Ready for a REAL life therapy session? Join us for an empowering check-in where we explore the importance of prioritizing your well-being.
This engaging conversation features Dr. Mimi, a professional in mental health and a familiar face from reality television. We dive into daily routines, the practice of gratitude, and the art of self-care, especially when energy is low. Discover how to recognize when stress crosses the line into something more serious and learn practical strategies for managing it. Your body and mind are valuable; learn how to listen to their signals and nurture yourself.
#TherapyIRL #SelfCareJourney #MentalWellness #CheckIn
This engaging conversation features Dr. Mimi, a professional in mental health and a familiar face from reality television. We dive into daily routines, the practice of gratitude, and the art of self-care, especially when energy is low. Discover how to recognize when stress crosses the line into something more serious and learn practical strategies for managing it. Your body and mind are valuable; learn how to listen to their signals and nurture yourself.
#TherapyIRL #SelfCareJourney #MentalWellness #CheckIn
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LifestyleTranscript
00:04um because this conversation is going to be therapy in real life and we all need to check
00:10in y'all done checked in on yourselves recently and maybe okay here a couple people no i see
00:15some no's at least you honest me either but today we are going to check in sis so you guys
00:21know the
00:21column and now it's live this is therapy in real life brought to life right here on the stage
00:27we're doing this together so raise your hand if you feel it raise your hand if you feel like this
00:32is a safe space a collective space to have conversation okay by the end of this conversation
00:37my goal is to have every hand raised in here we're going to ask that question again at the end
00:41of this
00:42conversation um and i'm not doing this alone i'm going to be doing this with an amazing woman who
00:47is a professional in this space you guys may have seen her on one of your favorite reality shows
00:53please welcome to the stage dr mimi
01:00hello dr mimi any seat you want whatever you got a side
01:05okay all right all right y'all so joining me um right here is dr mimi dr mimi uh season
01:1311 married
01:14to medicine correct yes wife and mother of three beautiful babies co-owner of a mental health center
01:21which we'll talk about um i know you are a big autism advocate stress advocate uh postpartum
01:27pregnancy advocate as well too um an author yes inner beauty bringing the true beauty out of every
01:33woman yes girl you are busy yes very busy you are very busy but also tennessee state university grad
01:41yes tsu are you here tennessee state university and you went to school for chemistry yes i majored in
01:47chemistry and then graduated and went to medical school at ohio university so talk to us first of
01:53all a little bit about you know what your day-to-day is like uh amidst all of those things
01:57that we just
01:58named and how you manage to check in on yourself um yeah so um well first of all thank you
02:03guys for
02:04having me i am so excited i have been to essence as a small child and now i am here
02:09and this is just
02:10beautiful i love being around just black not only are you here you are here you are on the main
02:14stage
02:14well well the lord has faith yeah ain't that good all the time um no so what does my day
02:21-to-day look
02:22like um day-to-day looks different and that is why i embrace pivots um normally i yes i try
02:29my best to
02:30have slow mornings but that always does not happen um but i always wake up in a sense of gratitude
02:37gratitude um i remember just reading uh what oprah did uh daily and she said i journal what i'm grateful
02:44for and so in the morning i'm journaling uh my gratitude i am making sure that i am doing my
02:50devotion i'm just pouring into myself so i want to set the tone of my day and i don't want
02:55anything to
02:56try to hijack that uh but then of course you got i got kids i got a whole business you
03:01know i gotta
03:01help the people i had a husband um so we just have a lot of hats to wear but i
03:08want to make sure
03:09i'm wearing it well i don't want it to wear me out i mean but there are some days that
03:13we're being
03:14honest where wearing thin might be a thing for you right so how do you check in on yourself when
03:19you
03:19don't even have the energy to to sit and journal or to even think about gratitude um so the question
03:25is like where does the energy come well if you don't have the energy to check in and i think
03:31that
03:31you have to make time um just as you would put your like a to-do list you have to
03:38put yourself on your
