Maat E's Mental Health Message

Face, feel then fight your fears. Before we can overcome the obstacle of something we are afraid of we must face it or identify exactly what it is. Facing it also means turning our attention to the fear, not avoiding that it exists. Once we clarify what we fear the next step is to allow ourselves to feel all of the emotions that come with it. Go into whatever the fear brings up as difficult and painful as it may be. Relief will come. Then fight. Take acton to address or remove the factors that create the fear in the first place. Work hard against it and you will over come.

Maat E's Mental Health Message

Act to please your higher-self then worry about pleasing other people. 

When you follow your intuition and act based on internal trust, there is no way you can go wrong.  It is very easy to get caught up in pleasing other people. We then find ourselves making externally based choices and acting on decisions that serve everyone except our higher-self. It is important to consider the needs of others, but not at the expense of your own well-being. Practice the habit of pleasing your higher self. It always knows best and can not steer you wrong.

Ma'at E's Mental Health Message

It is more important to take action toward what you want to be doing than trying to avoid actions you don't want to do. So for example, instead of trying to avoid an argument, practice communicating more calmly. Instead of trying not to drink too much soda, drink more water. Talk in a loving tone instead of trying not to be nasty.  The idea behind these examples is that what we focus on we attract.  Ultimately. what we do more of replaces what we want to do less.

Ma'at E's Mental Health Message

Resurrect yourself! Return to life!

Many of us walk around in life each year as if we are dead. We have little joy and can not seem to take action or go about life in a way that has some meaning. When we feel like we are walking dead or simply find ourselves doing the same routine or the same activity day in and day out, then it is time to resurrect and return to life. One of the simplest ways to beginning living a more full life is to take action. Begin doing something you don't usually do. More importantly, begin doing something that reconnects you to your sense of spirit--that feeling or consciousness within that is connected to things greater than yourself. Once you begin taking action life will feel more like it is meant to be lived. Have a peace filled day.

The Psychological Impact of a Walking While Black Death

On February 26, 2012, seventeen year old Trayvon Martin was killed, essentially walking while Black by a man named George Zimmerman, the admitted shooter who has yet to be arrested.  The news reports lay out this tragedy that potentially has profound emotional and psychological implications for Trayvon's family and countless Americans, particulary Black individuals across this nation because of the racism-related dynamics involved.

When any child dies it is a loss of grave proportion that most families will struggle with to understand no matter what the circumstances. We know loss brings physical, emotional, social and spiritual processes of grief like crying, sadness, anger, isolation, activism, and questioning or relying on faith to heal among other things. How we grieve may vary widely depending upon the person and it is important to allow that process to run its course. When the process of grief involves a racism-related death its impact can go beyond the typical or atypical response to death we may have.

Racism has many varied and debated definitions, yet it can be thought of in terms of its individual, cultural or institutional contexts--that is prejudice, discrimination or bias based on a real or perceived power differential by a single person, in group based cultural and social practices, or in the institutional practices of an organization.   With the loss of Trayvon Martin all three contexts are potentially at play to affect the emotional and psychological grief processes that the victim's family and countless others may experience. On top of the expected grief process from such a loss there is the potential for a psychological impact on a person given the context of the individual, cultural or institutional racism-related dynamics.

Individual - Psychological response based upon the actions of the perpetrating individual

• Overall distress and anxiety about your personal safety
• Fear that the perpetrator will strike again (e.g., fear he will act with racial bias or kill again)
• Fear that one is not safe in situations with other individuals (e.g., being afraid of people that are similar or reminiscent of the perpetrator based on race or gender)
• Anger toward the prepetrator and a wish or preoccupation to inflict harm or revenge
• Being suspicious or mistrusting of other individuals 

Cultural - Psychological response based upon the cultural or social bias of the situation

• Self-loathing or preoccupation about your skin color making other people uncomfortable
• Self-loathing and questioning that you do not belong in certain communities or neighborhoods (e.g., questioning yourself about being Black and where you choose to live, work or play)
• Fear and anxiety over how you dress (e.g., wearing a hooded sweatshirt may draw suspicion of you as criminal or deviant)
• Anxiety about being in environments that are unfamiliar or where others are culturally different from you (e.g., being afraid that the way you dress, talk, or wear your hair may draw threat or harm)
• Anger toward other cultural values and norms

Institutional - Psychological response based upon the institutional practices of an organization

• Fear and on-going worry that law enforcement will not protect you because of your skin color
• Fear and on-going worry that law enforcement will ignore your pleas for help because of your skin color
• Anger at the justice system for instituting potentially racially biased laws (e.g., wondering if most people killed under the "stand your ground" law are people of color)
• Confusion about what is justice and the purpose of our justice system
• Anxiety and hesitation to report concerns to the police or the criminal justice system
• Mistrust of social and helping institutions and the people that work for them (e.g, mistrusting all police officers and representatives of the justice system)

These potential psychological responses are of concern because they not only create short-term distress, but can lead to chronic stress that affects mental and physical health.  When Trayvon's shooter is arrested and prosecuted, it may address and sooth some of the distress in the individual context.  For example, the family and community may feel some reduction in fear and anger that the perpetrator will kill again. However, as a direct result of the impact of this loss, the family and others may maintain anxiety and fear about the environments in which they live, their choices for dress and cultural expression, and the color of their skin being a justification for threat or harm against them. This is in addition to the basic grief of losing a son, family member, friend or a member of one's racial or cultural group and humanity. Moreover, the psychological impact of the institutional racism will potentially haunt many of us for years to come as this cases plays itself out and as we will continue to have interactions with the very law enforcement and criminal justice institutions implicated for not acting justly in this tragedy.

Thankfully, there is strength and resiliency to be found in this tragedy. The voices of this nation are speaking out to call for justice and to come together to support and heal Trayvon's family and ourselves. The remarkable thing is that Trayvon's spirit is impacting the world and doing great things in mobilizing others to act for justice.  We all have divine purpose in life. For some of us it is not manifest while we are living, but because of the power of our spirits we have the capacity to impact other people and social systems well beyond our physical time on earth.  May God Bless Trayvon Martin, his family and all of us. Let this tragedy be a blessing and a lesson for those of us who will remember him and do something to let his spirit live on.

Peace,
Ma'at E. L. Lewis, Ph.D.
Psychologist
www.drmaat.com

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Ma'at E's Mental Health Message

No matter what you think is true, there is always another perspective!  Although it may seem far from reach now, another way of thinking and living is possible. Sometimes we get trapped in a pattern of thinking that we come to believe is true. For example, we tell ourselves we are sick, weak, unlovable, unmanageable, not fit and so on. These message we tell ourselves can take on a life of their own and we start to believe they are true. Everyone else may see things differently, yet in our own mind we are trapped. Challenge yourself to consider that there is another perspective. What you think especially if it makes you less than the Divine spark that you are can be thought of differently. To help change your thoughts start challenging every negative thought with the thought that it may not be true or that there may be another perspective. You don't have to prove it yet, just start the challenge. Over time new truths will present themselves because you allowed a space for the ideas to come in. Have a peace filled day.

Spend time controlling your own thoughts verse the thoughts of everyone else.