana, know all too intimately. As the host of MAMI on a Mission Podcast, I'm laying bare my struggles with this often-misunderstood condition, aiming to shatter the stigmas that loom large, particularly in our Latino community. This heartfelt conversation is an invitation for you to sit with me in the discomfort, to recognize that the face of depression isn't always marked by tears, and to understand the power of acknowledging when we're not okay. Our cultural tapestry has long woven silence into the fabric of mental health, but together, we're picking apart the threads to reveal a more supportive and educated narrative.
Embarking on a path to recovery is more than acknowledging the need for help; it's actively engaging in practices that lift us from the fog. In our latest episode, I discuss the small but mighty steps that have become pillars of my mental wellness journey—from the unexpected delight of crafting candles to the grounding force of daily routines and exercises. As we anticipate a rich dialog with a mental health professional, I invite you to reflect on your own rituals that foster peace of mind. This episode isn't just about sharing my journey; it's about igniting conversation, promoting healing within our community, and embracing the joy that comes from caring for our collective well-being.
Feeling overwhelmed by the weight of depression is an experience I, Mariana, know all too intimately. As the host of MAMI on a Mission Podcast, I'm laying bare my struggles with this often-misunderstood condition, aiming to shatter the stigmas that loom large, particularly in our Latino community. This heartfelt conversation is an invitation for you to sit with me in the discomfort, to recognize that the face of depression isn't always marked by tears, and to understand the power of acknowledging when we're not okay. Our cultural tapestry has long woven silence into the fabric of mental health, but together, we're picking apart the threads to reveal a more supportive and educated narrative.
Embarking on a path to recovery is more than acknowledging the need for help; it's actively engaging in practices that lift us from the fog. In our latest episode, I discuss the small but mighty steps that have become pillars of my mental wellness journey—from the unexpected delight of crafting candles to the grounding force of daily routines and exercises. As we anticipate a rich dialog with a mental health professional, I invite you to reflect on your own rituals that foster peace of mind. This episode isn't just about sharing my journey; it's about igniting conversation, promoting healing within our community, and embracing the joy that comes from caring for our collective well-being.
Welcome back to another episode of Mommy on a Mission podcast, the podcast that empowers Latino women, and all women, to reach their impossible goals, one dream at a time. I'm your host, mariana, and today's episode is a heartfelt exploration of a topic that touches many lives coping with depression. So grab your cafecito and let's take this time this morning to talk about this topic. Ready, let's go. Hello, hello and welcome to the Mommy on a Mission podcast, where empowerment meets inspiration. I'm your host, mariana, a life coach and author, on a mission to help Latino women, and all women, to reach their impossible goals, one dream at a time. Join me on this incredible adventure as we dive into compelling subjects that will uplift motivate and ignite your passion.
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Get ready to be inspired, empowered and never give up on your dreams. This is the podcast where we turn dreams into unstoppable missions. Are you ready? Let's go Well good morning, amigas.
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I am so glad that you all are with me today, on this Saturday morning. I hope you're enjoying your little cafecito, or whatever drink it is that you're having with me this morning. But listen, I wanted to start first by acknowledging that depression is a real and challenging experience that many of us face right, and it's important to have open conversations about it to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health. I am no stranger to depression. I am on medication for depression because at times, it can be a huge struggle. Right, many of us struggle with it, and I wanted to share a little bit about what happened to me recently, because I want this podcast to be raw, I want it to be authentic and I want it to be about real life situations because guess what y'all? I may be a podcaster, I may be an author, I may be a life coach, but I'm also human and because of that, I also have things that I go through in life. I'm no stranger to it. I'm just as much struggling with certain things in my life, just as probably many of you are right.
