Teachers go into education with eyes wide open, aware of its many challenges. They know that the pay might be low, the hours long, the to-do lists seemingly endless, and that they may have to toe the line between caregiver and educator for many students. Until recently, however, teachers wouldn’t begin their careers thinking that…
“I have depression; it does not have me.” – Michelle Williams Depression. What does it look like? That’s a tough question to answer. Depression on the surface can look like nothing more than a typical, “normal” human being. Or, in this one case, maybe even a vibrant, beautiful Grammy-award winning star. Michelle Williams is a…
It’s become a strangely familiar routine. It can be any morning, preparing for a busy day scrambling to get out the door with coffee and keys in hand, when a push notification will pop up on my phone: another celebrity has died by suicide. Every time, I feel a sense of utter shock, disbelief, grief,…
It’s a spiral of silence. If no one is talking about it, how can someone experiencing mental health issues know it’s okay to not be okay? How will they know what to do when they are struggling? By not talking about this topic, the spiral continues. Sometimes, the spiral is fatal. Recently, I attended the…
This spring at the University of Michigan, it was more of a whirlwind than normal: our men’s basketball team made it to the final of the NCAA March Madness National Championship, and the campus was in a tumult of celebration and wild hope…until we lost to Villanova. Despite this, the Michigan head coach John Beilein…
This post was first published on October 23, 2017. Behind all of our work at the Flawless Foundation is our core belief in the perfection of every person. Our perspective is always based on seeing our common humanity through the lens of light and love. And we know we aren’t alone. There is a growing…
When I started my non profit, the Flawless Foundation, one of the first organizations I got to know was the One Mind Institute. In particular, One Mind’s founders, the Staglin family, went out of their way to help us get off the ground by introducing us to Patrick Kennedy and working with us on our…
May is National Mental Health Awareness Month which brings with it the gift of thirty one days to focus on all aspects of brain health. During Patrick Kennedy’s 2016 State of the Union in Mental Health, he talked about the obstacles to parity for mental health conditions which includes implementation: “The challenge for us is…
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and one of the important things to remember is that mental health is a family affair for many reasons. First, it is crucial that people understand that many mental illnesses are genetic disorders and knowing the brain health history through the generations in a family can be very helpful…
“Forget your perfect offering — there’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” — Leonard Cohen, “Anthem” It is officially Spring and we’re coming up on the holidays of Easter and Passover — a season of hope, renewal, and light. One thing I find very interesting about the symbolism of both of…
