Welcome to our second post in our Teacher Tuesday feature, where we focus on the amazing and informative instructors that teach at each of our four retail store locations. Today we’re happy to welcome Kirk Voss, an instructor that teaches Emotional and Mental Preparedness at our Salt Lake City, UT store. Kirk is going to give us a brief explanation of what Emotional Preparedness is, then give us some basic tips on how we can better prepare ourselves and our families for the emotional trials that we may face.

Kirk Voss

Greetings!  I’m Kirk Voss, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and an instructor at the Honeyville Farms store in Salt Lake City, UT.  As a therapist, I help individuals, couples, and families to find balance and happiness, and to heal the relationships that matter most to them. I love Honeyville Farms’ focus on emergency preparedness and empowering all of us with knowledge and skills. In keeping with that tradition, I bring tools and strategies to help each individual and family prepare for the future by becoming emotionally fit, mentally prepared, and relationally strong.
As we all seek to prepare ourselves for the storms that lie ahead of us, I believe we too often overlook the importance of emotional health.  We store up food and water, we buy fuel and firewood, but even the best supplies fall short of taking care of us if we are unhealthy and unbalanced emotionally.  We need to establish healthy habits of self-care, patterns of healthy communication, strong relationships, and mental fortitude today so that we will be ready for whatever lies ahead of us.  The best part is that if we practice these skills now, we get to enjoy healthier lives and families long before any tragedy befalls us.
Come attend my class and learn how to have a healthy mind and heart!  To give you a taste of what I teach, here are three of the most important steps in preparing ourselves emotionally. I call them the “PeRKs” of Emotional Preparedness: Preparation, Resources, and Knowledge.  

The “PeRKs” of Emotional Preparedness 


Knowledge

We need to understand our own emotions and emotional vulnerabilities, as well as those of the people we love. This will help us help ourselves and those we love in an emergency.

  • Emotions don’t make us weak! The more we tune into and access our emotions, the stronger we become.
  • Everyone has a “key.” What is yours? Every role is essential in a family or relationship. 

Preparation
Just like the best food storage is made up of items we will readily use before and during a crisis, we should be seeking to build up a strong emotional well-being right now.
  • Self-Care is essential, not selfish! Just as we need to stop for gas to keep our cars running, we also need to take time for ourselves to keep our own emotional motors running. Save at least 30 minutes per day for “me time.”
  • Emotional preparation will be deeper and more meaningful if we will choose to address and build our feelings of self-worth now.
  • Learning to face our feelings of anxiety before facing a crisis will provide us with the confidence we need to handle stressful situations.

Resources

So, you’ve stocked up on wheat, dehydrated fruit, and water…now it’s time to “stock up” on emotional resources: psychological resiliency, self-love, hope in the face of hardship, and strong relationships.

  • Create family rituals & traditions to strengthen your family’s psychological resiliency and emotional bonds.
  • Family rituals provide us with:
    • 1) Predictability, 
    • 2) Connection, 
    • 3) Identity, and 
    • 4) A Way to Enact Values.
  • There are multiple types of rituals we can enact in our family lives: rituals for Connection, Love, and Community are most important.

Check out the class I’ll be teaching this month at the Honeyville Farms store in Salt Lake City, UT:

Wednesday, March 27 – 11 a.m. – Emotional & Psychological Preparedness – Finding your Strengths
I look forward to seeing you at our class as I share these tools for healthy and happy living! You can contact me through my website, www.AmberCreekCounseling.com, or meet me at the Salt Lake City Honeyville Farms store.  I like to keep the classes entertaining, and I am happy to answer any questions you may have.  See you at our next class!