Whether she’s acting, performing, or making an album, Saweetie is giving it her all. But the “Best Friend” rapper learned that overworking herself takes a toll, and she’s finally come to terms with what it means to live a more balanced life. In a new episode of the YouTube-original show “Recipe For Change” from Jubilee — a series that listens in as a group of changemakers dine together and discuss important topics — she opened up about the hard-won self-care practices that have helped her thrive.

In the episode, titled “Recipe for Change: Amplifying Black Women,” Saweetie sits down for dinner with Kelly Rowland, Elaine Welteroth, Angelica Ross, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, and the conversation turns to mental health.

At the end of last year, Saweetie admitted to feeling totally burnt out. At that point, Saweetie says she was striving for the “two Bs” in her life: balance and billionaire status. Since then, she’s pivoted to embrace a new perspective. “We all need the ‘three Bs,'” she said in the episode: balance, breaks, and boundaries.

“I always tell the young entrepreneurs, ‘team no-sleep, no that isn’t cute,'” she says. “Drink your water, get some rest. Replenish yourself, because you’re going to burn out. Mentally, physically, spiritually.”

For Saweetie, replenishment comes in many forms. Journaling, meditation, girl time, and honoring her own energy levels are a few of the ways she says she’s learned to recharge. “Whether it’s showing up, doing a favor… if I’m drained, I won’t be able to serve you, and I love serving people,” Saweetie says.

For more insights from Saweetie and the many other exceptional Black, female creators featured, watch the full episode below.

Prince Harry continued his long-standing commitment to mental health in a moving speech he delivered in honor of Veterans Day. On Nov. 10, Harry and Meghan Markle attended the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum’s Salute to Freedom gala in New York City, where the Duke of Sussex presented the 2021 Intrepid Valor Awards. Harry spoke on the importance of addressing mental health and explained why it’s crucial we pay attention to the other kind of pain that service members experience.

“I’d also like to speak briefly about something else that, until recently, has existed in the darkness: the invisible wounds that we are all susceptible to,” he said, according to E! Online. “The scars on the inside that no one sees. For too long, invisible injuries were treated as just that — invisible — and were destined to be swept under the rug at the risk of shame, guilt or just a lack of understanding.” He added: “Yet we now know that the mind is just like a muscle. It experiences trauma and pain, whether in conflict or at home, whether in uniform or not. It needs training . . . as well as recovery and care, no matter who you are and no matter what you do. Our physical health and mental health are one and the same, and just as much as we aspire to be physically fit, so too we need to be mentally fit.”

Following the release of her breakout documentary “Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me,” the Rare Beauty founder is receiving national recognition for her work as a mental health advocate. On Nov. 10, Selena Gomez was honored with the first Mental Health Innovations (“Mentee”) Award for Excellence in Mental Health Advocacy at the Mental Healthcare Innovations Summit, put on within the Stanford School of Medicine. According to the Stanford Healthcare Innovation Team, Gomez was chosen for her “contributions to mental health, particularly for her advocacy fighting shame and stigma, as well as her commitment to expanding access to resources as a social entrepreneur and digital mental health pioneer.”

The new documentary, which follows Gomez’s journey with depression and bipolar disorder, attempts to shine light on the ups and downs of mental illness with a candor many wouldn’t expect from such a well-known star. Gomez lets fans in on some of her most vulnerable moments, reads excerpts from her own journal, and makes an effort to break down some of the stigma surrounding diagnoses like hers. Now, with the creation of the Rare Impact Fund, Gomez is going beyond just awareness and is raising funds to make mental health resources more accessible for underrepresented groups.

On its website, Stanford adds that the former Disney channel star “inspires millions of people with her art, yet Gomez transcends these roles by vulnerably sharing her mental health journey, reminding us that suffering is universal.” Ultimately, it’s this kind of transparency and willingness to open up in such a public way that makes Gomez deserving of an award like this. “While some of us meet the criteria for clinical diagnoses and some of us don’t, to be human is to know what it is like to experience pain, adversity, shame, and fear,” Stanford continued. “And Gomez has chosen to use her platform to normalize the ups and downs that define the human experience.”

Asian Mental Health Collective is about a year old, but you wouldn’t know it from its list of accomplishments so far. The org hosts group therapy sessions and weekly roundtable discussions, and has created a directory of Asian mental health professionals. It organizes an annual mental health conference, The Transformation. This year, AMHC hopes to start subsidizing therapy.

