Starting the Year with Clarity: Mental Hygiene, Generational Goals, and a Healthy Mindset
The start of a new year is a perfect time to focus on clarity and purpose. By prioritizing mental hygiene, generational goals, and a healthy mindset, you can set the stage for a transformative year ahead.
Mental Hygiene
Mental hygiene involves maintaining a healthy mind through consistent, simple practices. Start by decluttering your thoughts—write them down to alleviate mental overload. Protect your time and energy by setting boundaries that help you focus on what truly matters. Incorporate mindfulness into your daily routine through meditation, deep breathing, or quiet reflection. Additionally, limit digital distractions by taking breaks from screens to recharge your focus and reduce stress.
Generational Goals
Setting generational goals is about creating a legacy that benefits future generations. Reflect on the core values you want to pass down, such as honesty, resilience, or a love for learning. Financial planning can also play a significant role, whether it’s investing in education savings or building generational wealth. Preserve your family’s unique heritage by documenting stories and traditions, and model healthy habits like self-care and kindness to inspire those who follow your example.
A Healthy Mindset
A healthy mindset equips you to face challenges with resilience and optimism. Reframe negative thoughts by viewing setbacks as opportunities for growth. Practicing gratitude can shift your perspective; consider jotting down three things you’re thankful for each day. Break down your big aspirations into small, manageable steps to build confidence and momentum. Surround yourself with positive influences and uplifting relationships to maintain a balanced outlook.
By nurturing mental hygiene, setting generational goals, and cultivating a healthy mindset, you can create a year filled with clarity and purpose. Small, consistent actions can lead to profound and lasting change.
Read on to learn from our guest speakers Jordan Howard, our new One Rouge Program Coordinator, Alexis Kador of Geaux Get Healthy, and Karen Burks with Burks Management Firm.
Notes
Casey Phillips: All right. Good morning. Yeah. There you go, Tia. Can we do it? One, two, three, and sync up. One, two, three. Good morning, everyone. Good Yeah.
Tia Fields: Happy 2025, everyone. Okay, Casey, you can kick us off because we're just like, yep. Go ahead, you take the lead and I'm just follow you a little bit on this one here.
Casey: All right, just for a second. As I said, so everyone welcome to One Rouge Friday's 2025 edition. In the never ending if you think back to when this call started in April of 2020 It feels like so much has changed and sometimes in some ways, nothing has changed. But so much has, and I've been reflecting on that. There's so much work to do. That's why I was like, some things have never changed because there's so much work left to do. When you think about the humans in our city that are food insecure, that are housing insecure you still look at the wage gap. All of these things are still present and we've made some gains, right? There has been, things that changes have happened and they've moved forward, but there's still a lot of work to do. And I hope that everyone was able to have a restorative holiday. And doesn't feel overwhelmed by everything that has happened in the last 10 days, just from the start of the year, which we'll get into in a 2nd, but I just want to welcome you all once again into the space to be shoulder to shoulder in this work, really what I'm trying to say, what's on my heart is that we, you are not alone. In this work, we are together like we are together today. We are together every week. And throughout the year, this is the work that we do together. I know it's easy sometimes to feel a little bit helpless when you watch all the things on the TV and, but you're not alone. You're with us. We're with you. And I just want to say, start off with gratitude, just the way that we ended the year. I want to start the year with some gratitude. And as I said, I'm ready. Let's go. So Tia, hop in on the end.
Tia: Hey, thank you. I share that same sentiment with Casey. First starting off with gratitude and a really big thank you to everyone who has been continuously on the call and to those who are just now tapping in with One Rouge and your commitment to community and just being there for your neighbor and your partners in this work. So I just want to start off with saying thank you. So as Casey said, we ended the year with gratitude and space of rest, and we wanna start off a year with that. So we have three amazing women on this call today who's gonna share a space with us to talk about wellness in so many different capacities, from your physical, to your mental, even to your financial. And it's even a bigger pleasure because our new program coordinator Jordan Howard is also going to be leading this call. So we're going to take a moment to allow these ladies to introduce themselves and we'll start that conversation from there. Jordan, I can start with you. You have five minutes to tell the people who you are and what it is you are doing with One Rouge.
Jordan Howard: Awesome. Yes. Hi, everyone. Good morning. I'm back. Last time I was on here, I was with a nonprofit called Louisiana Center for Health Equity. And now I am serving as the program coordinator here with One Rouge. And just a little bit about me, my background is in mental health. So I identify as a social worker who is a mental health advocate and a consultant to really all things mental health from all aspects of whether it be community work, grant writing. Just program facilitation, workshops, all that. I'm excited to be here. I really have enjoyed my first few days and today I will be talking about what mental health looks like already in 2025, which has started off with a bang as Casey mentioned and we had a previous conversation about before you all hopped on today. So I'm really excited to just see where everybody's heads are at and support y'all in picking this year off to a steady and peaceful pace. I'll stop there and pass the mic to either Karen or Alexis.
