Chi Quita Mack shares 1 scary thing people should do for their mental health

For years life coach Chi Quita Mack has been dedicated to helping individuals with their mental health. Mack has specifically built a space for women who are looking to heal, and she reminds them all the time of their inherent strength, guide themselves toward rediscovery and empower themselves to reclaim their essence.

Mack spoke with rolling out about mental health in the Black community.

What should we know about mental health in the Black community?

I feel like the stigma around the Back community is that — especially our Black women — is that we’re so strong. Any feeling that we have other than being strong, we should just deal with it. We have to change the cycle. We have to break the cycle. We have to communicate and express just the simple part of being human, and I think as Black women, that human side is somehow taken away from us if we’re speaking our mind or we’re talking about how we feel. We say, “I’m stressed out with the kids,” and they say “You shouldn’t have had all those kids.” Or we say, “I really don’t know what’s going on. I’m overwhelmed and overstimulated.” They’re, like, “What does overstimulated even mean? You made that decision.”  No, we need to talk about what we’re going through. We need to humanize ourselves because, at the end of the day, we are all human.

How can the younger generation address mental health?

I think it’s important to journal. You have these little cute little journals now, and everything’s digital. They can just start writing down their thoughts and finding someone that they trust — whether it’s a school counselor or someone — to just start expressing what they’re going through. In my household it’s a little different; we talk a lot. My son is 16 and my daughter is 11, and I’m … constantly asking, “What do you feel? What are you going through? How did that decision make you feel? How was your day? What did you think about when they said this?”

They know they can tell Mom anything because I’m going to be fine with it and I want to know how they feel. But I also encouraged them to journal and also encourage them to write things down because they’re not going to be comfortable telling me everything, but they are comfortable writing things down. [They leave the journals] under my pillow, so I can write back and give it back to them. I think writing is something that I would encourage young people to do.

What are some things you suggest people do to help with their mental health?

I’m going to say something that sounds kind of scary to people: be alone. Sometimes, you have to be by yourself; you need to be by yourself to digest and self-reflect on what’s going on. Your environment is not always the best, but it does shape who you are and the level of success that you want to have. I encourage anybody: if you can get an opportunity to be by yourself and in your thoughts to reflect on what’s happening, what you want and what you’re going through, write those feelings down. It’ll change your life.

I used to be scared to be by myself for that reason, like, “Oh my God, what is about to pop into my head? I don’t want to deal with that.” But I felt beauty in having that alone time to figure out what I needed. If I needed therapy, what did I need to seek from my therapist? If I needed to have that conversation with my spouse, what conversation? Did I need to have to talk about my feelings? Because once you find your voice, you will not stop talking.