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However, the one thing that I will say is that it did take a very long time for me to even accept depression in my life. For many, many, many years I never wanted to acknowledge it. I didn't want to accept it for myself, I didn't want to be on medication, and partially it's because, as a Latina, it's frowned upon. We are not as open or as accepting to it. And when I say we, I mean our mothers, I mean generations before us, right, because I am a first generation on my mom's side, second generation on my dad's side, american, and mental health was not something that we talked about in school. Mental health was not something that we talked about at home, and even if we did throw a hint about it, it was an unfamiliar word, and so we didn't know how to describe our feelings. We didn't know how to describe our emotions. It was either I was a rebellious child, or I was being too lazy, or I was a procrastinator, or, you know, nunca iba a ser lo que decía que iba a ser, right. And so for a long time we did not have a word for what we were feeling. And so, as I gotten older and as the words anxiety, depression, postpartum depression, posttraumatic depression, as all these terms are becoming more and more familiar in society, and I would even say within the last 10 years.
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It's a topic that is heard of, even in the schools. I don't know if they're doing a great job of explaining the differences between mental health and just normal you know bumps in life but what I do know is that it's out there, the message is out there. They even have counselors now in the schools that help with that. Now, they didn't have that for me back then, at least not when I was in school. They didn't have things such as counselors that you could go to. The counselors that I knew were school counselors that helped you with your schedule, but not about emotional things. And had it been something that would have been available to me, it would have been very beneficial, because I was going through so much as a teenager that I did not know how to really address what I was feeling, the struggles that I was going through, the emotions that I had. None of it, I couldn't describe it, I didn't know how to share it and I, let alone, didn't know how to talk about it.
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So all of this to say that last week I fell into depression for like three days and it was. It becomes debilitating at times. It was to the point where I did not want to get out of bed. It was hard for me to get up and go to work, and I just didn't want to go anywhere. I only got out of bed just to get up, grab something to eat, see that my kids got home, whatever, but while everybody was gone off to work in school, I stayed in bed, I drew the shades and didn't want light to come in. I mean, I was just sitting with my depression for three days last week, and that's not easy to talk about and that's not easy to want to discuss, but I wanted to openly share that with you all, because I want you to understand that it's okay. It's okay to allow yourself some time to sit with it. The key thing, though, is to not sit with it for so long that it becomes that much harder to get out of, and that's one thing that I did not want to happen.
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Because I know what depression is, because I know what it feels like, and because I know what it can be for me, it was easier for me to identify what I was going through, and so you might be saying well, mariana, why are you feeling depressed? Like, are you sad Because a lot of things were going good for you. There's a lot of things that are in your life that are going really well. So why are you depressed, like what's going on? And here's the thing about depression. There doesn't necessarily have to be anything you're struggling with. Depression just can sneak up on you and in all honesty, I will say that it's perhaps maybe that I'm trying to wean myself off a depression medication, so that could be a thing, or it could just be that, you know, sometimes there's what's called seasonal depression, especially in the winter it gets to an alt.
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You know, it gets higher during the winter time because there's less light. You're always indoors, so by the time you do get out, it's already starting to get dark, especially if you work inside, you know, in an office or something. So if you're not always out in the light, then you probably won't get much of it during the day. So you wake up it's dark, you go to, you get off of work, it's dark, so there's hardly any light, and so it can be seasonal depression as well. But is there one thing to pinpoint? No, absolutely not.
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And the thing about it is is that depression doesn't always look sad. Okay, there are high functioning people who are dealing with depression, and you see them and they're always smiling, they're laughing, and you would never, ever think that they were suffering from any type of depression. And I can be one of those people. I can always be smiling, I can always be happy, I can always look a certain way. Now, mind you, doesn't mean that every time I'm laughing or happy, that it's not authentic, because it is okay. It is, but then it becomes so strong that by the end of the night I could just be like crying, I could be in tears.
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So that's why I wanted to share with you those things. I wanted to share with you that I didn't want to tell anybody that I was going. You know that I was having a moment of depression, I didn't want to say anything, but then I had to remember wait a minute, I'm a life coach and what do I tell you guys? What do I tell all of you? That it's okay to share what you're feeling, that it's okay to expose it out in the open, because if we keep it silent, if we don't say anything, if we don't acknowledge it and we don't ask people to be there our support system that all we're doing is suppressing our feeling and once again, we are hiding something that does not need to be hidden.
