I was born a deaf/hard-of-hearing person. Recently, my hearing has progressed to profound deafness so I am now gearing up for a cochlear implant. Before this, I was diagnosed with multiple health conditions that can be incapacitating some days. After the initial shock of these diagnoses, I began a path of self-care that I had never undertaken before.
I started seeing a therapist and began learning about meditation, yoga, and mindfulness-based stress reduction. These practices propelled me to return to my long-neglected love of writing. I started a personal blog about my experience overcoming these health obstacles and highlighting hope as an avenue for healing. Desiring to help others with debilitating health conditions, I earned certifications in Reiki Healing and Yoga Teaching. Last year, after 10 years at home, I reentered the workforce at the local library. Along with this, I teach a class geared towards persons with mobility issues at a studio and teach meditation at the library. I would not have been able to achieve these things if it weren't for initially realizing the importance of and prioritizing good self-care habits.
I was born a deaf/hard-of-hearing person. Recently, my hearing has progressed to profound deafness so I am now gearing up for a cochlear implant. Before this, I was diagnosed with multiple health conditions that can be incapacitating some days. After the initial shock of these diagnoses, I began a path of self-care that I had never undertaken before.
I started seeing a therapist and began learning about meditation, yoga, and mindfulness-based stress reduction. These practices propelled me to return to my long-neglected love of writing. I started a personal blog about my experience overcoming these health obstacles and highlighting hope as an avenue for healing. Desiring to help others with debilitating health conditions, I earned certifications in Reiki Healing and Yoga Teaching. Last year, after 10 years at home, I reentered the workforce at the local library. Along with this, I teach a class geared towards persons with mobility issues at a studio and teach meditation at the library. I would not have been able to achieve these things if it weren't for initially realizing the importance of and prioritizing good self-care habits.
Welcome to the Self-Care Society podcast with your hosts Celia Williamson, ashley Kuchar, louie Guardiola and Keri Shaw, a podcast devoted to those whose job it is to help others get or remain mentally, physically and emotionally healthy, but who also need to take care of themselves.
Speaker 2:And how we're going to do this by first showing you the filtered, pretty version of success and then the real struggles, real work and raw grit it took to get there, how they took care of themselves and also achieved their goals, while doing it Together. We will work with you to improve and maintain your internal health and growth, while helping you achieve your external goals and your next professional achievement in life.
Speaker 2:And we're excited to show you how to follow your own individual and unique path and achieve the dreams you have, while taking good care of yourself. So let's get started. Welcome to Self-Care Society's podcast. I'm Keri Shaw, and with me today is Angela Cross. Angela Cross was born a deaf and hard-of-hearing person. Recently, her hearing has progressed to profound deafness, so she is now gearing up for a cochlear implant. Before this, she was diagnosed with multiple health conditions that can be incapacitating some days. Diagnosed with multiple health conditions that can be incapacitating some days. After the initial shock of these diagnoses, she began a path of self-care that she had never undertaken before. She started seeing a therapist and began learning about meditation, yoga and mindfulness-based stress reduction. These practices propelled her to return to her long-neglected love of writing. She started a personal blog about her experience overcoming these health obstacles and highlighting hope as an avenue for healing.
Speaker 3:Desiring to help others with debilitating health conditions.
Speaker 2:She earned certifications in Reiki healing and yoga teaching. Last year, after 10 years at home, she reentered the workforce at the local library. Along with this, she teaches a class geared towards persons with mobility issues at a studio and teaches meditation at the library. She could not have been able to achieve these things if it weren't for initially realizing the importance of, and prioritizing, good self-care habits. Welcome to the Self-Care Society, angela.
Speaker 3:Thank you. I'm honored and so happy to be here. Thank you.
Speaker 2:We're excited to have you. So, as you know, our first question is just who are you and what would you like for us to know about you, kind of from the outside perspective, who's the Angela Cross?
Speaker 3:Thank you. From the outside perspective, I guess some would look at me as someone who is an overcomer of the obstacles that I face, just as you've listed, and many people have often remarked about how I'm able to quickly become resilient and figure out how to find the best way to heal and the best way forward, and I have a positive attitude and all of those things are things that people see in me when they look from the outside in I can see that Just reading your bio is really impressive.
Speaker 2:You've done all kinds of really interesting things, and it seems like not letting anything be a barrier for that success. So now our second question is who's the real Angela Cross R-E-A-L. What don't we know about you that you would like to share?
Speaker 3:Thank, you, even though people see the exterior and the results of the efforts that I have put in for some of the things that I've accomplished all of the things I've accomplished actually, sandwiched in those are days that are really hard, really tough days of depression, days of where I'm not able to achieve the things that I had planned for that day, and sometimes it can feel really overwhelming because I feel like it's taking a really long time to achieve the goals that I'm working towards.
Speaker 3:And those are the things that people don't see, and I don't want to ever convey the idea that, oh my gosh, you know she has these issues and but yet she's like accomplishing all these things and it's amazing. It's really really hard sometimes and I want to be real about that and in fact, I do try to be real about that. When I teach you know, meditation, or when I teach yoga, or when I'm just in conversations with people, I try to let them know that what you see is the end result of blood, sweat and tears, and it is not easy. So I don't ever want anyone who is going through similar obstacles to think that, oh gosh, you know she did it, so I can do it too. Everybody has their own path, and so it's really important for people to understand that it's going to take as long as it needs to take, and you're going to have days where it's upsetting, but when you do have those days that are really good, you feel like you didn't let it stop you, and so it does ultimately pay off Wow.
