Breathwork With Kathy Khang

Video Credit: Kevyn Tapia

Another awesome workshop from our Mental Health Intensive this past month was Breathwork with Kathy Khang! Follow along in this video as Kathy demonstrates various techniques for breathwork. You will learn exercises like Box Breath, Box Breath for sleep, breath awareness, awareness meditation, body scanning, and Lion’s Breath. Each exercise has its own purpose and they are easy to follow for beginners, so feel free to save this video to incorporate into your day!

A big thank you to Kathy for partnering with TFD to make this awesome resource video! Be sure to follow her on Instagram @mskathykhang.

Practicing Mindfulness | Crystal Dorado

Last night we had our second of five workshops for Mental Health May! Crystal Dorado and her assistant, Stella from Verde Holistic Wellness Studio, led a workshop on Mindfulness. A few members from our community came to join this exciting workshop. We began our time learning the cultural aspects of holistic practices and understanding what mindfulness is all about.

Crystal describes mindfulness as “the capacity to be fully present, aware of who we are and what we are doing, and less reactive or overwhelmed by external forces”. With this definition, she led us through practicing these moments of mindfulness. We began meditation and viewed our thoughts as if they were playing on a TV in our minds, we then attempted to turn it off and clear our thoughts. Crystal shared her Mandala beads and how to use them, as well as some beautiful clear quartz crystals and a singing crystal pyramid that produced a sound and vibrations when tapped.

We ended our session with another meditation in which we were guided through “the cosmos” and attempted to view ourselves as one with our surroundings. While everyone slowly began to go deeper into this meditation, Crystal began to chime the singing pyramid. This meditation was a way of opening up our minds to understand that we have more access to our sub-consciousness than just within our physical body. Crystal taught everyone so much and we all had a great time learning about these holistic healing practices! To learn even more about Crystal and her practices, you can visit Verde Holistic Wellness Studio in Chicago!

Art Therapy With Dana Harris

Photo Credit: Saffron

In mentorship on Saturday, the mentees relaxed with a bit of painting. Dana Harris, who has been painting for years, taught them that art can be therapeutic. She explained how art and painting can help with anxiety and calm nerves. She then guided them through painting beautiful cherry blossom trees. Dana also has a business of her own, Paint On Purpose, where she teaches art to people of all ages! Everyone had a blast creating and relaxing.

After their art session, our mentees moved on to website building with Lu’Cretia. In a previous workshop, they learned about website design and the different aspects of it. This time, they put that knowledge into action. Our mentees are at the beginning process of creating their own brands, so learning these steps of building a website are very important.

Photo Credit: Saffron

Intro To Marketing

Photo Credit: Mariah

Marketing is a big part of how brands and businesses take off. For the first day of week 6, Lu’Cretia, our Creative Project Manager and mentor to lead this workshop. Lu’Cretia went over all the basics of marketing. She engaged in a conversation with our mentees about what marketing is & what goes into it. She also taught them how to create ads for various businesses, all while staying on track with branding styles, colors, and fonts. It was fascinating to see our mentees work together as a team to create their ads for TFD.

Photo Credit: Mariah

A Field Trip to Gente Fina

Photo Credit: Mariah

This last weekend, our mentees went on a field trip to Gente Fina, where they got the opportunity to ask the co-founders, Manny & Abraham, different questions about the creative field. They learned so many new things about creating a brand and what it takes to start. Niches, vendors, manufacturers, money, ideas, and networking were all mentioned throughout this dialogue. We cannot wait to partner with them again soon!

After we got back to the firehouse, Sandra, our Mentorship Coordinator, assisted our mentees in digitizing their work into Adobe Illustrator. Illustrator is a very long process to learn but in the end it is all worth it. It is an amazing skillset to have and we love having Sandra to be able to pass on her knowledge to our mentees about this amazing software.

Photo Credit: Mariah