Culture Guide Book

What Is Culture?

Volume 1

Exploring the intersection of Mental health Self Awareness Values & Culture

Volume 1

Proficient prevention, empowerment & information sharing Designed by community for community mental health

“Where wise actions are the fruit of life, wise discourse is the pollination.”

Bryant H. McGill

This Guide book is designed to facilitate discussion and sharing as you explore yourself and anchor to the roots of who you are. Share with us your experience and where you seek to go deeper. Reach out today and lean about our holistic mental health education and services

Reflecting the pulse of community; Promotoras de Salud have been providing healthcare education that is culturally relevant and embraces knowledge of self through uplifting engaged leadership

Exploring the intersection of: Mind Body Spirit & Culture through storytelling, art & experience

Watch - Learn - Access - Interact

Experience digital and interactive content nestled through this guidebook as Promotor@s take you on a journey to discovering your mental health through the art, wisdom sharing and creativity. Join us in creating a culture of wellness !

De-Colonizing Mental health The relationship between culture and mental health is intertwined with our sense of self and how we fit into the world around us. We hold memories and experiences that have impacted our relationship to our culture and define our self awareness. The impact of acculturation through generations is informing our sense of who we are. The root of our mental and emotional health depends on our relationship of self awareness and knowing where we came from. When our roots are strong and intact we can grow from the nourishment of our beliefs, customs, tradition and ritual.

As you think about the below definitions how can you deepen your understanding of how you see yourself an others? To dig even deeper, consider how your parents and ancestors experiences shaped your identity. How has the collective social impact of culture and lived experiences created the tone of our societies mental health?

Acculturation:

Process of change that occurs when a culture adopts a practice or practices from another culture that happens though: Assimilation -Separation - Integration - Marginalization

• Assimilation: Forced or voluntary rejection of one beliefs & values • Separation: The act or process of moving apart or forcing something apart

• Integration: The act or process of uniting different things • Marginalization: Treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant or peripheral.

I am a colonized woman

I was raped, violated by history, society and men.

I fight for survival against physical & mental genocide of racism, police brutality, war, hunger, gender, stigmas and stereotypes.

I fight against the cultural genocide of Euro-american’s institutions and values… I ask mi abuela, grandmother, where do we get the strength, how can we survive? she whispers we survive….she survived…. but the violence was passed on in our memory.

I am a colonized woman My family, mi familia is my only weapon of self-defense in a hostile world i tell myself I can endure…

I see our men damaged too left with no self-respect, minus dignidad and no control. his collective memory of violence has been passed through whispers… his body remembers. his spirit has been separated from his soulhe is only a reaction, and I think …..we survive together.…..until i’m the only one he can control.

I am a colonized woman

My fortress is being in the middle, as the mother, la madre, who is central en nuestras familias, our families.

I will my children’s survival through sheer willpower so my identity is not withered away by assimilation I have a collective memory of mis antepasdas, my ancestors, who endured leaving survival, for todas las familias I am a colonized woman I am politicized I can not adapt to the institutions I can not adapt to either-or values I get real sad and blue… for me…. mis hijos, my sons and daughters I can not stop and reflect…I keep going my ideas, my values, are not the same Then I hear as I quiet myself….I hear the whisper of mi abuela, my grandma….we survive.

-Belinda Garcia, La Vida de Circulos

“There Is only 3% of natural systems that are left after 1st contact of this nation, all these changes that have been made are leading to a lot of the problems we have in our personal nature”

Michael Alcazar In Action Climate mitigation

"The Dao, or the Way, is the approach in accord with the flow of Nature. The basic idea of the Taoists is to enable people to realize that, since human life is really only a small part of a larger process of nature, the human life which makes sense are those which are in harmony with nature. Although different countries and various regions have their own cultures, if we pursue harmony between humanity and nature, there will be no friction and no violence."

Zhong Daosong, Taoist master

How does your up bringing influence your mental health?

What customs or traditions empower you?

How are you connected to your environment?

How can you look to your nature to discover self awareness and how does this support your metal health & behavior choices ?

The self is an individual person as the object of its own reflective consciousness.

to sent to earth Akiala I, was d an n o si n ity’s asce e assist human iv ct ra te rough in evolution. Th i k A s, ce n perie and virtual ex er or “player” ew vi e integrates th dimensional er h with hig frequencies.

