Happiness and Joy During Turbulent Times: Rashad Skinner of Sapphire Therapeutic Services On How To Live With Joie De Vivre, Even When It Feels Like The Whole World Is Pulling You Down

Don’t be afraid to say “I’m me. Deal with it.” — Understand you not perfect and you shouldn’t be around anyone who can’t accept you as you are — baggage and all. Embrace your shortcomings and work from there. Even a frog knows he can’t fly, so he hops and is one the best to do it.

It sometimes feels like it is so hard to avoid feeling down or depressed these days. Between the sad news coming from world headlines, the impact of the ongoing raging pandemic, and the constant negative messages popping up on social and traditional media, it sometimes feels like the entire world is pulling you down. What do you do to feel happiness and joy during these troubled and turbulent times? In this interview series called “Finding Happiness and Joy During Turbulent Times” we are talking to experts, authors, and mental health professionals who share lessons from their research or experience about “How To Find Happiness and Joy During Troubled & Turbulent Times”.

As a part of this series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rashad Skinner.

Rashad Skinner is the founder and Executive Director of Sapphire Therapeutic Services, Inc. His non-profit agency has been working families by providing counseling and training for over a decade.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

My childhood is quite normal in some sense. I grew up living in one of the “joint custody” families where I lived with one parent and spent weekends with the other. I was smaller than all the other kids but what I lacked in size I made up in creativity and personality. In the fifth grade, I was elected “Most Friendliest” in my class — an honor I still brag about today. Although I have degrees and…