Mental Health Matters - How's your Armour doing?
In this live YouTube episode, host Brooke Cheney opens with a stark statistic that two‑thirds of gun‑related deaths are suicides, framing the need for proactive mental‑health care. She introduces the central metaphor of "armor" – ranging from literal protective gear (helmets, motorcycle gear) to spiritual armor (the biblical "armor of God") and emotional resilience – and urges viewers to regularly inspect and maintain it. The conversation shifts to chronic pain, featuring co‑host DJ who shares his back‑pain struggles and the importance of empathy and regular check‑ins from friends. Brooke and DJ discuss various pain‑management tools (medication, counseling, massage, rest) and highlight how a simple inquiry about someone’s wellbeing can be therapeutic. Throughout the stream, community members (Jamie, Tara, Abigail, Mike Ballinger, Vanessa Kitty, etc.) are called out, sharing their own "armor" and self‑care routines such as prayer, meditation, breathing exercises, bodybuilding workouts, nutrition, sleep hygiene, hiking, and biking. The hosts stress the necessity of self‑check‑ins before helping others, offering practical tips like posture exercises, deep breathing, and short confidence‑boosting poses. They also remind viewers of crisis resources, encouraging use of hotlines even when not suicidal, and promise to list specific phone numbers in future episodes. The episode blends humor, pop‑culture references (Lord of the Rings, Zelda, Jocko Willink), and a supportive community roll‑call to create an interactive, actionable guide for maintaining mental‑health "armor".
Chapters
Hi everybody, welcome to Mental Health Matters. It is Saturday night, it is 9:01-ish here on the East Coast. And yeah, so I was looking on the YouTube side of things and Sariya popped in and said hi, and I start typing Words. Sorry. So I've been teaching an instructor class since 9 o'clock this morning. No excuses. All right, back to the beginning. Ready? Why are we here? Oh, because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths that you hear about are suicides. And if we want to save lives, what do we need to do? Let's talk about mental health. All right, let me do that rope part first before I try to start talking to you all. I hope you're having a great Saturday night, and tonight we are going to talk about making sure we are good. So in the thing that's written about this post, what is that? I don't know, the details, something along those lines. I ask, check in on your armor. Why? Why is that? Oh, because, um, because, because, because. So anyway, words are hard. So as always, if I am going to try to stay on track. I'm gonna hide all of the comments, so that means DJ's in charge to star or let me know stuff that I need to know. All right, I am cheating a little bit today because I have to read stuff, but basically, what did I say? How's your armor doing? Life happens all the time. It doesn't stop, it doesn't take a break, it just keeps going until we die. What, what did I just say? Until we die. I did. And here's the funny thing about all of that. I actually am always surprised when people are like, oh, don't talk like that. I'm like, but we're all gonna die eventually. That's kind of the importance of living a good life, right? At some point in time, we're not gonna be here. So we need to do as much as we can that is good for all around us as best as possible, as much as we can. So when was the last time you took a minute to check in on your armor? Now, do we have physical armor? Not generally, um, but we have lots and lots of armor. I know I saw Jamie on here. So what armor does Jamie have? Well, Jamie's a man of God, and therefore he has God's armor, because that's sort of part of the deal if you read the Bible, if you're Christian, all those sort of things. Oh, Tara Smith Kitchen, also known as— what is it— Chasing Ghosts. What armor does Tara wear? Well, if you go to her site and watch all of her Chasing Ghosts videos, what armor does she have? She's got a helmet, she's got gloves, she's got leathers, all of that sort of stuff. So sometimes we have physical armor, and when it has to do with our safety stuff, we do need to check in on it. As a motorcycle rider as well— dirt bikes, not tar, y'all are crazy— dirt bikes, I have my helmet, I have my bod pod, I have my nice thick boots, cover all the way up to my knees. And the thing about helmets is once we crash a couple times, we replace the helmet because even though we can see the helmet We cannot verify that after all of those impacts of rocks and trees and ground and maybe parts of your bike, depending on who you are. Uh, yeah, I broke— anyway, that's another story for another time. But we need to check in on our armor when it comes to stuff. Now, most of us don't get to see our armor. Like when I'm talking about Jamie and he's got the armor of God because he is blessed by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, and however you look at that, I shouldn't talk about Jamie, but like, those are sort of the things that a lot of Christians believe in. But when I'm riding my dirt bike and I've got my helmet and I've crashed a couple times, I need to get a new helmet. Even if I can't see the chinks in my armor, the cracks, the stress, all of that sort of stuff, I know after I've smashed