Teresa Cox-Bates on Helping Women Conquer Depression During Mental Health Awareness Month

The role that Teresa Cox-Bates plays in her business is to bring awareness to each woman that is battling depression. Also, to let them know that everything will be OK with a proper plan, a safety guide, and a blueprint for everything that’s happening in her mind. Teresa Cox-Bates likes to extend this way to show women that her self-empowerment, her self-love, and her self worth are everything that women need to survive and yes we can depend on others but we have to have accountability for our own mental health for our own mental well-being for our own health.

Teresa Cox-Bates says that at the end of the day, we all have to take care of ourselves in order to pour our energy to other individuals. Some women get it confused by putting everyone first and leaving themselves for last. That’s the path of self-burnout that women often experience because we don’t know how to say no. We always want to be there for everybody and we leave ourselves for last but Teresa Cox-Bates teaches women to put themselves first no matter what the circumstances may come upon them. When you do that, you fill your cup before you pour into anybody else you’ll feel so phenomenal.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, what does this time mean for you?

Teresa: The month of May is mental awareness month and what it means to me is for everyone to check in with themselves and for everyone to see how they’re really. Feeling about things and chivalry process of what is going on and to pinpoint the areas of our lives that we need to stay healthy mentally I see that around. Certain times things may become heavier than others but if we need to take the time to figure out what we need to do to become better.

I feel that it will help spread the word and help others that know that someone’s dealing with some mental barriers, so this month is especially special for me. I take extra time during this month to room myself. I take extra time this month to check in with myself. I take extra time to sit back and process everything that’s going on in my life and the proper order so that things can be dealt with accordingly. I can stay on my hygiene path because I’m making the full intention of me to take care of myself so that I could do well as God put me on this earth to do.

What can you share with us about your first book collaboration, Rising Above: Overcoming Depression through Mindfulness and Self-Compassion”?

Teresa: I’m super excited about my book collaboration. The book is called Breaking the Change of Depression and this title really hits home with me because I know there are things in my family that there was dealt with and things that were said and things I’ve seen. I didn’t realize it was my family struggling with their mental hygiene and through this collaboration I want to bring awareness to everyone that’s dealing with these situations regardless of if they have a mental barrier or not. It’s always good to know what to do when everything seems a little bit unbalanced. My hope is through this book that I’m able to touch many lives and to help them and to help their loved ones and to help their friends and too. Help their family and ultimately help themselves so they could break away from the stigma of depression of lying in bed and crying all day.

I want people to live their life to the fullest. I want people to know yes, I have this barrier, or this obstacle, but I’m able to get over it. I’m able to be the one to show up for myself at the end of the day so I could take care of myself, and I could be there for others and be there for me and create the popular boundaries so I’m able to live my life to the fullest. So with this book collaboration, I’m super excited. We have our information session May 25th at 7 pm. Just go to the link: https://www.breakingthechainsofdepression.com to register. Then you can come to stop by and see what you can do and how you can help the cause. There’s something for everybody so I appreciate the time to take this project on to help others.

Are there any additional empowerment initiatives you will be involved with this month or this year surrounding mental health? If so, please tell us about it.

Teresa: Yes I have plenty going on I have a few speeches that I’m going to go to I have a few workshops and also a couple of pop up shops that I’m doing but most importantly I love the work that I do because I’m able to speak to women who are all in the same boat I’m able to see their barriers and speak to them and to tell me how they feel so I can help most times we keep our mouth clothes because we quote UN most times we keep our mouth clothes because we quote UN quote don’t want to bother anybody but you have to take responsibility for your own mental hygiene no one else can do that for you and when I speak to my clients and I tell them this at first it’s very difficult because they’re soldiers are doing for everyone else and not for themselves.

In our current climate, we need to talk about mental health more than ever. From your experience, in what ways can we begin to end and break the stigmas surrounding mental health?

Teresa: ln order to break the stigma of depression we need to have more open conversations and not just the things we see in the movies about going to therapy or about taking medication. We need to sit down and take a deep look at ourselves and see exactly where are these films coming from and what led us up to this moment. At what age do we stop growing emotionally? We need to have more open conversations with our family and with our children about actually knowing what feelings are. It’s a great deal of emotion and barriers that are placed on us from the situations that we go through in this life. I know that most people shut down because they want to disappear into the background because they cannot handle conflict they don’t know how to handle.

Anything outside of being happy such as conflict, drama, and chaos.. they run.  I believe in teaching people and women that you have a voice, and you must speak up and tell people what it is exactly that you need. A closed mouth doesn’t get a feed and you must have to take it very seriously. It is important to take care of ourselves, it is important to check in with ourselves. It may not seem like anything now but when you sit down, and you digress you see that ultimately taking care of yourself is the best decision.

So yes, I believe in open conversations with everyone from the age of 0 to 120 because we all have emotions. We all have feelings and we must navigate through this life properly and healthy. So I would say to break it just have these conversations whether it’s uncomfortable or whether you don’t want to because nothing is going to change if nothing is ever said.

What are you most excited about this year?

Teresa: I am most excited about speaking on more stages and doing a lot of interviews with podcasts so I could get my awareness out there. I feel that being in this situation and in this space of helping women I just want to be surrounded by incredible people to help them through their journey. I wouldn’t admit that I deal with depression daily and I’m working on changing this because it can’t be just this for me in this life based on the different seasons and the different places that I go. I know that I’m able to grow and I can stay constantly renewing my mind so that my mind is new all the time.

I’m excited to be working with new individuals that I meet this year. I’m excited about launching my of course. I’m excited about planning my retreats. I’m just excited and pumped up and energized for all the good things that are going to happen for me. I work  hard all day getting the work done so that I can move to the next level and touch many more women. My goal is to reach 100 and so far my number is at 23. I know that I’m going to reach my goal and I’m going to get there. I just have to trust the process, celebrate my small wins, and always be on the lookout for anything that I know is going to be big for me this year.

This year is my year to do the things that I set out to do. I’m determined and I’m headstrong about doing what I need to do to get things done to build my brand, to build my relationships, and ultimately build myself. Also, recognize my character and recognize that I am doing the best that I can and through that, I am helping many.

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