Mental Health Matters Independence from Thoughts

for your button an hour. Welcome to Mental Health Matters. It is Saturday night here on the East Coast, 9 PM Eastern, for those of you who don't know where you are, what time it is. And if you're watching the replay, well, I'm terribly sorry because I really can't help you at this point in time. However, why are we here? Well, we are here to let people know who are only going to watch the first 30 seconds of this, or maybe a minute, that 2 out of every 3 gun deaths you hear about here in the United States is a suicide. And if over 60%, 66%, that's two-thirds, right? 6.66666. It goes on forever. If over 66% of a problem is suicide prevention or suicide, and we have suicide prevention, think of how many other lives we can save. So that is why we're here on a Saturday night, because as we get older, we have different ideas of what a fun Saturday night actually is gonna be. All right, uh, DJ's in the back pushing buttons for me so things like this pop up. If you need resources for your mental health, by all means you can text the word TALK to 741741 and get assistance there. Uh, have I tried it? No, I haven't. But here's the thing, and I want to definitely emphasize this, is even if you're not the one who needs help right now, you can use these, uh, resources because they can help you find resources for somebody as well. So you wanna talk to someone, 988, they passed that nationally. So no matter where you are in America, you can do the 988 thing. Um, so forgive me, I have been on the road all day, or most of the whole thing up. And, uh, Oh yeah, I don't even know. Sorry, I looked at that. I'm gonna, I'm gonna hide the comments. DJ's gonna keep track of the comments while I'm not looking because it's a holiday weekend. Uh, saw a great— I hope you all had a wonderful Fourth. We got to see some, um, those things that go boom in the sky. Yes, those things. And so I figured tonight's thing, it would make sense for it to be Independence from thought. I don't mean like just become an airhead and not know what's going on. However, what does it mean to be an independent thinker? So guess what? I got notes. Aren't you guys all— I know you guys are all like probably nervous and/or scared when I actually have notes because I might stay on topic and/or I might go way too long. Um, but not tonight. I'll do my best to not do the thing. But here, so you don't have to Oh wait, where is it? Okay, hold on. I got props and everything. Hold please. So I am going to, oops, wait a second, make that bigger. I know it's not big enough for people like DJ who are looking at a little tiny screen. Let's see if I can make it a little bigger. Oh, that's a little bit, oops, that's a little too big. Hold on, hold on. Bear with me. This is progress, not perfection. So what is an independent thinker? The one who encourages self-reliance, critical analysis, and open-mindedness. Not being critical, but being curious. As you and I are here on the social media of the world, whether you're watching on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, any of those things, independent thinking is not as encouraged as it once was, and social media has allowed us to go in our little tiny silos, right? So, so many people that are here, y'all are gun owners and 2A advocates and things like that because we know guns don't kill people, people kill people. And mental health is what kills people the most because even when we're not just talking about the suicides that are over 66% of the gun deaths in America, when we talk about the people who do the things that are horrible, when we're talking about mass shootings and that sort of stuff, They pretty much all also have mental health issues. One of the challenges we have as gun owners is when we talk about mental health and guns, people think we're pointing at the folks that had the mental health issues, not that we're talking about the suicide prevention stuff. So that is why I come on here every Saturday night, as many possible as that I can since 2018, to drop just a little bit of knowledge or just a little conversation or just a little bit to to get folks to understand, A, we need to talk about mental health. It's for everyone. We all have mental issues, right? Some of us have more than others. Some of us have less. Some of us have a bigger toolbox than others. And my goal here is always to give us each maybe one more toolbox or maybe one more tool in the toolbox, or remind us to open the toolbox to get the tool out of the box in order to work on our mental health. All right, independent thinking. Use your own judgment. Now, we all love being encouraged. We love people saying, oh yeah, I agree with you, absolutely. We like that little pat on the back of, yes, that is correct. However, one of my favorite books, which is over there, I'm not going to grab it right now, Kathy Jackson talks about listening to that little voice inside your head. So when you're using your own judgment, even though someone says jump and you don't want to say how high because you've got bad knees like me. No, um, using your own judgment, you have to do what's right for you. My current situation, which you guys already know, I'm getting a knee surgery done soon and I'm going for a second opinion because it freaks me the heck out. And so I'm gathering more information to make sure I'm making the right decision, which everyone's like, go, go, go. And I'm like, okay, I'm going, but I still want more information. But then not just saying no for the sake of saying no. So use your own judgment is the first step they have in our handy dandy little thing. Now, excuse me, ask questions. This is my favorite part here, is, um, right here it says, ask questions. Curiosity is the hallmark of independent thinkers. Their interest in the in learning from others, which helps them grow and expand their understanding. So here's the thing, if you come onto my range and you tell me you already know everything there is to know about firearms and I can't teach you anything— I've had a person that I can think of that was kind of like that, like, oh, and I'm just like, I learn from all of my students who have never touched a gun. Why is that? Well, because they're looking at it in a way that I never thought to look at it. And so if you're not curious and realize that none of us know all of the stuff, whatever the stuff is, regardless of whether we think it's right or wrong, because those of you who've been around firearms a lot, you know, there's these certain things that people believe or don't believe about them, and it gets a little bit crazy. So number one, use your self-judgment. 