Michelle Parke

Michelle Parke says gratitude is at the forefront of her mental health journey. 

“When you deal with anxiety and depression, it is often challenging to see what is good in your life vs. what’s going wrong (or could go wrong),” she explains. That’s why she keeps a gratitude journal in which she lists at least three things she’s grateful for every day. 

First and foremost, she says, “I am grateful for the tools I’ve been given to navigate my healing journey to be more empowered, and maybe more importantly, knowing it’s OK to ask for help.”

Over the years, Michelle sporadically alternated between counseling and medication to treat depression and anxiety, always with fleeting results. It wasn’t until she sought help at Baptist Health that she began to make sustainable progress through combined treatments — and for that she is grateful.

Living a life of gratitude has enhanced Michelle’s emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing, and she says it’s improved all areas of her life — particularly in her role as a single mom to a 16-year-old daughter with special needs. 

“Gratitude is so important because it is a give and take situation, because life goes in cycles,” she says. “Sometimes we are on the receiving end, while other times we are the ones giving. It is all a beautiful way of living.”

Gratitude is so important because it is a give and take situation, because life goes in cycles.