my head against enough trees and rocks that even if it looks good, it doesn't mean that it's going to take the next impact. So often in our crazy busy lives, we are not good about checking in on our armor. We forget that we might look just fine here, but there's stress fractures that occur. There's things that— there's a reason we need to replace or fix anything. When we're riding, right? We hate to take time to do maintenance. I suppose some of you out there might love the maintenance side of things, but for the most part, if I know I've rammed my head into a rock or a tree or the ground, um, multiple times, I love riding and that's what I want to do. I don't want to have to stop. I don't want to have to go to the store, get a new helmet, all of those things. I just want to keep going. Can I keep going? Well, according to this, when it feels like we have to just keep going, we need to make ourselves stop and check in, rest, recover, refocus before we get up our next hill. So we are generally really good about go, go, go. Today, uh, we had my Day 1 of our instructor class. For those who've not been through an instructor class, it's a lot. There is tons of information as a new instructor you need to learn and be exposed to. One of my students has some physical limitations and he had to go because we can only do for so long until our bodies kind of take us. And he and I were texting back and forth after class. And one of the things we were talking about is managing pain, and pain management is hard. And sometimes when we're in pain, we can manage our pain. And then there are times when our pain is so extreme, our pain is currently managing us. So for those of you who deal with chronic pain— DJ, are you there? You're one of those people in my life. Oh wait, do I have to add you? You can add yourself. Um, or I'll just throw you on there. There you are. So, uh, how is it since we didn't get to chat before we actually started? Oh no, do I not have audio with DJ? Oh no. Oh, he's undone. All right, never mind. He'll play with that and figure that out. So, um, DJ and I were talking about pain and suffering because DJ's got back problems. My husband before— oh, there he is. No, he's not. I heard something.
Yes, I am.
Oh, there you are. Good job.
Yeah, pain management. It's easier to manage your pain when you have all of the things that you need. And sometimes that armor, it isn't damaged. It just runs out, as in disappears, as in supply is no longer available. And it's in those moments that you are reminded, at least if we're talking about physical pain here, you're really reminded of what it was that you were taking that armor, those protections, those extra steps in and incorporating them into your system before in the beginning. And a harsh reminder of those will make you thankful for physicians and friends and pharmaceuticals and a whole bunch of other things that can help you make it through those times where you're absolutely not— you're being dominated by the pain. You're no longer managing the pain, it's managing you. It can turn you into somebody that others know you not to be. Um, it could do a lot of really negative things.
Yeah, no, pain management is rough, and that's why there is so much stuff around it, whether it's, um, Yeah, the actual drugs along with counseling and everything else. And the reason I brought DJ up is because last weekend— am I allowed to talk about this? Do you want to talk about this? You can share what you want to share.
It's a great illustration of it as well.
Okay. All right. So I'm going to let you tell people about last weekend.
Well, as you might have vibed by what I was saying just a few moments ago, I was out of the necessary assistance that I needed, but I had some assistance, and that assistance came to me in the form of a few different friends, and Brooke was one of them. Checking in with people every once in a while, those who are, you know, with any chronic issue or difficulty, the same thing counts for loss of things. It's a good idea to check in with people, and I had a few people check in with me, and when Brooke asked me, So, but how's, how's your pain been? And I said, well, it's the worst it's been in 6 months. And no one else had asked me for some time how that was, not even the people who were seeing me. They wanted me to characterize my, my difficulty. Um, but there wasn't a lot of like empathy or anything else involved with that. Just having a friend ask me made me feel better. And even if it was for a few, you know, fleeting moments in that exact time, Or as I reflected on it, wow, that it felt good to have somebody ask. It felt good to have somebody check in to see how it was that I was feeling. There are a few people in my day-to-day life who know to ask based on what it is that I look like. But other people have to judge it by the sound or the frequency of your communication. And as I transition away from using me as an example for that, relief can be had in many different ways. And sometimes Those of us who need reminders to take care of ourselves, that's one of the best things that you could do for somebody else's health. How are you doing? Are you taking care of yourself? And then maybe, is there something I can do? Or is there something to be done at all? And a conversation can take care of a lot of, yeah, a lot of that.