A lot has happened relatively quickly, but this work has been a long time coming, said Christopher Vo, LMFT, the org’s chief of operations. Vo started as an admin for the Subtle Asian Mental Health Facebook group about three years ago, one of the earlier spaces to speak to “the growing need for mental health [services] within the Asian community,” he said. As the follower numbers ticked up and topics became more serious, Vo and his colleagues created AMHC to expand the group’s mission: to destigmatize mental health within the Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) community.

Mental Health Stigma in APIA Communities

There’s a strong stigma around mental health in APIA communities for a few reasons, Vo told POPSUGAR. For one thing, “you have the concept of honor and saving face really preventing us from being vulnerable, from communicating our needs,” he said. “We are constantly expected to put our best face forward in order to not bring shame to our community.”

The generational gap also presents issues. Many APIA parents immigrated to the US to escape from trauma, Vo said, “oftentimes fleeing terrible situations, whether it be war, famine, poverty . . . coming to this country to seek a better life.” They may not be able to communicate those experiences to the second generation in a helpful way, he explained. Instead, it can manifest in a high-pressure demand for their children to excel in all areas in order to live up to their parents’ expectations.

“Oftentimes, the first generation lacks the language entirely to be able to speak about mental health,” Vo added. As an example, he noted that in the Vietnamese community, “there is no word for depression or anxiety.” Instead, the only way to describe mental health issues is to use the physical symptoms. “‘Sad’ becomes, ‘I’m feeling tired’ or ‘I’m feeling stomach pain.’ Feeling ‘distracted’ is actually anxiety,” Vo said. “It’s just very difficult to even begin to talk about topics like depression, suicide.”

Content warning: This post discusses suicide.

Sara Ramírez, who plays one of the buzziest characters from HBO’s hit “Sex and the City” revival, “And Just Like That,” recently had a candid conversation about their mental health. Despite the cool confidence they exude as Che Diaz on the show, Ramírez says the beginning of the pandemic was tough for them to navigate, and at one point, they even considered suicide.

“I remember calling the National Suicide Hotline for the very first time,” they tell Variety. “This person really talked me off a ledge, and got me back into my body. I could acknowledge my feelings without becoming them, and it was really helpful.”

Ramírez says they sought out, and got, additional support to help improve their mental health. But they add that the state of the world served as one of their biggest triggers — including all of the anti-Blackness and violence that was going on at the time, in addition to COVID. This brought up childhood trauma, and Ramírez didn’t like what they were seeing. “It just painted a picture of the world that I wasn’t sure I wanted to be a part of,” they say. In an effort to change the picture (and maybe even paint a better one), Ramírez found it helpful to attend protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

In August 2020, Ramírez posted a selfie to Instagram alongside a poem that read, “In me is the capacity to be / Girlish boy / Boyish girl / Boyish boy / Girlish girl / All / Neither #nonbinary” — which, according to Ramírez (who had been using they/them pronouns in their personal life for about a year), wasn’t intended to be a coming-out post, though many interpreted it as such. Five months later, they were approached to play Che on “And Just Like That.”

Looking back on this dark period of their life, Ramírez says they don’t take much for granted anymore. “It was a really rough year where, for the most part, I had to release all attachments to permanence in every direction,” they explain. Now, even after playing a character who has stirred up so much drama, Ramírez is looking to the future with an open mind. “I have learned my lesson around attachment to permanence, so I’m open to what’s meant to be,” they say. “So we’ll see where this story goes.”

If you or a loved one are experiencing suicidal ideation or are at risk, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has several resources and a 24/7 lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.

When I first joined Instagram in 2011, it seemed like everyone posted horribly edited photos of their DIY manicures and bathroom mirror selfies complete with duck lips. It was a real and candid, albeit a little chaotic, representation of our lives. Then came the shift to a more curated social media presence, and we all started caring a lot more about what people on the internet thought of us. For the next few years, people downloaded the FaceTune app and started sliding left and right on filters to ensure they looked their absolute best. It quickly became exhausting, but then TikTok entered the scene, delivering quick 15- to 30-second videos that were refreshingly low budget and entertaining.

At first, the content was as similarly authentic as the early days of Instagram — full of amateur makeup tutorials, DIY projects, and botched haircuts — but within the last year, I started to notice a different type of content on my For You Page. Many of the organic videos have been replaced with clips from microinfluencers showing off their aesthetically pleasing bathroom vanities or their incredibly involved and seemingly impossible 12-step morning routines — and just like that, the “that girl” aesthetic was born.

