EP #1085: Self-Heal YOUR Mind - 5 Pillars of Self Care

Send us Fan MailLisa is joined by Dr. Gregory Scott Brown who talks about his book, The Self-Healing Mind: An Essential Five-Step Practice to Overcoming Anxiety, and Depression and Revitalizing Your Life. Gregory Scott Brown, MD, is an integrative psychiatrist, mental health writer, and author of The Self-Healing Mind: An Essential Five-Step Practice to Overcoming Anxiety, and Depression and Revitalizing Your Life (Harper Wave, June 2022). But despite being a doctor who works with patients and commonly gives advice, it is his personal story that introduced him to understand the importance of mental health. In 2019, he wrote for Men’s Health magazine, “I’m a psychiatrist, husband, a man of color, and proud wellness advocate. Every day, I see patients and tell them: Talk, speak up. But a decade ago, suffering from depression. I didn’t say a word.”He discovered self-care early on, and he attributes a significant part of his recovery to learning how to utilize self-care in a way that was effective. It would be years later until he came to understand that self-care is evidence-based medicine – a realization that ultimately led to the writing of his first book, The Self-Healing Mind. Greg’s work in the mental health space extends beyond seeing patients in his clinic or providing expert commentary on mental health topics in the news. For the past several years, Greg has hosted conversations about mental health either on social media or for his Men’s Health column about topics including student-athlete mental, coping with the stress of a chaotic news cycle, and cultural barriers to accessing mental healthcare.Greg has interviewed remarkable men and women about mental health topics including Marquette Men’s Basketball Coach Shaka Smart, journalist Lisa Ling, news anchor Don Lemon, and professor Matt Johnson from the Hopkins Center for Psychedelic Medicine, and actor and songwriter Common. He’s also interviewed grassroots wellness champions including Chris Isom and Alec Brownridge who started a yoga workshop for men with a focus on the social and emotional needs of men of color. Greg’s mission is to change the way we talk and think about mental health and that starts with having candid conversations about how mental health affects the way we work, live, and love.BOOK DESCRIPTION - The Self-Healing Mind: An Essential Five-Step Practice to Overcoming Anxiety, and Depression and Revitalizing Your Life. Mental health is the driving force behind every decision we make - how we live, work, and love. Too many of us suffer from depression and anxiety, impeding our choices and quality of life, and the numbers are growing across the globe despite the proliferation of prescription drugs. But there is another, proven, way to achieve mental wellness beyond antidepressants and talk therapy. Practicing psychiatrist Gregory Scott Brown believes that mental health begins with actionable self-care. Approached the right way, self-care is a powerful medicine that can help you improve and sustain your mental health.The Self-Healing Mind is a holistic approach to emotional and psychological healing that focuses on how evidence-based self-care strategies can be used to improve mental health. Dr. Brown challenges the current state of mental health care and the messaging around it, showing us how to move past outdated notions of “broken” brains and chemical imbalances. While he agrees that drugs and therapy in some cases are important for healing, his personal and professional experience has taught him that lifestyle interventions are also key to sustainable mental wellness. Dr. Brown’s clinical philosophy supports an integrative approach that utilizes a combination of conventional treatments (medication and psychotherapy) with what he calls the Five Pillars of Self-Care: breathing mindful