How to Know Your True Self: How to Stand Against the Grain By Standing Up For Who You Are

No matter what you may have heard, see or felt because of how others have made you feel…who you are and what you care about DOES matter.

Your opinion and perspective IS important. Your voice DOES matter. No matter who may believe or act like it doesn’t.

It is VERY important to KNOW your TRUE self! If you don’t know your true self, that’s okay! Don’t worry! Let’s work on it! Let’s take the time to find out! Right now is a great time to start learning about who you are and what makes you, you! Remember that in this WHOLE ENTIRE world there is literally ONE you. You are special, unique, created for wonderful things, and the world needs what you uniquely carry inside.

Knowing who your true self is, is very important so that others aren’t able to manipulate you into doing things that you don’t believe or support and from being someone that you are not. Being someone that you are not, because you may not be sure of who you actually are, will never be a positive feeling or experience. It will not make you feel great inside because it isn’t who you actually are. You are cheating yourself. You are lying to yourself. You are not being genuine with yourself. And you owe it to yourself to treat yourself with love and support. In order to be your best self, and to be able to stay true to yourself, you must take the time to figure out who you are and what you are about.

Questions to Reflect on:

• What are some things that I care about deeply?
• What type of person do I want to be?
• What are some of my top values that I want to live out throughout my life?
  • Examples: I want to be a supportive and encouraging friend, I want to be successful in my future, I want to have a close group of friends that I love and trust, I want to have a life that I don’t have to “run away” from…etc.

For students in our nation, there have been concerns about the effects on the mental health and well-being of students from family loss, and illness from COVID-19, social isolation from social media, school closings, bullying, economic hardships from parents AND students losing their jobs from businesses closing and much more!

This report uses data from the 2021 Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, which is an online survey of a probability-based, nationally representative sample of U.S. public and private school students in ninth grade to twelfth grade.

It assesses U.S. high school students’ mental health and suicide ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also examines whether mental health and suicidality are associated with feeling close to others at school and being virtually connected to others during the pandemic.

Overall, 37.1% of students experienced poor mental health during the pandemic, and 31.1% experienced poor mental health during the preceding 30 days.

In addition, during the 12 months before the survey, 44.2% experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, 19.9% had seriously considered attempting suicide, and 9.0% had attempted suicide.

Compared with those who did not feel close to persons at school, students who felt close to persons at school had a significantly lower prevalence of poor mental health during the pandemic (28.4% versus 45.2%) and during the past 30 days (23.5% versus 37.8%), persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness (35.4% versus 52.9%), having seriously considered attempting suicide (14.0% versus 25.6%) and having attempted suicide (5.8% versus 11.9%).

The same pattern was observed among students who were virtually connected to others during the pandemic (i.e., with family, friends, or other groups by using a computer, telephone, or other device) versus those who were not. Comprehensive strategies that improve feelings of connectedness with others in the family, in the community, and at school might foster improved mental health among students during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Can You Hear Me Now has speakers who address these issues with students to give them a hope and a future. Students with HOPE have much more of a chance with success and our motivational speakers do just that- they speak strongly to them about real life issues and how each person born is unique for their very own destiny!

Because we work with former NFL players, Harlem Globetrotters, Olympic athletes, and music artists, these are speakers that students truly listen to! They take what they say as facts! We help to stop bullying, suicide, isolation and self-harm! Let’s get these men and women in to make an impact on your students before drastic things happen!

Statistics are from the CDC website.