It’s hard to define exactly what it means to be “that girl,” but she is calm and cool, always wakes up smiling, vlogs her daily meditation practice and two-miles-long walks, and spends an hour on her skin care as a self-care practice — and you definitely want to be her. A quick search of the phrase “that girl” on TikTok produces hundreds of similar videos that, at the time of writing, have 3.5 billion views.

The trend is supposed to be aspirational and motivating, but I have mixed feelings about the “that girl” aesthetic. On one hand, I follow quite a few creators who make this type of content and find myself gravitating toward it every time I open the app — I just keep scrolling and scrolling and scrolling. The videos are engaging and downright beautiful to watch. On the other, I don’t know if our collective obsession with it is a good thing. While I appreciate the sentiment — that we should be prioritizing ourselves, pouring endless time into our well-being, and striving to become the best version of ourselves — I also think the trend is more harmful than we realize.

I’d like to believe the intention behind these videos is to show viewers that anyone can be “that girl” — which sometimes includes an audio soundbite from an August 2021 E! News interview with Rihanna saying to fake it till you make it — but that messaging is drowned out by thousands of videos perpetuating an unrealistic standard with great skin, clothes, and work-life balance to boot. The sheer number of videos with this similar messaging can make you feel like you’re the only person who isn’t already “that girl.”

To me, the “that girl” aesthetic on TikTok feels a bit like those overly edited photos we all used to post on Instagram. We enjoyed looking at them in the moment, but turns out all these years later, they weren’t all that great for our mental health. What’s even stickier about these overly put-together, I-woke-up-like-this types of videos on TikTok is that it’s even harder to tell what’s real and what’s not. Because it’s a video, your mind reads it as being an accurate representation of what’s being shown — their skin is always that clear, their hair always looks that perfect, their self-care routine is always that comprehensive — when really, we’re still only seeing what the creator wants us to see.

I don’t think the “that girl” trend needs to vanish altogether — as I said, I enjoy watching the videos, too — but I do think they should be taken, or viewed, with a grain of salt. It’s OK if you don’t feel like “that girl” most of the time, it’s OK if you don’t wake up looking video-ready the second you open your eyes, and it’s OK if all you can muster up the energy for in the morning is running a brush through your hair. The reality is, you’re already doing just fine.

Content warning: This post mentions suicide.

Dak Prescott knows all about tending to and recovering from a physical injury, but the Dallas Cowboys quarterback wants to put the spotlight beyond the physical and on the emotional and mental wellness of athletes and fans. This week, a simple message written on Prescott’s wrist tape captured the attention of many, and it’s all in an effort to encourage individuals to “Ask 4 Help.” Prescott has been donning this important message on his wrist in support of mental health since the season kicked off in September, and it’s not the first time he’s been candid about the importance of these conversations as he spoke about his experience with anxiety and depression last year.

Prescott’s older brother Jace died by suicide in April 2020, and the football player shared that he sought help following his loss. “Mental health is a huge issue and real thing in our world right now, especially the world we live in where everything is viral and everyone is part of the media,” Prescott said in an interview last year. “[You] can get on social media and be overcome with emotions and thoughts of other people and allow that to fill in their head when things aren’t necessarily true . . . I think it’s huge. I think it’s huge to talk. I think it’s huge to get help. And it saves lives.”

I don’t know what your path to therapy looked like, but mine started with a lot of procrastination. “I should probably try therapy,” I thought to myself for about a year, but I had no idea where to start. I got as far as googling “therapists in San Francisco” before getting overwhelmed by the amount of results that turned up and promptly putting it out of my mind for another three months.

So when I was approached to try out Frame Online Therapy Platform, it felt like a sign. Frame matches you with therapists based on your needs and communication style, so in other words, it does one of the hard parts for you: filtering your options. Frame is also totally free; you don’t start paying anyone until you actually start therapy. (Note that Frame is currently only available in California, though the site has plans to expand to other states.)

I tried Frame over the course of a few weeks in 2021 and eventually matched up with a therapist I’ve been seeing ever since. Here’s what my experience was like.

How to Use Frame

As someone who gets overwhelmed easily (see the anecdote above), one thing I liked about Frame was how simple the process was. Signing up was quick and easy, and it’s not long before you’re viewing your therapist matches.

