Maat E's Mental Health Message

If you need to know yourself better, start by learning where you are from.

For many people of African descent our daily struggles stem from not knowing ourselves. We go through life with little direction or clarity about what we stand for or is important. We may have internalized the values and culture given to us by others and take the beliefs of the dominate culture as the gospel for ourselves. To offset these ways of being we must know ourselves, beginning with where we come from. Start the learning with Africa in general, but don't stop there. Seek to find your specific roots.

Knowing your heritage is key to knowing yourself.

Peace,

Dr. Ma'at E. L. Lewis

Maat E's Mental Health Message

Make plans  not excuses. 

One of the best ways to avoid having to make excuses after the fact is coming up with a plan before you take action. 

It is easier to make an excuse than it is to make a plan. However, an excuse will leave you with the feeling of disappointment and dishonesty, whereby a plan will leave you with a sense of accomplishment and success. 

Save yourself the possible embarrassment and stress of an excuse by giving your best to make a plan. 

Dr. Ma'at E. L. Lewis

Maat E's Mental Health Message

If you don't know your own strength, life will test you until you learn. In what may be seen like a strange way, life presents us with opportunities to grow and become stronger . These opportunities are sometimes painful and difficult tasks, but so long as we do not give up, our strength will increase with every test. Sometimes without even realizing it we have gained ten times the emotional strength we previously had. Embrace life's challenges and gain your strength.
Peace,
Dr. Ma'at E. L. Lewis

Maat E's Mental Health Message

You are worth it!

Despite all the names you've been called. Regardless of the messages you have been given, you are worth it. Stop taking in the negativity you may be receiving or treating yourself as if you are worthless. When you hold yourself in positive regard it does not matter what other people think. Establish in your mind that you are worth it. Create reminders for yourself such as notes, iPhone reminders, voice messages or whatever you can make that is easily accessible. All the worthless talk coming at you will bounce off off you and reflect right back of you are in the habit of reminding yourself on a regular basis.

Dr. Ma'at E. L. Lewis
Sent from my iPhone

Ma'at E's Mental Health Message

Tell the truth!

The greatest dishonor we can do to ourselves is to not speak what is true for us. Telling the truth means speaking honestly from the heart with the intention of bringing good out of what might by all appearances seem bad.  Usually we avoid the truth and make up stories to please other people or to make things look good. In the short term things may seem fine, but over time, the lack of truth creates deception and even destruction. Fear is ultimately at the root of avoiding or denying the truth.  If you are in a situation where you are not being honest with yourself or someone else and want things to change, then ask yourself the following three questions: 1) How motivated am I to tell or face the truth, 2) How confident am I that I can tell the truth and live with the consequences, and 3) What am I most afraid will happen if I tell the truth. May we all have the courage to move forward in truth.

Peace

Maat E's Mental Health Message

There are two types of trees in the world. Some trees bear fruit and some provide shade. Women are very similar to trees in that some are mothers who give birth to children and some are mothers who protect children, but do not give birth. Both roles are equally important. As woman most of us take on the responsibility of guiding and protecting the children and sometimes adults, whether we have our own children or not. Take time to love and recognize the mothers who bless us like fruit trees and shade trees.

Maat E's Mental Health Message

You can do anything, but you won't do a darn thing if you are trying to do everything!

Research suggests that people who multitask are actually less productive and less efficient than people who concentrate on one task at a time. When given multiple activities the brain is not really doing multiple things at once, it is actually switching rapidly between handling more than one task at a time.  When it comes to focusing on our purpose or life's work the same logic can occur. If we are trying to accomplish too many things at once we are less likely to do one successfully because our mind is switching focus. Many of us may not like this option or feel it is difficult to achieve, but the way to move toward greater accomplishment or success is to simplify our lives and the number of tasks we take on. The fewer things we do the better we will do them.