APIHM and Mental Health Awareness Month with the Happy Hour Ladies
APIHM and Mental Health Awareness Month with the Happy Hour Ladies
Today is the last Friday of the month and my regular listeners know that on the last Friday of the month, I host the happy hour on the podcast where I gather great friends with me to drink cheap drinks and talk about money topics.
This is our May Happy Hour and May happens to be Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as well as Mental Health Awareness Month, so my friends joined me to not only amplify voices in communities that you may not be following but also share amazing resources (most of them free) for you to work on your mental health. As usual, another great episode with so much important information.
What are we drinking?
Melanie from Dear Debt, Lola Retreat, and MentalHealthandWealth.com — Water
Tonya from Tonya-Stumphauzer.com — Simpler White Wine and water
Kassandra from kassandradasent.com — Water and ginger and lemon tea
Shannon — Rosé
Podcast Notes
Kassandra’s song will be released as a single on June 15!
Shannon’s boyfriend, Vinnie, is the newest fan of the podcast, specifically Happy Hour.
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and it is important to highlight some great resources and people the Happy Hour ladies follow.
Kassandra: Sarah Li-Cain is behind the podcast Beyond the Dollar, and she has been doing amazing work. On her blog, she talks about addiction, pain, suffering, recovering from setbacks, etc., and she ties it back to money. It has been amazing to see Jason Vitug’s journey with Phroogal. He has been evolving, and most recently exploring his Asian American heritage.
Shannon: Kristin Wong is a great person to follow. She is a writer, author, and journalist. Follow Chinae Alexander on Instagram @chinaealexander. She is an Instagram influencer, and she is really honest. She talks about a whole array of topics and she has been sharing a lot about her journey recently. Ali Wong is the star of Always be my Maybe on Netflix and Shannon highly recommends this movie.
Tonya: Kristin Wong is great, as well as Anna Akana, who is really funny, and has talked about everything from relationships to personal growth to speaking on behalf of Asian Americans.
Melanie: Jason Vitug will be speaking at the Mental Health and Wealth Summit and Sarah Li-Cain has a great podcast through Beyond the Dollar. Paco DeLeon, from Hell Yeah Bookkeeping, is great to follow on Instagram @thehellyeahgroup. Lindsay Bryan-Podvin from the website Mind Money Balance is incredible. She is a financial therapist and she talks about the intersection of money and therapy. Jackie Lam is a personal finance writer who has a website and writes for different publications. Follow Shang from Save My Cents and Instagram @savemycents and Hey Berna, who is a financial hype woman.
May is also Mental Health Awareness Month, and there are a number of great people to follow, who are making an impact.
Melanie: Both the Blessing Manifesting website and Instagram @blessingmanifesting are colorful, happy, and have lots of great tips. The Instagram @sitwithit is run by a therapist and this account has a lot of great thought-provoking posts for when you are in that deep healing journey.
Instagram has so many accounts about healing, therapy, and counseling, which can be great, but you need to be ready and willing to take that somewhere on your healing journey.
Shannon: Follow The Mental Health and Wealth Show for great content. Melanie is creating something special. Mental health and money are the last two remaining taboo topics. Everyone has been touched by one of these two things, or both, and it is important to continue to have this conversation. Forward in Heels, is run by Jenny Maenpaa, who is a Financial Gym client, and she provides online therapy for women. Bea Arthur, not to be confused with the Golden Girl, is a psychotherapist who founded The Difference, which provides on-demand, online therapy. She was on Shark Tank years ago, pitching a mental health hotline.
Tonya: Julia Kristina Counselling on Instagram @juliacounsellor has 14- to 20-minute YouTube videos on topics that are about little coping strategies for life, like how to build more confidence, healthy self-esteem, etc.
So many people are struggling and therapists are overwhelmed with clients. It is difficult to get appointments. Many people are now admitting they need help, but supply is limited and it is expensive. Tonya would like to go to therapy, as she sees the value in talking to an unbiased third-party, but doesn’t prioritize it, because of the high price and because she has other financial priorities. She has turned to YouTube for solutions.
Kassandra: The power of social media can help, for those that cannot afford to see a therapist. Dr. Ashley Elliot is a black clinical psychologist, and she focuses specifically on mental health. She is on Instagram @drvivid and she does a lot of videos. She is quirky, but genuine in her desire to see people heal. If people in the black or Latinx communities are looking for referrals or resources for mental health professionals, go to @melaninandmentalhealth on Instagram. Kassandra follows @the.holistic.psychologist on Instagram, as well.
If you are in crisis text HOME to 741741.
If you are suicidal, the national suicide prevention hotline is 800-273-8255. Please seek help. There are resources available.
There are three legs to the table of life: physical health, mental health, and financial health. It is critical to look at all three legs, because they all intersect and there are solutions for all of them.
Reach out to your friends and talk to them, especially if it is work-related. Tonya works alone and lives alone, and she doesn’t always have the answers. It is necessary to have people to talk to. Make sure to ask for the support you need.
Reach out to your friends to see how they are doing too, especially if you haven’t heard from them in a while.
Melanie has been focusing on boxing and getting her anger and aggression out and it has really helped her mental health. Doing any kind of exercise will help.
When the gyms were closed, what helped Melanie the most was not looking at her phone or social media in the morning, and instead going for an hour walk. Whatever time you do have, get a walk in first thing in the morning. Remember that there is a whole world outside.
Asking other people how they are doing is an act of kindness, but don’t do it if you don’t have time to listen and pay attention. Our emotions are fleeting and they come and go and it can be good to ask “how are you doing right now?”. Maybe right now it is not okay.
Crying releases energy in your body and it can feel really good. It can be cathartic. The cure for anything is saltwater: sweat, tears, or the sea.
TAKEAWAY: My biggest takeaway is that physical, mental, and financial health are the three pillars to living your best life and they all tend to be interconnected. Please never let poor financial health impact your ability to access mental health resources. There are so many great and affordable options for you to consider.
This pandemic has impacted all of us in a number of ways, and if your finances were something that stressed you out in 2020, I hope you’ll break the cycle in 2021 and start fresh with The Financial Gym. We’ve literally seen it all and we’ve literally fixed it all, so I hope you will leave your financial stresses in the past, like 2020, and head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com.
If you have any topics you would like for us to talk about during happy hour, please feel free to email me at shannon@fingyms.com or tweet to me at blonde_finance or join the private martinis and your money Facebook group and let us know. Until next time, take care!!