Despite clinical psychologist Dr. Tema Bryant’s list of impressive career accomplishments, that success isn’t her only source of happiness.
Since 2023, she has been President of the American Psychological Association and is also Professor of Psychology at Pepperdine University, where she directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. Prior to that, she received her PhD in clinical psychology from Duke University and completed her postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical Center.
Despite all these successes and challenges, she maintains a balance between being productive and her mental health, as well as maintaining close friendships, and she explained to CNBC how this can be done.
Bryant said a common misconception is that people think that avoiding thinking about some of the things that make their lives difficult will lead them to overcome them, explaining that “suppressing the problem can’t work.” But when we have difficult life experiences and avoid them, they end up manifesting differently.”
She emphasized that avoiding confrontation is not a solution, as it can show up and affect our sleep, as well as show up in our parenting habits.
She also said that the notion that “busy” is synonymous with “productive” or that they are the same thing is another misconception, as many people are fooled by this, as they associate poor performance with depression and the inability to get out of bed. . how it looks to some people.
But for others, they may be amenable to action. They can be workaholics or perfectionists. They feel like they always have something to prove, but they never feel good enough.
Your work or productivity is not always a sign of your perfection or psychological and emotional well-being.
So how do you balance success at work with taking care of your mental health?
Bryant explains that thinking about your own longevity and success can affect your mental health. Sometimes we are so motivated to collect more or get a promotion that we don’t pay attention to ourselves in the future.
This behavior, Bryant emphasizes, is nothing more than setting yourself up for burnout: “Our bodies are failing us.” Sometimes we find ourselves physically or emotionally unable to keep up with the times.
The problem, she points out, is the desire for temporary success that will keep you working all night to give an amazing talk the next day, with an unquenchable desire to “continue success for life.”
She called for thinking about adopting a model that balances saving time, energy and attention while not neglecting health and relationships.
“Your success depends on you, and you have a family that depends on you,” Bryant said. “It’s important to find short ways to support the rituals of taking care of ourselves and our relationships.”
And you think that waking up early can give you a few minutes in the morning to practice the ritual without feeling uneasy since you open your eyes.
Another thing that is often overlooked is social security, she says. Healthy friendships, relationships and healthy connections with family or even colleagues help and remind you that you are alive and not just a robot or machine.
When thinking about friendship, it is necessary to think about quality, not quantity, because a person does not have many friends.
Bryant explains why it’s so important to keep good friendships, it’s so nice to feel that someone knows you, accepts you and cares about you for who you are.
She said that it is a gift to our nervous system when we feel at home with someone.
To prevent the knot of friendship from breaking due to time pressure and neglect, Bryant advises communicating with friends and explaining to them your time limits, as some speculate that your lack of communication with him is due to the fact that you ended his friendship or you do not care about German
“My best friend lives in Philadelphia and I live in Los Angeles,” she said. “We don’t go somewhere together every week, but when we talk, it’s really filling.”
