Mental Health Now: Stress & Self-Care with Dr. Sharla Boyd

Struggling with stress now? Who isn't? 🧠 Dr. Sharla Boyd, a psychologist with 20+ years of experience, is sharing her top self-care strategies for navigating our chaotic world. From the benefits of journaling for emotional release to finding the right exercise for mental health, learn how to regulate your mood and stay strong. 

Learn about: 

Digital Detox: Why you need to limit your social media and news intake to protect your peace.

Social Connection: Why we need "safe people" to help us gain perspective and reduce isolation.

Self-Compassion: Give yourself the same grace you give others

Book "What Happened to You" by Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey

Transcript

Larry- Sharla Boyd, welcome to Signpost for the Journey and Tracks for the Journey.I appreciate so much getting to know you better over these past several years and   appreciating your work that you do with folks in Lubbock. So for our viewers, Dr. Sharla Boyd is a practicing psychologist here in Lubbock. Has been doing that for 20 plus years? Is that right?

Sharla- Since, let's see, 2002's when I got my doctorate.

L-Well, that's a load of experience. A lot of years listening to folks and seeking to bring out of them the kind of resources they have and they need to meet the challenges.  

So do you find journaling as a helpful practice for your clients and how do you suggest that they do that?

S- Yeah, that can be one thing that I suggest and that's part of having that flexibility and adaptability. Some people don't like that and that can be someone we talk about what's it like when you sit down to journal? What are you feeling or experiencing that might make that challenging? And so sometimes it can be that they're putting too much pressure on    themselves to write a certain way or for it to sound a certain way and so it may be just talking about just let yourself write words, phrases. This is only for you. This isn't for anybody else. Kind of take the critic out and let yourself do that. So sometimes it may be trying to understand what's keeping somebody from feeling like that's helpful and for some people it just isn't. 

But for a lot of people it is taking that time to reflect on what am I feeling? Why do I feel this way? What's prompting this? And the act of being able to write it and read it brings about some catharsis and some understanding and then over time people can kind of look at what are some of the patterns that I'm seeing? What are some of the things that are themes here that I can look at? And being able to kind of organize your thoughts, you know, to understand and write something about I feel upset and I'm not sure why. Sitting down to just gave yourself that space in that moment to see what comes up and start writing. 

L-You know it is a great challenge I think in our chaotic world to take care of ourselves. Do you find certain self-care activities important? Maybe for yourself but also to suggest to the normal person who's trying to get through our chaotic world around it. How can we how we do this?

S-Yes, absolutely. You know self-care may sound like kind of a buzzword or a little hokey but under times of stress those very basic things can kind of go in the back burner. Really making sure that you're giving yourself time to sleep and rest and thinking about the foods that you're eating are those nourishing foods not to say that you can also have treats and you know things like that but also you know really thinking about what am I putting into my body and how am I taking care of my body to have good energy and to stay strong. 

Exercise is so beneficial for people and that can look at all kinds of different ways. You know some people don't want to go into a gym or do formal classes that's okay. You know that can be going for walks. It can be you know turning on a video at home that you follow some yoga or some you know some kind of you know Pilates or you know anything like that but something that's moving your body and giving yourself intentional time that is such an important piece of regulating our mood helping with stress. I feel drastically better after I exercise. You know managing anxiety and having that physical release for the things that get pinned up in our bodies. So exercise making sure that you do take care of yourself. 

Finding social connections is important. Sometimes we tend to isolate when we're feeling distressed or down and making sure that you are connecting in some way with people. Somebody that you can feel safe with or maybe somebody that you don't feel like talking about what is going on for you personally but somebody you can enjoy spending time with. We are social creatures and knowing that you're not alone and knowing that being with other people also helps give us a perspective. You know we can feel consumed with what's going on for us that's upsetting and being able to sit and be with somebody else and focus on something different and laugh or maybe be able to support them and something that's going on for them. That’s so beneficial for us too. 

I think a big thing right now is finding balance of wanting to be informed about what's going on in the world and not kind of drowning in it because there's so much pain going on in the world. We're seeing so many things that are causing so much distress for people. So we do have to limit and give ourselves permission to limit  how much of that we're taking in and sometimes that can feel like I don’t care enough from being selfish but giving yourself permission that we’re just not made to take in this much all the time and with social media, with video cameras on our phones, all these things that we have now that are beneficial amounts of ways. It's also giving us constant 24 access to traumatic experiences, images, distressing information. The news is meant to be focusing on the negative. That’s what people tend to click on and watch and so we do have to be careful how much of that we take in and what things are you taking in that are positive, beneficial, thinking about how you can make a difference in your corner of the world. Who do you want to be in the world? What are your values? What are things you want to do to help people around you? Because there's so much we don't have control over right now that's happening. But thinking about what do I have? Some influence on what can I do? That it's going to be something that I feel like I'm being beneficial and being a good source of kindness.

L-What would you want our folks to take away from today? What would you like to tie together or introduce something new    that you feel like would be really helpful for? The average person just kind of walk through 2026 and beyond. 

S-I would hope people have some kindness and grace for themselves when maybe they're responding in ways they don't feel good about or there's an area that they're struggling with or a past experience that they're confused about why does this continue to impact me to be able to give themselves the kind of grace that they probably give really to other people but sometimes it's hard to give to themselves and to recognize that there are so many experiences human beings are navigating in the world and help is out there and being able to find a therapist that's a good fit for you     can be really life-transforming to have a place to ask questions that you have gained some new skills and new understanding be able to figure out how to improve your life and your self-confidence and your relationships. There is no shame in that and sometimes people feel like they should be able to do it on their own or only some people who have x, y, z mental issues should go for therapy and I see so many people who've been through trauma that are really critical of themselves of I think somebody else’s trauma was worse or I shouldn't let this still bother me  and it's not something that you're choosing it is something that happened to you.

One resource I want to shout out is a book called What Happened to You by a psychiatrist Dr. Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey co-wrote it with him and it is taking that perspective of not what's wrong with you but what happened to you and the experiences that you had that have shaped and created some of the challenges that you see in the world   and he does an amazing job of explaining the neurology and what's happening in our bodies and our minds and why trauma is affecting youthe way that it is and it's very accessible for lay people to read and to try to understand some of these things.

L-I know you keep your own practice pretty full but folks who live in West Texas eastern New Mexico or Oklahoma, Western Oklahoma   they can find you in your office in Lubbock, Texas is that right?

S-And I can provide video therapy within Texas. I'm licensed in Texas I can’t provide therapy people outside of Texas but some people do drive in  from like you said Eastern New Mexico or things like that.

L-How great. We'll show our thanks a million for your time. I'm excited for our folks to connect with what you're sharing to get some ideas about themselves      but also to realize hey I don't have to do this alone.