03:39to-do list and so we may not it may not look like it every day the same thing but
03:44you're making sure
03:45that you are putting yourself on your uh on the on the list and it can simply be let me
03:50just have a
03:51let me just sit down for one moment have a cup of coffee and just make sure that i am
03:55okay ask me
03:57how are you doing mirica how are you doing mimi and sometimes it's not okay i'm fine uh i'm okay
04:04no i i feel kind of like not necessarily sad but i feel convicted why and so just making sure
04:11that
04:11i'm checking in just like i would check on a girlfriend got you now what at what point you know
04:17when you're checking in on mimi and you're asking yourself those questions like when do you realize
04:22that stress has become something that's not just normal stress and it's something that can be taken
04:27a step farther and and what do you do in that scenario yeah so i tell my uh patients that
04:32you
04:33know yourself better than anybody else so if you are even coming to my office or i'm seeing you online
04:39i'm asking you who are you what do you like to do and i want you to be able to
04:45sit down and just
04:46really think about that question and so you know when you're not doing well and if you don't
04:51necessarily know like okay what is going on your body's going to tell you yes if you don't take care
04:58of yourself it's going to the stress is going to come out so it can come out in any type
05:02of ways it
05:02can come out with high blood pressure it can come out as irritability it can come out as hey i'm
05:08not
05:08really communicating right to my loved ones and it just can come out as just anything with bowel
05:15problems it's going to come so i really want um well my goal in life is to have people to
05:23look at
05:23their mental health in a preventative way just as we go to the primary care doctor like make sure that
05:29they are doing the screenings for your mental health and so we don't need to always be with a
05:35psychiatrist or a therapist in crisis we need to be with a therapist or a psychiatrist like just daily
05:42uh and making sure we have that particular person and making sure that we are treating our mental
05:47health just as we are doing our primary or physical health what when you say that we should
05:52be asking for these screenings on a daily like how you just check up on yourself at like a regular
05:56doctor's office what is it that you ask for like if i walk into a psychiatrist for the first time
06:01or
06:01even my primary care doctor to get a recommendation for a psychiatrist or whatever if i've never done
06:06this before what do i say so okay so if you're going to your primary care doctor they are supposed
06:12to ask you depression screening questions and it's called a patient health questionnaire sometimes it's
06:19just two questions and sometimes it's like nine questions they're asking you hey have you felt
06:24depressed in the last two weeks have you um really not been able to do your day-to-day activities
06:31and
06:31that is i'm getting up i'm making sure i'm doing my activities of daily living showering i'm eating
06:37right how's your appetite how is your sleep sis are you sleeping and so and they're asking you these
06:43questions and they are doing that particular type of mental health screening but if they don't do that
06:49you ask for it say hey i haven't been feeling quite normal uh i'm feeling a little off and they
06:56should
06:56also ask you follow-up questions what does that mean for you well i um i don't necessarily get to
07:03sleep um when i want to i'm staying up i got racing thoughts i can't get my mind to rest
07:09and they say
07:10okay well do you want to see somebody absolutely and so that also is the hardest step for some of
07:16my
07:16patients even asking that i want to see someone for my mental health so also my goal in life is
07:23to break
07:23that stigma like everybody has mental health good and bad and so as especially in our culture we have
07:32to break that stigma that it is okay to see someone it is okay to talk about your emotions it
07:39is okay to
07:39have jesus and therapy so it is okay for us don't accept the people in here now you didn't say
07:45she didn't
07:46say don't take it to the pool take it to the doctor some of y'all gonna get up and
07:48walk out that
07:49what's your grandma be telling you take it to both and so um we are i i really really enjoy
07:56what i'm
07:57doing because when i was um i guess picking my profession i really uh didn't see a lot of us
08:04um in those particular areas of mental health and when you want to see someone sometimes you want to
08:10see someone that you can relate to yes that gets you that gets your culture um that can talk to
08:15you uh in
08:16you know in our way uh-huh and that really does matter i was going to ask you know how
