Though I've always known who she is, the first time I ever really heard from Claudia Barretto was at She Talks Asia's Mental Health Conference, #IMatter, which was held in October 2019. There, Claudia spoke about her experience with anxiety: "When I do things that seem like really easy tasks for everyone else, I find myself never living in the present moment. I always think about the future or what I've done in the past. I was just trying to get things done, I was just trying to tick things off my to-do list. That was really exhausting for me."
She was visibly nervous, and I can't imagine the amount of strength it took to be that vulnerable in front of a crowd. It's one of the reasons why I started following her podcast and passion project, MINDGAMES. Time and time again, she proves that we can learn so much from the youth.
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What I Learned About Anxiety At She Talks Asia's Mental Health Conference: #IMatter
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On journaling
"I started writing down my thoughts because another thing that gave me so much anxiety was trying to compartmentalize my thoughts. It's such an exhausting thing to do when you feel like you can't touch it. So when I started to write down my feelings and my thoughts, it became tangible. It became something that I owned," she told the attendees of the #IMatter conference. Claudia also mentions it in an episode of MINDGAMES with her brother, Leon Barretto: "It's not like a full on diary experience. It's more like just listing down the things we plan to do or we want to accomplish. It's brought structure in our lives. It's a really helpful tool." -
On compassion
Speaking to her older sister, Dani Barretto, Claudia admitted that there was a point in time when she couldn't understand Dani's decisions. But luckily, things changed when they got older. "To be honest, I really respected your growth as a person because I started to be more compassionate towards people because of your experience. I like to look beyond their actions and understand why these things were happening or why they were making these choices, and that's because of you. Because I realized where it brought you. It brought you to such a great place." -
On self-awareness
"I had to be more self-aware. I had to develop that at a really young age. And at first, I was doing things for others. And then I had to change that and start doing things for myself. So whenever I did the right things, it wasn't because I was trying to impress others. It started to be so that I felt better about myself." Watch more to hear her talk about how she helps people reframe their ideas. -
On asking for help
"I think we should also change the language, the way it's approached. We keep saying, 'It shouldn't be something that people are ashamed of.' I think we should be saying, 'It would be really brave of you if you sought out the help that you needed.'" Claudia revealed that she went to her mom and told her she needed to seek a doctor, "because it's affecting [her] way of life when it shouldn't be. When I started to feel more like myself, that's when I was like, 'Wow. This is what life is supposed to be like. And this is how it's supposed to be like for everyone else.'" -
On a healthy relationship
"Not everything has to be shared. There are some experiences in your relationship that your partner can forgive but your family cannot. There's a different type of understanding when you're the one in a relationship. There's a different level of forgiveness when you're in a relationship. As long as the faults aren't severely damaging, there's no reason for you to overshare."
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