Karen Burks: I'll go. Great morning, everyone. I'm Karen Burks with Burks Management Firm, and my background starts with banking. I started my career in banking over about 15 years ago and enjoyed the work. I knew as a child, I would work in banking because I love counting money. And when I got into the work, I understood it was a barrier within finances, and especially in just the BIPOC community. And so that's what first Burke's Management Firm, I worked within the collections department. And so while doing that work, it really helped cultivate me. different areas, whether it be faith based nonprofits, just educating individuals on finances. And so I work also as an economic empowerment director at my church. I've worked with Upward Bound for six years teaching personal finance to youth. And of course, through my organization, I put on different workshops, summits for youth during the summer, or sometimes whenever they're out on break in order to just understand finances along with just life. skills because I did some workforce development as a trainer as well. And so that is so important just to understand the basics of finance is involved in everything that we do and just tying that in with the mental health or just health in general for finances is just so key. So I'm excited to be a part of the conversation today.
Alexis Kador: All right, so my name is Alexis Kador. I am the community health outreach coordinator at the Geaux Get Healthy clinical program at Our Lady of the Lake, where we take the clinical approach to addressing food insecurity. And I am also the founder of an organization called the Move Project Foundation, where we aim to make others valuable every day. And we do that through having conversations like this. We do that through storytelling. We do that through creating spaces and platforms for people to share their stories in a creative way, but also being physically active. Okay. And so that is what I am all about. I am about community programs, and I'm about advocacy and educating people. Because that's where it really starts. It starts up with education, and right now my focus has been food nutrition and food health. So I am in charge of the task, with bringing those tips and those resolutions, and I cannot wait to explore with you all about how food health affects every area of our life, just like the financial attribute, just like the mental health attribute. Food health is where it starts. It literally is the field to your life. And so I am encouraged to talk about that and bring forth what I have.
Tia: Thank you so much, Alexis, Karen and Jordan, I want you to start off the conversation for us as it relates to we step into this year. The first 10 days we had tragedy in New Orleans and we send our condolences and prayers to everybody that's being affected right now. The mass fire that is now going on in L. A. Earlier on in our, our debriefing, you talked about even if we're not directly impacted, seeing it and viewing it could put us in a space of being overstimulated and not being able to really regulate our emotions, especially if we have family that live in these areas that are impacted by these tragedies. Or if we at one point in time experienced it. So can you talk a little bit from a wellness perspective? What we can do to reset and regulate.
Jordan: Absolutely. So y'all, I actually have this little slide deck that I want to show just because I'm a visual person. I want to get y'all engaged. It's the crack of dawn. I probably still look like I don't know what. I want to be engaging with y'all to really go through this process, but absolutely. So let me Oh, I need to of course share screen and then we can get right into it. But yes, today's theme y'all is called renew, reflect, re imagine wellness, mental hygiene, and generational goals for the new year. So I think y'all are in for a treat today. Let's see. So this is called, this conversation is called overstimulated already. Y'all so it is literally only we're not even in a double digits yet I would just hit the double digits of this year and it's just been a lot like to you said it has been a lot for us to personally experience through social media with uncensored videos soon as you open the apps, it's just It's a lot, especially when we're doing most of you all are people facing with the work that we do. It's a lot. You can get vicarious trauma just from hearing somebody else's stories or experiences that are going on. So today really is talking about How are we taking care of ourselves mentally, how are we setting boundaries, protecting that space and really just checking in on ourselves as we are also people facing, we tend to focus a lot on other people and how we can best support them through the process. But today is really about what about you? I'm gonna start us off with an icebreaker. So I wanted everybody to put in the chat, or matter of fact, we could just say some stuff out loud. Just, Say one word that describes how your year has started so far, and y'all can come off mute.
Tia: Transformative. A lot of changes. It's a bad word. Wait, what's the bad word, Dr. Harrison? What is the bad word? I want to hear it or read it. Anxious. Rocky.
Jordan: It's a bad word. You could share it, sister. Safe space. Focus.
