Koffee ChitChat
Koffee ChitChat
Spiritual Connections and Mental Wellness
How can poetry be a lifeline for mental health? Tune into this heartfelt episode of Koffee Chit Chat as we welcome Sharon Jones from Alabaster Moments Consultants LLC. Sharon, a licensed marriage and family therapist, opens up about her profound journey and how poetry became her beacon of hope. Learn about her upcoming poetry book "Bile’e, a symbol of a nurturing stream that aids in navigating life's turbulent waters. Sharon shares the therapeutic power of poetry, revealing how it helps individuals express and cope with emotions that often remain suppressed. She also touches on the critical importance of addressing mental health within families, shaped by her personal experience of losing her father during the holiday season.
The episode continues with a deep dive into ancestral wisdom and spiritual connections, especially within the African and African-American communities. Sharon discusses "Mother Wit," a term our ancestors used for intuitive knowledge, and stresses the importance of staying connected to our spiritual roots and higher selves. We also explore how modern meditation practices can help mitigate mental stress, all while commemorating our heritage. Sharon encourages listeners to appreciate the power of humble beginnings and invites everyone to connect with Alabaster Spirit and Alabaster Moments on Facebook. Ending on an uplifting note, we share an inspiring quote from John Green: "There is hope even when your brain tells you there isn't," leaving you with a sense of optimism and anticipation for future conversations on Koffee Chit Chat.
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Hey y'all, hey, welcome to another episode of Coffee Chit Chat. We have our resident expert in the house this morning, but before we start our chat, let's shout out the coffee of the week, one of my favorite, which is a French vanilla, and make sure to put the French vanilla creamer as well, because it makes it so smooth tasting. Make sure you grab one. And we know that May is the month of mental health wellness, and Sharon is a licensed marriage and family therapist whose work with Alabaster Moments Consultants LLC is lighting the way for a revolution in mental health support. As our cherished guest, sharon's expertise and passion for empowering individuals, especially within our faith-based communities, is commendable. So welcome back, sharon, welcome, welcome back. And we know that you we're so happy to have you. Uh, we know that you, uh, love poetry and you already have a book of poetry, but you have a second book of poetry coming soon, so it's called B'le'e. Tell me how to pronounce it B'le'e, okay, b'le'e. So let's tell the listeners what's the meaning of that name.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like a caring stream, it's like a person that shares grace to other people, and so, if I had to sum it up, what it means is that it's somebody that you know helping others breathe easier. You know, kind of like you know, a stream and water, it finds its way around the rocks, and in many of our communities we need to find our way. You know, we've encountered some things that have oppressed our people. You know, not just oppressed, but now they're depressed, there's anxiety and all of that. And so B'Le'e is that caring stream, you know, back to her people. You know, to try to help her people. You know, whenever we do a little bit better in life, we have to help others and help our people breathe easier. And so, you know, I see myself as that stream, through my poetry, helping others find themselves and to, just like water runs deep for them, to be deep within themselves, because we have to go inward before we can go outward and do better.
Speaker 1:I love that. So that leads us right into the next question why such a passion for poetry? So you kind of like hit on it.
Speaker 2:My passion for poetry has come from the fact that most people suppress how they're feeling. They don't know what feelings are. They hold it internally until they have some type of chronic disease like high blood pressure, even high cholesterol or, you know, unmanageable anxiety. And so poetry is a release. You know, as a practitioner, I work with people with many different concerns and I'm talking about how to help them get out of those concerns. And so poetry is expression, positive expression to help you release, almost like a coping strategy or a way of self-healing or self-care so um.
Speaker 1:My next question was do you think that poetry helps with one's mental?
Speaker 2:health? Yes, definitely it helps with one's mental health because you're able to put your emotions into words and so that you know that you can feel validated, you can feel heard, you can help other people to kind of see what you're going through Because, as you know, when individuals are going through mental health crisis, oftentimes our own relatives do not understand it, because they're not practitioners in mental health and they just want you to get over it, see you as having a disruption and they want you to get better right away. But, of course, just like with a physical health concern, mental illness doesn't clear up just like that quickly either correct.
Speaker 1:I love that because you, you're so, uh right. A lot of times our family is just like oh, you know, that's just them. They've been like that all their life, but not understanding there could actually be something that's not right, you know, and maybe you need to check into what's going on, you know, ask a few more questions and then, if you don't understand, get them to a therapist. Get, get the help that they need. This is your second book of poetry, so what do you do when a new idea jumps out at you while you're still working on one particular project or book?