08:22much does
08:23that matter right like finding someone so if i'm a black woman do i need to have a black woman
08:28psychiatrist or therapist or from black like how does that work how do we try the therapist on for
08:34size like what's that process like i tell people therapy is like dating so you may not get the right
08:40one the rights at the at the first time but when you don't get the right one when you're dating
08:45you
08:45try again you do but you you're a little scorn it's a little different well well no because if you
08:51look at it all things are going to work for your favor and so you get to this particular therapist
08:57that may or psychiatrist that met you're not vibing with you still have learned okay this is a
09:02communication style that i may not receive well from right and so when i'm going to see that other
09:07psychiatrists or that or the therapist i know exactly kind of what i'm looking for more now
09:12and so you're just you're just testing them out got you and you're also you're advocating for yourself
09:17my patients sometimes come with a list of what they want to uh work with and i said thank you
09:22give
09:22it to me because i need to know and so we're just making sure that we're vibing someone that you
09:27relate
09:27to because you also have to be very vulnerable these first initial sessions are hard it's like
09:34they're bribing a wound we got to get up in there and that hurts it sounds like what you're talking
09:39about is like when because we talk about dating there's dating and there's dating with intention
09:44yes and and it sounds like someone eventually you get to that point of your therapist uh journey where
09:50you're trying to find the therapist or the right psychiatrist right and your intention starts to
09:54develop because you understand what you want and you don't want absolutely what i'm hearing okay
09:58absolutely got you now i have a question about intention right because we all have family we all have
10:02friends and we love them dearly but how can we support the people around us without taking on their
10:08emotional load you be honest you tell them hey um well you learn how to communicate honestly so you tell
10:17them where you are and you don't have to tell everybody your business but if you know you're at a
10:23place
10:23or don't have the capacity to take that on to take on okay what they're going through you tell them
10:30hey i hear
10:31you i i want to i i appreciate you thinking that i'm a person that you can come to however
10:38at this
10:39time let me direct you to where i think that you should go we don't have to do all the
10:44things um as
10:45black women sometimes we want to carry everything or we have just innately been taught that or we've seen
10:51that so we need to put it down put the bags down we ain't got to carry everybody's stuff put
10:57your stuff
10:58down and let somebody who is maybe a trained professional and say hey i picked that up
11:03because i know how to do it i know how to do it and it doesn't uh weigh me down
11:07erica badu's uh bag
11:08lady hits so different when you start to understand that when you get to a certain point and you're
11:13you're tired of you're trying to figure out your own heaviness and battling with others as well
11:18that song hit a little different and we have generational heaviness yes and so we have to understand and
11:25that's everybody um we have to understand that we are carrying a lot of things that we never picked
11:31up we just kind of just got it whether it's from our moms or from my grandparents yes uh from
11:37just
11:38society or from like systemic pressures so really sitting down and that's why i'm an advocate for
11:44preventive mental health you don't have to be in a crisis but we also know that there are things that
11:50we have that we didn't pick up that we need to process yeah so go see someone and say oh
11:56i'm
11:56good i'm good right now yeah but what how can i be better how can i live the best quality
12:02of life that
12:03i deserve what's one thing um you know with all of your experience that you wish people really
12:09understood about mental health and like taking care of yourself because i think it's very trendy right now
12:14to have the conversation and you know but what's one thing that you're you feel like we're still
12:18missing the mark on that you wish people really understood well i touched on it a bit um it is
12:23about being preventative instead of being reactive um just a short story when i was going through my
12:31training you have inpatient psychiatry and you have outpatient psychiatry and when i was in the
12:38psychiatric units i saw a lot of us and then when i went to the outpatient psychiatrist uh doing my
12:44rotations i didn't see a lot of us and so that kind of just told me we perhaps are not
