I had the honour of meeting with the wonderful Yara El Helou to talk about her company Piece of Peace. It all started with her personal struggles with her own mental health but she’s branched out to help others. This is our conversation about her experience and everything you need to know about POP.
HC: Can you tell me how POP began?YH: I’m co-authoring a book called the Ruby Red Shoes. What it’s about is inspiring women in 3 different areas: relationships, intuition and life purpose. At first, I didn’t quite know what to write about but my intuition is what I first went with. It’s always something that has been with me since I was a kid. As I was writing, I saw the story started going in the direction of life purpose. I was also diagnosed with depression and anxiety during my second year of university, which was something that was very difficult to deal with because I was also dealing with my brother being schizophrenic. My mental health was a huge issue for us but it wasn’t something I was very apt to deal with. So I started writing about that, and tried to see where it would go, and then I realized I wanted to inform people about mental health and how they can upkeep it. At the same time, it was a self-reflection on how to help my own mental health.I started helping myself with art at first and other creative outlets. I played music, I’ve taught choreography, I love to paint, and draw. Nothing on a professional scale but it’s a passion of mine. Whenever I dance or I have an art piece in front of me, it makes me feel good. So I thought why not share this with everyone? When you see your own creation, it makes you feel good about yourself. Spiritually, you can form a connection with art through rituals. There are also physical benefits of dance and yoga. And with the mental health, it’s an escape.
HC: What was your vision with POP specifically?YH: I had several different visions. At first, it was for people struggling with mental health and mental disabilities specifically. But then I changed my mind and wanted to make it accessible to everyone and because mental health affects us all. I also wanted to promote different business’ in the community that focus on the cause, specifically professionals that know how to deal with this. It was all about reaching out to the community as a part of POP. Getting people to understand the importance of mental health through education and having fun through events and workshops.
HC: What would you say are the values of POP?YH: The ultimate value is self-love. We should take care of ourselves, inside and out. If your mental health is down, it can ruin your physical health and then that just tears your spiritual health apart. All of those components are what makes up who you are. The second would be self-respect and what you do for yourself that shows you respect yourself. I don’t let my internal voice put me down, which is something you have to train yourself to do.
HC: What activities are you planning to offer?YH: Paint night at Café Nostalgica or hosting a yoga class for kids who aren’t very active because of video games. We have to keep in mind that our target group is everyone and anyone, so our activities need to be as accessible as possible. Some events won’t be, but there will be such a diversity that everyone will have the option to participate in something. To help the community we will have a clothes drive. We will have a card-making day in December, around Christmas. A professional is going to come in and show people how to make professional looking cards, like hallmark cool cards. Zumba will be coming too. But apart from these main events, we will host workshops and online webinars for more educational purposes. We will also be bringing professional institutions to help identify the importance of art and its affect on a person’s overall health.Those wanting to participate outside of Ottawa will have webinars for right now, which will be happening monthly. Our visibility kick-off will be coming soon and we will be creating a newsletter to keep people updated. There’s Recovery Day coming up, which is a national event about recovering from addiction, which we are promoting as addiction does take a toll on mental health.
HC: What do you envision for the future of POP?YH: My big dream is to go international; I want little pockets of poppers everywhere. The poppers will be communities who work for POP. We really want to spread the message of mental health, break the negative stigma, and promote physical health and accessibility. Big dreams.
HC:What can you tell me about what we can expect for POP in the near future?YH: The top 3 things we are working on is our Paint Night, clothing auction, and DIY cards this December. Also, we’re working on putting up our first newsletter and our very first webinar. This is all happening in the next four months.
HC: So if anyone wanted to know more, volunteer or get in touch with you, how would they do that?YH: All the information is on our web side: www.lifeofpop.com and we have a volunteer section opened to those who want to volunteer in social media, graphic design, event planning, etc. If you’re an idea person, be sure to get into contact. We also have Facebook, you can follow us at PieceofPeace-POP