Mental Health Matters

So I'm not quite sure how good the sound on this is going to be, so this might not ever make it.

But if you're listening to it, it made it.

Hey everybody, welcome to Mental Health Matters. It is Saturday night, and we used to call this show Suicide Prevention Saturday, but YouTube kept cutting us off livestream. So as of now, it is still currently Mental Health Matters. And why are we here? Same reason we've been here since 2018, because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths you hear about are suicides. And I'm sitting here in my happy place. My happy place is this lovely chair that I got for Mother's Day, which looks like a globe, and it's just like sitting in a lovely little nest. So on Mental Health Matters, what do we talk about? Let's talk about mental health issues. We all have them, we all need them, we are all, um, lacking in some places, and we're all amazingly strong in some places. And once in a while, we need to be reminded of which is what and how to get a little bit better on something maybe we're lacking at. And then on the other side of that, we totally need to address the fact that we are awesome at certain things and we have to give ourselves credit for, because in our little monkey brains, often we are going to think about the things that we need improvement on. A lot of you in my audience are shooters And shooting is such a very addictive sport because you can always be better. Well, guess what? Life is pretty much the same thing. You can always be better. So right now I have an aphid crawling on my leg or my arm, and it's really ticklish. So excuse me while I take care of said green aphid. No, I didn't kill it. I don't kill stuff, um, but I did get it off my arm. So anyway, The goal to often be just a little better than we were yesterday is a valid goal. However, we don't want to get lost in trying to always achieve more. Now, the irony of someone like me saying that is pretty high because I often feel like I don't do enough. Like, there's always a way to make this broadcast better, for example. What else could I do for you guys who watch Mental Health Matters, and how can I get it out to more people, and how can I help more people, and that sort of thing. And that's just one of the many projects that I tend to work on. People tell me often, like, oh Brooke, you're so busy. I'm like, no, not really. And then I make a spreadsheet that says what I am doing and, um, trying to pay attention to stuff. And the fact that it is currently October and I find myself already buying the next year's calendar because I already have stuff on next year's calendar so I can actually see what and where things are that are happening, like my son's high school graduation. Very exciting. So on today's Mental Health Matters, what are we talking about? Well, as always, we want to kind of try to mention balance on this lovely fall day out here in New England. The wind is blowing, which I'm guessing may or may not be in the audio. The leaves are falling ever so gently to the ground, and nature is beautiful in that it's sunny. There's beautiful little puffy white clouds up there in the sky. I have a very happy dog over here who just ran around like crazy, and life is good, man. Life is spectacular. These are the moments that we want to pay attention to, appreciate, and think about.

So above me, there's a little hole in my chair, so it's like I have my little window onto the tree that is above us.

And I was talking to one of my students the other day about how everything is the same, big and little, because when you look at the branch structure of that tree and then you pick up a leaf and you look at a leaf, it has the same or similar structure. Everything in our lives gets bigger and smaller. So this beautiful day, this lovely sunny day where there's a Harwington Fair going on because it's the first weekend in October, we have all the wonderful things New England has to offer in fall. Apple cider, one of my favorite things in the world. Fresh crisp apples off the trees. All of these things— life is pretty stinking amazing. Now, if unfortunately we are fed only from the information we get on the news, we forget that life is amazing. Then what's worse, I found myself the other day looking at this beautiful view and thinking, huh, I have an amazing life. I have a lovely little tree house over there that needs a little rehab. Right, but we do have the treehouse. We have this view that my husband worked hard to, uh, clear for us over the years. So a tree here, a tree there kind of thing. And I have my beautiful chair that I'm sitting in, which I love to pieces.

So there is my chair that I was doing that video from. It really is the best Mother's Day present ever. And today— oh no, I know it's not live, and theoretically I could edit it, but I'm running out of time because I got to get to my kids' bingo. Anyway, tonight I'm going to a volleyball, uh, bingo fundraiser for my child's volleyball team. That's kind of redundant, but there it is. And I've run out of time. So for all of you who want this long-form thing where I go on for an hour, you're not getting that tonight, and I apologize. However, I'm giving myself a pat on the back for at least putting something up for you guys to share or look at. And I know since it's so short, it's only like 6 minutes right now. I want to say thank you for popping in and saying hi over in the chat, over in the chat. Sorry, it's like everything is backwards. I think if I point that way, I'm pointing towards the chat. If I go like this, I'm pointing in the chat and Facebook. So there's that. Remind you to give yourself a pat on the back. And if you're Mario, say hey at least once or twice a day because I think that's got to be fun. So thank you for being awesome. Remember, it's okay to be excited about the blessings that are here in our world. The news does beat us up a lot, and they will tell you lots of good things.

No, no.

Who here ever felt better after watching the news?

That is why you're here with me on a Saturday night.

I'm confident maybe sort of that DJ is over in the comments, wherever the comments are on the platform that we're watching. If you're on the YouTube channel, I may even try to put this on LinkedIn and Facebook.

We'll see what happens.

