Mindfulness, Nutrition, and Other Tools to Manage Bipolar Symptoms

Yashi Brown, spoken word poet and mental health advocate, discusses the ways she practices mindfulness, nutrition, other tools to better manage her bipolar symptoms. At the recent Psych Congress, Brown gave her keynote address titled, "Discovering the sweet spot: how bipolar disorder became a blessing... not a curse."

In the previous part 1 of this video, Brown explains how she manages her disorder, how clinicians can better work with patients, and how her self-advocacy journey has impacted her growth.

Read the transcript:

Some of the things that I do to stay sane and to stay on track are poetry [and] getting back into my writing. One thing I've learned, to not deal with my symptoms, is to judge myself. I still judge myself when it comes to writing my poems and with my creativity. I still overanalyze it. I'm working on myself in that way.

My poetry and writing is a huge catharsis, is a huge way for me to find that balance. So many of us with bipolar have a creative outlet. We need to be encouraged to continue to nurture that creative outlet because it does balance those emotions, and it does balance those energy centers. I noticed a clear difference when I'm able to let out.
I also do a lot of journaling. I do a lot of journaling. I do a lot of prayer.

YouTube has great channels, positive listening, binaural beats and different hertz, love frequency waves, and all of that, and I listen to those when I go to sleep.

I noticed that that calms the racing thoughts when I am in a hypomanic state or a manic state listening to certain...

I love a channel on YouTube called Inner Lotus Music, and it just has 3 hours, 4 hours worth of just easy listening, no words. These are high-frequency easy listening sonics that literally put my brain back in a positive space and are able to calm those thoughts that want to just go off on their own.

Sometimes even with medication, if you have a stressor, as you guys know, those thoughts can still race sometimes, and that's one thing that needs, for me, at least at all cost, never feels good and always suppose like that's the beginning of when things can start teetering in the wrong direction. Listening to those different channels and those binaural beat channels and brainwave channels, that has been such a huge help.

Then the other thing that I do for self-care is my audiobooks. I have some authors that are just very good for positive listening, positive reading and topics that I find very enjoyable. I'm able to switch off negative thoughts really fast that way, because the negative thoughts take hold.

Again, knowing a lot about this space, knowing how to take care of myself, those thoughts can come in and just run a spiral that can last for days. Again, I learned to nip that in the bud by injecting something to change those thoughts. I have to actively do something.

For some people, it might be watching a movie. My thoughts can still run amok even with a movie. For me, I found that audiobooks in the genres of positive thinking, the law of attraction, but also whatever genres I find and I deem really exciting, which I love.

Past life regression-type authors have been just so enlightening and positive. I think to steer and try to encourage those who work with patients, [is] to listen to things that feel good. It's so key to make sure whatever it is that we're doing to change the trajectory of our thoughts, if it continues to stir up the aggression, I get that too. I get needing to release that aggressive music or whatever.

At some point, once we've felt the aggression and we've gotten a little bit of our power back, we can now steer that to positivity. Also, there are creative works that are being created, drawings or poetry, trying to encourage or some sort of light at the end of the tunnel because all of these things have a life in a metaphysical sense that is creating our reality.

We don't want to continue to create negative realities by the types of works that we are creating. I tried to be very conscious if I am getting out an "I Hate You" poem that in some way, there is some positive, light at the end of the tunnel message, something because we are creating our reality. Our intentions are going out there and are working in another level, and it's very real.

That's my spirituality talking. That's also life experience talking. This is very real stuff. I really believe there's a correlation between entertainers that unfortunately didn't win the battle with depression and sadness.

Unfortunately, suicide ended up being what ended up happening, but it's really interesting how you analyze the music or the writings of these individuals. They were also having to regurgitate these painful moments and these painful things. They were having to relive these songs every time they performed live, and it was not actually helping to move forward.

I see that as a correlation. I see that as something really interesting. I don't think that that's a coincidence. What we do, we manifest what we think about. We need to get out, but then also always on that trajectory of hope and of positivity and reinforcing we are creating our reality.

Helping your patients to realize just remember what you are creating, you're putting out there, so we want to put that slip of hope, positivity, triumph, and victory and blend those messages into the narratives of everything we're doing, of what we're talking also. I don't know how helpful that is. These are things I live by that have helped me stay alive.

Yashi Brown is an author, writer, poet, public speaker, and a leading voice in the mental health space since 2011. Brown's poetry became her chosen creative expression upon experiencing severe bipolar depression and mania symptoms as a young adult. Fueled by a burning desire to feel empowered and her deep spirituality, she realized her path to recovery. Today, Brown is an award-winning mental health advocate, artist, and public speaker thriving with bipolar type I.