Mental Health Matters - Are you getting your Sunshine?
In this live‑stream, host Brooke Cheney opens with a stark reminder that two‑thirds of gun deaths are suicides, framing mental‑health discussion as a public‑health imperative. She weaves personal anecdotes—teaching pistol‑permit classes, upcoming knee‑replacement surgery, weight‑loss goals, and her daughter’s senior year—into broader wellness advice. The core message emphasizes the mental‑health benefits of sunlight, vitamin D, and time spent in nature, noting widespread deficiency in the U.S. and linking outdoor exposure to mood improvement. Hydration, simple habit changes (opening blinds, fresh air), and community interaction (shout‑outs, giveaways, viewer polls) are presented as actionable steps. The host also references a “cake video” that explains Second Amendment history, using it as an educational tool in her classes, and highlights the importance of balancing personal health decisions (surgery timing) with family responsibilities. Throughout, the tone remains conversational, supportive, and occasionally humorous, aiming to motivate viewers to adopt small, tangible habits that improve mental wellbeing.
Chapters
Oh. All right, we gotta give— put it out there for, uh, DM Foss. He always picks good music for me. Gotta appreciate that, you know. I get to get into it in the intro. Hello everybody, welcome to Mental Health Matters on this lovely Saturday night, 9 PM Eastern. Why are we here? Because we know if we want to save lives, and we're going to talk about gun deaths, that 2 out of every 3 gun deaths are suicide. And if we don't talk about mental health, we will not make it any better, because ignoring stuff usually doesn't help. I mean, you know, kind of like the crazy amount of— what is it called— poison ivy in our front yard. Yeah, we've ignored it for a long time. It's gotten really crazy. So anyway, welcome everybody. Uh, I hope you all like the— whatever that's called— the thing, Mental Health Magic. Are you getting enough sunshine? So it is Saturday. I was teaching all day, had a great group of guys here tonight— or today. And the nice thing about pistol permit classes is we're only on the range for a little bit. And the reason I say the nice thing about it is when it's hot and humid and you go out there and you just get all sweaty, it's not bad to not be out there forever in a day. So, uh, see a bunch of you all out there chatting already. I got to chat with y'all a little bit. I haven't said hi to Woods yet, or Mike Ballinger. Uh, Mike, I am so sorry, dude. I realize it's Wednesday at noon. I totally owe you a phone call. And I thought I was going to do that today, but tomorrow, I promise I will call you tomorrow. We will chat. Oh, all right. Sorry. I got to put that up there because that makes me laugh. Mike, for those of you who don't know, he's here in my neighborhood and he works with animal control, but I did not know that catching geese was part of animal control. Usually he is out rehabbing dogs and helping train dogs and rehoming them. So, uh, the geese thing, that cracked me up right there. Um, all right, sunshine. Well, I know that the weather is different wherever you are. Now, I saw Viejo out there. He is on the West Coast, and they are known for their sunshine. At least that's what the Beach Boys would always sing about. So I imagine someone like Viejo, who's a very active gentleman, uh, out in the sun all the time. And so the reason I bring up the sunshine is I want to know Do you know why? All right, never mind. Sorry, I'll try not to look at the things. I'm going to bring up Woods here real quick. Wait, except it moved and then I didn't. All right, mental circulation with weather. If it's hot, I'm cranky. So for some people, this is true. And it's actually one of those things where I prefer winter over summer. Because if I am cold, I can grab another blanket, I can throw another layer on. If I am hot, there's only so much of this that come— can come off before, you know, you can't take any more off. So I think cold is better than hot because you can always put more blankets on. That being said, yeah, I'm not going to go there, that's dark. Anyway, um, so why do we need sunshine? Well, let's see, during the summer months we have lots more of it, so it should be easier for all of us regardless of our crazy schedules, unless you're someone like Bubba and has really weird work hours, but, um, the longer daylight hours allows us to be outside more. People are generally happier when they are outside more. Some of that is the sunshine, the legit, actual, literal sunshine, um, because with sunshine we get vitamin D. With vitamin D, it's sort of interesting to me that lack of vitamin D, which most Americans are actually deficient in is one of the leading simple fixes to people who are suffering from depression. So from the sun, you get outside. If you're lucky enough to be outside in nature, you get added benefits because things like hearing birds singing in the background and that sort of thing actually calm our nervous system. Because throughout time, hearing birds has always been something that says, okay, everything is