Alexis: A lot. Not linear. I was expecting like A linear like type of smooth transition. It was not that at all
Jordan: Wow Grateful prayerful chaotic Okay busy fire Okay, so I guess it's did I miss anyone? Pathetic. Yeah, that's real. Unknown. All right. This is really just a prime example of why we're having the conversation. It's a lot of mixed emotions. It's a lot of feelings that we don't really get to address because we got to wake up. And go and wake up and go and wake up and go. And we just are expected to keep doing that. Really, I don't know, I feel the need to ask everybody to just take a deep breath and really let it out. Like you could turn your camera off if it's not the most pleasant look, but really just Oh, let it out because we are here. Y'all we are real people. We can do this, but it is a lot. So acknowledge that. Let a lot of that weight off your chest this morning. It's Friday. You made it and you can do this. And so thank y'all for really sharing, y'all's emotions. It is an uneasy time. It is a time of unrest and uncertainty. So thank you for the transparency and the vulnerability and you yourself will appreciate that. As we continue to go through what we're going to be talking about. So we want to do this little activity called are we there yet? And so if you could put up five fingers whether you're on screen or not, I want to basically ask these five things and you will put down a finger as you can relate if you can relate to what I say out loud. So put a finger down if you have set new goals or resolutions. Okay. Put a finger down if you've added a goal after seeing someone else's social media post. Okay. Compare yourself to progress of someone else. So compare your progress to someone else's. Okay, felt guilty or well felt guilty for not doing enough. And then the last one is have already felt like you planned above what you could achieve. So all of my fingers are down. What about y'all? How many fingers do y'all have held up? What are your thoughts on that? What did it make you think?
Alexis: I think for starters, I thought, I love that you started with talking about comparing. I'm so glad that I wasn't able to put my finger down for that. Because that was something that I struggled with last year, right? Or just previous, but I've now acknowledged that comparison is the thief of joy. And so I don't look to that. I don't look to compare myself to others. I don't. Although I support every single social media post that goes with it. I am not looking to see what other people are doing because I know that growth is not linear. I know that my journey is not linear. And so that has kept me grounded in my mind and in my space to know that I'm operating the best way that I possibly can for my health and for my sanity. And so going outside of my mind to try to paint a picture for something that's unrealistic for my life is not going to help me.That's why I'm so happy. I got three fingers up.
Jordan: And that's big. That is really big because a lot of people don't really get there, so easily. And so for me, like personally, I put my finger down cause I'm like, as I'm trying, as I'm in like a transition of just life in general I'm trying to see oh, how are other people doing things or how does, how are they. Like I'm an admiration. It may start off as, but then you start going down rabbit hole sometimes. It's how can I do that? Or maybe I should add that. And then it becomes, wait, now I'm focused on somebody else's goals that originally weren't something that I even wrote down. It happens that easy, y'all. So that was a perfect comparison to what that could look like. So it's just important to see yourself, see you and all things that you're because literally Alexis just say like it. If I say, okay yeah I saw Tia say that she's going to really get into journaling this year. And that may be good advice or something that you can consider or, and maybe she sold journals or something and she's making a million dollars off of it. I'm like, Hey, I could do that. But that's not a purpose field for you. That's not a part of your identity and what you were called to do, so you don't ever want to get outside of your purpose and your will, because then you can do it. We can do anything, but sometimes we start to struggle and we're like, why? Because it wasn't for you to do. So like when we thrive in exactly what our purpose is literally the sky's the limit. And it's so much easier than what we think because it's like what we're already called to do. It almost feels natural versus forced. So literally, I just wanted to do that because sometimes to see it even is dang, that's a little embarrassing, but that's real life and it happens that fast to the best of us. Next I wanted to do something called mirror mirror. Look at yourself and only yourself. Because if y'all think about the saying mirror mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all, right? And so even in that, it's asking for the mirror to tell me something about myself. Like we look at, we tend to look at ourselves or post certain things and we read the comments or we are seeking that validation or approval of somebody else for what we already look like or what we're already producing or Who we already are, right? So I wanted to basically say this is a chance for you to get Validation from yourself. Think about yourself. You don't need You don't need that. I guess affirmation from anybody, but you because what's in the mirror is not, determined by anybody else, but you so you can ask and you'll get responses, but we need to look at ourselves and only ourselves and be okay with what we see be okay with what we're doing and be okay with change and vulnerability and not be so overwhelmed with everybody else's thoughts about our goals and our plan for our lives. I wanted you all to actually take a moment for yourselves and write down one personal goal that truly matters to you without anyone else's influence. And it can be very small. It can be as easy as a daily task that you need to implement for 10, 20, 30 minutes early in the morning to go to sleep. Not at the crack of dawn or at the wee hours of the night. And then another one is one habit or boundary that you need to protect your mental health or well being. And then, excuse me, the last one is one small action you can take this weekend to honor yourself. And these three things are really important y'all because one, a personal goal that needs to just be for you and only you. And I won't ask y'all to share any of these things because it's all about you and we don't, sometimes we get comfortable in sharing it because even in that we get validation, right? And then, of course, the one habit or boundary, we need to set those things. So I've been cutting off my social media like saying, don't like this. I don't want to see that because it can be a lot, it can be overwhelming, it can be overstimulating. And we have to just find ways within our everyday lives to protect ourselves. And then the last one is just something to say, good job, because you did it and you're worth it. And everything that you do is worth it. That was a goal or that you reached or succeeded in is something to honor and respect and value and then just 3 things that I want to share as a tool as a way to, always see yourself in your own goals. Is to check in daily on my feeling set no more than two personal goals to prioritize each week because we can have a task list for work. We can have a task list for being a mom, a dad, a wife, a girlfriend, a husband, all of those different types of things in all of those roles. But. Sometimes we just need things for ourselves to say, you did that this week. You worked out twice. You rode your bike three times. Great. Like those little things to say I'm still a human being at the end of the day, no matter how fast his life cycle is taking me, I'm still me. And then commit to one boundary that protects your time and your energy brothers do not disturb after five o'clock or whatever it may be to protect your peace and your mental hygiene. And so you have control over it. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. You can do anything that you put your mind to. And really that's it. That's all I want to share and consider yourself in all things that you do. Y'all are special. Y'all are people at the end of the day. And yeah, I hope y'all enjoyed it.