KIALA I PRESENTS

ABSOLUTE VIBE PRESENTS: CROWN FASHION SHOW Watch the elite models’ of the Universe go crown to crown in a ferocious runway battle for the title of “The Universe’s Biggest Quing/Kweeng”

Interactive & Virtual Experiences Adornment Sound Storytelling Futuristic Workout Videos

Masking & Mental Health Masking is a process by which an individual changes or “masks” their natural personality to conform to social pressures, abuse or harassment. Masking is a facade to behave in certain ways that would help one hide their emotions and represses emotions that are not approved by those around them. Because a person wants to receive acceptance from the public, masking helps disguise characteristics and truth of emotions and beliefs that aren’t always acceptable.

The Masks we create to survive have a powerful influence on our mental health. Think about and reflect on the masks you wear and how that impacts your self awareness.

Situational Masks:

Being around strangers or types of people with different values or masks used in spaces where people don’t feel safe or supported

Gender Masks:

Adhering to social norms and expectations centered around gender roles, self identity, sexuality

Ethnic Masks:

Cultural norms and acceptable behaviors your culture sets the tone for

Reflect on these questions as they relate to self awareness What Masks have you accumulated to fit in?

Have your masks informed your behavior and choices in life? How has this contributed to your mental health?

What or who is underneath your masks?

Mind Body Perspectives: Base Chakra :

Location: Base of the spine

Organ & Endocrine: Kidneys / Adrenal Glands Element: Earth Color: Red Emotion & Quality: Fear / Passion Age of maturation: 1st 7 years of life The Root Chakra is all about having our needs met and feeling supported in our lives. When we feel supported it helps us build strength and resilience; these qualities are crucial to our

mental health

Anchoring to the root

Yoga Practice w/ Euda Best

A Chakra is a high frequency body part that translates consciousness into physical impulses and patterns.

Chakra translates to wheel or spinning energy center.

The Base Chakra determines our physical stability and relationships in our family and tribe. The Base Chakra is the survival center that grounds us into our culture and feeds our material grounding and vitality.

When this Chakra is balanced we feel stable and grounded, vital, motivated and courageous. It helps us to feel comfortable in our bodies and in the material world to create a sense of security and stability. When un balanced we can feel ungrounded an have issues manifesting in the physical world.

This can lead to insecurities, money issues and a sense of feeling unsettled or that we dont’ belong. Imbalances can also contribute to fatigue and show up as anemia, lack of vitality and over consuming fear.

Psychological resilience is the ability to mentally or emotionally cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly. Resilience exists when the person uses “mental processes and behaviors in promoting personal assets like culture and identity to protect self from the potential negative effects of stressors on their mental and emotional wellbeing

Who is a strong person in your life and what made them strong?

How do your roots and culture help build strength and resilience?

How might Culture influence our values & behaviors; how does this impact your mental health?

What does it mean

n to be a you?

Use a blank paper to answer any or all of the following ?’s through art, collage, words, images & poetry:

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What is your name, and who named you?

Where were your family, parents, and yourself born?

What is your primary language?

What is your ethnicity/culture?

Who are your family members?

What are your gifts or strengths?

Does your culture/ethnicity empower you?

Why do you want to be in this training class?

What do you want to get out of this learning?

Do you feel comfortable/uncomfortable when talking about sex and sexuality?

What are your priorities in life: for your health and everyday living?

Personal values: Value denote the degree of importance of some thing or action, with the aim of determining what actions are best to do or what way is best to live, or to describe the significance of different actions. Consider your personal values and how they are prioritized in your life.

Ask yourself which values are so important to you that you would be willing to give up all others in order to keep them. For example, would you be able to give up going out with your friends to have a lot of money? Or would can you make a boundary around toxic relationships in order to protect your mental health?

The Values you hold close determine your behavior and influence your mental, physical and emotional health.

Reflect on what is important to you Not important:

Sort of important:

Most important:

Very important:

Empowerment Social justice Human rights Respect for differences

Did you find it particularly difficult to choose between certain values? Which ones?

Why is it good to know your values before you make a decision?

What are some real-life decisions knowing your values might help you to decide?