Mental Health Download: Exploring Mental Illness, Suicide, Homelessness and Incarceration

Jacob Beaumont starts off this meditation session, "Noting," with a powerful quote that helped change his life.

"Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom" ― Viktor E. Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist, and a Holocaust survivor

You’re listening to the Mental Health Download from the nonprofit Mental Health Association Oklahoma. I’m Matt Gleason.

On today’s episode, my co-host is fellow podcaster Anne Heinrich. She’s the vice President Of Development at Mental Health America of Eastern Missouri.

Anne and I are going to interview Anne’s friend, Jason Medows. Jason is the host of the podcast called Ag State of Mind. His podcast focuses on mental health and how it affects people involved in agriculture. He interviews both professionals and producers about addressing mental health in ag and how to adequately remedy the stresses.

Jason is a husband, father of 4 boys, rancher, and pharmacist. He lives in Crawford County Missouri and operates a 120 head cow and calf operation. He also works full time as a pharmacist at a regional hospital.

The Mental Health Download starts ... now.

Our guest is Lawton City Councilor Onreka Johnson. Onreka is the founder of Next Step TLP homeless youth program, currently works as a certified behavioral health case manager for Our House Counseling and is involved in various organizations in the community. We talk to Onreka about the ripple effects of her Lawton Mental Health Town Hall along with discussion about COVID-19 and racial injustice.

"When we start by taking a few deep breaths, we are mentally priming ourselves for the task at hand by doing something that’s very easy to bring awareness to. Deep breaths are deliberate and intentional, and are great for generating some invigorating energy at the start of our practice. The other part of this step, as we close our eyes and allow the breath to return to it’s normal cadence is noting that whatever it was we were just doing, and whatever is next for us, and mentally acknowledging that it will all still be there on the other side of this session, and that we are going to set it aside for now." -- Jacob Beaumont

Mental Health Download Podcast presents the second episode of an ongoing series of Mindfulness Meditation sessions with Jacob Beaumont, of Mental Health Association Oklahoma. Episode one is titled "Setting the Table."

On today’s episode, our guest is Katherine Sellery. She is a 3-time TEDx speaker, who has taught thousands of parents in Conscious Parenting Revolution and executives on conscious communication for over 16 years.

Her message is “Nobody teaches us how to manage our minds and we have got to get upstream.”

We’re going to talk with Katherine about meditation and mindfulness and psychological safety in families.

You can learn more about Katherine at https://www.consciousparentingrevolution.com/

OK, let’s get the conversation started. The Mental Health Download starts .. now.

You’re listening to the Mental Health Download from the nonprofit Mental Health Association Oklahoma. I’m Matt Gleason.

On today’s episode, I’m joined by my co-host, Malika Cox. She is passionate about criminal justice reform, restorative justice and policy changes that impact marginalized communities. Malika is the Pastor of Spiritual Formation, Justice and Community Life at The Table in Oklahoma City. Malika speaks and teaches on anti-bias, diversity and inclusion, race and reconciliation, and transitional and restorative justice practices. She’ll be a speaker at the Virtual Zarrow Mental Health Symposium -- Healing From Historical Trauma this September 30 through October 2. Register today at zarrowsymposium.org

Today, Malika is going to interview Cece Jones-Davis, a worship leader, speaker, writer and social advocate. Cece was awarded the 2019 Phil Wahl Abolitionist of the Year award by the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (OCADP) for her criminal justice advocacy and reform work. She currently serves as the teaching pastor at The Table in Oklahoma City.

Cece isn’t just Malika’s good friend and co-minister, she’s also, as Malika likes to say, one of her favorite people on the planet.

This is one of my favorite interviews yet on the Download. Malika and Cece talk about Cece’s dedication to the Justice for Julius Jones campaign. You can get involved with the campaign at justiceforjuliusjones.com/

Mental Health Download Podcast presents the second episode of an ongoing series of Mindfulness Meditation sessions with Jacob Beaumont, of Mental Health Association Oklahoma. Episode one is titled "The Breath"

Hear all of the sessions now at mhaok.org/meditation

"Do not let fear lead you to not deal with the things in your life that cause you stress or cause you anger or any of those things that affect your mental health." -- Kenya Williams

Our Mental Health Download guests are DJ Mercer and Kenya Williams. They partnered with the Association for a new virtual support group for men seeking additional support for life stressors and mental and emotional well-being. 

The first virtual group that is facilitated by a mental health professional is set for this Thursday, July 30 from 6-7 p.m. More details at https://mhaok.org/mens-mental-health.

Zarrow Mental Health Symposium keynote speaker, Tim Wise, explores the current pandemic moment, alongside the racial justice uprising in the wake of numerous police-involved killings, and ask: “How has history brought us to this point? And how do we respond now that we’re here?” Just as Tim will at the virtual Symposium, Tim presents an analysis of racialized trauma that explores the ways in which it affects both persons of color and whites, albeit in different ways, and in so doing, presents the kind of “interest convergence” that could lead to cross-racial, anti-racist solidarity in the future.

REGISTER FOR THE VIRTUAL ZARROW MENTAL HEALTH SYMPOSIUM TODAY!

Virtual Zarrow Mental Health Symposium -- Healing from Historical Trauma

Mental Health Download Podcast is excited to present the first episode of an ongoing series of Mindfulness Meditation sessions with Jacob Beaumont, of Mental Health Association Oklahoma. Episode one is titled "What is Mindfulness?"

Meditation is another word that is both easy and impossible to define because it can mean so many things to so many people. The long and the short of it is that meditation is the creation of space and time to intentionally practice something. So when we pair mindfulness with meditation, we see that mindfulness meditation is simply practicing awareness. It's a classic example of, you know, being a thing that's easy to learn and almost impossible to master. And that's the beauty of it, too.

Read the transcript and listen to all of the sessions at mhaok.org/meditation.