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And if you're a Christian, like I am, I'm a true believer that what you don't open out, if you don't express it, if you don't talk about it, then the enemy is going to use that right to attack you. And here's another thing and again, I am a Christian, so I believe this whole heartedly that sometimes, when things are going so well in your life and exciting things, and God has truly blessed you and he's been opening up doors for you and you've been giving God all the praise and glory for the things that are going on in your life, the enemy gets mad. And so what is he going to do? He's going to use a weakness against you, and in my case, right now, it's depression. And so for a long time I hadn't felt those feelings. I didn't feel sad, I didn't you know, I don't always just want to, you know, be in my room or or anything like that, but sometimes, like this time around, it got me. But I told myself no, no, no, no, I'm not going to allow for the enemy to use my weakness against me. I said I've been in bed Wednesday, thursday, now Friday. I said it's been three days.
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On the third day I reached out to a couple of my amigas and I said, hey, y'all, this is what's going on in my life. I need for y'all to pray for me. And immediately they started praying for me and immediately I can feel that release and, thankfully, thank God that I had a workshop that I needed to do on Saturday. I'm thankful that there were some other activities going on on Saturday that got me out of bed. It got me out of bed and it got me moving. My prayer group was with me Saturday morning and we were diving deep into God's word. And then after that I had a workshop that I needed to do. And then after that I went to a friend's housewarming party, and so it got me back into that feeling of getting out of my room, getting out of that space and going out and doing stuff, and it was the best therapy that I could have had for myself. And then Sunday was just as therapeutic as it was on Saturday, because my daughter was here with her friends and they were practicing their dances for her kinsignata and I had other things that I needed to do. And then I got with my best friend and we went out to eat. So it was just a lot of things. And then I told a couple of other people what I was feeling and what I was going through, and they immediately started praying for me as well. And so it's those things.
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When you start to open it up and you say you know what, you know what. I know what you're trying to do here. I know what it is that you're trying to do. I know that God is trying to level me up. I know that God is trying to take me to places that you don't want me to go. Why? Because I know that he is going to use me for his purpose and you don't want that to happen, and so you're using this against me. But you know what. You're not going to do it. You're not going to win. You got me for three days. That's all you got, and you're not going to have me anymore, and it's almost like a breath of fresh air came back into me, and so I share that.
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To let you know, amigas, talk about your feelings, talk about what's going on with you. There's going to be days that you're just not. You're feeling energized and everything, and then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you're going to feel the sadness, and it's OK. And if you've never, ever, ever gone to therapy, I highly recommend it, because it's going to teach you some ways to cope when you're in those moments, when you're in those feelings, and so, but for myself, I am going to share with you five things that I do to help me cope, especially when I'm having those moments. Ok, so the first tip is reach out for support. Discuss the importance of seeking help from friends, family and professionals.
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Again, I reached out to Miami. You guys are like hey, y'all, I didn't want to talk about this, but listen, this is what I want to tell you. I want to tell you that I've been having it rough for the last three days. I've been dealing with a bout of depression. I haven't been wanting to get out of bed, I've just been feeling sadness. I've been talking to God and I've been feeling frustrated and I'm just tired of it. And so I need you all to help pray with me and I just need you all to give me some words of encouragement. And they did exactly that. They didn't judge me, they didn't say, like what girl, what? You're still feeling it. They didn't tell me anything like that. They were right there and they just did what they knew how to do best and that was the best thing that they could have done for me.
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Another thing establish a routine. Explore how maintaining a daily routine can provide structure and stability. So I have been here recently, been working with a trainer and I've been working out again. I've been doing cardio, moving around, but I'm getting my calendar together because, of course, it's a new year, so I've got to get a new calendar and I had to plan out some things, but things to keep me engaged, to keep me focused. So I'm a person that needs to have structure and stability. I just do. I need to have structure, I need to know what I need to be doing every day.
