“Gratitude literally saves lives.” (Kaczor, C., 2019) Making gratitude a daily component of my personal life has helped me to manage stress and anxiety while I am both studying and working full time as well as being a full-time single mother. Pope John Paull II rephrased this well in his apostolic letter Novo Millennio Ineunte “[l]et us remember the past with gratitude, live the present with enthusiasm, and look forward to the future with confidence.” (John Paul II, 2001). This isn’t a call to resignation convicting us to blind ourselves to negative emotions, feelings, or experiences, it is a battle call that empowers us to “draw [our] strength from the Lord and from his mighty power, [to] put on the armor of God, to hold [our] ground [i]n all circumstances, [and to] hold faith as a shield” (Eph 6:10-13, 16) (Hiesberger, J. M., 2007). One way I use to combat stress and anxiety is to write a gratitude journal, this has been transformational in my battle against stress and anxiety. In all honesty, it was tedious at first, I felt I was writing down unimaginative and banal things that happened in my day. After a few days, it began to spring to mind whenever the smallest thing happened. I would say to myself ‘Lord, I am grateful for that!’, and experience excitement about journaling it later in the day. I began seeing minor annoyances with gratitude, for example, someone cutting me off in traffic, I was grateful that there wasn’t an accident instead of angry. This metanoia happened in a relatively short time, seven consecutive days of journaling. Seeing the minor annoyances in gratitude led to looking at the bigger stressors with this same lens of gratitude. It brought to life these words from the study by Emmons and McCullough where they stated “[a] grateful response to life circumstances may be an adaptive psychological strategy and an important process by which people positively interpret everyday experiences.” (Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E., 2003). It is difficult to shift habitual ways of thinking, but even the smallest shift can make a big difference. References: Kaczor, C. (2019) The Gospel of happiness: How secular psychology points to the wisdom of Christian practice, 2nd ed. St. Augustine's Press. The Gospel of Happiness John Paul II. (2001, January 5). Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001): John Paul II. Novo Millennio Ineunte (6 January 2001) | Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved June 18, 2022, from https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/2001/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_20010106_novo-millennio-ineunte.html Hiesberger, J. M., & Oxford University Press. (2007). The Catholic Bible: The New American Bible: including the revised New Testament and Psalms translated from the original languages with critical use of all the ancient sources. New York: Oxford University Press. Emmons, R. A., & McCullough, M. E. (2003). Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 377-389.

Mental health is still an underserved healthcare service area. Many people and families must wait months for an initial appointment with a mental healthcare provider. So many people of all ages turn to drugs or alcohol, pornography, overeating, etc. to numb the pain of many mental health issues that could be diagnosed and treated. Unfortunately, this self-medication only adds complexity and secondary problems to the original mental health issue. Compounding mental health issues with addictions can ultimately lead to serious life-threatening behaviors or suicide. Three of my family members have committed suicide. My paternal grandfather took his life on his 80th birthday thinking that he was a burden. My maternal uncle shot himself after struggling for many years with depression, addiction, and chronic neurosis. My maternal aunt was depressed and drinking too much, she began adding Draino to her wine, and eventually, that caused her to have an aneurism and die. We never spoke of these losses for what they were, tragic suicides caused by mental health issues that could have been helped. The practical solution for helping more people who struggle with mental health issues is early intervention. As a mother, I am highly aware of my children's mental well-being. One of my daughters was diagnosed with severe anxiety at the age of 6. She was so anxious about school and my returning to the workforce and traveling that she began to have panic attacks and I had no idea what was happening. In first grade, she experienced an episode where her brain chemistry was thrown off because of multiple panic attacks that she began to hallucinate. It is a frightening experience to watch your child deteriorate mentally and not understand why. I immediately sought help and found that she experienced high amounts of negative thoughts, causing panic attacks while she was at school. She has been in different types of therapy since then and has developed coping skills that are second nature to her. Early intervention was the key to helping her and giving her the greatest advantage by facing it head-on and not hiding her mental struggles. Awareness and intervention at the early stages of life can be the difference between success and failure later in life. Early intervention can decrease the stigma of having mental health issues because it provides positive words and solutions that are infused into everyday life without shame. My daughter is a highly successful Junior in high school now and wants to be a teacher. I aspire to earn my Master’s degree in Psychology and help individuals and families who struggle with mental health issues.