1. Create an account with your email. You can sign up on Frame’s website.
2. Complete the intake form. As soon as you create your account, you’re taken to a three-part intake form. Some of it is logistical, such as specifying if you’re looking for couple or individual therapy and providing your general location (zip code). Then Frame asks you to select the reasons why you’re seeking therapy and the communication style that works best for you, like whether you prefer structured or free-flowing sessions, or an active therapist versus one who’s more passive.
3. Browse your therapist matches. After you fill out your intake form, Frame sends you the top six therapists that match most closely with your needs. You can read about their specialties, interests, and approach to therapy on their profiles.
4. Message as many therapists as you want. Once you’ve identified the therapists you’re interested in, you can connect with them on Frame’s chat platform. This part can be nerve-wracking, but as soon as you open up the chat, there’s a Frame message telling you what to do. In my messages, I just told the therapist I was interested in setting up an intro call with them and asked them when they were available to talk. I messaged six therapists and got responses from four of them.
5. Set up intro calls. Intro calls are like a 20-minute get-to-know-you talk with a therapist to see if they’ll meet your needs. I set up calls with three therapists and, in all honesty, was extremely anxious about each one, but Frame gives tips on what to expect in an intro call to help you feel more comfortable.
6. Choose your therapist. Frame makes it easy to turn down the therapists you’re not interested in by simply checking a “Not a Fit” box in the chat. I took a few days to think about it, then messaged the therapist that I wanted to move forward with. We then moved off Frame to set up an appointment on her personal website. (Frame doesn’t offer therapy directly through its website, so once you choose a therapist, you move to their platform, whether teletherapy or in-person.)

The word “stress” typically has a negative connotation and is often associated with unpleasant emotions like anxiety and feeling overwhelmed. The World Health Organization defines stress as “any type of change that causes physical, emotional or psychological strain.” And when stress becomes so severe or prolonged (or both), it’s referred to as distress. But not all stress is a bad thing. In fact, some stress can be beneficial.

The good-for-you kind of stress is referred to as eustress. It’s known to be “a constructive type of stress that reflects a state of positive emotional arousal associated with activation and engagement,” according to a journal from the National Library of Medicine. So what about eustress makes it so damn good for you? POPSUGAR spoke to an expert about eustress and how to make the most out of the stress in your life.

What Is Eustress?

Eustress is a beneficial type of stress that is manageable, acute, and short-term. It’s a product of the nerves brought on when faced with a fun but nonthreatening challenge, according to the National Library of Medicine. “Eustress is the physical, mental, and/or emotional tension that is placed on the mind and body when we engage in activities that actually nurture our well-being and foster growth,” says Andra Brown, a NY-based licensed mental health counselor who specializes in anxiety, racial identity, and stress. Eustress has the ability to produce feelings of excitement, fuel our passions, and keep us motivated and focused, Brown says. “When we experience these feelings, we become more confident in stepping out of our comfort zones and being challenged.”

What About Eustress Makes It Positive?

Eustress is considered positive because of the response that it produces. When the body experiences eustress, feelings of excitement, achievement, pleasure, meaning, and motivation are produced. Brown uses exercise as an example. Working out can be “eustressful” physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Physically, it will challenge you to build up your body to improve your personal ability and fitness level. Emotionally, it can result in positive feelings of fulfillment, happiness, inspiration, and ambition. And psychologically, it can help enhance your confidence and personal growth. Eustress is what Brown likes to call “the just-enough pressure that’s placed on the mind and body.”

What Is the Difference Between Eustress and Distress?

Distress is what happens when we engage in physically depleting activities that don’t nourish our bodies or our growth, Brown explains. “Distress takes and does not center your needs. We hop into the distressful zone when we start to engage in activities that are taking more than it’s giving us.” Distress stressors can be things such as deadlines, financial problems, losing a loved one, or ending a relationship. These kinds of stressors can lead to a lack of sleep, fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches, mood swings, and feeling overwhelmed, Brown says. Eustress, on the other hand, creates pleasant effects and is often short-term, producing feelings of excitement and motivation. Eustress stressors can be things such as exercise, a first date, achieving a goal, or vacationing. Brown says eustressful stressors such as these can impact us by increasing our energy levels, productivity, positive outlooks, and self-confidence. During moments of eustress, we are able to perceive certain challenges as less threatening, she says.

