Meet Jessamyn Stanley: The Plus-Size Yoga Star Giving New Meaning to Body Positivity

Week One (October 1st - 6th)

To get our yoga challenge started, we're starting off nice and slow so that your body as well as your senses can awakened. Over the next seven days, let these yoga poses help you center your energy so you can feel present. Trust us - your inbox can wait 10 minutes for you to ease into your day.

Energy-Centering Morning Yoga

Day One

This yoga routine keeps things light by allowing you to perform most movements in the sitting position. They'll help you begin to release any recurring tension you've been feeling.

Day Two

Begin day two of the yoga challenge with another morning stretch that elongates your spine and helps loosen any lingering tension in your hips.

Day Three

Continue stretching your way into day three of the yoga challenge with these soothing stretches.

Day Four

If things are beginning to feel repetitive today, don't give up! The goal is to help your body get used to being stretched before you start powering through your to-do list.

Day Five

If you have an extra five minutes to spare, try this 15 minute morning yoga routine for a slight change of pace.

Day Six

Things are starting to get interesting with this power flow yoga routine. This requires you to finally leave the sitting position and we know you're grateful for that.

For day 7, take the time to give your body a break from your first week of intentional morning yoga stretches! Make your favorite tea or pumpkin spice latte drink and enjoy the crisp fall air! The fun picks back up October 8th!

Figuring Out A Diagnosis

While they can feel similar, there is a difference between having ADHD and just feeling overwhelmed. "On the one hand, feeling overstimulated may emanate from several stimuli, including stress, lack of adequate sleep, excessive noise, or sensory overload," Nwogwugwu says. "ADHD is a neurodevelopment disorder characterized by persistent patterns of inattention, impulsivity that significantly impair daily functioning, or hyperactivity and are present in multiple settings."

So overstimulation is the result of outward elements, but ADHD comes from inside your brain. And while stress can have its up and downs, ADHD and its symptoms are consistent.

Nwogwugwu also says claiming ADHD when you don't actually have it can be harmful. That's why it's important to talk to a pro (like a psychiatrist or a psychologist) instead of using TikTok to self-diagnose.

"Self-diagnosis may lead to misunderstanding, eventually preventing the individual from accessing appropriate support and proper treatment," she says. If you self-diagnose and treat one disorder when you're really struggling with something else, you won't get the help you truly need.

That being said, don't feel like you have to dismiss consistent patterns or habits if they're interrupting your daily life. Nwogwugwu points out a few behaviors that could indicate you have undiagnosed ADHD, like "difficulty concentrating and focusing on tasks that are not particularly interesting or stimulating."

"Undiagnosed ADHD could manifest through impulsive behaviors such as acting without thinking, interrupting others while talking, or a high inclination to risky behaviors," she continues. You might also misplace items, lose track of time, and constantly forget and miss appointments, but that's not all.

"An individual with unorganized and difficulty that results in a cluttered environment could have undiagnosed ADHD [and it] could manifest through restlessness where an individual has challenges relaxing and always feels 'on the go,'" she says. "In addition, it could manifest in challenges in following instructions [or] difficulty in multitasking effectively, and difficulties with impulse control."

Living In The Present

Like so many other areas in the health and wellness space, ADHD can manifest differently in different people! That means that there's no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to getting diagnosed, which emphasizes how important it is to talk to your doctor.

One specific area where it depends on the person? ADHD affects women differently than it affects men.

"Inattentive symptoms are predominant in women, while hyperactive and impulsive symptoms are common among men," Nwogwugwu says. "Besides, co-occurring conditions such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders are more common in women than men with ADHD."

Women living with ADHD can also end up internalizing their problems, which impacts emotional regulation, self-confidence, and self-esteem.

Nwogwugwu also mentions how important it is to form an individualized care plan to make sure you're taking care of your specific needs — including your mental health. "Hyperactivity, impulsivity, and difficulties with impulse control may lead to interpersonal conflicts and social difficulties, affecting an individual’s self-image and self-concept adversely," she says.

Struggling with organization, attention, and time management can affect the people around you, which in turn might leave you feeling like you aren't meeting expectations for work or your relationships. We've been there, and we also know that stressing about those details can make it easier to mess up next time.

"This may cause frustration, feelings of underachievement, or actual underachievement that would lower an individual’s self-esteem," she says. "Persons with ADHD can face judgment, criticism, and stigma from society and feel rejected by peers because of their poor social skills. The negative experiences could have adverse effects on self-concept and self-esteem, especially among children."

Moving Forward

But the good news is that your life doesn't have to come to a standstill because of an ADHD diagnosis. Whether your doctor recommends lifestyle changes or steps that are a bit more extreme, there are also some calming habits Nwogwugwu recommends adding into your routine.

