Episode 036 with Mika Woodruff - Sharpening Your Emotional Toolkit Through Writing, Grit, Gratitude and Resilience

Mika always shows up to me as kind, observant, patient, well-spoken and empathetic. Our conversation leads to in-depth emotional openness, personal growth stories, an exploration of human emotional behavior, and some of Mika's personal journey to now. She shares knowledge from her writing, her life, her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology degree from Central Washington University in 2016, and from her experience working as a School-Based Mental Health Case Manager for a Community Health Organization. A novice in Social, Mental and Behavioral Health studies - this Enneagram 4 and I cover looooads of topics - from mental health to journaling and gratitude, to difficult conversations, coping mechanisms and self-deprecating humor, to choosing unconditional love and change and we even cover masculine/feminine energy in societal norms. We talk mental behavior and unknowingly living in fear, Mika brings us a couple great analogies and tactics to add to our emotional toolkits, and we hold space for thoughts of depression, anxiety, self-worth, suffering, and empathy. We talk about submitting her writings to blogs and getting published on Thought Catalogue, our daily writing practices, gratitude practices and her "10 Things To Be Grateful For" exercise. We get real with nightmare talk, the gross comfort of nothingness, feeling numb, and mental illness. Gut Feelings and intuition get unpacked, and we share some experiences with Psychics and Hypnotherapy. Mika and I are able to offer insight, retrospection, and depth to confusing emotional thoughts and feelings that many of us suffer through alone. I sincerely hope you enjoy this conversation, junkyardlovers. (is that weird to call listeners junkyardlovers? is this how you start a cult? *shrug, whatever) Thanks again Mika. - find a few of her thoughts at https://thoughtcatalog.com/mikalyn-woodruff/

---- (A couple 'on the fly quotes' I grabbed from the episode)
"Going from thinking that suicide or total decline as a plan B, to deciding that it's not an option."
"You can choose unconditional love and acceptance, or you can choose change"
"You don't know what the fuck you think until you think it."
"Decide to laugh, decide to make it easier on yourself, because we don't get to move time, we still have to experience what we are going through.
"When the bad things happen it draws your attention to the good things you weren't paying attention to"