Speaker 2:Well, that actually happened, paula, because during the Christmas holidays I lost my father. During the Christmas holidays I lost my father. And so the second book behind my book, alabaster Moments Celebrating Moments of Healing and Transformation was supposed to be a handful of change. And so, some kind of way, the poetry book got in the middle of me supposedly writing that book. And so, as I write the book, belay the Poetic Stream Across the Water. Then within my mind I said you have to close the loop on the book.
Speaker 2:A Handful of Change, because when I was coming to California, my father didn't have a whole lot of money, but he gave me a handful of change and so a year prior to him passing away, he offered to give me a hundred dollar bill, and in that moment he was still living in, that was a year before he died. And I said he's closed the loop. And I said I have to tell this story how, when I started out, it was a handful of change and then my father had upgraded to a hundred dollar bill, so God had blessed him with more. And I say so I have to tell that story because many of our people grow up in poverty. They grow up with not a wealth, a sense of wealth. And then, when things have changed, they don't notice it with gratitude and I say I have to tell that story. But in the meantime I'm writing this poetry and I'm flowing. You know, I'm flowing like the water.
Speaker 2:And then I said but now I have to write about this handful of change, and it's almost like a metaphor, because my life was changed by getting on that bus coming to San Francisco. So not only was it the physical change of money, but the change of my life and how I've been able to help other people's life. And then here recently, I'm calling it a handful of change. Then all of a sudden somebody said, well, there was just a few coins sharing. So I said, well, I got to add that in the book to say that, you know it was, it was meager corns, but that was the seed for my life. You know, most people would have said, oh, I don't want this, it's just changed. But I grabbed it and I embraced it and I just moved forward.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I just absolutely love that how, when you was able or say I'm getting out of here, I'm going all the way to California your dad only had a handful of changes. What he had, he shared with you and look how he's blessed and changed your life. Yes, you know I love it, and so that book is in the works.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, I'm working on it simultaneously with the poetry book, but I felt like I needed to. I just follow the spirit with these things because, you know, coming from Cushetta High School and different places, teachers always told you you couldn't write. You know the English wasn't correct, and so I wanted to defy the odds with that, because you know I am a capable person, I can write. You know I can get a message to other people Change that, change your life.
Speaker 1:Yes, I love it, yes, yes, so what's your favorite part of being a writer?
Speaker 2:My favorite part of being a writer is when I receive these messages from people you know, because I really do it for the passion. You know if I make a few dollars along the way, but I really do it for you know it's. You know it's my passion and it also helps other people to have compassion for themselves. And so when I receive, like, a text from someone that I think is probably, you know, like a hacker or something, and they'll they'll say are you Sharon Jones? And I'll say, you know, should I answer that yes or no? Cause you know they found my number or some kind of contact information in there texting me. And then they say did you write Alabaster?
Speaker 2:And I'm like you know, then I started warming up a little bit more and then I find out that they say that that is what they needed in the moment with what they were going through, and that is an intention that I had put out to the universe, to God. I said, you know, if this book doesn't do anything else, or any book that I write, let it get into the hands of the people when they need it the most. And that was like confirmation. When I get texts like that and I say so that intention went out and what's happening is that it's being fulfilled. So we have to be careful what we're intending, because I sent that intention out and people have contacted me confirming that intention.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I mean, that's great when you set out to help, even if it's just one person you know along the way, and then you get confirmation that it did help that one person along the way. I love it. I love it. So I know the book is not out yet, but it's coming soon. Do you mind me reading one of the poems?
Speaker 2:No, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Paula go ahead. So we're going to read this poem. It just kind of touched me because she was advertising the book and I was like I can't wait until the entire book come out, because this is awesome. It's Cradle of Humanity, anchored with mental strength. The chains cannot quench my spiritual sense having a choice how my time is spent. There is a knowing within me that I'm free. The generations have given me gifts on what it means to be. Beliefs come that tell me. I'm in the valley. My ancestors guided me to the mountaintop. Within my care is a higher me, the wisdom you cannot see. My blueprint was designed in the cradle of humanity. So when I saw within my care is a higher me, the wisdom you cannot see. I absolutely love this. What inspired this line?
Speaker 2:Well, because we're so focused on the external tennis shoes, you know, eating out, buying, you know the long hair and the weaves and everything but what I really see as a benefit is when we go in and we try to seek out really who we are from the inside, and that's that God person, that's that infinite wisdom, that's that guidance that can really help us live a better life.
Speaker 2:And so oftentimes we're detached from that. But we're a powerful people and as African people or African-American people, we have these roots in the cradle of humanity, where every other person I do believe has come out of that cradle. And so that's our power when we go back and say, hey, I was fashioned, I was shaped in the cradle of humanity, you know, with kings and queens, and inventors and astronomers and you know all of that. But we usually never, ever reach that point because we're so into the superficial things. You know and I'm not saying it's not beneficial, but we're so externally focused. You know, like the old people used to say, or the older people used to say when we were going to church, that the person would be caught up in shape, form and fashion and an outside show to a dying world.
