LAURA HARRIERÂ quote in Cosmopolitan Magazine
“I definitely believe that mental health care should be prioritized just as much as physical health. There’s been such a long history of ignoring mental health problems, of saying, ‘Oh, just suck it up’ or ‘I’m a strong black woman. That doesn’t happen to me.’ All of these tropes that we’ve been taught over generations, when actually, I think given generational trauma, of course there are a lot of mental health issues with the black community. I’ve been working with a really amazing Loa Angeles based organization called BEAM, which stands for Black Emotional And Mental Health Collective. They help people find resources, therapists, and also natural care, like Reiki. I try to meditate. I can’t say that I’m the best with my track record of doing it every day, but I try to at least do some deep breathing. I noticed I literally forget to breathe, which sounds wild, but sometimes I’m like ‘Wait, I haven’t taken a real breath all day.’ and just taking 30 seconds to sit and do deep belly breathing is a game changer. Also, I think it’s so common to talk only about self-care as meditation, yoga, and working out, which are all important, but sometimes self-care is having a glass of wine with your best friend and laughing and watching s***** reality TV . Watching The Bachelor and drinking wine with my girls is awesome. Sometimes that’s the self-care that you need.
Holding emotion in is not only not good mentally but not good physically. Physical manifestations of stress are very real. I’ve had weird little skin things or backaches and it’s like, okay, what is the actual roof cause of this? Maybe it’s because I’m super stressed or upset and I’m not dealing with it?”