2, ask questions. We're working on becoming independent thinkers tonight, and the more we understand what the critical thinking is that we need to do it, that's really all we need to do. Because I don't have any control over how you think. I can tell you stuff, I can give you ideas, but I can't make you believe the stuff I believe, which I don't want to. But this is where, um, Making mistakes and doing stuff wrong, that's where we usually learn the most. So this is the embrace mistakes and learn from them. This is one of those things I definitely talk to my kids about all of the time. So it's sort of towards the top. Independent thinkers are willing to admit when they are wrong and open to changing their minds when presented with new evidence or compelling arguments. This requires humility and the recognition that no one has all the answers. We learn best from our failures. For those of you who've been around me for a while, you know I've been in the political field for a bit now. And one of the things that always distresses me— well, one of the many things about being in politics is distressing— but let's say I am a politician and I say I am never I'm never going to eat chocolate milk. And that is why you voted for me, because I am never going to have chocolate milk and you believe I should never have chocolate milk. Well, now my doc says to me, oh, Brooke, here's the deal. If you don't eat that chocolate milk, your bones are going to break and now you're not going to— and now you're going to die because you need to have that chocolate milk. So now, as you voting for me because I'm not going to eat chocolate milk, then my doc tells me, oh, well, if you want to live, you got to have some chocolate milk. Then I have some chocolate milk and now you're mad you voted at me because I changed my mind. Hmm. Right? Here's the challenge. None of us know the right answer for everyone. And no, chocolate milk is not really going to fix your bones, but that's a whole nother health conversation we can have at another time. That being said, the more you learn and the more you realize you don't know everything, because none of us know everything. Most of us know very little about lots of little things. And it just becomes going to our confidence, which is actually sort of the next sort of thing that we're going to talk about is the idea of what is it like to be humble and understand that we have biases, right? So, um, recognize one's own bias and privileges is is crucial. Independent thinkers use a diversity of sources to counteract blind spots and remain open to different positions or perspectives. So, and the reason I'm not going to the screen is because it's like, eh, there's a whole bunch of stuff all in the same place. So here we go. We want to be independent thinkers. Number 1, we're going to use our own judgment based on what we know. Number 2, we're going to be curious about the stuff that we think that we know. Because goodness knows there's plenty of things that we thought for sure were a thing and then we find out that's not how it works at all. I've had that in my classroom all of the time. Number 3, we have our self-belief. We understand that we do not know it all and nor will we ever know it all, nor does anyone else who's telling us that thing. That is why over there on the wall, there is a big poster on my wall, it says trust but verify, because there are lots of people who mean really, really well and they want to tell you exactly why you should believe the thing they believe, only to find out later that the thing that they thought they believed that was the right thing to do was actually not as good as they thought it was because they didn't have all of the information. The quickest, shortest thing I can think about is solar panels. Solar panels— ooh, yay, free energy! Yes, excellent, good for the environment. And incorrect. It is not good for the environment. Why? Well, because back in the '70s we were told solar energy is awesome because 'cause it's free energy, which was true. Problem is no one was looking into the whole life cycle of said solar panel, which is all of the stuff that makes up that solar panel. There's lots of it that's very toxic to the environment and very bad to mine and does really bad things. So our net gain of a solar panel versus what it gives back to the environment, not as awesome or spectacular as we thought it should be. So that would be the embracing mistakes and learning from them. Every time we fail because we didn't look at everything, then there's always one more way to look at it, because that goes to the curiosity and understanding that it's okay to fail. Matter of fact, the more— the most successful people in the world, if I haven't said this enough to you guys, enough to get stuck into your head, are the ones who fail the most fastest. The more you fail, the sooner you'll figure out what doesn't work. Edison— how many? I don't know, I don't remember how many light bulbs Mr. Edison attempted to create, but every time he failed, and people like, oh well, you're a failure. I'm just like, nope, I've just learned one more way how not to do that. Now, I don't know how true that is because trust but verify. I have not gone into the bibliography of Edison to find out if any of that was true. Okay, ready? Here, this one's in red, right? Challenge the status quo, right? Independent thinkers question public opinion and are not afraid to think differently. They understand the majority can be wrong and that popular views can be flawed. So for all of my crazy people out there who think that we should have a popular vote, That's my argument for no, we should not have a popular vote. Um, I do believe, uh, there was a guy I talked to, talked about, and he was saying how that you should have to take a quiz to show that you understand how our government works before you're allowed to vote. And I would have gotten a lot smarter a lot sooner if we had to do that. Although, to be fair, I didn't used to vote at all. All right, Mr. DJ, we are coming up on our 15-minute mark, and I know there's some comments over there and that sort of thing. But also, I know you've been riding around furiously and, you know, getting your list of who's who and what's what and who's where. So I'm gonna throw you on the stage, hahaha, and then you can say hi to everybody for me. Or not.