However, eustress and distress can resemble each other through physical sensations. Nervousness, the pounding of your heart, and racing thoughts can be produced when stressed, positively or negatively. “There are some flares of similarity between the ways in which we show up for distressing events and show up for things that are actually pushing us in the ways that we need to be pushed,” Brown explains. “Being triggered and having that anxiety response in your body, that’s more so distressful, but when you think about excitement, it has the same flares of anxiety, but it’s not so fear based.” If you’re still unsure whether the stress you’re experiencing is eustress or distress, the National Library of Medicine says there are four main differences between these two types of stress.

• Amount of demands: while distress is associated with low or high levels of demands, eustress tends to be accompanied by moderate levels of demands.
• Degree of control: research shows that a lack of control is likely to result in distress, and the believed amount of control over a situation influences whether a person experiences eustress (associated with average to high control) or distress (feeling of little to no control).
• Challenge appraisal: eustressing situations are seen as challenging but not threatening.
• Threat appraisal: distressing situations are viewed as threatening but not challenging.

What Are Examples of Eustress?

Everyone is different, and moments that may produce eustress in our lives vary from person to person. But these are some examples of activities that can produce eustress.

• Starting a new job: A new role is guaranteed to bring about new challenges, the kind that help you “work your brain in new, exciting ways that you haven’t before,” Brown says. That element of novelty and learning can bring about that good-for-you stress.
• Games and/or card games: Participating in games can bring on feelings of excitement and challenge you to think methodically. Looking forward to putting down your draw four when you know the next person doesn’t have any cards, or even playing charades when you’re trying to figure out what the person is, can bring about eustress, Brown tells POPSUGAR.
• Reading a book: Reading can enhance your focus and build a sense of anticipation. “The sharpened focus that it takes to get through the book, the excitement that you’re feeling by reading the next line or turning the next page to see what happens to the main characters — your body is probably responding to a various amount of eustress in that moment,” Brown says.

When Is Eustress Considered Bad?

Eustress is still a type of stress and can be considered negative if it becomes distress, according to Brown. It’s important to note the stress is not all black and white — it exists on a continuum or a spectrum. That means what may seem eustressful today could become distressful as time goes on. For example, you may feel the work you are doing challenges you and generates growth and knowledge at first, providing eustress, but the work can become overwhelming and difficult with unrealistic deadlines and expectations, causing distress. “It floats back and forth, and we float back and forth on this spectrum,” Brown says. “It’s really important to to understand that piece and also understand that it’s OK for certain things to just not serve you in the ways that they use to.”

How Do You Incorporate More Positive Stress in Your Life?

Incorporating positive stress can be as simple as engaging in more pleasurable moments, Brown says. This might look like playing your favorite video game once a week, listening to a daily podcast, or going on a monthly hike. Eustress can also be created through life changes, challenges, and new experiences. Taking on a new hobby or making a new friend can create eustress, as well as major life events, such as getting married or getting a promotion.

However, Brown says it’s important that your eustress is not solely work centered. It’s vital that you tap into your inner child, too, because, we find a lot of our eustressful moments in play. “Tap into your inner child to better understand how to use yourself as a resource,” Brown says. “Oftentimes, we seek things externally as a means of figuring out what our passions are and what motivates us.” But “a past version of ourselves may have the knowledge that we are looking for. The type of activities that you engaged in and didn’t engage in can tell you a lot about the things that may fuel your passions today,” Brown explains.

Checking in with yourself and your body is also important in understanding what stressors create eustress. “I wake up and ask myself, ‘What do you want to do today?,’ or more so, ‘What do you have the capacity for today? In what ways am I going to challenge myself, challenge my brain, and what is going to lead to pleasure?'” Brown says.

Mental health therapist Kiaundra Jackson, LMFT, recently shared this TikTok bringing light to three unusual symptoms a person may experience if they have anxiety.

The three symptoms are:

1. Indigestion: burping, heartburn, passing gas
2. Phantom ringing: noise inside your ear like buzzing, ringing, or chirping
3. Burning sensation: this can be felt on your skin, lips, or even your eyes

Jackson explained to POPSUGAR that in order to be diagnosed with anxiety, a person needs to have the symptoms outlined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). These include worrying, overthinking, difficulty concentrating, irritability, fatigue, and chest tightness. A psychiatrist or other medical doctor can help you with an official diagnosis using the DSM, and that list from the DSM does not include the three symptoms mentioned above.

Jackson explained that these certain symptoms aren’t enough to warrant an official anxiety diagnosis, but would occur in conjunction with typical anxiety symptoms. Although rare, those three symptoms can still occur, which is why Jackson wanted to bring attention to them.