12:51seeing
12:52people until it is too late or we're in a crisis so one thing i want people to take away
12:58from this is
13:00let's be preventative yes let's make sure that we're checking in on ourselves and let's making sure
13:07that we have someone a licensed professional that can help us we don't have to do this alone we're not
13:13supposed to do it alone we thrive in connectivity look at where we are yes this is connection this
13:20is good this is pouring into yourself so kudos let's talk about uh protecting your peace right yeah
13:27that is such a that's also a buzz thing right now like protecting my peace and safe space
13:32what's one thing that you think is a easy like super easy thing that everybody here today
13:39can do to actually protect their peace you say no and set boundaries that's not the easiest thing
13:47well it's not well saying the word no is an easy thing enforcing that boundary of no can be hard
13:56but it starts with you saying no i can't do that right now no it does it's not in alignment
14:03with what i'm
14:05going forward right now and so just saying no and that's it is hard because it can come from family
14:12it can come from our children it can come from work but you know where you are mentally in the
14:20capacity
14:20and if you cannot take it on it is okay does not mean that you will never take it on
14:27it's just not right
14:28now yeah not today i'm i let me direct you elsewhere so saying no and enforcing that boundary
14:37and what about my last question to you um in today's time right like we turn on the news
14:42and you feel you from the top of the segment when the news starts to the time the news ends
14:48there's
14:49such a mix of emotions for people all over the world today in today's time how does things externally
14:56like that like news media music like how do those things affect your mental health in ways that
15:01people don't even understand it it's it greatly affects our mental health um i would tell my clients
15:07and my patients that we have to turn the news off we cannot just have it on because it is
15:14going to jump
15:15on you um the pressures um we're in a today's society there are a lot of um just difficult situations
15:26and
15:27stressors that if you are a very empathetic person that you're going to take it on yes and so set
15:34some
15:34time limits set some boundaries for yourself hey i want to know what's going on i want to be informed
15:41but i don't want that all that information to transform me right and so saying no to yourself
15:48setting that boundary or that time limit and saying i can't i don't have the capacity to do that right
15:54now and let's let's counteract that so now we're going to put on something that pours into us and
16:00uplift us so instead of the news outlet or maybe i've watched it for 10 minutes i'm going to now
16:06put
16:07on some music that really is uplifting i'm now really going to call that girlfriend that i know
16:12that she pours out because that she's has that gifting right so you're going to find things and
16:17those are actually coping skills so what serves you and we know what don't serve us because we get that
16:23feeling you get up in your chest yeah so we know what doesn't serve us and so recognize that but
16:30also
16:30recognize what does serve you so we're going to sleep we're going to make sure we're sleeping we're going
16:35to make sure that we have a um a great diet we're going to make sure that we're moving our
16:40body we're
16:42going to make sure that we are in connectivity and so we're going to go back to what we may
16:46think oh
16:47that's kind of simple but no those are your core four love it you're going to sleep you're going to
16:51exercise you're going to eat right and then we're going to be we're going to stay connected the thing
16:55that sleep does for you just being able to think through the rest of your week after you wake up
16:59yeah miracles mm-hmm well dr mimi thank you for joining me in this conversation yes have
17:05y'all enjoyed this conversation now i'm gonna ask y'all the question i asked y'all the beginning
17:09it is did y'all feel like this was a safe space dr mimi gave y'all some tips were
17:13we vulnerable up here
17:15all righty y'all this is essence fest 2026 dr mimi thank you for all the work that you were
17:19doing
17:19make sure you guys go out and support her book it is the inner beauty bringing true beauty
17:25out of bringing the true beauty out of every woman yes and where can they purchase they can go
17:30online at uh inner community dot inner community health dot com so i-n-n-e-r community health dot
17:37com
17:37and it has all my information and uh also about the practice thank you guys thank you
17:45hello it's me hello it's me hello it's me hello it's me hello it's me