A practical guide to self-care and mental health

Jake Pearson  00:00

Are you trying to figure out the secret to happiness, we're here at what makes you happy with Jake Pearson, we want to make that happiness more accessible for you in your life. So stick around as we interview everyday people, inspirational leaders and your favorite celebrities on what makes them happy.

Welcome back to the podcast, we ask the one simple question, what makes you happy? 

My name is Jake Pearson and today we have with us, Isaiah Theodore from MHA. He runs a fantastic Instagram page around men's mental health. And look man, Isaiah! How are you? 

Isaiah Theodore  00:43

I am great man! Thank you for having me. Seeing what you've been doing, I'm pleased to give my bit hopefully you guys can take something from it, you know, thank you!

Jake Pearson  00:54

Absolutely. And we really want to hear today. What makes you as a person happy in life. So let's hear it

Isaiah Theodore  01:03

Interesting. And so from the core of it, like most people, family, getting love, seeking, like, getting support from family. But personally, since I've been on my journey, since I've been taking the steps to trying to be mentally healthy and whatnot. Attaining peace is what makes me happy. I think that goes hand in hand. And how I seek and to go for peace is attaining mental and emotional stability, right? How do I go about that? I mean, I try my best not to be a pusher since I've been into therapy. Try not to be the guy who's like my therapist said. But in all honesty, that is what helps me move along and create healthy coping mechanisms to be happy. Along that I have a self-care routine, which makes it more practical, Put it like that, How do I attain happiness? What's the steps? 

I have a self-care routine, making sure I read books, I go to therapy, I exercise for sure. I've tried my best to eat right, you know what I mean? I'm still human. But I meditate. I try to do yoga. I do with things that truly is a part of my being that I feel like I can exude my full self and be comfortable within myself and everything that I'm doing. So apart from making sure therapy and self-care is what makes me happy.

Jake Pearson  02:30

Self-care is so underrated. And it's a term that people don't quite understand because it's not something written down as like, self-care is x, y and z. Self-care is going to look different for everybody. What you define as self-care might not be the same definition. I have a self-care but in a good framework, we could say that self-care, a lot of the basic principles like exercising, eating well, speaking to someone about you know what ails you mentally. And there's some good ones like reading books, I love that. That's your personal growth there. You're enhancing your perspective, you're learning new things, you're expanding your mind. That's one of the greatest forms I believe of self-care you could possibly do. And all of this is something what you've built upon over time that you found works for you.

Isaiah Theodore  03:22

Exactly. There's no further therapist, there's a book written for this. But for you as an individual, there's no book written and I like what you said is a person to talk to. And that's something I might incorporate for what I do for my platform. It's like, if you find someone who what we call a safe space, and someone who could divulge information and feel safe in that space to be—un-ability [phonetic 03:46] to you in that moment, that's what you mean, it could be your mom, it could be your brother, your cousin, whoever, your sister. That's all that matters. So that's a good tidbit. But yes, it took me about a couple years.

Jake Pearson  04:01

Yes, and I love that. And so for the listeners who may be struggling to find that happiness in their life, or to just get some sort of a spark in that area, what would you suggest?

Isaiah Theodore  04:15

It always starts from within a self-assessment, so to speak. Be honest and true to yourself. I'm not exactly distance yourself. But get into a true space where you could be kind of alone in a protected part of yourself to view where you're at in your life, and what steps you need to take. It's going to look different for everybody. So I can't give you a cookie cutter in a list. But what I do is kind of detached from the world is getting crazy, try to detach from social media and really sit down and mull over what you need to do to move forward. Yes, hopefully that helps.

Jake Pearson  04:54

That's great advice Isaiah! Appreciate you jumping on here and sharing what makes you happy and giving some real practical advice from your life. So we appreciate you coming on the show.

Isaiah Theodore  05:04

Thank you. I appreciate you having, it hopefully y'all took a golden nugget from it. Peace and be well to all y'all. Everyone isn't doing a hard time right now. You all be great. Thank you, Jake. I appreciate you. You're doing an amazing thing.

Jake Pearson  05:16

No worries, man! Thank you for coming on. As always guys, you can connect with desire in the podcast episode description below. Until next time. 

Jake Pearson  05:25

Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope it gives you something to think about on your quest to discover what makes you happy. Don't forget to leave a review or a comment and follow us on all our social media platforms so you can see our upcoming guests calendar. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time!