Omari Richins is the host of the Public Health Careers Podcast and Founder of The Public Health Millennial, an online platform focused on helping public health students and professionals navigate their public health journeys by sharing helpful insights, tips, and tricks. He has some helpful perspectives and insights into how we can think about rest differently and integrate it into our lives more and is here to share these with us this week.

Having skills or knowledge in a specific area does not mean you are a good leader of people, yet so many folks in public health are promoted to managerial roles for this reason. It can lead to dissatisfaction, frustration, and resentment for those on the receiving end of the leadership, so if this is something you have experienced, you are not alone. It can feel like there’s nothing you can do or nowhere you can turn, but there is actually a lot you can do, and that’s what I’m helping you with this week.  

Join me this week and learn what to do if someone is telling you you’re doing it wrong, and why it is perfectly OK to allow other people to be wrong about you. I’m showing you what to do if you have a problem with boundaries or saying no to people, and what could be holding you back from taking the next step to achieving your goals.

Kristi McClamroch, PhD, MPH is an epidemiologist and a public health entrepreneur. She founded the non-profit organization Public Health Connected during the COVID-19 pandemic and she is dedicated to strengthening the community of public health professionals so that people are empowered to face the challenges of working in public health. Kristi joins me this week to share her personal journey in the field, and what rest means to her.

Many of us struggle with our identity, the intersections of our identities, or feeling like we belong. One of the ways this has shown up in my life is with my Arab identity. I have had to do and continue to do a lot of work to overcome my thoughts and internalized beliefs that I am not Arab enough, or that I don’t belong. So this week, I’m sharing my experience exploring my identity and feelings around belonging as a white Arab.

So many people don’t realize that they aren’t living the life they want. As humans, we are wired to evolve, adapt, and grow, but there is something so different about doing that work intentionally. Instead of reaching the end of your life and wishing you had done things differently, there is something you can do right now to live a life that emotionally fulfills you and enables you to do what you want, and I’m here to help you with it this week.

I’m so excited to announce a new 4-part miniseries here on the podcast: How We Rest. Each month for the rest of the year, I’m interviewing a different person in public health to learn more about their journey with rest, to help you see that rest is unique and personal to all of us, and remind you that you get to decide and define what it is to you.

Do you need some help with making big decisions? Are you looking for some advice on parenting teens or some guidance on how to communicate your mental health needs to others? These questions might not be specific to what you’re struggling with, but the way you think about one thing is the way you think about everything, and you can apply my answers to your own scenarios.

You might think complaining and venting is serving you, but when you complain and vent every single day, you are indulging in getting stuck in those negative emotions and making it so much harder for yourself to process them, let them go, and create space to feel hopeful, empowered, confident and calm.

Ali and I talk about the deeply conditioned patterns that so many people have around rest, some of the biggest challenges parents face when it comes to rest, and how taking care of yourself will enable you to take better care of others.  

Decision-making is a huge part of our life, and the truth is we don’t often talk about it in the sense of becoming efficient at it, nor why you would want to, what type of energy it takes to make decisions, and why we struggle doing it.

Think about an area that you really struggle to say no in, maybe there is something in your life right now. Ask yourself this: if you knew 100% that when you said no to it, nobody would object, feel bad, or think anything negative of you, what would you do?