The Finally Healed Podcast with Jessica Lundy

From Rock Bottom to Resilient: Navigating Mental Health | Ep 2

• Jessica Lundy • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Welcome to another emotionally impactful episode of The Finally Healed Podcast with Jessica Lundy! In this episode, Jessica delves deep into her mental health journey, shares her challenges, and discusses the importance of self-care and mental well-being. Prepare to get real, raw, and vulnerable as we explore the broader aspects of mental health, the significance of reaching out for support, and practical steps to prioritize your healing journey.

Episode Highlights:

  • The true essence of mental health beyond disorders.
  • Jessica’s personal experience with depression, anxiety, and finding her way through college.
  • The importance of vulnerability and transparency in healing.
  • Practical self-care tips and the necessity of setting boundaries.
  • The evolving societal approach to mental health and the value of community support.

Resources Mentioned:

  • Better Sleep app for quality rest and relaxation.
  • The Calm app and other mental health tools.
  • Moodfit app for daily mental health check-ins.
  • BetterHelp for finding licensed therapists. (Get your first week free)

Join us as Jessica, an international motivational speaker, mental health advocate, and America’s Big Sister, extends her heartfelt support, actionable advice, and a mission to help you heal.

Healing Moment Action Item: Create a system for checking in with your mental health daily, using tools like the Moodfit app for a comprehensive approach to well-being.

Stay Connected: Follow us on Instagram: @finallyhealpod 📩 DM Jessica directly for support, encouragement, and to share your journey.

Don't forget to subscribe and leave us a 5-star review if you found this episode valuable. Share it with friends and family who might benefit from these insights.

Remember, you’ve got this. We need you! 💖

Support and Resources:

  • Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741
  • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255

Subscribe to The Finally Healed Podcast for more heartfelt episodes and join us on this journey of healing and self-discovery!

Join the Waitlist for our end-of-the-year event Elevate & Thrive in 2025. https://jessicalundy.com/workshop/

Send us a text

RESOURCES

Jessica Lundy

Connect with Jessica on Instagram @jessicalundytv and follow the Podcast @FinallyHealedPod.

Needs some extra motivation? I got you. Start your day with the 'Wake Up and Win Audio Affirmations' and have Jessica as your personal cheerleader. Get Your Copy Today.

Jessica Lundy:

If you are someone who feels like you have been struggling with your mental health, with your well-being, it's okay to ask for help. That uncomfortability level saved my life. Once a week goes by where you're like really struggling, that next week rolls around and you're still in the same state. That means something has to change. You need to reach out for support because you don't have to do this alone. So I don't want you to feel like there is not a solution for you. We need you.

Jessica Lundy:

Welcome to another episode of Finally Healed with Jessica Lundy podcast, where we prioritize mental health, self-care and embracing our healing journey together. Now for this episode, you might need to get your tissue okay, your Kleenex out, because this one is going to be emotional. I'm going to be talking about mental health, breaking down my mental health journey and why it's been important to me and I'm truly going to challenge you on this episode to get real, to get raw and to get vulnerable and to meet me with the level of transparency that I'm going to give you. So let's start talking about what mental health is and isn't. A lot of times when people hear the word mental health, they instantly think about disorders, right? They think about depression or anxiety or bipolar, or schizophrenia. They constantly think about this. In actuality, self-care is something that we do on a daily basis, right? So it does have to do with the psychology, it does have to do with the social skills, it does have to do with our everyday interaction with people, on how we handle our conversations, how we think about ourselves. It's much more of a broader umbrella than how much we really narrow it down. And so when I think about mental health and how important it is, a lot of times I do kind of couple it with mental health, with wellness, with burnout, self-care and self-love, because I feel like they are all intertwined and equally as important. And when I think about my mental health journey, it has been a journey.

Jessica Lundy:

When I was a senior in high school, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety and it was challenging. My senior year in high school was really one of the hardest years of my life. I was already getting ready to transition from high school to college, which is already a lot and then finding out that diagnosis was really challenging. Prior to that, I was popular, I was a cheerleader, I was super active, but once I had an injury an injury that actually happened when I was 11 years old where I fell backwards on cement with the too heavy of a backpack, sidebar to all my educators. Students' backpacks should not be that heavy, but my backpack was 50 pounds and it permanently damaged my back.