The practical solution for helping more people who struggle with mental health issues is early intervention. As a mother, I am highly aware of my children's mental well-being. One of my daughters was diagnosed with severe anxiety at the age of 6. She was so anxious about school and my returning to the workforce and traveling that she began to have panic attacks and I had no idea what was happening. In first grade, she experienced an episode where her brain chemistry was thrown off because of multiple panic attacks that she began to hallucinate. It is a frightening experience to watch your child deteriorate mentally and not understand why. I immediately sought help and found that she experienced high amounts of negative thoughts, causing panic attacks while she was at school. She has been in different types of therapy since then and has developed coping skills that are second nature to her. Early intervention was the key to helping her and giving her the greatest advantage by facing it head-on and not hiding her mental struggles. Awareness and intervention at the early stages of life can be the difference between success and failure later in life. Early intervention can decrease the stigma of having mental health issues because it provides words and solutions that are infused into everyday life without shame. My daughter is a highly successful Junior in high school now and wants to be a teacher.

When I lost my job in November 2021 due to COVID downsizing I was very worried. As a single parent who has two children, a mortgage, car payment, and everyday life to provide for it felt like a vice was twisting around us and suffocating me. The stress of needing a paycheck pushed me to take several part-time jobs and apply to Graduate School for a Masters in Psychology. I find that in times like these you are shown WHO you are made to be, and what you were made to do to make the greatest impact on fellow humans. One of my many jobs is Art Teacher for kids ages 5-7. I get to walk kids through how to draw a project, shape by shape. Then I gently help them learn color theory and balance as they color in their projects and how to use the three mediums for beginners, marker, crayon, and oil pastel. These kids are very diverse in race, religion, socioeconomic background, mental ability, and personality. I’ve been called a genius, been told that art class is their favorite time of the week, and they never want to leave. They asked why I call all of them ‘sweet pea’ and before I could answer one of the boys said, ‘It’s because she loves us.’ When I need to inject energy into the room we sing together as we work, when I need them to be quiet and focused, I read stories aloud. Children are inherently encouraging, honest, and carefree, they soak up the attention, and the positivity they receive and freely give it back to me and one another. There’s been a lot of turnover in these Room 1 classes this year - I’m their 4th teacher. One child asked why so many teachers have ‘left them’ and not wanted to stay there to teach them. Here is what I answered: “Your feelings matter to all those teachers, and to me, they truly enjoyed their time teaching all of you. Each one of you brought them so much joy. Each of those teachers had a dream job, something they had always wanted to do, and they were offered that job. So each of them decided to take that dream job. Immediately they asked me ‘what is your dream job?’ I thought for a bit and answered. When I was a little girl my mom asked me ‘Bea, what would you like to do when you grow up?’ I told her ‘I want to be a mom and spend each day coloring with my kids.” I told them that I am a mom, and I have two girls. I said that when my kids were young, I did color and draw with them a lot. They are older now and don’t want to color with me as often as they used to, so THIS job is my dream job, to come and teach you all to draw and to color with you every week!” They thought that was a good answer and agreed this should be my dream job because I draw and color so well and I like to make art classes fun. Life has a wonderful way of revealing that your innermost desires, no matter how simple, have meaning and can impact others. I color with my students, and I am so very happy.