Tia: Thank you so much for the wonderful presentation and also just a moment of mindfulness for things that are actually doable. I think it was important for me on that last part, the number 3 to make sure that I said 1 thing for myself for a personal boundary. I love, I think it's Manny Patoli at the end of his email, it says please don't feel the need to respond because my work hours may not be your work hours. And that's something that I have to remember because when you hold so many spaces and communities in your everyday life, it's easy to Not set enough personal boundaries for yourself for a time for restoration. So I really just appreciate you taking the time to give us those mental health hygiene tips. And I'm grateful for you. So I'm going to shift the conversation a little bit. As we just discussed about mental health, this is the beginning of the fiscal year, right? Everybody is getting prepared. Pair to file for taxes. If you're a business owner, we had some fluctuation with the BOI reporting. Miss Karen, can you jump in and just give us some of your space on financial wellness?
Karen: Yes, absolutely. And once again, thank you all for having me as well. So definitely, I love to start again with icebreakers as well. So I want to ask you all as well. If you had the choice based on a career, and it was making, let's say 250, 000 a year, and you had the choice to work at this particular career so much. And you had another career that was maybe about 80, 000 a year, but you didn't have as much flexibility at the 250 K job. Say for instance, it was a lot of high functioning different positions within that, I would say mental health, just, it was draining on you. You really didn't like that career, right? So that's the 250 K career. And then you have the 80 K one, right? Whereas you're able to have that flexibility. You enjoyed it. You love this job. You enjoy the people you work with, but it wasn't making enough for what you desired. And you can just put any numbers, say for instance, you want more than 250, but just say for instance, this job at the 250 K was making. A whole lot, but yet you were mentally, spiritually, physically, just drain, right? But you were making the money bonus commission, all of that good stuff. Tell me which one would you choose and why? If you could just put it in the chat. Of what career options would you choose and why? And oftentimes I open up with this question just to get the mindset of individuals to know where we are mentally, physically, spiritually, financially, whenever it comes to our finances, what are you going to choose whenever it comes to finances? And so when I talk with my young people, of course, they tell me, Ms. Karen, yes, I'm going to go for this 250K, but with adults, they're like, Oh no. I want to have that mental health component within that. I can find a side hustle. I can do all those things. So let me check this chat to see what you guys are saying here. All right. So I see here 80k for sure. Let's okay. Yes. For the most part, I have mostly working adults and we've been in the workforce for quite some time. You'll find a second job hustle or gig something. Say, for instance, if you play some type of musician, say, for instance, you're able to get more funding. That way you have a different type of way of actually getting funds in. So even as a consultant, you're able to actually get different contracts. So let that work for you. So what I want to share with you today for just aligning this with mental health along with. Financial trauma. I had individuals whenever I was in the collections department within the banking industry, we had business owners perhaps. Or looking to get funding for their businesses, and they just could not make that ends me or perhaps Level up within their business as well And so that's where I came in just to help them through that process In order to make that business thrive in order to make that person or help that person understand Hey, you have some extra money here within your budget that you consider this so mining their credit report and mining their budget. Those are some things in which I really wanted to help those individuals walk through. So along with, of course, when you talked about what career you're wanting to take, you want to be mindful of what that looks like, of how much stress it would put on you because potentially it can be where you're making all this money, but yet. You may have to take some time off because it's actually affecting with your stress. So let's get into a bit of, for as far as for businesses. So I'll talk a little bit as far as connecting within those financial institutions and understanding how whenever you are getting funding for your business and perhaps it may be I'm wanting to level up my business, but it's stressful for me because I'm not able to get that access to capital. And now I have people in which I have to make sure that they are on their own payroll and I have to make sure that they're getting paid as well. And so talking with business owners, whether nonprofit or for profit business. This owners bringing them in to understand the process within getting this access to capital, making sure that there are financials in the organ. So she alluded to earlier the VOI so that you can potentially have a fee or a fine on your business. If that's not done and the appropriate timing, right? So making sure what's up to date within your financials, connecting with your bookkeeper, your accountant. Knowing your finances as well. So don't just leave it up to the financial individuals to do that such as your bookkeeper and accountant, because you want to know what's going on in your business as well. Financially along with working with a banker. What we call it is the bail system. So you'll have your banker, accountant, insurance, and your lawyer. You want to make sure you have those individuals in your pocket, phone numbers at all times in order to reach out to them just in case, Hey, I'm about to apply for this loan, but. I need these particular documents. I need the P and L, which is your profit and loss statements, right? So you need them quickly, but making sure that you have those things handy as well. And to get there to that appropriate number in which you're looking forward to advance within your business. Of course, knowing your banker, you want to build that relationship with your banker. So just going in there, perhaps going to that financial institution once a month they may know your name, but have a, build a relationship with your banker so that they could advocate for you whenever you are