Jessica Lundy:

We went to see every specialist known to man. I'm originally from Michigan, so U of M Hospital was trying everything on me until my senior year in high school. I was in excruciating pain from sunup to sundown, so they gave me an experimental drug that would help change the way I perceive pain. What they did not tell me was the laundry list of side effects and would you believe that I ended up getting all of them, which led to a really bad, long extent of depression, severe depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and really took me to a dark place where my personality changed, my identity changed and now I had to get ready for college.

Jessica Lundy:

And college was a challenging time for me because I was trying to figure out who I am as a person and then who I am as a person with mental illness or a mental disorder, and I think it was challenging because I didn't have family support. Now let me take that back. My family was understanding. The church family that I was a part of, was not really ready to have some of those difficult conversations. So if you are someone who feels like you have been struggling with your mental health, with your well-being, it's okay to ask for help. It's okay to be vulnerable. I remember being vulnerable at a time where I could tell it was kind of making my friends and family uncomfortable. But what I realized is that uncomfortability level saved my life. Telling people that I wanted to take my own life, telling people that I was super depressed and didn't want to get out of the bed and something was wrong with me, allowed me to have the accountability that I needed to sit here on this couch today. So if you know me as an international motivational speaker or you've seen me speaking to college students, this is why I'm so passionate about it, because if I didn't embrace the healing journey, if I didn't put my mental health as my top priority, I would not be able to travel around the world and help and heal people. I would not have the type of conviction that I have to share the importance of the coping strategies that I teach.

Jessica Lundy:

I am a huge advocate of being someone that, if you've been through something, you've been through some trauma, you've been through some brokenness. You've been through a lot. I believe that happens to some people that are so brave that will one day share the experience so that I can actually help and heal people. And so I am on this mission, right. That was one of the reasons I started this podcast because I want you to heal Now. I don't want you to hear the name Finally Healed and think that I have arrived right, that my healing journey is over. I have a therapy appointment scheduled this week. Okay. I remember my therapist tried to fire herself. She told me that I was. I was so healed and I didn't need a therapist anymore and I said, lady, I will see you next week. Okay, because healing is something that we have to constantly keep doing. We don't know what trauma is around the corner in our lives. So it's important to have a therapist, it's important to have a counselor. I want you to do yourself a favor and make sure you have the support that you deserve to have.

Jessica Lundy:

It can be so easy to dump on your friends. I have always been that friend where people are like sis, I got a lot going on. You got a couple of hours and in my mind I want to say I don't have a couple of hours, but because how my personality is wired, I say yes, and then I let them dump on me and then now I got to go to therapy. It's a cycle, y'all. So I am learning to set boundaries. Boundaries is so important on your mental health journey, on your wellness journey. But just know that this is a journey.

Jessica Lundy:

When I first was dealing with depression and anxiety, I did feel a sense of isolation, and it wasn't because I wanted to be isolated, it's because people weren't really ready to process. So I am so grateful that we are in a society right now that is a lot more open to sharing their experiences. I would say one of the best experiences from the Olympics was the year when Simone Biles was really open about her mental health and that level of bravery. When other people were talking about her saying she should keep going, I remember saying girl, I am proud of you, like you did it, like you took a stand and you put yourself first. And so I I wanna challenge you.

Jessica Lundy:

When you are in these seasons where you're feeling like man, there's a lot of pressure on me, there's a lot of weight on me, like you can literally feel the tension and pressure in your shoulders. Right, I want you to relax your shoulders, I want you to take a deep breath. Breathing exercises have been really powerful for me. There are still times where I get anxious because my plate is full okay, with the dessert on the side, okay. So I know what it feels like to have a lot going on, and so when I do different breathing exercises, when I take a moment to take a pause, that has been a game changer for me and I try to find those simple joys, those simple pleasures in life so that I can make sure that I'm taking care of myself. So you might be thinking, jessica, like how do I start to incorporate mental health into my life? What does it look like for mental health to be a priority? So I have a handful of apps that I will leave for you in the show notes that have been really helpful for me.