okay. This is why when we're outside, like for some of you crazy folks who live out like tornado alleys and that sort of places, and even here in New England when we have giant crazy thunder, it's like when everything gets super quiet, we know something's going on, right? So this is why being outside, just getting sun, helps you, raises your vitamin D, also just good for you. Being out in nature, you know, add on another layer of something that's good for your mental health, uh, helps you. Matter of fact, Mike, who I pulled up before, he does lots of hiking, uh, definitely. I know he and I have talked about it, that definitely helps his mental status is to be out in nature, and he's not alone. What else about vitamin— oh yeah, the vitamin D. Most Americans these days, we are low in vitamin D because we're not getting it from our foods and we're not getting it outside. Side the way that we used to, because we used to be an agricultural society. Uh, one of the things— I don't know if G-Webs is out there because I'm ignoring the comments right now so that I can stay focused and get through this— but, um, I have my pistol permit class today, and one of the things that I play every time during my, uh, what do you call it, during my pistol permit class is his Cake um, his cake video. I'm trying to get the things— I want to throw that in the comments for you guys. So Gwebs has this awesome cake video, and what does this have to do with farming? So Gwebs has the cake video and he talks about 2A, and he shows you how we had our Second Amendment for a really long time, and then it started getting chopped away, and that's what the cake video shows you. So the reason I'm throwing that up there is because if we want to be outside— and we are all deficient vitamin D because we're not being outside— one of the correlations that I've seen is looking at G Webb's, uh, cake video. The timeline of it is interesting to me because it's also when we kind of walked away from being an agrarian society. So all of that to say Get outside more, listen to the birds sing, enjoy some vitamin D if you don't get to get outside. And, um, sorry, of course VA has to prove me wrong, right? Uh, some medical jams for spending too much time in the sun surfing, teaching scuba, still paying for those indiscretions. Balance, folks, balance. Well, yeah, and VA, you don't have to tell us. However, are you talking just skin cancer or were there other issues? Because let's be real, depending on what kind of scuba you're teaching, there's— do you decompression and all of that sort of stuff as well. Um, but so there is balance and there's lots of things that can be do, but most people, Viejo, are not like you where they don't have the overabundance of being out of doors. Uh, they generally are like most of us. Um, when Tony Robbins talks about it, uh, he talks about how we live in a box these days. Sorry, I gotta figure out which way to go because it's backwards on my camera. So we're in a box, right? And he kind of— he goes through it like this: we get up in the morning, we get our breakfast out of a box, you know, box of cereal. We jump in our car, which is our next box. We go to our office, which is our next box. Then when we're done, we come home and we get in front of this square thing called a TV or computer screen, and we sit there and we're in the next box. So the goal for mental health is A, recognize if you're really in a box all the time. Uh, two, get out of the box, uh, go outside, do something. Because, you know, I try to always give you guys some form of tips or tricks, and the idea is something as simple as stepping outside. And I did see Gary's comment real quick. I think about open blinds and, and that definitely helps. And then, then go outside. And then if you want to get really cray cray about it, take your shoes off and actually feel Mother Earth under your feet and connect to the world. But do whatever you can, just like there's always another level, right? Back to the Tony Robbins world. When we started back in 2000, one of the things they had was water, and they talked about the importance of water. Vitamin D is one of the things we are deficient in. Hydration, oh my goodness, we are generally deficient in that as well. And when we were talking about water, there was always another type of water. So it's like, here's the deal, guys, if you drink a liter of Coke every single day and you drop that down to half a liter and you replace that first half with some water, you're doing better. We're not looking for perfection, just progress. So when we're talking about any of these options for you, it's just start wherever you're at. If opening the blinds is good, makes you happier, that is awesome. And then if we can build on that to make it even better, that's even better, because then blinds are open, cool. If it's not a bazillion degrees out, open the window, get fresh air too. So those are some of the things. All right, DJ, it's been 10 minutes of me going blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So if you'd be so kind to pop in and say hi to everybody for us, providing you are ready for that. Are you ready for that?
