Meet clare kennedy

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Clare Kennedy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Clare, we are so appreciative of you taking the time to open up about the extremely important, albeit personal, topic of mental health. Can you talk to us about your journey and how you were able to overcome the challenges related to mental issues? For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
Hey there my Prozac and Paxil and Lexapro pals.

Overcoming mental health challenges ironically requires a heck of a lot of proactive work.
Here are some oh my general tips on how I am trying to live well with mental health struggles:
Seek Warm and Competent Professional Help:
Consult with a mental health professional like a psychiatrist and a therapist while you are well to receive support and guidance. It’s hard to do anything while in a depressive episode! So try to get in the system before you are in a crisis situation. I was blessed to find a woman who I loved seeing. She had chocolate next to her teal, velvet couch and I enjoyed her Virgin Mary art and her rainbow chakra posters. I loved that she sometimes used cuss words when she was passionate about something and the way she complimented my new haircut and my sweet friendships made me feel human and so well loved and supported. I am privileged enough to have resources to try a few others who I found to be cold and I did not feel I was benefiting from my time with them. I also have a really great psychiatrist and he sweetly encourages me when we meet and tells me to keep up the positive work that I am doing.
Build a Support System of Friends and Family:
Surround yourself with supportive friends and family who understand you, know you, love you, and empathize with your challenges. Share your feelings and experiences with them if they have shown you it is safe to do so. I’m lucky to have incredible parents. My dad is gentle and so encouraging and writes me cards and mails them to me and tells me that I am amazing and that he is pr. ud of me and my mom is pen and honest with her own issues so there wasn’t stigma around going to medical professionals for help. I think some of the most talented, musical, artistic, smart, wildly creative, and wickedly funny people struggle with their mental health so this has made me feel less shameful for struggling. If Robin Williams and Anthony Bourdain struggled in life then I am in the company of really great humans! Life is hard. Friends can be literal buoys for us when we are frozen with shame.
Educate Yourself:
Learn more about your mental health condition(s). Some things are obviously detrimental. Like a booze-fest after an excruciating breakup that you didn’t see coming and blindsides you. Research what not so obvious things like what food dyes can do to your system. Understanding your body’s triggers. Do loud noises and crowded places like big, box stores after a long day make you wildly and embarrassingly irritable? Read up on options for coping mechanisms. Teaching myself energy healing, tapping, visualization, and affirmations has empowered me manage my mental health more effectively. I absolutely am fascinated by and so in love with reiki right now and wish everyone could experience its healing magic. I was lucky enough to take a course called The Joy Academy and it totally empowered me to focus on the good.
Set Realistic Goals:
Break down your tasks and goals into smaller, more manageable steps. Celebrate small victories (I cleaned some old food out of my backpack this afternoon!) and progress (I didn’t spend my whole paycheck online shopping at Urban Outfitters trying to earn love!), and be patient with yourself (I could have given more grace to my mom this morning, so I will address it and I will apologize).
Establish Healthy Habits:
Prioritize sleep (same time every night is actually super great), exercise (it took me years to find an exercise that brought me joy and not dread. Who knew this Catholic school girl would overcome crippling shyness and anxiety to become a moderately okay pole dancer), and nutrition (less sour patch gummies and more chia and faro). Physical well-being is closely linked to mental health, so find something novel and quirky and treat your friend to a local hike to observe honeybees or hit the pink and blue and green balls into the spinny windmills at the local Putt putt.
Mindfulness and Relaxation Techniques:
Practice mindfulness meditation, deep breathing exercises, or progressive muscle relaxation to help manage stress and anxiety. These can improve your ability to stay present and cope with challenging situations. I literally got so mad one time I threw my phone into a wall and completely shattered the front of it. I had to look at that screen for months before I could afford to replace it. I have realized I will never regret a quick round of “I am calm. I am safe. I am peace. I am love.” I find those yoga videos on YouTube that are /made for kids are pretty enjoyable.
Challenge Negative Thoughts:
Identify your negative thoughts by name if you like. Oh, hey whatsup mother***er. Or thanks *insert name of some bitchy girl from your middle school life*. I hear you. Then imagine the one person who loves you the absolute mostest in this life and enjoy imagining them telling that internal voice what they can do with that and let them know that they won’t be needing any more commentary form them. No thank you to that Brittney.
Create a Routine:
Establish a routine for your day. You can even find an app that shots confetti at you when you complete your adulting task. SO satisfying. I prefer writing mine in my Hello Kitty journal.
Express Yourself:
Use creative outlets such as writing, art, or music to express your emotions. Coloring in a Tom Hiddleston coloring book and sending it to a friend in the mail or painting your work wife’s nails in purple and pink confetti patterns can be a therapeutic way to release and process feelings.
Limit Stressors:
Identify and try to minimize sources of stress in your life. This might involve setting boundaries (I do not lend money. I will give money as a gift as I can, but I do not do loans).
Stay Connected:
Stay socially engaged, even if it’s through virtual means. Isolation is not good for us. I love the ideas in the book Friendship in the age of Loneliness. The authorAdam Poswolsky aka

‘Smiley’ gives the coolest ways to stay connected with your friends from commune living to sending videos on Marco Polo.
Embrace Your Weird:
In studying the energetic vibrational scale in The Joy Academy with my teacher Cathy Weiss, I have learned that authenticity rules and the most high vibe way I can live this life. I will never reflect about how glad that I was that I was inauthentic in a situation. Me being self deprecating and awkward at work is part of my charm and why people love me and honestly when my coworkers are their whole selves and vulnerably it makes me love them more.
Mental health is a journey and if you are like most of us and had parents who were raised in toxic homes about with trauma who didn’t know what they were doing it is a wild trip, and progress may take time. Don’t lose heart. Everyone is doing the best they can with what they have, their life experiences.
Be patient and compassionate with yourself as you navigate through the challenges and realize the absurd and the humor and keep going.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I am a business consultant and I help people grow their success by making kindness their trademark.

I LOVE helping people market their services with a kindness and care in their communities and helping them connect with other lovely kindness lovers as they do good in the world and find solutions to problems big and small.

Business people have an outdated model and archaic boss types are not on point now. On trend is the boss who will cheer you on and build their empire

I’m currently booking kindness workshops to help businesses help their teams bond and get excited about all the goodness in and around us.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
empathy (i went to a mental hospital when i was 24 and was treated with absolutely the most amazing kindness)

care (i write hand written thank you notes every week)

interest (want to make friends, be memorable, be likeable and smash imposter syndrome:? ask people questions and remember them and their families names and follow up) you will be so well liked

One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
oh thanks! i am currently working on bringing a dream to life: a kindness conference with other thought leaders working on kindness in the workplace in 2024. i’d love to celebrate world kindness day in november.  please join our group as we share our selves. message me and let me know you are a Bold Journey reader!

Contact Info:

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