In this special episode, hosts April Abele Isaacson and Kimberlynn Davis are joined by Kilpatrick Townsend Communications Manager (and co-producer of the Sidebars by Kilpatrick Townsend podcast) Kristina Travaillot to discuss the topic of mental health in the workplace. This is an especially important topic these days, when the whole world is still reeling from the collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic that has taken over our lives for the last 18 months.
With three very different backgrounds and life journeys, April, Kim, and Kristina share their mental health experiences and their hard-won wisdom about building resilient, thriving lives despite tragedies, obstacles, and just plain old garden-variety stressors. This is an important conversation, filled with compassion, humor and grace, even as it touches on deep and existential questions that we all face by virtue of being human.
Highlights include:
- Why this year’s Mental Health Day is particularly important (01:32)
- Kim’s “mental health day” that wasn’t (02:52)
- Growing up at a time when mental illness was stigmatized and how times have changed (04:56)
- Getting to the point where we treat mental health like we do physical health (5:47)
- Learning to feel like we do not owe the world an explanation about mental health concerns (06:49)
- Admitting your limits when you’re an overachiever (9:20)
- Learning to hear the stories we tell ourselves and probe whether they are true (11:01)
- The subtle and insidious ways that COVID-19 is amplifying our insecurities (12:36)
- The importance of creativity and beauty for self-care (15:12)
- Developing a lifelong exercise habit as an antidote to stress and trauma (17:10)
- Rediscovering childhood hobbies as adult stress-relief activities (19:18)
- The invaluable comfort of being in a family or community that has your back – and the importance of letting go of relationships that have run their course (20:33)
- The many impacts of growing up in a family that didn’t talk about “those things” (25:53)
- The difference between getting over something and getting through it (33:21)
- The magical power of quiet alone time (36:58)
- How to loosen your death-grip on control (40:10)
- The power of a simple breath (43:06)
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