All right. So yeah. And that is what tonight is about, right? Is checking in. And here's the thing, like DJ's talking about people checking in with each other. Here's the honest-to-God truth. Most of the time we forget to check in on ourselves, right? Because like DJ said, when he's in pain, if the people's around him, they can see what he looks like. Sort of like my student today, you could see he was suffering. I'm like, dude, you should go home now. And he didn't want to because class wasn't up yet. But you could tell. Sorry, I keep making funny faces because it sounds like there's something rolling around in my office, and what I just realized, it's fireworks. So sorry for all the weird faces. But checking in on yourself, number one, because one of the things we have to remember is how do we help others? We have to take care of ourselves so that we can help others. I know I love using Chasing Ghosts Cooking Channel, you know, because I've got all of the Tara Smith's Kitchen stickers back there. But it's like, I love watching Tara cook because food is so much emotion in most societies, because feeding someone is nurturing them, and nurturing them is taking care of them. And when you're taking care of, you're more resourceful. And I'm currently doing an 8-week bodybuilding challenge, and one of the things that we're learning in that is you're worth it, meaning you're worth putting good food into your mouth, you are worth getting up and going to the gym, and so often we forget these things. So while DJ was telling his story about last weekend, I did get to go through some of the comments And one of my favorites, I think, is Abigail saying that she'd like some dwarves to make her some armor. And now I can't find that one, but— oh, there it is. Get some dwarves to make me some armor. For those of you who don't follow Lord of the Rings, dwarves make the best armor, just in case you did not already know. And then, of course, Sariaphan loves her Zelda— his Zelda, sorry, dude. So there is that. And Jamie is not wrong when he says helmets should be replaced if you drop them. This is very true. Now, that being said, we can't replace all of our armor all of the time, especially if it was made by a dwarf. But anyway, I just— a little bit, we have to remember to take it off sometimes, right? Because as much as— I think it was Abigail again saying that she does squats in her armor. From time to time, we have to take it all off. That would be one of those things that basically over the last month, from time to time, I do rip off my armor and throw it away, and then I cry because it's sad. And then we have to let go of all of the emotions that we have— good, bad, indifferent, right? So that being said, How are your reserves? What have you been doing lately? I know Hillbilly is here because I saw a comment there. He said hello, and he gives back every weekend. Jamie gives back every weekend. G-Webs was out there earlier. I don't know if he's still here now. Uh, Tara, DJ, um, everybody, we all give back all of the time. So now Here's what I want you to do. Go ahead and think about it. What was the last thing that you actually did that helped bring your reserves back up? I'm going to keep using Jamie as a man of God, and I know he prays on a regular basis. I know prayer is definitely one of those things that helps bring most people's reserves back up. For some, it's meditation. For some, it's that— just that one deep breath, actually giving yourself that little break to stop and think about bringing oxygen in your body, expanding your lungs, and giving back to yourself to be able to go on for that next step that is painful or that sort of thing. Mike Ballinger, right? He also is another one of us wonderful people who have to deal with chronic pain in our backs. So massages every 10 days to manage his pain. So everybody's got a different thing. Um, sorry, see, I'm looking at the stuff now, so I'm laughing at Tara for my food is good food but probably not for bodybuilding. Dude, it will build body whether it's going to be chubby stuff or muscles. Eh, protein versus carbohydrates, but um, you know, it's depending what kind of body we're building. But never skip leg day. Actually, yeah, on my Facebook side, I will tell you I did a 20-minute workout this morning before I started my class, and I'm gonna say that I'm pretty confident I may actually be sore tomorrow. I'm not sure. All right, so, all right, so back to that question. Never skip leg day. Food is good, not for building bodies necessarily, but it'll build something. But Let's be real, food is not always for building bodies. Food can be that, ooh, that comfort. We all have that comfort food too, right? So after you've given me what your thing is that you've done to recharge your batteries, to repolish your armor, to make sure you rested, recovered, refocused before you're ready to go off on that next hill— and oh my goodness, DJ, I am horrible. So I've been chatting for a whole 17 minutes and we haven't welcomed— had the opportunity to let you welcome everybody into the room for us. Are you ready, sir? Are you ready?
