Following a mental health episode, Mara James became a warrior for children’s mental health.
It doesn’t take long to figure out Mara James is originally from New York. Everything she does is at double speed. She thinks fast and talks fast. You can see she has an abundance of energy and enthusiasm, just like you find when you are in Manhattan. It’s contagious.
Mara moves quickly because she wants to make things happen. At this point in her life, she is consumed with her mission.
She is the founder of two non-profit organizations: The Extraordinary Lives Foundation (ELF), a non-profit whose mission is to improve children’s mental health & emotional wellness, and the HUGS for Life Healing Center. HUGS is currently a virtual center that offers holistic healing modalities and educational resources to complement the treatment of mental health challenges for youth and their parents, bridging the gap between Western medicine and integrative healing.
After Mara healed from a manic episode utilizing Western Medicine and a team of gifted holistic healers, she set out on a journey to share these healing modalities with the world, as well as help young children identify and manage their emotions beginning at a young age.
Like many good ideas, they often are borne out of personal experience. Such is the case with Mara.
“After I experienced my own mental health crisis in 2014 and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which was accompanied by a spiritual awakening, I knew that I needed to begin my own healing journey. It was through these experiences that I discovered that many of the traditional approaches to my healing weren’t working for me. Few practitioners were balancing the pharmacological regimen and talk therapy with holistic approaches to dealing with my mental health,” she said.
“I found that I benefited from both a combination of traditional treatment and holistic healing to support my healing. I believe that there are advantages for both. Traditional methods, such as therapy and medical treatments, complemented with holistic elements can help unlock a person’s natural tendencies to heal and move them closer to complete healing,” she explained.
Mara believes that there is a strong correlation between mental health and spirituality and if we want to truly heal, we must address both.
In many cultures outside the United States, healing approaches to mental health often invoke holistic treatments, including the role of spiritual influences. Mara found this was true for her and believes it can be true for others. She is convinced it needs to be considered as an option of one’s healing journey.
It was after Mara’s own healing that she knew she must become a warrior to help others. In particular, she wanted to focus on children and our youth to provide their parents and teachers with resources and tools for early mental health and emotional wellness.
Part of Mara’s mission can be found on the ELF website. It explains: “Our mission is to improve children’s mental health and emotional wellness by providing educational tools, resources, and outreach events. We encourage families to recognize symptoms, overcome the stigma and reach out for help. Through awareness, prevention, and early intervention, we believe many of the big problems facing today’s youth can be transformed within a generation.”
It’s no secret that anxiety and depression have grown in the United States compared to previous generations. According to the US Census Bureau, the rates of anxiety and depression alone now reach almost a third of the population. Creating greater awareness and age-appropriate tools to deal with these conditions was a priority for Mara and her team.
A key part of the ELF support package includes their mascot “Piggie BEAR.” The Piggie BEAR (Building Emotional Awareness & Resilience) toolkits are available for parents and teachers to help empower children, teach them about self-love and calming skills. The toolkits include a lovable Piggie Bear plush and The Power of Piggie Bear book. These tools teach children valuable coping skills including how to reduce anxiety through deep belly breathing and how to improve self-esteem through positive self-affirmations and self-hugs.
“I know what it is like to have suffered from mental health challenges. I also know that healing is possible and want to inspire others to heal as well. I have a mantra that drives my journey, ‘Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Healing is possible,’” she explained.
How powerful it can be when we take our personal pain, adversity and struggles and turn them into a purpose… to make the world just a little bit better for somebody. Mara shows us that even when we are in the darkest of times, we can use that experience as a tool to help others avoid a similar fate.
And make the world just a little bit better.