We recently connected with KiYada Upshaw and have shared our conversation below.

KiYada, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

The story behind my mission started 10 years ago. I graduated from college and my thoughts were spiraling out of control. I was experiencing so much anxiety, even though at the time I had no idea that I was experiencing anxiety. I knew within myself something needed to change, but I had no idea where to start. After listening to the My Taught You Podcast, where Myleik shared her story of going to therapy as a black woman, I was convinced I had nothing to lose. I was fortunate enough to have a Christian counselor who was able to show me that being a Christian doesn’t excuse you from experiencing high-functioning anxiety, overwhelm, and crying spells. I was able to exit my time in therapy sooner than expected, because all I needed was the spark to kickstart my personal development growth journey, and from there I was avidly seeking out books and resources such as mindfulness and yoga to help me on my journey to managing my anxiety and stress. My mission is simple, to evangelize and spread God’s truth and goodness by normalizing generalized anxiety for the Christian woman of faith.

KiYada, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am first and foremost, the daughter of the most high God. In addition to this, I also hold the title of wife and boy mama to 2 tiny humans. I am a certified Christian Life Coach and Mindset Mentor at Grow Black Girl Grow Coaching LLC where I help Christian wives and mamas transform their conditioned thoughts to improve their mental clarity, relationships, and emotional well-being by developing a consistent Christian mindfulness practice. I started practicing mindfulness back in 2015 after my constant outburst, crying spells, and seeing no way out of how I was feeling. I learned about mindfulness through the secular way, only focusing on the self, and I never knew how to transfer the skill into my relationships. I only knew how to focus on my emotional well-being. Which did not get me far in my friendships or my marriage. It wasn’t until I became a mom, that was the real tipping point of me knowing I needed to make a change. Once I began practicing Christian mindfulness, I knew that I had found what I had always wanted back in 2015. My 3-step framework and process works, because it gives the person space and opportunity to benefit from mindfulness in a way that honors God and not self. The values of God are the foundation and when my clients use mindfulness to detach from the things of this world, and be objective, they are able to have the values of God to match back to. Practicing Christian Mindfulness allows my clients to go deeper within their reflection, and work on their mental health AND their relationships with God simultaneously, because when they prioritize their mental health they prioritize their relationship with God.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was religion. Growing up in the church, I was taught that if I was experiencing anxiety, stress, and overwhelm, it was because I didn’t have enough faith or I wasn’t praying enough. I was taught that therapy and mental health was not for people of color. All of these conditioned thoughts had to be uprooted in order for me to really grow into the person I wanted to be and it fuels my desire to help women who have similar conditioned thoughts. I am able to validate my client’s experience, because I was in their exact shoes, and I can teach them the exact steps I took to uproot their limiting beliefs in order to have more joy and live a life of ease so they can show up mindful in their walk of faith, their marriage, their motherhood, and their emotional well-being.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Being a person who struggles with high-functioning anxiety, my whole life is resiliency. It’s easy to accept conditioned thoughts, because they make us comfortable. A lot of thoughts that come from high-functioning anxiety have been placed on us by the people who raised us, and we don’t know any different. We don’t know that we are able to change those thoughts, because it’s what we were taught, and also what we saw. But these limiting beliefs that we are unaware us keep us frustrated in the mental fog, powerless to the people we are trying to control, and depleted emotionally. In order to have a consistent Christian mindfulness practice, resiliency has to be apart of the process, simply because you have to push past the discomfort, continue to deny yourself of what feels good in the moment, and understand what fuels your flesh by operating from a constant place of objectivity. This type of resiliency takes awareness of ones self and also the word of God, being able to be curious about how the flesh’s desire’s contradicts the values of God, and knowing when you are realigning with your authentic peace and joy that will propel the kingdom of God forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.growblackgirlgrowcoaching.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachkikiupshaw/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/growblackgirlgrow
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kiyada-upshaw-mps-acc-27b42682/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/growblackgirlgrow