Speaker 2:I love that you say that we all have our own journey and I wonder, from kind of a self-care perspective you know where were you 20 years ago with self-care, or how has that part of your journey changed?
Speaker 3:Self-care was not in my vocabulary, not even a little bit, and in fact, when I would hear people talk about well, you need to have good self-care without a definition behind it, it sounded like, okay, that sounds great, but I don't know what that means, and I think that that's where a lot of people are now they don't know what that means. What does self-care mean and how do you get started on that? So definitely, 20 years ago I had no idea what it meant to take care of yourself. You know, when we're growing up, we learn how to like take care of ourselves. You know by like taking a bath, and you know making sure that we eat some food. But self-care definitely goes beyond that and I think a lot of people don't really understand that because they're not able to articulate what that means for them precisely.
Speaker 2:Do you have a definition of self-care for yourself?
Speaker 3:Yes, as a person who is hard of hearing and deaf, I've had to work really hard at figuring out what does that mean for me. And that means a lot of time and solitude, not to the point of isolation and loneliness, but it's just to fill my cup back up, because when we're getting bombarded with messages and conversations and and just generally communicating every day, it becomes very taxing, and so that self-exploration of what is taking my energy away and then how can I resolve that and I think that that was really a highlight for me to consider it is when I found myself feeling depleted. Why was that depletion occurring and how could I resolve it?
Speaker 3:And oftentimes, when people ask me about self-care, I ask them that question what is depleting you? What do you think is depleting you? And then that's just having an awareness of that helps you to begin to understand what your body needs and what kind of rest you need. And you know some people are very, you know, outgoing and they feed off of that energy and they, you know some people are very, you know, outgoing and they, they feed off of that energy and they need that. But some people are introverts, like myself, and so I recognize that I have to take that time away. And so, just getting back to the question what is depleting me and how can I be able to determine what I need to do to make sure that I am fulfilled and rested between?
Speaker 2:Replenishing. Yes, yes, boy. I can really relate to that because I'm definitely an introvert and sometimes I just have to throw everyone out of my house, so that alone time is precious and restorative for a lot of us.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes. Go introverts, yes, but we'll talk about that after we go take a break.
Speaker 2:Right. I mean I'm really interested in how your hearing loss has maybe affected your engagement with self-care, if that makes sense, I mean you can obviously take that however you want, but just curious if there's a connection and if so, what does that look like?
Speaker 3:Yes, so I grew up in a hearing world so I wasn't afforded the opportunity to really engage in the deaf community I went to. I was mainstreamed in school. There wasn't really when I was growing up there really wasn't any accommodations, if you will, besides my mom going up to the school and saying she needs to sit at the front of the class and you know she kind of had to be the one to advocate for me and my brother who was also hearing impaired and deaf as well. So the engagement of self-care required a lot of mistakes, you know. It required a lot of crash and burn days. It required a lot of you know, some of those pendulums.
Speaker 3:When we talk about a pendulum swinging left and right, it required going left, you know, to the extreme of just like staying home all day in bed because I'm exhausted, because I engaged with the world, or feeling like I'm missing out on something, and going the other way and trying to keep up with everybody else who doesn't have a hearing loss.
Speaker 3:And then it just took a lot of that major swinging on that pendulum before I was able to kind of get to the middle and recognize the body cues that I was having, maybe some racing heart, or I would just feel like really heavy in the shoulders, or I would just feel really exhausted, like my ears would be literally humming from being engaged too much. So it requires a lot of mistakes and observations and going too far one way or the other and just finally getting to a place of acceptance and saying you know what? I'm not like people in the hearing world and so I have to take that time to rest and recover from everything that I've engaged with. But it was a lot of trial and error, wow.
Speaker 2:Thank you. It's helpful to hear that and really I think that helps understand why self-care is so important to you now. Yes, yes. So as we kind of wrap up, angela, can you share maybe some words of wisdom or kind of final closing advice or suggestions that you might have for our listeners?
Speaker 3:Yes, I think, in order to get to a good place of self-care, it's very important to be gentle with yourself and have grace. A good place of self-care it's very important to be gentle with yourself and have grace, Because if you don't have grace, you're not going to be able to extend it to yourself and then spread that out to others. And in the journey of self-care it is oh, you know what I overdid it today. But I'm just going to just remember that and take note of it and keep aware of what my needs are, so that way I can continue to help other people.
Speaker 3:It's going to be a lot of mistakes, but the biggest thing is understanding that you have to have grace with yourself and you have to not be so harsh on yourself and criticize yourself and say, oh, you know what I just? Oh, I'm such a mess up. It is a constant journey and it's a a mess up. It is a constant journey and it's a constant fluctuation, it's a constant adjustment. And also, don't be afraid to advocate for yourself If someone is not meeting your need. If you have an accommodation or something that you need, just be brave and vocalize what that is, but ultimately, having extreme grace for yourself.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Angela. Thank you, my guest today is Angela Cross. I'm Carrie Shaw, the host of Self-Care Society. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time. That concludes this week's episode. And remember, it's not selfish, it's self-care.