Mental health is still an underserved healthcare service area. Many people and families have to wait months for an initial appointment with a mental healthcare provider. So many people of all ages turn to drugs or alcohol, pornography, overeating, etc. to numb the pain of many mental health issues that could be diagnosed and treated. Self-diagnosis and treatment, from the internet, or by any of the aforementioned vices, is the way many people try to take control of the problem. Unfortunately, these things only add complexity and secondary problems to the original mental health issue. Compounding mental health issues with addictions can ultimately lead to serious life-threatening behaviors or suicide. Three of my family members have committed suicide. My paternal grandfather took his life on his 80th birthday thinking that he was a burden. My maternal uncle shot himself after struggling for many years with depression, addiction, and chronic neurosis. My maternal aunt was depressed and drinking too much, she began adding Draino to her wine, and eventually, that caused her to have an aneurism and die. We never spoke of these losses for what they were, tragic suicides caused by mental health issues that could have been helped. As a mom, I am highly aware of my children's mental well-being. I have a daughter diagnosed with severe anxiety as well as cognitive processing issues. I have had her in therapy and testing since she was 5 years old. She experienced high amounts of negative thoughts, which would cause panic attacks while she was at school. The school system targeted her, labeled her a high-risk student, and put her into a program with children who had serious behavioral issues as well as learning disabilities. This made her education experience very volatile and left her unavailable to be fully present to absorb what she was learning. The school system passed her onto the next grade level year after year even though her tests clearly showed she was greatly lacking the fundamental understanding of the core subject matter material. If we had approached her learning disabilities and anxiety from the beginning in a more positive way, her educational experience could have yielded a more positive outcome. Earning a degree in psychology will enable me to help people and families who struggle with mental health issues.

I am a single mother with full custody of two girls, ages 17 and 15. I have been on my own with them since my younger daughter was 2 years old. I have dedicated my life to ensuring my children have all they need, but also recognize the needs of others that are less fortunate. I have talked about going back to get a graduate degree in psychology since they were infants, and now I am pursuing that dream. I hope that my example shows them the virtue of persistence and belief in your ability to achieve your goals. My older daughter is about to graduate from High School and begin a year of service in AmeriCorps before starting her college career. My younger daughter attends a small independent school, that can help with her cognitive processing disorder and dyslexia. I am have been accepted into a graduate program at DMU that begins in May. I will be in the accelerated program for the MS in Psychology degree and will only have time for a part-time job to help with the mortgage, car payment, utilities, and everything else it takes to run a household. This scholarship would help by decreasing the loan amounts I would have to take out to pay for the tuition. It would allow me to use the savings I have to pay for the major bills every month, mortgage, and car payments, and to also give me less stress about a big debt bill at the end of the 16-month program. I had planned to get a master’s degree in psychology many years ago to couple art with a healing ministry. Here I am, more than 20 years later pursuing a degree in psychology for healing ministry but not the way I had envisioned over 20 years ago.

It's trash day, let's go look for trash and make it into a treasure! My girls and I go out early in the morning looking for old coffee tables on weekly trash pick-up days and usually find something fun to turn into a treasure. My hobby is finding old, used coffee tables and turning them into tufted ottomans. I frequent thrift stores to find curtains or fabric to use as the upholstery and discount foam from several sources. Taking trash and making it into treasure is a metaphor for so many situations in life. Sometimes, what others think is worthless is full of potential if you take the time to look for the positive. My enjoyment is multi-faceted; it is time with my kids, turning something thrown away into a treasure, and using my creativity. The best part of this hobby is giving the piece away to someone who is starting to build or re-build their life and doesn't have a lot of money for nice things, this becomes a focal point for their home. Recycling furniture helps the environment and being creative helps your mental health. Find a hobby, it's wonderful therapy.

I love rescuing dogs. In my lifetime I have only owned dogs that have been abandoned or stray. My first memory of rescuing a dog was when my sister found box of puppies left at an outdoor concert in 1985. People were taking the dogs but there was one left that no one wanted, she was lame, with a deformed paw. Emily brought her home and we made Sam part of the family, she was named Sam because it was the 4th of July. Ever since I have have only owned rescue dogs. As an adult I have owned four dogs, two were rescued from the senior dog rescue. Sampson, the basset hound, was diagnosed with congestive heart failure so I took him home to be his 'hospice' so he would have a loving place to live the last days of his life in comfort, security, and love. Dogs are wonderful, loving, animals, and the ones that have blessed my life are great gifts.

