Have you ever felt that there are certain people that it takes more effort to engage with? Or are there people that you feel drain your energy, so you actively try not to engage with?

I know I have felt and still feel this way sometimes, and as entrepreneur with mental health challenges, this can impact me, personally, as well as my business.

It requires mindfulness knowing who you should and shouldn't surround yourself with.

In this episode, we'll chat about who may be affecting your business. I'll share a real life example and then provide a couple of simple steps on how to choose your community.

If you would like to learn more about the narratives that affect you and how to change those stories, book your complimentary call with me via www.sarahkhan.org or LinkedIn Sarah Khan | LinkedIn

We all need mental breaks sometimes and this isn't just needing a vacation.

But, what happens if you experience disorders like depression for example, and even though you know you should have contingencies in place, planning for those takes as much effort as trying to deal with the break and deal with the mental fog to keep moving forward?

And, what if you're an entrepreneur whose income is tied directly into you running your business, so when you stop working, your income stops as well? How do you plan and come out of that?

In this episode, I share my story that resulted in a two-year breakdown, and the small techniques I learned to pick myself up again, including determining the 'smallest thing' you can do to move, as referenced in this episode: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/hOagLQfwQJb

If you would like to chat more about the narratives that may or may not serve you, please contact me via sarahkhan.org or via www.linkedin.com/in/sarahkhan-org/ to schedule your complimentary call.

Also, I wanted to give a huge shoutout to several connections that I met that gave me the strength to keep moving forward and their respective LinkedIn profiles:

Bernice Williams: (5) Bernice Williams | LinkedIn Intentional Connection with Bernice Williams Marvin Okello: (5) Marvin (Marvinho) Okello | LinkedIn Mykal White: (5) Mykal White | LinkedInHome - NUNDA Lucia Harper: (5) LUCIA Harper 🎤 | LinkedIn

Kevin Pendergest Kevin Pendergest | LinkedIn

The truth is, it can be exhausting to have a neurodiverse family, regardless if it's you or another member of your family.

In addition to the regular day-to-day challenges of managing a family, there is also a need to balance appointments, adjust to difficult social settings, deal with the expectations of others in a way that many people would not be able to understand.

But also, you don't want to complain. You don't want to admit that it's hard because you don't want people to think you can't handle it. It leads to people's pity, their avoidance, and especially their unwarranted advice.

In today's very personal episode, I talk about the challenges we've experienced as a family to share our experiences, in the hopes that, if you also have a neurodiverse family and you're too scared to admit it, you can find solace in knowing you're not alone with your challenges. Please, comment on, leave a 5-star rating on the podcast platform of your choice, and share so that others can benefit from what I share. You never know who needs to hear this.

If you would like to learn more about how to change your narrative, please contact me at www.sarahkhan.org or via LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/sarahkhan-org

"I couldn’t actually admit how hard it all was. I couldn’t. I didn’t dare complain of all of the challenges that we were experiencing with my younger son, because I didn’t want people to think that I couldn’t deal with it all. I didn’t want their pity and their unwarranted advice.. I didn’t know what help I needed. I just needed a break, and there was no one there to help because I couldn’t tell them how hard it was. And I felt like a horrible person for wishing that my situation was different." -Sarah Khan, The Depressed Mom Boss

Do you ever think, "I know I should be happy, but..."

One of the cornerstones of determining the gap between where you are and where you want to be and building that bridge, is determining what makes you happy.

Not because you need to be happy all the time.

Not because you're not grateful for your life and the things that should bring you happiness.

But because being able define it plays a part in understanding how to access it.

In this episode, we chat about the need to compartmentalize our energy as it relates to being low vibe and high vibe (without the woo woo foo foo) and how to determine what brings us happiness when we need to access it as a tool.

If you would like to learn more about your narratives and what's holding you back from getting where you are, I have two new client spaces open for you to book.

Book a complimentary call at www.SarahKhan.org to learn more.

Often the concept of active listening is thrown around a lot because we recognize that listening is important.

However, true listening goes beyond active listening to empathetic listening. Also the differences may seem small, in fact listening from the place of empathy shifts the exchange of communication from speaker and listener to connection and understanding.

In this episode, we blast through what is known about active listening, and go into detail about how to become a more empathetic listener, as listed below.

If you would like to know more about how to become a more empathetic listener, send me a DM on LinkedIn:

www.linkedin.com/in/sarahkhan-org/

Forever grateful,

The Depressed Mom Boss

To become an empathetic listener, you will need the following.

1. Know your intention. The intention is not to listen but to connect.

2. You need to stop multitasking and focus on the one thing– the speaker.

3. Pay attention to body language. Empathetic listening is a whole body experience which can actually prove intention.

4. Be non-judgmental. There is no place for outcomes, assessments or evaluations with empathetic listening. Just create the space for the speaker to share.

5. Be patient because empathy and patience are in the exact same sphere, so to be an empathetic listener, you need to be a patient person that is fully present.

6. Honour the awkward silence. Tolerate it because silence is trust.

7. Stop paraphrasing because it usually isn’t for the benefit of the speaker, but for our own benefit for US to process the information.

8. Don’t make it about you. Empathetic listening isn’t about you. It’s about them.

In this episode, we chat about how the simple phrase, Be Good", became the basis of the insecurities of rejection and how that followed me into entrepreneurship.

We touch on RSD, Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, which in itself isn't a disorder, but a cluster of symptoms sometimes associated with mental health and ADHD, and how kindness can impact that feeling of rejection.

If you would like to learn more about how your narratives can be affected by kindness as your lens, please send me a DM on linked in, Sarah Khan | LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/sarahkhan-org/

Diversity is a huge subject and it is as much about finding our similarities as it is celebrating our differences.

However, what is not spoken of a lot, are the constraints that sometimes exist coming from a different culture, and it's not always because of the new culture that we have moved into, but the one that we have come from.

In this episode of Confronting, I share a talk I had given to a network of budding, female entrepreneurs that were immigrants about the importance of mental health on overall wellbeing.

If you would like to chat more about some of the challenges that you experience, and the narratives that you have as it relates to coming from another culture, send me a message on my LinkedIn to book a complimentary 30-minute call.

Sometimes it's hard to know if the way that you present yourself in public is the true face of who you actually are. Depending on situations, we change our faces to reflect what we want others to see and although we aren't trying to be deceptive, we are also not being honest with others or even ourselves.

In this episode, I talk about perfectionism, and how that was another face of my mental illness. However, I only realized that after coming to terms with the fact that a painful event was not the story I had to live my life by.

If you would like to know how to change your narratives, please send me a direct message on my LinkedIn at Sarahkhan-org.