Jessica Lundy:

I am big on sleep, like having deep sleep. Because I have so much going on in my plate, it is hard for me to go to sleep. So I have an app called Better Sleep and it's really cool. It allows you to be your own self-care DJ, if you like. A little bit of wind, a little bit of water when you are sleeping, like it allows you to set your atmosphere for rest. I also like scent, so like a candle or a plugin or something like that. I like mood lighting, and so I used to think it was really extra to set an atmosphere to rest.

Jessica Lundy:

But in today's society and hustle culture, we are not wired to be resters, we are wired to be doers, and so when you're constantly doing and you're on this hamster wheel, it can be really hard to take a pause and say let me take care of myself. It can be really hard to stop scrolling on social media and say I need to go to bed, and so these type of apps have really helped me, apps like the calm app I mean there's so many different apps that are put into place. There is a mental health app that I really love that I'm going to link below as well, but it allows you to check in on an app and you lean into gratitude, you lean into how you're doing, and I love that, because it can be really hard in a 24 hour period to stop for five minutes and ask yourself how you're doing, when I realized that that was a necessity and not something. It would just be so nice if I had time to take care of myself. It's like, if you can't give yourself five minutes, really it doesn't even take that two minutes to say how am I doing? Am I doing okay, am I doing phenomenal or am I struggling?

Jessica Lundy:

The reason I want you to check in on yourself daily, it's because you will start to see a pattern, once a week goes by, where you're like really struggling, that next week rolls around and you're still in the same state. That means something has to change, something has to shift. That's when you need to start reaching out to your friends. I always say, if you go about three to five days where you're consistently struggling, you need to reach out for support, because you don't have to do this alone. And I want to free you from your past. Maybe you had a situation where you were like you know I've been reaching out to people and no one's reaching back out to me, like I try to remind myself that people are busy, that they have stuff going on in their own life. And I'm going to keep reaching out because my life is that important, and so I want to encourage you if you're going through something right now.

Jessica Lundy:

Currently, there are resources available. There are therapy that you can go to, call centers. I mean, there are resources available. So I don't want you to feel like there is not a solution for you. We need you. We need you on this earth. I know you might be thinking, jess, I haven't even met you yet, but I know, if you are tuned into this podcast, you are someone that understands the importance of mental health. You're someone that understands the value of self-care. You understand that you need to love yourself, and so we need you on this planet. Like you were created to do so many amazing things, but to do all of the things that you were purposed to do, that's going to happen when you are in alignment with every area of your life. So I want you to know that prioritizing your mental health, your self-care, your wellbeing, is vital.

Jessica Lundy:

Uh, let's talk about, like, what self-care isn't. You know I am a huge advocate of self care, and we kind of have gotten into this place on social media where, when I talk to people about self care, the first thing they'll tell me is they can't afford it. Let's break down the name, okay. Self-care means to care for yourself. You can't afford to take care of yourself. When I hear people say that, to me it's a red flag because I realize that people think self-care is a trip to the spa. They think self-care is an expensive vacation so they can post it on social media. Self-care just means to do the things that bring you joy, that bring you peace, that allow you to rest, allow you to relax One of my favorite things I love to travel Like.

Jessica Lundy:

If I could be on a plane every week, I would, and there was a season when I did that, but I am a whole wife of 10 years and a mother of a medically complex child. That requires a lot of my time and attention. So what do I do? I want y'all to try it. You know, tag me. If y'all do this, let me know. I go on Netflix, okay, and I type in like luxury resort with ocean music, okay, it will take me to a resort virtually, and that is like I use as my TV screen and I can hear the waves and the ocean and for a moment it allows me to temporarily escape some of the stress and the pressures that I'm dealing with, so that I can really just have a moment to relax. You know, for some of you that might look like having a luxury bath. I like to call, say, a luxury bath or a luxury shower. That's when you start adding different elements right, like they make phone cases that can get wet, right, so you can have your music in the shower, in the bath you can have your scents going. I love those shower steamers or the bath bombs. Get the right lighting, you will think you are at a five-star resort. So I just want you to know that there are a lot of ways that you can take care of yourself. There's a lot of ways that you can prioritize your mental health and your well-being.