I am ready. Joining us this evening, first in the room was Gun Websites. Gunpowder Beauty dropped in. Got Jimmy JH 586 out there. Sorry, a fan. 93 is in the room. So is Chasing Ghost. How you doing? Abigail Sorcha Finnegan out there. Mike Bellinger. I think I want to sign up for the Bellinger pain relief program. Massage every 10 days sounds good to me. Ozzy Osborne is out there, so is Heal Billy Up, and Ron Wayne is most recently in the room. That's your roll call. Are you coming back?
Yeah, sorry, no, I had to, I had to find the button. I had to find the button. I was reading again because, you know, uh, Ron Wayne came in like last, um, And I'm trying to go in order-ish. Uh, Jamie, rest is crucial. We need time in God's word and time in prayer. Ministry is exhausting, right? And we are always ministering, whatever you call it, because we all have family, we all have friends, we all have people to check in on, including ourselves. We always want to do stuff, um, and Going for walks around town is what helps. Saria Fan, oh, I know, I know Mike's talking about his massages, but I also know Mike and the reality of him. He goes for walks, he goes hiking all the time. It's one of the reasons why his job helps him, because as an animal control person, he's got to go all over the place, like the geese that he got to save last week. And I forgot to post up those pictures. But if you're on the Facebook side of things, you can go to Mike Ballinger's page and you can see pictures of him with the geese. And I meant to put them on YouTube, but I didn't get them there. And where is it? There was a chasing ghost. Oh yeah. As far as bodybuilding for her food, a body that can survive winters in Eastern Europe. So nice and well padded, right? So yeah. And Jamie's talking about the Bible is full of stories about people who fall on their faces in the presence of God. And we do need to fall on our faces from time to time. We need to let go of everything. We need to realize there is something bigger, better than us. And whatever your faith is, that is what matters to you. Um, but this is why in psychological studies they will tell you people who have a faith, whatever that faith is, are generally happier than the atheists that are out there that just don't believe in anything, that we're born, we die, and that's it. I always tell people I believe in Einstein because Einstein created relativity, and it's all relative as to what you believe, right? E equals mc squared. We have energy that turns— no, equals mass and speed of light squared. And not to get crazy geeky on you, but basically the short version of Energy is neither created nor destroyed, it just changes, right? So the simple way to explain that is you have a piece of paper, you light it on fire, where'd the paper go? Well, it turned into energy and it's now different pieces and parts, and then that goes around and around. Because like, here we are in this bubble called Earth, and you and I are breathing the same air that the caveman did, or that George Washington did, or who whoever you can think of that's a Cleopatra or Jesus for that matter. And it's always being recycled over and over again. So Gunpowder Beauty says, recharging batteries involves beautiful view and some pew pew therapy. Absolutely. We like calling it lead therapy often and bang bang therapy and all sorts of things. So, I love a beautiful view. Been hiking since I was a kid, and my backyard has an awesome view. I do love it. All right. Ooh, how is that? Sorry, again, back to being— so 4 hours of sleep only because I have perfect— because I have to at least 4 hours per night. 70% of the nights on CPAP to keep my CDL. See, I did not know that they only required 4 hours. I thought you had to have more. Um, all right. Big thanks to DJ for helping on the show and others each week. Yeah, DJ is not always here. If you want, you can become a DJ groupie. One of these days, DJ, we should actually put that up, all of the different shows that you help co-host. That would be a list. It'd be like You know, we could be DJ groupies just like that. No, Abigail, uh, Mike Ballinger does not fight the geese. Uh, last week or the week before, he got a bunch of geese out of nets. They had been caught. I don't know the entire story, but in his pictures that you show them, uh, first they have nets all over them and they took them out. But yeah, geese are not to be messed with. For those of you who don't know, geese are not to be messed with. They will break you. They don't look like they're very big, but they start flapping