applying for this particular loan or just in general, if you're wanting to Just get more information about how to apply for different things. And so they will be able to advocate for you. Whenever the underwriter, those are the individuals that actually look at a particular loan. And when the underwriters may have questions about your particular account or your loan portfolio there, there may say hey, I really don't understand what's going on here. They will be able to say, Oh yes Ms. Burke's is getting this loan because she's wanting to get a fleet of vehicles or 18 wheelers, right? They could tell the story on your behalf because you will not be talking with the underwriter. They will. So that's why I would say it's so important that you're building that relationship with that banker along with, of course, your insurance. Agent that you'll be working with for your business. You may only have say, for instance, insurance up to 150 K for your business and you actually need 275 to cover for your business because you had gotten some more equipment, things of that sort. So you want to make sure you're assessing yearly. And so this will be a good time to go back and assess those things to see exactly. Hey, I purchased a new building for my business. I perhaps need to make sure that it is appraised as well for the correct amount or whatever it may be. But if it's a new building for the most part, it's going to be appraised it just recently, but definitely if you've had it for quite some time, go back and reassess those things as well. And of course you want to make sure you have a great attorney on Your list as well regarding your business in order to move forward within any type of work that you're doing as business owners. Now that's for our business owners, but for just individuals that don't have businesses yet, what does it look like for you? Within just elevating within your finances and going to that next level. So I'll share with you. I was once laid off, right? And it was devastating for me. My background is in workforce development. And I know how to connect people to employment, but it was. A traumatic experience because I'm like, Oh, I'm not employed. I can't find work, but I had my business, right? I always had that on the side in order to help to just make things safe. For instance, if I needed more for something, I would have a contract to come through. I worked. So much where it's like I need to elevate within or advance within my personal, just a career, and then also within my business. So likewise, if you do not have something in which you would say, Oh, I do this really well, right? So your skills, talents, abilities, if you can bake really well, if you could ever get laid off, what are you going to do? Because it is a traumatic experience. It can deal with your mental health. What are you going to do? You have to have something in place. Of course, you may have one of those days like, okay, you're in your pity party, but you have to get up and realize the real world. Look, there are bills that have to be paid. Kids got to go to school. Things of that different nature. Gas have to be in the car in order to go to see these different interviews, right? You want to make sure that you are elevating yourself as far as what is next. If this happens, right? And so what I would suggest first, of course, making sure for your employer your former employee that you were working for, what is left? Is there anything within your 401k retirement, any of that? That you put into you saved. And I would always suggest that you put in more outside of just what your regular savings is as well. Cause you don't know how long you may be out of work, but there's always the opportunity to go to staffing companies to do something temporary until you find that full time opportunity as well. And you may say I'm working a full time job and I'm still not able to, make those things work out for me. But understanding how could you move forward when you don't have that and not have yourself in a way that you are mentally or just depressed within that space whenever you're trying to look for that place of work, and you're not able to do that. I did it really quickly, right? So definitely reaching out to individuals that, in the space that you used to work as well, understanding how to, again, use your skills, talents, and abilities, again, if you're able to, if you're a mechanic, but you just didn't work for, a Jiffy Lube or something of that sort, but you know how to fix vehicles or again, musician, you play an instrument, something of that sort. Playing at different places in order to make sure that you're getting things paid so that you're not in this crunch and in that survival mode as well. And of course, reaching out to people that's within that space as well. Because oftentimes when individuals, when they don't have money, they. It's that anxiety they are trying to get there and again, that survival mode, their mental health. It really takes a toll on them. So they want to make sure that they're getting the proper things that are needed. Of course, if you have a business that is. Start pushing more, more towards that side hustle and what you were doing as well. Getting those contracts, going to more events that provide training for those small business owners as well, such as LSBDC, Louisiana Small Business Development Center. They're able to help you with resources and free resources, such as your business plan as well. So those are some things that I would share as well. I will also just give just a testament of this even while the individual was out, I was out of work, should I say I was able to write. And I wrote my book for young kids where they're able to understand finances. It was more of a financial literacy coloring book for kids. And of course, within it, it has some content, but more of where they're able to have the foundational portion pertaining to finances and what it looks like. Along with it, there was a song that was written for financial literacy that we did as well. So it's called making sense of dollars and cents for our young kids. So holistically, you can be teaching your kids about finances. Of course, you're learning about finances as well. Whenever you're using this particular curriculum with your children as well. So that's a bit of what I wanted to share surrounding how just mental health could affect within your finances and ways in which you can utilize this so that you don't get yourself in a rut whenever it looks like, Oh, I don't have this income coming in. How could I get myself out of that? Thank you for your time.