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Another thing is engage in activities you enjoy no-transcript, the power of doing things you love as a form of self care. So I was talking to a group on Saturday. Now was talking about like how many of you take some time out for yourself, like how many of you go out to dinner with yourself or go to the movies or just doing things that you enjoy doing, you know, and so at the workshop they're doing with that's exactly what we're doing today and they were creating candles and it was the most wonderful experience was this is a place where they have workshops to learn how to make candles and it was so therapeutic. I mean, I was just like, yes, this is exactly where I need to be. The fragrances of the candles, all of it was so enjoyable that it just kind of rejuvenized me again and I took it as a form of self care because I was around other women we were, you know, they were creating these candles, making them so beautiful and smelling so good, and it was just so enjoyable to be there and so I was so glad that I was able to get to have that opportunity to do this workshop of, you know, goal setting and being intentional about your goals and stuff and how to incorporate candles into all of that. So, yeah, I had so much fun doing that.
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Again, prioritizing your health you know, again I'm starting to work on my physical and mental well-being. You know I need to be able to make sure that, as I am weaning off medication, that I'm weaning off in just the right way, you know, because a lot of times people will go cold turkey on their medication and you shouldn't do that. You have to follow the directions of your doctor, especially if the doctor has prescribed you a certain amount and you want to wean off, then you need to do it by the doctor's orders. Wean off, you know, carefully and slowly, until you get to that point where you're completely weaned out of it. Right, and maintaining physical exercise is making that part of your routine. Fitting it in, even if it's just walking for 30 minutes every other day, can be a huge game changer for anyone. I know that it is for me.
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Another thing and the last thing, the last tip that I'll share is practice mindfulness and self-compassion. Having some mindfulness techniques and being kind to yourself, and that is one that is one of the things that I did during this time that I was going through what I was going to. I gave myself permission to feel the way that I was feeling. I gave myself permission to just lay around and not do anything and just be in the moment. Right, and I started to breathe. So I would close my eyes, I would listen to music and I would just kind of just do breathing exercises and breathe in, breathe out. I'd relax myself. I started to dive deep into God's word, because that's what I do. I started reading God's word and just finding scripture that was going to encourage me, that was going to uplift me and that was going to give me the thing that I needed to allow myself that that time of being intentional about what I was feeling and stuff, and then allowing myself some grace I had to extend myself grace during the time that I was going through what I was going through. So so, amigas, I just wanted to share a little bit of that information with you.
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I know that this episode is a little shorter than others, but I do want to say that I do want to hear back from you. I want to hear about what coping mechanisms you use. Share your tips or questions on Instagram. I I'm at Hola, mommy on a Mission. Hashtag me with Mommy on a Mission, but let me know what you think about this episode. Let me think about what ways you handle if you're going through depression or what do you do when you're experiencing anxiety. I want to hear back from you and I'm also gonna bring and a friend of mine who is a counselor she's a. She does psychotherapy, her name is Melinda Garcia and she has her own practice and we're gonna talk a little bit more about mental health in the world of Latina women and we're gonna go ahead and ask her a few questions. So please, when you hear this episode, ask me some questions, let me know what you think. That way I can ask the expert on mental health and she can give us some guidance and some insight on the importance of expressing concerns about mental health.
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Okay, so, as we wrap up today's episode, remember that you're not alone in your journey. There is strength in seeking help and supporting one another, and I want you to join me next time on the Mommy on a Mission podcast for more empowering discussion. So remember, subscribe, share and leave me a review, because I love to hear from you. Okay, alright, amiga, thank you so much for spending this Saturday morning with me. I know this wasn't one of the happiest of topics, but I think none of the less. I think it's important to discuss it and I think it's important that I share that. You know, even I, mariana, also experience those moments, those battles with depression. Okay, bueno, nos vemos el próximo sábado. At the same time, 8 am next Saturday on the Mommy on a Mission podcast.
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If you are hearing this message, you've listened to the entire episode and for that I want to say me gracias from the bottom of my heart. If you would like to dive deeper into today's message and would like to connect with me, send the DM on Instagram at Hola, mommy on a Mission, or Facebook at Mommy on a Mission. You can also find me at Mommy on a Mission dot com. I hope you've enjoyed this new episode and if you did, it would mean the world to me if you would subscribe, share this podcast and leave me a review on Spotify and Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to your podcast. Tune in next week for some more words of motivation, inspiration and encouragement on Mommy on a Mission podcast.