Oh yeah, absolutely. I am ready for that. I hope that my internet signal is the same as I wish to welcome in Crabby Turtle. First one in the room yet again this week. Glad to see you out there, Crabby. Gabi Gunpowder Beauty, sometimes a stranger but always glad to see her. Sorryfan93 is out there, so is Viejo. Gizzard Gary is in the room letting the sun shine in. It is the Age of Aquarius, or we passed the Age of Aquarius, I'm not sure. Mike Bellinger's out there, so is Woods, the man of the Great Pacific Northwest. Chris Broncato, the Atomic Punk. Jamie JH586 and Chasing Ghost is out there this evening.
Awesome, thank you so much. Um, I can't— I did the button, I didn't kick him out entirely. All right, so, uh, I saw this one. Wrote a song today, the Lord— ha, the Lord on percussion, booming thunderstorm, just strumming away. Sounds like fun. Oh yeah, so I'm telling you all things to do that make you happy, but then you have to know what the things are that actually make you happy. Like, for those of you who have not been to Chasing Ghosts— um, wait, it's always backwards. I can do this. Chasing Ghosts, uh, channel, uh, she takes you on bike rides. And to be fair, I would never do what she does. I, I'm happy on my dirt bike because it's my fault if I hit a tree or a rock. Out in the real world where she rides, she has to avoid everybody that's coming after her, because if you don't ride paranoid, you're going to be squished is my— what all my bike friends tell me. So I, like I said, I'm not brave enough to go on the actual road. So, um, yeah, so no collagen layer. Did not know that that was a thing. Um, that does not sound like fun, but I don't know. Ah, all right, so for those of you who don't know Viejo, like I said, he's out in California. He's a very active guy, goes out hiking, all that fun stuff. Um, oh my gosh, that is so funny. All right, I'm laughing at chasing ghosts because I have more aging on my left side due to son driving truck. I'm a high risk for left side cancer. Now I'm not laughing at the fact that she's got left side cancer or the higher risk, but back to California, seems like it's going back to Diego again. Um, but I remember one time Driving up Highway 1 in California from LA to San Francisco, and I had a T-top, windows down. I'm 18 years old, did it in a day, 6 hours, something like that. I don't remember what the drive was, but it was the most hysterical thing ever. I get to my hotel, I walk in the hotel, I look at my face, I legit look like this side of my face is bright red and this side is not because the entire California coast on Route 1 is sun and ocean. And so this side of my face got all of that all day long. So yeah, I understand how Tara is, uh, you know, left side, uh, dependent on her stuff. Oh, G webs. Okay. All right. So hello, G-Webs. I dropped your cake video in here before. So just talk about how I use that in all of my pistol permit classes. So people can have a 2-minute primer on what Second Amendment actually is. Oh, Abigail, Abigail, darling. I need you to send me— oh wait, I have a question for you very specifically. All right. I have a purple Hogue beavertail grip and collapsible buttstock for an AR/M16 platform rifles. So Abigail, my friend, if you would like this, please just email me your address. If you don't want this, let me know, I'll give it to someone else. But last week after I was here— oh, and there's my email address. That's actually why I left it, in case Abigail was here so I could give that away to her. Because she puts together rifles and she likes that sort of thing. And I just really— I like purple and all, but I don't have a rifle to put this on because I'm a handgun girl. Because I had so much fun last week on Hillbilly's channel and I gave stuff away, and I've got packages here ready to go because I didn't send them earlier this week, but they're ready to go for Monday. So Abigail, if you want this, then by all means send me your, you know, that thing. So I can send them to you. So there's that. All right. Oh my goodness gracious. Um, okay, where am I looking at? I don't even know. Yes, California's Highway 1 is very spectacular, especially when you are 18 or 19 years old in a red Supra T-top. You're not supposed to be driving because your aunt rented it, but you're driving