Jessica Lundy:

And a lot of people ask me, like not only why am I passionate about mental health, but why do I consider myself a go-to authority in this space? It used to be interesting to me in the beginning why colleges and corporations and major organizations would choose me to come in to speak on mental health instead of a licensed professional. I used to be like whoa, like it's just blow my mind being one of the number one speakers in the mental health space. I realized and I asked my clients. This is what they told me. It wasn't just because I am committed to this space. I'm committed to being a constant learner. I remember when the mental health first aid certification came out, I was one of the first people to get it. I got it certified in both the adult and the children because I wanted to make sure that I was constantly learning and growing. It wasn't because I took the time took me a very long time to get my life coaching certification, because I wanted to go deeper with my clients. It was because I was willing to be transparent.

Jessica Lundy:

We live in a world where people are tired of perfection, people are tired of the filters, people are tired of seeing stuff that they can't relate to, and I have always been willing to be raw, to be real and to be honest with the attendees that I have the opportunity to speak to, because that's what I resonate with. When I hear that someone's struggling with their mental health, when I hear that someone is burnt out, when I hear that someone was dealing with something and then they got to the other side, that's what makes me curious. It makes me curious okay, if you were able to do it, maybe I can do it. And then I started sharing those coping strategies. I started doing more research that was actually working, that was research-based and that made the difference. So I just want to encourage you for the things that you are passionate about. It might start like a passion project.

Jessica Lundy:

Back in the day people were not talking about mental health and I remember when my friends and some of my family would say I don't think you should share some of those you know, like personal things, like people might judge you, people might, you know, look at you differently because you're struggling. And I realized that I have a responsibility. Some of you guys know me as America's Big Sister. That is not just the cute, trendy title. It's because as soon as I meet you, we are now family. Hey, family, hey cousin. We're family, which means I love you, I care for you and I'm sometimes gonna say stuff you don't wanna hear, but you need to hear, and that's the energy I bring to every audience that I have the pleasure of speaking to, and that's why I wanted to start this podcast.

Jessica Lundy:

Like I want to be your big sister, I wanna be there to help you through your healing journey. I want you to realize that you are not in this world alone. Like I believe in the power of community so that we can do this thing called life together. I want to be that accountability partner for you as you're going through different things. Like I want to receive your DMs, I will actually answer them. So if you're not connected with us on social media yet, make sure you follow us on social media at finallyhealpod, because I'm going to be the one, not my team I'm going to be the one responding to those DMs. Like, if you're struggling, like hit me with a voice note. Like I will pray for you. Like we are family now and I think it's so important to know that there is someone in this big world with billions of people, cares about you, cares about your mental health and cares about your well-being, and I am grateful to be that person in your life. It is truly an honor.

Jessica Lundy:

So we're getting to my favorite segment, which is called the healing moment, where I'm going to give you an action item, where I want you to take action on it because you deserve it. This is going to be a homework assignment that's truly going to help you succeed on your mental health. So I want you to create a system, a structure, a process on how you are actually going to check in daily on your mental health. There's an app I like called Mood Fit. I'll put it down below and you can actually go in and rank scale of one to 10, how you're feeling right now. You can actually add words to it. You can actually journal in app because there's a lot of amazing resources available to you and if you do not have a therapist, like a licensed therapist, there's room for both right People who have been doing this a long time on the battlefield Okay, and there are people that have the degrees and the expertise and they can be one-on-one with you with as much time as you need them. Like I want you to check out the BetterHelp app. Like, there are so many resources available that you do not have to feel alone in your healing journey and I'm excited to be there right beside you.

Jessica Lundy:

So this has been another episode of the Finally Healed podcast. I am so excited to have you a part of our community. If this episode was valuable, hit us with that five-star review on whatever platform that you are listening or watching this on, share this with a friend. Subscribe so that you can get notifications every time we launch a new episode and remember you got this.