Speaker 2:So you're trying to latch on to all of this stuff externally, but you haven't found your true self, that inner self, that higher self, that higher being, because that's the wisdom and intelligence to help you navigate life and to help you feel better in life. And so that's kind of how I was thinking.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. I love it Because some of us I know our ancestors or our grandparents, you know just that generation back might not have had college degrees, some of them not even a high school. But my grandmother used to call it that's Mama Helen. She used to say it was mother with you know. But my grandmother used to call it that's mama Helen. She used to say it was mother with you know when she would come. And I was like so how do you know that? You know, cause if I'm reading it in a book and I said my grandmother said you know, it wasn't the exact words, but it's just so similar she's like it's just called mother with. So sometimes we do have to reach back and record our insights.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just gave me another idea for a book. That's a great title, mother Wit, because my grandmother couldn't read or write. She could sign her name but she had the most strong wisdom that I've ever seen. But I equate that wisdom to staying connected to God. You know, meditation is more popular these days, but the older people would go into, you know, the secret corners of their mind and they didn't call it meditation, but they'd be talking to God because they had to talk to God, because sometimes things had been against them in life. You know it wasn't so favorable. But yeah, mother whip, you know that's when you can tap into that wisdom. And so that's another thing. You have to tap into that wisdom and that can change your life too, because you're thinking better. When we think better, we do better. In most cases.
Speaker 1:That's that crack line. Remember, yes, yes, that's it. I can remember it so well. I can remember it so well Because some of the things that they are coming up with now, a lot of these different methods, our grandparents they use them as well, but they just didn't call it these scientific names, you know.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, but it was within them.
Speaker 1:It was within them and they stayed connected with their higher self, with god, because when, when many odds are against you, you have a tendency to want to seek god then, and so the older ancestors, they knew that and they stayed connected, you know, oh yeah, oh yeah and that, um that just having that, that prayer, like that spiritual life within yourself, I know that can help the mind, you know, because sometimes that mind starts to run and you're kind of like wait a minute, hold on, get in a quiet space. You know, maybe just drinking a cup of coffee or listening to some rain if it's raining outside Let me get you a quiet space to just kind of like slow down, so my brain can slow down as well yeah, keep you in rhythm and, you know, keep you in balance, because when the mind is racing, the thoughts are racing like what if?
Speaker 2:what if this happened? What if that happened? What if I can't pay my bill? I should be doing this, I should be doing that. Oh, she looked at me funny, he looked at me funny, what if I not going to be? And so, basically, it's escalating your stress, you know, and releasing certain chemicals that otherwise wouldn't be released if you're calm. There are different chemicals released in the body when you're calm, and then when you're not calm, it's released in more, you know, detrimental chemicals.
Speaker 1:So yeah, ok, okay, and so do we know like a projected release date?
Speaker 2:well, you know, I was thinking maybe uh, uh around independence today, since I'm speaking about um, you know, across the water, you know, uh, kind of like some. You know what, what, what my grandma scilla, who I know was enslaved, may have felt I don't know what age you know when she was brought here, but I know that she came on a ship and what does it feel like to be traveling across the water? You can't see the water but you're packed on a ship like cargo and you know you're being taken from your homeland. You know the stress. You don't know what to expect, and so many of the poems are trying to express that. You know you're leaving the cradle of humanity to where you know you've never left your home, your home place or your homeland, but you're being forced to leave. So I would say for Independence Day.
Speaker 1:OK, I love that and we've got to make sure we put that in our Facebook coffee chit chat group but remind the readers of how they can follow you again. I know we always have, because we just absolutely love your wisdom.
Speaker 2:Well, they can follow me on Facebook, and on Facebook I'm Alabaster Moments, and then they also can follow me on my other Facebook, alabaster Spirit. And, like I said, pretty much I'm just trying to. If I can help one person or encourage one person along the way, I feel like I have accomplished a lot Since my father gave me that small hand of coins of change. I do not despise small, humble beginnings and of course, I came up in small, humble beginnings, so I know the power in that. You know, it only takes one spark to burn up the whole forest, and so that's how I see Alabaster moments and this. You know, small beginnings, I don't discount small beginnings, so they can reach in and they can find me on Facebook as Alabaster Spirit and then Facebook as Alabaster Moments.
Speaker 1:Make sure you guys follow me, share it and pick up that awesome book when it is released around Independence Day. We're going to leave you guys with the quote of the week there is hope even when your brain tells you there isn't, and that's by john green. Be sure to tune in for another exciting episode of coffee next week. Thank you, sharon.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you thank you for having me again. Thank you so much.