Three of my family members have committed suicide. My paternal grandfather took his life on his 80th birthday thinking that he was a burden. My maternal uncle shot himself after struggling for many years with depression, addiction, and chronic neurosis. My maternal aunt was depressed and drinking too much, she began adding Draino to her wine, and eventually, that caused her to have an aneurism and die. We never spoke of these losses for what they were, tragic suicides caused by mental health issues that could have been helped. As a mom, I am highly aware of my children's mental well-being. I have a daughter diagnosed with severe anxiety as well as cognitive processing issues. I have had her in therapy and testing since she was 5 years old. She experienced high amounts of negative thoughts, which would cause panic attacks while she was at school. The school system targeted her, labeled her a high-risk student, and put her into a program with children who had serious behavioral issues as well as learning disabilities. This made her education experience very volatile and left her unavailable to be fully present to absorb what she was learning. The school system passed her onto the next grade level year after year even though her tests clearly showed she was greatly lacking the fundamental understanding of the core subject matter material. If we had approached her learning disabilities and anxiety from the beginning in a more positive way, her educational experience could have yielded a more positive outcome. Earning a degree in psychology will enable me to help people and families who struggle with mental health issues.

My daughter has severe learning disabilities, making it difficult to transition into classroom situations. She experienced high amounts of negative thoughts, causing panic attacks while she was at school. The school system labeled her a high-risk student, and put her into a program with children who had serious behavioral issues as well as learning disabilities. This made her education experience very volatile and left her unavailable to be fully present to absorb what she was learning. By high school she was greatly lacking in the fundamental understanding of the core subject matter material. If we had approached her learning disabilities and anxiety from the beginning in a more positive way, the outcome in her educational experience could have yielded a more positive outcome. A practical solution to reaching more people and, therefore, helping more people who struggle with mental health issues is to introduce concepts in educational settings that discuss how our experiences can affect our way of thinking, feeling, and reacting to situations. Many of the people seeking mental health therapy are normal people who need support to navigate the normal brokenness and wounds of life. Once coping skills are introduced as a normal part of psychological development the prevalence of negative behaviors will naturally decrease. The knowledge that you aren't the only person experiencing negative thoughts, anxiety, sadness, etc. is therapeutic and helps to generate a higher level of empathy for others as well as yourself. Holding parent and teacher talks at local schools where Cognitive-behavioral Therapists come to give short talks, with practical takeaway skills, could help empower parents and teachers to help children cope with some mental health and behavioral issues. This would help them to then see who needs more help and may have a higher need for counseling or specific therapy.

I am a single parent of two teenage girls. My younger daughter has a diagnosed cognitive processing disorder as well as dyslexia. This challenge has made me a much more patient person and parent. After spending all day at a professional job, I have had to be a teacher at home and still run the house and parent my older daughter well. I have had to homeschool subjects completely, bring in educational therapists and tutors, and it has been worth all the time and cost to watch her progress. This has caused some stress at times and has left my older daughter feeling a little neglected at times. Creating an environment of safe and open communication has been the key to acknowledging issues when they arise and overcoming obstacles that could have become big issues. Parenting is challenging, I didn’t realize when I was a new mother just how much I would be learning about myself as well as children. I have had my eyes opened to the little selfish ways I had to put down, the small sacrifices I have made, that all added up to the incomparable joy I have encountered in these past 17 years. I was supposed to go back to school for my master’s degree after I gave birth to my second child but circumstances in my marriage changed, and I became a single parent. I remained in the workforce for these past 17 years, but I have been actively volunteering and helping in the area that I would like to eventually work in after I obtain my master’s degree. I would like to study for and receive an MS in Psychology with a focus on marriage and family therapy. I want to help families struggling with the stress of divorce, learning disabilities, and other trauma. I plan to help my girls pay for college and thrive in society as well-balanced adults.