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While it can be easy to take for granted, a big part of good mental health hygiene is being comfortable in physical space. After all, if you can’t be at ease physically, being at peace mentally can be a little hard. That’s why mindfulness coach Kenji Summers has one of his clients turn their head over their own left shoulder before taking a deep breath.
“I just believe it's just connecting your mind and your body to your environment,” he tells Okayplayer. “When you do this, you're not just looking over your shoulder and watching your back, you're engaging your vagus nerve. It runs from your brain all the way down; face through the heart, all the way to your gut. And when that's activated, you start to feel like you can rest. It's the opposite of that fight or flight.”
That sort of warmup is just one lesson — and tactic — Kenji has learned since his career switch from Nike brand manager to mindfulness coach. It all started when his job led him to learn about Kobe’s mindfulness coach George Mumford, who had also worked with Michael Jordan. By reading his book, The Mindful Athlete: Secrets to Pure Performance, Kenji saw ways to deal with his own anxiety and depression. After being laid off by Nike — and living through a global pandemic — he decided to pursue his own career as a mindfulness coach, earning the certifications necessary to do so.
These days, he’s working with athletes from around the globe, and when he’s not working as a one-on-one coach, he’s hosting Meditation for Black Men Who Do Too Much, a set of Zoom mass meditation with Black men looking for quiet reflection and momentary serenity.
“I think Black men should meditate because your compulsive activity has been turned into profit that has resulted in your exhaustion and your burnout has become normalized,” Kenji says of the sessions, which are co-facilitated by Lakim Desir and licensed therapist James "Amen" Bourne. “That burnout then looks like crashing out. And there's no way we can heal the externals unless we deal with the internal. And so meditation is, I think, the most direct way we can go inward and clean up the wreckage of our past.”
Therapy is another way to deal with latent trauma. The truth is, mental health battles are at least as real as the external ones, and maintaining a proper emotional equilibrium should be as deliberate a process as regular exercise. With school, busy work schedules, and even a semi-active social life, it’s not always a simple task. But platforms like BetterHelp, the world’s largest online therapy service, make it easier. Since 2013, the site has made the road to improved mental health hygiene as accessible as a few clicks of a button, with their online network of over 30,000 professionals providing an intuitive database to help find the right therapist for you.
Dealing with mental health will always be a multilayered practice. Speaking with Okayplayer for Pursuit of Happiness, Kenji Summers explains how he works to preserve his own.
Kenji Summers: When it came to dealing with my mental health before, I tried drinking and smoking – the most accessible self medication there is. I tried drinking Kava; that was my alternative to alcohol for a while. Some people know me as Kava Kenji, some people don't even know I do what I do now. I was so into that and I did go and seek professional help to see if medication could help. I've gone to therapy. My father was a therapist, believe it or not, but he wasn't in the home, so I kind of resented anything that he did really for a while. So I never sought therapy during those earlier years. It's trying to get medicated. Feeling like things still weren't right and really just being a seeker. That's what I tried. It was like, “Yo, you. What are you doing over there? You do yoga? Cool. I'll try that out. What else are you doing? Oh, you about to go to a flow tank. You're going to go to an isolation tank and just sit in the dark? I'll try that out.” I would try anything.
These days, I do something I call working in. It includes prayer, meditation, journaling. I think it does include therapy when you can find a therapist. And for me, I complement this by going to the gym, lifting heavy things, and starting to stretch more. That seems to be releasing some of the tension that I think has a role in my anxiety. I have a loving partner who’s understanding. I think personal relationships are so key in managing any of those conditions; anxiety, depression, and even burnout. And I think I have some loving people, including her, imy mother and my aunt and some really close homies that show up when I need them. We may have a psychic connection by now [laughs]. I've had to learn how to reach out for help before at the end of my rope because I've done that too. I would just feel resentful that other people didn't see the signs earlier or when they would ask, why didn't you reach out earlier?
Now, I know I'm reaching a place where I may feel overwhelmed, I do my best to let my loved ones know. Sometimes it's in person and sometimes it's just sending out a message that says, clear as simple as possible, “I need you, I need you.” I desire everyone to have people in their life that can be there for them. But you'll find out pretty quickly who those folks are for you when you share that message before you're at the end of your rope.
I'm in recovery now. My anxiety and depression are trying to help me. My relationship with them has changed to the point that I recognize they are what they are. I recognize that those sensations are in my body. I make up a story in my head about what the sensations mean. But today, I feel a bit of ease. I know there's things that can allow the sensations to relax. And today that may look like breathing, it may look like meditation. But it looks like being in a community of people who also do it. So I'm not just doing it by myself. I'm talking to people like, “Yo, this is what my sit was like today.” Or like, “Yo, can we all get and do a 10 minute joint on Monday evening?” My mental health is not only dependent on how I physically feel or the sensations in my body and the way my mind interprets those, but also the people I'm in community with that I can practice some form of mental health mutual aid. It is what it is. My anxiety and depression come and go and just like my breath, I inhale. I exhale. It comes and it goes.
You can sign up for the Dec. 28 Meditation for Black Men Who Do Too Much session here.
source https://www.okayplayer.com/pursuit-of-happiness-kenji-summers
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