Today is Bell Let’s Talk Day. A day created to draw awareness to mental illness and change the negative stigma attached to it by encouraging people to chat through social media and texting. I think it’s funny that the most obvious answer needs such attention: YOU ARE NOT ALONE. LET’S TALK. YOU WILL SEE.
Right now, I’m in the midst of organizing a conference with the same message. Mental health impacts all of us, which means we can all do something about it. I meet people everyday who suffer in silence. They think something is “wrong” with them because their thoughts and feelings consume them. My son is one of these people. He is eight years old.
Everytime I write a “personal” blog involving “feelings”, I’m overwhelmed with the response I get. People commenting they too, feel that way. Our thoughts are so powerful, yet we give them little credit in what they’re capable of. Whether it’s positive or negative. We need to focus more attention to create healthy minds. Yogis know exactly what I’m talking about. They’ve been doing it for hundreds of years.
I fully support Bell Let’s talk Day, mostly because I think it’s critical for my children. I want my son, who has anxiety to know there’s nothing “wrong” with him. We all have feelings of sadness and fear and it is ok. What we do with those feelings and how we communicate them is important. How society responds to those feelings is important. When we have a bloody nose, we get a tissue. So what do we do when someone tells us they’ re feeling sad? Some of us don’t know what to do. Some of us try to make them feel better by empathizing. Some of us tell them to get over it.
We need to feel safe to communicate how we feel, both at home and at work. It doesn’t matter if you’re a rockstar, a pro athlete or a homeless person, we’re all human and we’re all vulnerable to the vast array of feelings and emotions of being human. So get talking and get listening.
I feel like we need to end with a joke and laugh, so here: 80’s Yoga, makes everything better.
MF