Tia: Thank you so much for that, Karen. It's really fascinating to me. I put a A comment in the chat because as I was saying, like the year starts off with a lot of transitions. You've have people leaving organizations and joining new ones and there's always like some portion of a financial gap that goes on in between when that next pay comes. And for those of you don't know, like One Rouge is really about disrupting poverty. So I thought it was like extremely important that we highlight the reality of, everyone at some point in time in their life will have some type of economic or financial change and just being able to tap into both linear and passive income opportunities is imperative to build in generational wealth for your stuff and your family. So thank you so much for that. So now we've already talked about mental health and our financial wellness. I want to go ahead and kick it off to miss Alexis talking about our our gut health are what we put in our bodies and how all these things connect to making us a whole holistic us. Alexis, you have the floor.
Alexis: Yes, thank you so much. I am so happy that I included what I included in my notes. Cause every single thing that they touched on individually, I'm talking about the community. I'm talking about financial trauma. I'm talking about building relationships. I'm talking about boundaries. I'm talking about comparison, all of those things play a part into like our health. And I don't think we think about it too much. And I'm going to go back and give you a little bit of context of one, the work that we do with the go get healthy clinical program. So we offer a free. Weekly two days a week, one at the LSU Health North Clinic on Airline. And then the second one at the COVID testing clinic on Pocarty, this is our later delay clinics. And so our experiences with working with these patients, we see various and layers of disparities. So that's financial trauma. People can't have good health if they can't afford to eat. If people, if they can't afford to eat, then how do we expect our kids to go to school and learn well? So it's that we disregard those gaps and also just disregard those and we just have a whole bunch of misconceptions around health and how much it actually plays a valuable part in our lives. And like I was saying, all of these experiences that working with our patients and things. When they come to our classes, it's not like going to a dietician and focusing on one area. Although our focus is food insecurity. Food health affects more than one area of your life. So we discuss our challenges. We discuss our families, we discuss our culture, we discuss legislation, and then we do it all over. cooking and eating, right? And because we know that food brings people together and we also talk about what prevents us from moving forward. And so one of my main points for today and please feel free to take notes. But one of my main points is we must understand that being in good health is not just about doctor visits. That's a misconception. So but it's overall wellness and making daily choices to be better than yesterday. And I mean in every area of our lives, right? That's it. With that, we must understand that health is not one size fits all. Jordan talked about comparison. Comparison will steal the joy right from under us. What may look like we're making progress, the progress that we see from other people, it may discourage us from doing what we know what we're doing for our bodies. And so we have to rid of those misconceptions. What may work for Susan, what may work for Tia, what will make work may work for Ben, it won't, it may not work for you because most likely our goals aren't even the same. And We have to sit with ourselves and see what am I wanting to get out of this year? What do I want to feel after this? Or how do, like, how do I move according to how my body is telling me, right? Because your body is the first, your body, I'm going to get to it, but your body is like a car. It's going to start throwing up check engine lights. It's going to start telling you, hey, you need an oil change. Your knees is breaking down. But it can also simply be because you ain't have water all day. And so it's just simple things like that, that we have to be mindful of, but I'll keep going. And then I'm going to really get into the tips to encourage y'all to move forward. Okay. So second, we must change our mentality. Our relationship to health. I remember maybe like a few years, like I would say my whole college career, my whole college career, I was fearful of going to the doctor. I didn't go, I didn't go to the, I didn't go to the doctor because I was scared. I was, and also it was during COVID as well. But I was scared. I was fearful of the results that would come out of these doctor's offices. I was traumatized from what the experiences of going to doctors in my childhood, right? I was fearful what may come out of those things and for the people that I work with and probably for some of us. We're afraid of what may come out of that doctor's office. What's the results that may come with that, right? And so we have to dissolve that and change our relationship towards health and make it in a way that feels right for us. And so I was afraid of people critiquing my diet. They used to always say, girl, the reason why you gain so much weight because you don't eat. You don't get the nutrients that you are supposed to be getting. You don't eat breakfast in the morning. You don't eat lunch in the morning. How many of us overwork ourselves and then we skip so many meals? And then by the time we get to dinner, we stacking up, we done throwing everything on that plate. And our body is telling us, girl, I'm about to take all of this, good or bad. Y'all, you ain't trying to feed me no more, so I'm going to keep it. And that's how we gain weight. That's how we gain weight. And I'm laughing because that was my experience until I started to really take in consideration what am I giving to my body? And so I'm going to talk a little bit more about that, but I want to keep going. And so I had to come to some hard truths. It took me not emotionally eating, it took me not eating out of trauma response. Some of the things that we've experienced in our childhood has fallen into what, how we process our emotions today. And and one of those biggest things is. It's binge eating, right? Even in my personal families, right? And so these are just some things that I think about when I think about the misconceptions about health. And the other point is what we put into our body and my coworker she always says this. Your engine, I mean your car, I mean your body is like a car. So what we put in, we get out. And so if you're not taking care of your car right, if you're not making sure your tires are changed, if you're not making sure