it. Um, yeah, it was lots of fun. That was a long time ago, but it was fun. Um, you have that grip on an air pistol, but it's black. Yeah, this one, this one is like, it's, it's a very deep purple. Um, so it's not like a bright purple, but it's a very muted deep purple. But I am cleaning, and so as I clean, because this is part of getting ready for knee surgery and all of that stuff, um Sorry. And yes, I'm going to keep laughing at Viejo because I read Super. That was you. Yeah, it was. That was me back then. It was fun. It was a story which I'm not going to put on the internet. Awesome, Abigail. I will hear, right? Y'all have to wait because Abigail, I need to verify. We're going to verify. I have it. I'm going to say because sometimes when people write AGSSS, they actually forget the third S. Because it seems like there should be two. So I just wanna know for sure I got Abigail's email and it's loading. It's thinking about loading and I don't have it. Abigail, double check, make sure that it really says, make sure, hold on, lemme get rid of this. Make sure this really says the right thing. The three S's, like I said, that's usually the thing. Um, uh, Highway 1, but I've never been to California. Sorry, I'm reading things that I shouldn't as I'm talking. So, all right, are you here? No, I'm not here yet. All right, maybe it's just slow email because sometimes that happens too. Oh, we're gonna look in social and see if it's there. No, not there. Promotions. Not there. Um, okay, well, I will get it to you somehow or another. I'll look for Jacksonville in my thing. I hope y'all don't mind because Abigail, I got stuff to send to her, so there's that. All right, so yeah, um, just go ahead and resend it or I'll figure something out. Cause I don't know how else to get it to you. All right. Uh, yeah, it could be in my spam folder, but I don't know. All right. So I don't know how else. Oh, you know what? You can just call, you know, text me, text my thing. Cause as my husband always says, it's not like I could ever get doxxed because all of my information is out there. So here I'm going to put this on Great Surf Streaming School. Everybody want to give me a call? Uh, text me at 860— let's see how many garbage— no, no, not that one. This is my work number, and that will get texts. So text it to me there. There you all have it. All right, all right, DJ, help me, help me get back on track. What the heck are we talking about? I got all excited that Abigail showed up so I could give her this.
Grabbing some sun, making sure that we take time.
Yeah, yeah, there is that. How about you, DJ? You've been out in the sun, or what's the weather like there in Nebraska, in corn country?
No, it's been muggy and crappy. I spent as much time in the AC as I can.
Yeah, I mean, it's like, yeah, I mean, for— all right, let's take a poll out there for all of you because you guys are all over the country here. It's like, has it been hotter than Hades where you live? Has it been nice weather? Because like tonight around 5:30, 6 o'clock-ish, it actually— the sun went down enough, it was actually comfortable to sit outside. And I think that's the first time this, uh, this week. Oh, and the reason I know it was 6:30 is because that's when I finally remember to post this up because I'm like, oh, it's Saturday, we all need a link to follow. So, um, that's why the sunshine thing, because I was actually sitting outside in our backyard and thinking how great it was and just how relaxing it is to be able to just chill. Um, been very lucky this week. Oh, the thumbnail that was up here, that was us at the beach on Tuesday. Uh, for those of you who are familiar with it, there is a place called the Rockaways and it's nice surf. Well, it wasn't nice surf this week, but often it's good boogie boarding and that sort of thing. And some places you can go which actually has nice surfing. I am not a surfer, not while I'm waiting to get my knee done. Uh, more information for you all. Um, my knee surgery, I'm moving it. And I know last week I think I announced it was August 11th, or maybe that was 2 weeks ago, I'm not really sure, but I went for my second opinion this week and on Tuesday, and the second surgeon said the exact same thing the first surgeon said, which is when you're ready is when you do it. And