their wings, they can break your arm or your leg. So, all right, thumbs— oh yes, thank you. So fun. Don't forget the thumbs up encouragement because Brooke's awesome. And Chasing Ghosts, back to that dust to dust, every molecule of our bodies will be broken down and used for something else. Flower, a bird, who knows. But yeah, anything that happens in our lives is just something that's going to happen again or differently and so on and so forth. Wow, that's crazy. Sorry, um, not what I just said. Vanessa Kitty's gonna bike the Farmington Rail Trail from Northampton, Mass. to New Haven next year, 82 miles. That's a lot of biking, so that would be a lot of outdoor time, a lot of recharging time, hopefully a lot of good views. I would guess. All right, so we got our plan for this week, right? Check in on our armor, make sure it's dusted off, shined up. From time to time, remember, stop, take that breath, feel that. Here's the fun part of this: you and I can do this anytime we think of it. And the problem is we don't think of it very often, but Shoulders back. Oh wait, I can't do the whole thing because I've got too much stuff behind me. Y'all know the superhero pose? Shoulders back, hands on hips, right? You look like Superman. That. Do that. Stand up, hands on hips, look like Superman. Take a big breath in. Let it go. What does that do for you? Well, it's been proven in lots of studies that just doing this for 10 seconds improves your outlook on life in general. It builds your confidence, it makes you feel better, and that is one of those things each week my goal— let me find 1 or 2 resources that you can utilize instantaneously, whether it is simply a phone number that you can call if you need to talk. Remember every time Even if you're not the one who's depressed, if you have a friend or somebody that you're worried about, go ahead, use the lines, call, talk, text, any of those things, because you don't have to be suicidal in order to use the resources that I give you. Two, if I forget to give you resources at any Saturday, by all means call me out on it. Say, hey Brooke, you talked about a lot of stuff, but what resources do we have this week? Um, all right, I'm gonna disagree with Saria Fan. Ready? Jellyfish are not worse than geese because they just go with the tides and you run into them. They don't really run into you. Geese will chase you down and hunt you. So, um, that's— yeah. Oh yeah, and like Abigail said, they don't fly either. All right, so I hope tonight is good. I hope you all have had a spectacular week. Check in on your armor, oil it up, dust it off, figure out what you need to do it, give it a rest from time to time. Understand you are not the only one that can do the things that you do. When we have so many things that rely on us, we have to keep ourselves alive often, we have to keep our animals alive, our friends, our family. It's what we feel, right? But rest is super important. I do think Tara should get more than 4 hours of sleep, but that's me, not what the CDL says that she has to have. But I would go for more than 4 because sleep is actually our number one health, um, oh, measuring thing. I don't know what the right word is I was looking for. So rest, sleep as much as you can, drink water, breathe, Take care of yourself, and as DJ always says, take care of your crew. But I won't take that from him, I just can't help but to say it because y'all know we're gonna hear it at the end, right guys? So, um, here we have it. Armor Reserve, stop, check in. Just because we can doesn't mean that we have to. Rest, recover, refocus, and be good. For those who haven't seen the Jocko Willink Good video, by all means, I suggest you go check that one out. And maybe I'll put that down in the comments when we are done. And I always say maybe because I have lots of ideas. I don't follow through with all of them. All right, with that, Mr. DJ, you know the thing that you get to do. I think we're ready to do the thing that you get to do.
Right on. I want to thank everybody for stopping in tonight. Got, uh, almost 20 people in the room tonight, and among those joining us were gun websites, Gunpowder Beauty, Jamie JH 586, Sariafan93, Chasing Ghost, Abigail Sorshefinken, Mike Ballinger, Ozzy Osbourne, Hillbilly Up, Ron Wayne, and Vanessa Kitty was the last new person in the room. Um, Hillbilly Up is next. I got a link out there in the text chat for his conversation that happens after this one every Saturday night. Thanks for coming in. Remember, be safe, Take care of yourself and your crew and rock! We're out.
