I just had coffee with someone that reignited the spark. It should be no secret that Your Mental Restoration has been at a plateau over the past few years. I could blame being a parent, I could blame being a business owner, I could blame my day job, I could say that I don’t really have the fire that I want everyone to think I have…but none of that is true. My fire to grow this business: Your Mental Restoration, is burning brightly. The heat is intense and the urgency is there! I think at the core, I struggle to be consistent when I don’t see immediate results and that is difficult to admit.
As a therapist I meet with other business owners that are like-minded on a regular basis for networking and marketing, and as an introvert I don’t often look forward to these meetings. I was very much looking forward to meeting with Daniel Henderson, founder of RecoverWisely because at a luncheon I attended he alluded to using backpacking as a tool to help others remain sober. It sparked my interest because it has been a significant part of my own recovery journey to use nature, exercise, holistic, and healthy lifestyle choices as well. Daniel’s story is exceptional and unbelievable and incredibly inspiring. As a person in recovery from addiction and while he was fully sober he fell off a mountain and almost lost his life. That recovery process became just another step along his journey and he stayed sober throughout at all. While he works a day job like me, he also has founded an organization called RecoverWisely, which among many things hosts sober pop-up events, sober bars, and he’s trying to motivate people to be willing to take the step into backpacking and hiking on their sober journey.
Talking with Daniel made me think about sharing more about my own journey. I have not been open about the things that I have experienced in life that have led me to be a therapist and a passionate mental health advocate. In my twenties I thought that I wasn’t old enough and wouldn’t be taken seriously but now, as I am firmly in my mid thirties I think it is time. I’m going to begin working on that. For now, what I want to share is that I’m not going anywhere. Your Mental Restoration isn’t going anywhere either.
Sometimes I feel like I’m marketing products that are unrelated – I have written 3 books on 3 seemingly unrelated topics topics (parenting, DBT, and a children’s book on transracial adoption). I post inspiring content on all social media platforms (search @yourmentalrestoration on TikTok, Insta and Facebook or @alyxfields on Twitter) but there isn’t a clear thread. I’m a therapist and a mom and a wife and I work to have my own identity but what is the golden thread connecting it all? It became very clear to me in talking with Daniel that while his golden thread is addiction recovery with a heart for outdoor aventure, my golden thread is mental health recovery, with a heart for dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT).
Everything I do can be tied back to DBT. Every choice that I make about parenting, every holistic wellness step that I take on my own journey, every future planning session that my husband and I have where we review and share our goals for the future. All of it spins off of a common hub of DBT. My Passion is to make DBT known and accessible. This is why my book Adulting Well is only $10, this is why I accept insurance at my private practice, this is why I walk the walk and talk the talk. I want excellent quality mental health services to be accessible to all.
I am presently motivated and I hope that you will help hold me accountable. Please comment on my post’s, comment on the material that I put out there. Share my content with other people. Make suggestions of what you want to see more and less of. I know that my story can help you, I know that my message is valuable, I know that my life has not happened on accident but that the universe has orchestrated this whole chaotic mess of catastrophes in order for me to reach this point in my life. I am by no means whole and complete, but I am whole enough to help you begin to follow the same journey. Stay tuned. Much love.