So mental health, here's the deal. Life is stressful. Life is hard. We all have blessings in our home. One of the people I mention all the time is Tara Smith's Kitchen, also Ghost. She may or may not be here, but she has a cooking show on Tara Smith's Kitchen, and just having the skill set to be able to take food out of the cabinet and put it together and be able to explain it and share that with people is a blessing. Whatever your skill set is, it matters. Another person that's often in the gallery here is Barbecue, and the irony of this is that Barbecue is a really good photographer even though he's mostly legally blind. Well, he is legally blind. So take whatever it is you think you do on a daily basis and don't think anything of it. Mark Thomas comes to mind. Teacher, holy heck. Yeah, I know you get a degree for that kind of stuff and you may go through lots of school, but the fact that he didn't quit after the first 3 months, like, stuff like that is amazing. And it's always easier to call out somebody else's stuff, right? So I double dog dare you guys to leave comments down below or fight over in the chat and either give each other compliments if you happen to know each other, or— ready? Here's the hard one— give yourself a compliment. Because like I was just saying in the video that I just did, acknowledging that life isn't so bad, that we have those blessings. It's that crazy thing up here. It's like, well, if I tell everyone that I have this beautiful view in this wonderful chair, and I really do love my chair a lot. I do. I think she's 3 years old now, but oh my gosh, this is just the best cuddliest chair ever. It's like, it's, it's just amazing how I, when I caught myself realizing that I don't want to tell people I've got an amazing life because there's people that are suffering. And then I realized, I'm like, wait a second, I went through some suffering. I've had some challenges in my life. It's okay to celebrate the good stuff. We, and I was talking about this with people at the fair today, We as good, happy, grounded people need to share our good, happy groundedness with the other people who are losing their stuff over what's going on around them. What can you do in your house? Then what can you do in your neighborhood? And then what can you do in your town? Do what you can where the joy— whatever joy it is that fills your heart, right? Tara Smith. Like I said, I think of her because cooking, and I'm like, cooking should make everyone happy. I love baking. I'm not so great about the cooking thing, and but it's like, why do we love creating stuff? Well, um, because we do, and not everybody does, right? My husband and I have owned a house since 1999 for the most part, and people like, oh, you gotta do it yourself. I'm like, no, No, we tried that. We suck at that. That cost us lots of money to try to do it yourself.

Like, it'll save you money.

I'm like, no, cuz the same job has to get done twice, once by us and then once by the professionals. So here's my point. We all have things we're really good at and it's hard for you to name the things that you're good at because as I said that there's stuff we're really good at and I'm like, I don't know what mine is, is the first thought that goes through my head. "Right?" And I'm like, "Well, I have been told I am good at teaching. Could I tell you why I'm good at teaching? Maybe. Am I likely to tell you that I'm good at teaching?" I'm like, "No." Because I figured, well, one size doesn't fit all, and I might be good for some but not for all. And we immediately go into that mental space of, hey, we're okay, but we could be better, Tara. Uh, Chasing Ghosts. She's a motorcycle rider. Is she a good motorcycle rider? Maybe. Her videos look pretty cool, but does she think she's a good motorcycle rider? Barbecue. Since we already picked on him, it's always fun to pick on Barbecue. He better be on here tonight even though I'm not. Um, photography. Uh, does he think he's any good at it? Maybe. But do we like seeing his photography? Yes, we do.

So always be a little bit better.

However, give yourself that pat on the back. Say good job. And even if it's hard for you, no matter what you do, do your job the best that you can and know that you're doing the best job that you can. And we are all different. We all have different talents. And for whatever reason, we are sort of wired to look at somebody else's and say they're better than us, right? Because they can do something we can't do. Well, I used to not know how to handle a firearm. I used to be afraid of handling them. I'm like, I don't know how to touch this thing.

It's scary.

And so I compare myself to who I was. And if today's Brooke got to go back and show off for 2007 Brooke, who barely knew how to pick up a gun, the 2007 Brooke would think the 2024 Brooke was amazing. And yet for me in 2024, I'm like, well, yeah, but I'm not as good as I could have because I could have practiced more and I could have done more and I haven't done any dry fire in a while and I stopped doing competition. Timeout. Stop that. I have to try to stop it for me. You have to try to stop it for you. Being good, being able to do the things that you do that we take for granted as we do them. Hillbilly, I know he gave me an invite for tonight, his show's on top of the hour after this one. I was talking to him about how great he is about editing, you know, throwing everything together. Miss— Mrs. Misty Wayne and Ron Wayne, like, they're great at doing all of that editing stuff. Uh, who is it? Who did my thing? DM Foss, right? He put together the clips that you guys see every Saturday night. He just does it. And I know from editing, I'm like, I know I could do better. Oh wait, I think that was the wrong trick. Stop. Give yourself credit for how good you are at the things that you do. Um, really look for that. Really listen. Really accept and feel the things the people tell you that are good things about you. Don't listen to the garbage that people say if they don't like you, because that's their problem, not your problem. So with that, we've gotten to a whole 15 minutes and I really gotta go because I have people waiting in the house. So I hope this was helpful for you guys. Uh, check out Hillbilly top of the hour. And what else? Thanks again for everybody. If I called you out and you're not there, hopefully you'll get the replay. Maybe I'll tag people if I get that smart. DJ, however, might be able to tag people in comments because he's better at that sort of YouTube-y stuff than I am. So anyway, love to you all, have an awesome Saturday night, and I will see you live and in person next week. Oh, but then the button