that you have gas in your car, then where is it going? And that's the same thing with our bodies. If we're not feeling our bodies, if we're not eating balance, right? If we're not, if we're not doing that, then we don't have feel to go to the next area. We don't have feel to show up to our community events. We don't have feel to show up for ourselves mentally. We don't have feel to show up for our kids because we are literally draining every single nutrient, every single day. Fit that we have in our body. And so how I and also it's just like it plays up in our skin I don't know sometimes when you eat You'll see it in a person's skin, what they're eating. You'll see if they're drinking their water, right? You'll see if their nails are broken up and things like that. Because your nails probably won't grow if you're not having enough water in you. Your hair probably won't grow if you're not putting your right nutrients in you. And those are just things that we think about. And You have to think about your body as a vessel and we are here to use those vessels. Oh, yeah. I'm sorry, babe. Oh, yeah.
Tia: No, I'm sorry to cut you off. But there's a offsite comment that I received on your on what you're speaking about. And it says you are the result of what what you do, what you listen and who you spend the time with. And that's from Marcella Hernandez with Lori. So she's just giving a kudos to the fact of what you're saying, what we consume in our bodies and Is that right? Yep. So starting off this year as we head into, and I'm going to continue to let you talk Alexis as we start going into our coalition meetings and we're addressing food insecurity, we're addressing the literacy rates, we're addressing transportation and mobility, everything that you are speaking about our real life reflections of the communities that we serve, but even us as people food insecurity and bad food eating habits can affect all of us in our daily lives. The way that we have a connection with money can affect the way that we present when we're addressing certain populations of people that's underserved. Go ahead, keep going. I just want to hear what Marcella said. Sorry, Alexis.
Alexis: No, that was good and that ties into what I was about to say next. Even when we look at our processed foods, our fast food places in our areas, where are they located? Where are healthy food options located? And so processed food, all those fast foods, all of those things that's in the middle isles, where we, the fast things, those things are linked to depression. Those things are linked to memory loss. Those things are linked to you not having energy. It's the high amounts of saturated fats, the sodium, and of course, all of the sugar that's packed and pushed into our communities. Right? And specifically our food deserts and rural areas. How are they going to get to the healthy food options? So they give us the bottom. They give us the bare bottom, right? And then we wonder why some of our kids are going to school disoriented. Some of our parents can't even function half of the day. It's because we don't have access to the food that we're really supposed to be putting into our bodies and our bodies are going to absorb the good and the bad. So it's important to get a balanced diet, right? I know that's cliche and everybody say, you need a balanced diet, but it's true. It's really true whether, and I'm a firm believer, I'd rather you eat one than none. People would tell you, people are telling people to like, eat three fruits, three types of fruits and vegetables every day. People can't afford three fruits and vegetables every day. And that discourages people from even wanting to try to do it. I encourage people, and I'm going to go into my tips. But I encourage people to start off with one fruit a day. If that's what you gotta do, start off with one fruit a day. Start with one vegetable a day. And I'mma, I'mma, I'll just go there. A bag of apples is like five, five dollars. Prepare yourself that Sunday and do it. And you'll have an apple a day. They probably got seven, eight apples in the bag. You got your apple a day. And then some. And so it's just making adjustments like that, but the tips that I encourage you all to to encourage you all this year is to one, show up for yourself around August of last year, I made it a goal in my mind to, or in my mind, but I made it a goal to cater to my mind, my body. Spirit and soul. At least one, one activity. Mind, body, spirit, soul. For you, for me. One of those activities that came out of that was kite flying. It sounds childish. Listen. I know, but it's fun. And I am outside flying my little kite. And I am looking crazy, but. It's fun and it's a mental release and at least I'm moving my body And at least I get to go enjoy a light nice little snack after because I don't work so hard So it's things like that feed my soul. And so for a moment, I want Okay. Yeah, thank you and I'm gonna hurry up and get through these tips for a moment or just think about it or over the weekend, think about what you want to do for your mind, your body, spirit, which is your source, where you get your belief from and your soul. What can you do to make your soul happy? The next thing I would like to say is make your success accessible. Sometimes we go out of our way to try to reach goals. That's not even meeting us where we're at. We have to make goals that aligns with where we're at right now. And because when we jump in, we fall off and then we get discouraged. Start off, make your success accessible. If you don't like getting up and going to the gym, put your clothes in the car so you can go to the gym after work. If you don't like, like me, I don't like doing anything before or after work. So I go take a walk on lunch to make sure that I'm going to do this because that's just me. I don't, I like to relax after work, right? And so it's things like that, small things, make your goals and make your success accessible. Cause that's what, that's how you get longterm results. And also take your time, bad relationship wasn't built. Like they say Rome wasn't built in a day and so was the condition of your body. It wasn't built overnight. So I would just encourage you. It takes 21 days to form a habit. So be mindful, be intentional, but give yourself grace because it's obtainable. It's really obtainable. And there's a way that you could be healthy for your life and for your kid's life. That does not break the brink that does not break the bank. And so I encourage you to find community to change your relationship towards being healthy because it really is overall health and not just you going to the gym. It's about your diet as well and it's about what makes you feel good. And so yeah, that's all I have to share y'all. If y'all have any questions, please let me know. Please let me know.
