Ep. 81 Mental Health, The Power of No and Setting Boundaries with Karena Dawn

The Beautiful Grit

Mental health advocate and founder of the Big Silence, Karena Dawn, is this week’s featured guest on The Beautiful Grit. During the episode, she shares what it was like growing up with a mentally ill parent during a time when it was highly stigmatized and not spoken about. She elaborates on her own personal history with mental health issues and how she learned to trust again. While shifting through a dark place to a happier place, she discovered exercise and created a very successful career. Karena opens up about what she’s learned and how she stays true to herself. Gwen and Karena also discuss how saying no can feel uncomfortable and the power of when you do. They even dive into Karena’s human design traits as a rare reflector. This conversation covers many topics from social media, business, setting boundaries, communication and psychedelics. Karena reveals her beautiful grit and many tangents in between and I am honored to have you listen to our chat. In this episode we discussed: • Growing up with a mentally ill parent • Karena’s Grandparents who immigrated from Ukraine • Mental health and Karena’s non profit, The Big Silence • Learning how to love, trust and forgive again • Childhood trauma, depression and suicide • Getting rid of toxicity, boundaries and saying no • Becoming successful and staying true to yourself • Human design reflectors • Exercise and psychedelics If you would like to hear more from Karena Dawn you can follow her on Instagram @karenadawn, subscribe to her podcast “The Big Silence” and support her non-profit and program Calm Heart, Calm Mind at www.thebigsilence.com If you'd like to step into YOUR soul's calling, shed the past, and reconnect to your purpose, Gwen's next RISE Group Coaching begins Thursday, May 18th at 10:00 am PST. The live calls are every Thursday at 10:00-11:30 am PST through August 3rd. Learn more here: www.gwendittmar.com/rise-group-coaching, and use the 10% off code RISE10 as our gratitude for being our podcast listener. If you would like to do a 90-minute breathwork session with Gwen, which is a combination of somatic work, breath work, energy work, and integration into your daily life you can book a session here: https://gwencoach.as.me/90breathwork If you found this episode helpful, please share on Instagram and tag Gwen @gwendittmar and leave a rating and review - each one counts! If you’d like to be coached in a future podcast, please schedule through this link: https://gwencoach.as.me/podcastsession