• Listen to Episode 16: APPLE SPOTIFY YOUTUBE SITE
• Listen to Episode 17: APPLE SPOTIFY YOUTUBE SITE

The first of its kind, introducing the Dare To Share Your Untold Story Podcast, Mental Beauty Segments, as we have surpassed the 100th episode, it’s time to forward into a direction that allows us to continue to extrapolate learnings and shed light onto mental beauty. Up until now, we have had guests come on to the show sharing their true untold stories and its impact on their mental well-being, as well as sharing their individual take on what sparks for them when they hear the term, the mental beauty re-think. In prior episodes, by guests answering this question quite spontaneously, it has ignited rich dialogue on meaning, intention, things to remember and self-reminders. So as we introduce this new element of the podcast, this episode focuses on how mental beauty relates to the theme of overcoming stigma in mental health.

In relation to the episode topic, prior episodes 16 and 17 were selected for further exploration and deeper dive. Episode 16, titled, “Getting There – An Inner Knowing, Despite the Repressed + Uncovered Memories”, with guest, Ross Taylor, and Episode 17, titled: “The Limitless Possibilities of not Knowing her Diagnoses”, with guest Barabara Arrowsmith-Young. Both guests share their journeys of rethinking life perspectives and overcoming significant challenges which had a profound impact on their mental well-being. Ross's journey highlights the importance of seeing mental health not as a burden but as an integral part of our overall well-being, while Barbara’s story showcases triumph over adversity. Listen to this episode as we take a deeper dive into this topic.

3 Practical ‘Mental Beauty Tips’ inspired by Episode 101:

1. Reframe Negative Thoughts
2. Practice Self-Compassion
3. Seek Support

Episode 101 Takeaway: Affirmation – “I am worthy of love, kindness and mental beauty”. Repeat this to yourself whenever you need a reminder of your worth, and even when you don’t!

Can you believe it? We have reached the 100th episode milestone, with the opportunity to celebrate and honour brave guests who have come forward, take stock of how it all began and where we are headed. Salima takes the daring seat to share the journey to the 100th episode. She openly shares thoughts she entertained as well as what she didn’t even think about as she kept her focus on spreading the word about breaking down the barriers of mental stigma and embracing the concept of ‘mental beauty’. In this episode she shares how she believes the intention of her podcast is being fulfilled and shares with the audience more about her uniquely coined term, ‘the mental beauty re-think’. Salima also shares the backend of what goes into producing an episode, how guests are selected, how guests get into the interview space and what the preparation is like, particularly around not coming in with a prepared script to share their story from. Salima shares insights about what she has learned about herself over the 99 episodes that led her to the 100th, and how she has been impacted by each guest and story, and even lets us in on some cherished moments of about seven or eight episodes that she brings to light, particularly from the first year of the podcast launch. Salima’s authentic sharing of all these episodes also touches upon her own personal growth moments as it relates to the podcast as well as what has changed for herself along the way of this podcast journey. She opened up and got personal about what her perception of mental health was growing up and how that differs from her present-day perspective. Salima shares habits that she has personally developed to take care of her own mental well-being and discusses her biggest challenge with overcoming her own difficulties. She takes time to share more about what it is like to set boundaries and implement these, and other relatable tips for the audience at large. This is a wonderful episode to listen to as she also gives a gentle nudge about what’s next on the horizon for the Dare To Share Your Untold Story Podcast, as well as what’s next to come in her overall work as a mental health professional.

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Deriving from her personal perspective of colourism and how she has been impacted by it in the form of oppression, Francoise shares her own personal experience and witnessing in her own family and with various skin shades based on the eyes of society. She delves into how emotional well-being is intertwined into colourism, and the focus and interpretation of beauty and how its perception can tie in with racism, social acceptance, and environmental factors all play a role in the by-product of colourism. Francoise talks about the tremendous negative implications on mental and emotional wellbeing as it relates to research that she has come across. Her perspective is that if one believes they are beautiful then they also show up with confidence, emotional stability, and career success levels tend to be higher. Francoise provides description of how majority of her siblings are lighter skin tones, and there are a few with darker skin tone, and they grew up feeling insecure, not feeling beautiful because she was dark, and didn’t feel she would be able to be successful in life or aspire to any sort of life due to the darkness in her skin tone. Francoise spoke about her young cousin who attempted to wash her skin colour off in the shower by rubbing stone on her skin during her shower, bleeding after her shower in attempts to look lighter skin like the others in the family. Francoise was witness to all these scenarios from the tender age of nine, and colour differential was never something that crossed her mind until these circumstances arose amongst her siblings, which then inspired her to change the world from this young age. She expresses that the stories that heard from a young age plague self-worth and amplifies the biased standards of beauty. Her key message to the listeners is that: colourism is an insidious form of discrimination that favours those of those with a lighter skin tone; when it comes to blackness, colourism takes a dimension of attack on the emotional, mental, social, and professional aspects of a person and leads to low esteem, internalized racism, feelings of unworthiness all leading people to enhance black skin tones; remember that beauty comes from within.

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Guest Links:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/francoise-mbabazi-219a2925/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myskinglobal/
Email: info@myskinglobal.com
Website www.myskinglobal.com