"Breathing exercises and yoga could help address the feelings," she says. "The techniques slow down the heart rate and reduce cortisol levels resulting in improved and sustained attention and affect." Since breathing techniques are grounding, they help you focus on something besides what's making you anxious.

"Talking to someone who can help, this can be a therapist, friend, a family member, or a counselor can be a great way to get some relief," she adds. "It helps one to express emotions or sentiments openly, which may relief the burden. Expressive writingcould help in regulating emotions through neural activation. In other words, writing could be therapeutic for overstimulated or overwhelmed individuals by helping them feel in control of the situation."

As a Power of Women honoree, Mariska was recognized in regards to her work as an advocate for sexual assault survivors. She took the stage and used her platform to discuss rape and assault conviction reversals, shining a light on the recent overturned ruling in Harvey Weinstein's landmark NYC case. Here's what she said:

Today I want to talk about reversing convictions, and more specifically I want to talk to you about how impossible it is to reverse mine. It’s impossible to reverse my conviction that survivors matter. It is impossible to reverse my conviction that what happens to us matters, and that our society must respond to survivors with a more a compassionate, holistically, deeper, and more nuanced understanding of what healing means.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that after a trauma, survivors can reclaim lives of hope, of possibility, of audacious risk, beautiful intimacy, and glorious, glorious abundant joy. And I stand before you as evidence of that statement.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that we must listen to survivors as experts on what justice means. It is extraordinary how little their voices are consulted, let alone incorporated, in the process of deciding how to repair harm. Justice is not a one-size-fits-all journey.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that patriarchal impunity has to end. Patriarchal impunity is when a male-dominated system exempts perpetrators from punishment. Studies show that only 20% of all rape cases in the U.S. are reported to the police, and that between 5 and 0% of all rapes result in a guilty plea or a conviction. So why do 80% of victims not report? Because they're met with a system that grants impunity to perpetrators; a system that blames victims; a system that accepts only those victims who are experienced as "real" rape; a system that completely misunderstands the neurobiology of trauma, which causes behavior in women that doesn't fit the picture of how a "real victim" would act.

Is that change needed that victims should just pull themselves together? Just buck up and report anyway? No. No, it's the system that receives them that needs to change

It is impossible to reverse my conviction — and the conviction of my extraordinary team, The Joyful Heart — that the backlog of untested rape kits can be brought to zero; that the testing of all new kits must be mandated; that we need a statewide kit tracking system; and that survivors have the right to access the status of their kits.

It is impossible to reverse my conviction that grammar — yes, grammar — that we use when we speak about rape must change. In the sentence, "A woman is raped," there's a crime and there's a victim, but there's no perpetrator. Where's the perpetrator? Where is he? Statistically, as we know, most likely he's walking free. He's so free that he doesn't even appear in the language about the crime that he committed. Is that not extraordinary? It's extraordinary that in the very grammar, the perpetrator goes free. Reintroducing perpetrators in the language of rape will make some very unwieldy grammar, but that's the nature of change. It's unwieldy, it's messy, it's uncomfortable, but it's necessary.

Hargitay continued on in her prolific speech to describe that rape shouldn't be considered a "crime of passion" because it's "not simply the next step in the trajectory of his passion" when a man takes a consensual hookup too far and assaults a woman against her will. She stated that it's "an exercise of power," doubling down that the language we use is important.

The speech went on to address that rape is both about power and control, as a "construct" that was "built, and assembled, and reinforced over time." She noted that there are people with these positions of power — and she specifically called out those in the entertainment industry — that could make a difference and aligned themselves to victims and survivors.

After this and some other remarks, Hargitay specifically called out the Weinstein conviction reversal. She said:

I do want to say something about the Harvey Weinstein conviction, specifically about the reason that it was overturned: too many women's voices. Too many women's voices were allowed to speak. Hallelujah! Amen! I can't imagine anything more beautiful than that. The Daily podcast episode talked about how it was so risky for the prosecution to have that many women testify. Risky to let women speak? You're damn right it is!

Too many women speaking brings change. Too many women speaking shakes the establishment. Too many women means we get listened to more, and people might actually hear what we have to say. Look what happened when women started saying just two words, right? Me too — just as an example — a tidal wave of change. Me too.

And then of course, there was the response: the Me Too Movement. The backlash. The examination of whether the changes that have come are lasting, or are even positive. Of course there's a backlash! What did they expect? For women to speak repeatedly, loudly, together, with a purpose — for there to be no backlash? The backlash is evidence of how powerful those voices were, how powerful those voices ARE.

Watch Mariska Hargitay's Full Speech Here

Turns out that your TV heroes really can be your IRL heroes after all. Long live Olivia Benson! Long live Mariska Hargitay!