I had set the date for August 11th and I wasn't ready and my little heart was just not in it and I was freaking out. And so talking to the second surgeon, it occurred to me that when I'm ready actually means when I'm ready, not as soon as possible, which we were also trying to do that because we never know. No one ever knows if they're gonna have a job or not, so there's that. But pushing it off till November for two reasons. One, the other thing that the surgeon said to me was lose more weight. Now, he did not know I just lost 45 pounds, but I'm at 2— I bounce between 215 and 220 right now. And so my goal is by November get under 200 pounds because my recovery will go better if I am lighter. So there's one part. Then it is my daughter's senior year in high school, and I want to make it to all of her volleyball games. And not that I shouldn't have been able to if I did the surgery in August, but I also have fairs that I'm attending for the first time this year, so I'd like to be mostly mobile for that sort of stuff. So there it goes. So get out in the sun, enjoy the sunlight, listen to the birdies go chirp chirp chirp, take your bare feet on the ground, enjoy Earth, actually connect with our nature in whatever way you can. Do anything that makes you happy, fun, whether it's building rifles or whatever else you might do. And that is what I have for you guys this weekend. I hope that you guys have a great rest of your weekend. Um, let's see, let's see. Viejo lives in Camelot, 52 at sunup, overcast 11. Sun must come out mid-70s rest of day. Sounds a little bit like, uh, Florida or Disney World sort of stuff. And Chris, yeah, we're not that far. It's been 80s and muggy, uh, mid-90s humidity, rainy, 17 miles in a swamp. Well then, yeah, I'm so not surprised. It's, uh, mid-90s and humid. Oh, that's got to be kind of rough. All right, high of 84, low of 69. Yeah, that actually sounds kind of like what we've been doing here in New England, or at least in Connecticut. Moo, how you doing? Moo, I haven't even said hi to you yet today. 43 degrees overnight in Michigan. See, you can actually sleep in that though, and it's not crazy humid. Husband, human husband. Wow, I need to actually read what it says. Humid summer. Yeah. Um, all right, 102. Well, that's what you get for living in the desert, you silly men. Um, but yeah. 102 at 6 PM. This is where, you know, for those of you who've ever seen— what is the name of that movie with Robin Williams and he's the DJ? DJ, help me out with that one, right?
Good morning, Vietnam.
Thank you. Yeah, so for G-Webs of 102 at 6 PM, I could think of is one of the bits he does in there is that whole, uh, little black men bursting into flames. That's what I think of at 102. Although, um, the reality of it is, oh, I don't know. I've been in the desert and it's been 110, and they aren't kidding when they say that dry heat, you don't feel it the same way that you feel the humid heat. Because I thought the 110-degree weather was like 80 degrees relative to what we get here in Connecticut. So, alrighty. Uh, Abigail, yes, I have Instagram. Do I ever look at it? No, I do not. I don't even know where it is. I actually have two. I have a Brooke Cheney one and I have a Great Start Shooting one, and I don't look at them hardly ever, but I can try. All right, Mr. DJ, I think I've chatted enough. Unless there's anything you'd like to add right now, then you can chat and you can say hi and bye to everybody. And is there anything that I've missed?
I think we got everybody, but, uh, to make sure, because Moo was the last one in the room, I'm gonna go in reverse order today. And so in the room tonight, we had, among others, 2 Live Moo, Gun Websites, Abigail Sorcha Finnegan, Chasing Ghosts Is Out There, JH586, hey Jamie, Chris Broncato, The Atomic Punk, Woods, Mike Ballinger, Gizzard Gary, Viejo, Sariafan93, Gunpowder Beauty, and The Crabby Turtle. Hey everybody, there are more people out there listening right now than those I was able to name in the text chat, so thanks for listening and lurking and remembering to bring a friend along. Somebody out there did that. Somebody else, do it next week. It's somebody else's turn, right? Anyway, until we see each other again, be safe, have fun, take care of yourself and your crew, and rock! We're out.