Tia: Make sure you drop your everybody on the call to drop your your information in the chat. So if anybody wants to get involved with you, they can contact you. Thank you ladies again for chiming in and making sure that we are reset and ready for 2025 to commit. To continue to provide resources and advocate for our communities. We're going to jump into community announcements right now. So at this time, if anyone has any flyers or events going on, you can drop them in a chat or come off of mute.
Alexis: Oh I'll guess I'll start since I'm already off of mute. Like I said, we offer go get healthy clinical classes every. Every week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So that's starting up again on the week of the 21st. So I encourage people that may be experiencing food insecurity, or if you're just looking to start your health journey to connect with us, because we would love to have you. You can bring your kids too. We got kids set up, so bring the kids.
Tia: Thank you much. From Lori, they are going to be doing for. And so there, hold on, let me just back up for MLK weekend. There are a plethora of community events going on starting next Friday. One Rouge will be hosting our One Rouge, a Poverty Summit, and I'll drop that flyer in a chat briefly, but Lori will be doing a community cleanup in district five in the La Bosa community, which is located off of Tracy drive, I'll also provide that flyer. On our web page, as well as in the chat, if anyone else have anything going on for M. L. K. Please feel free to come off a mute or drop your flyers in the chat.
Karen: I don't have any event, but I definitely wanted to uplift the question that Eugene had earlier regarding the banks that you would suggest now recommend institutions that I will recommend. Now, I am. A credit union I would definitely recommend a credit union, but also you would need to perhaps just gauge out what financial institution work best with you. For example, a lady mentioned to me that she had hundreds of thousands of dollars and a financial institution and she was looking to get just a lot of credit, not much money. But they did not approve the loan and couldn't tell her exactly why, even whenever they sent out the letter to her of why they denied her, it didn't align, it didn't align with what she thought. And she took her money out of that particular financial institution and went to a more, just a local bank, but she shopped around as well. Ask more questions as well. And that's what I would suggest for you. Shop around, ask questions to those particular bankers where you feel comfortable with, but I believe it's more of the relationship as well. Although she had a lot of money there at that financial institution, she didn't build a relationship with the banker. And that was 1 of the things in which I really honed in with her about me. Is working with someone within that financial institution, not just the branch manager, but the tellers, because sometimes there is turnover, but just making sure you're connecting with the bankers as well.
Tia: Thank you so much. And I'm so glad you caught it because I was going to highlight that, but just didn't have a moment to interject. Also, I have one more community announcement on January 23rd. There is going to be a Women's United Annual meeting at Drusilla's Place. I'm going to, in this by capital area, United Way, the Women United, they are asking that all women who wish to be a part of this movement, bring one woman and some feminine hygiene products. So if you have that in your schedule to do, please make sure that you register for that event. That will be in the chat and also on the One Rouge web page. Alrighty. If we have no more community announcements, I would like to thank everybody for joining today's call. Next week we will be live with the call at the One Rouge Poverty Summit. It's going to be hosted at the BREC Howell Park from 8 a. m. until 12 the, the first hour and a half of that portion will be the regular One Rouge call. And then we'll shift right into the summit highlighting and honoring Dr. Martin Luther King's poor people's campaign. I'm so sorry. A little tongue tied. We have some phenomenal speakers that are going to speak power to this, the everyday struggles of what was going on during the 1960s and how it relates to 2024. And we're still dealing with impoverished communities. We also have our other Walls programs. Baton Roots will also be hosting an event. There's community cleanups throughout the week. So we just encourage everyone to stay tapped in with One Rouge, check our event page and reach out to myself, Jordan, Dr. Harrison, Casey, or Helena. If you have any questions that concludes today's call. We love y'all happy Friday. Stay warm and tell somebody that you love them today. All right. Thank you. Thank you everybody. Thank you. Bye everybody.
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