Right on. Thanks for— well, I'm having some signal issues, so I'm glad you're able to actually bring me to the screen. And I am really happy to welcome Jason Ghost into the chat. Krabby Turtle is out there tonight, so is Garry, Sorryfan93, we got Mike Ballinger, Chris Brancato, The Atomic Punk is out there, so is Abigail Sorcha Finnegan Gunn, Websites is out there, so is Hillbilly Up, and Marlo has just joined, as has Vanessa Kitty. There are most recent additions. And, uh, yeah, no doubt, uh, civics classes, government classes, uh, was this a required course when I graduated from high school in the late '80s? And I definitely learned in equal measure in my experience from Schoolhouse Rock and from one half a year of government class in high school. Absolutely. And I'm really glad that Schoolhouse Rock is catchy and accurate. Yeah, and still one of the things you were saying earlier about, yeah, about how things change is everything. Outside of maybe gravity, death, taxes, those kind of massive things, is everything is subject to change or revision. And I think that we should all challenge ourselves, um, to bring into question our own status quo sometimes. Um, you know, shaking up— facts exist outside of our own world and our own perceptions, those of the group, um, of individuals if we have them, you know, for us to influence those things and also to cement our or belief. Gotta stretch your mind once in a while, step outside of the box. Um, you know, there's common— what?

A year? You're cutting in and out a little bit here and there. Sorry, I didn't mean to. I'm like, uh, because like, yeah, there was a moment or two.

Um, it's all good until my signal improves though. I should step backstage.

All right, well, I'm darn— because I'm like, I'm like, wait a second, there's a Mario sighting. I was gonna say we should do 1, 2, 3, but I'm not sure that you're gonna hear them. So there's that. So, all right, well, DJ, thank you for letting everybody in and saying hi to everybody for me. Mario, nice to see you, sir. Um, and everybody else. Sorry, Sophie. Um, yeah, so everybody. So, um, I know I saw something. Um, where is it? There was something that Hillbilly put up. He is, uh Oh, the thing about parachute pants. But anyway, I'm not gonna— oh yeah, there it is. Here you go, Hillbilly. At one time I thought parachute pants was a thing. No, no, it really was a thing. And especially if you were breakdancing, parachute pants were the thing. So were skinny ties back then as well, because, ooh, my boyfriend had a skinny tie and I just thought that was adorable. And then sometimes I would wear a skinny tie. Oh, but these things do all change. And anyway, so there we have it. So 50 solar panels. Yeah. So there's so much information, right? And this is the thing is we will find the information that we want that supports the thing that we're doing. And that's why being aware of being humble and being aware of our biases, because back as a '70s child, and hugging trees and being thankful for the heat they're going to give us, as well as, um, sorry, I'm hiding the thing again so I stop watching it move. Um, you know, understanding the importance of recycling and all that sort of stuff, where we would take the time and we'd sort our stuff and our paper would go one place, our cans would go another place, our glass would go another place. And understanding all of that, it's awesome. But when we don't look at stuff end to end to figure out where's the broken parts. So practicing self-reliance, taking care of ourselves, being responsible for ourselves. Now Mario, for example, is out there and he is not enjoying the Fourth of July week because the fireworks are getting to him and they suck for him. And so he's chosen to do things that will help him get through all of that. And each one of us has to make our own choices over what's going to help. When it comes to thinking, staying open-minded, do not accept a single point of view. This goes to one of the many things that they talk about when they're talking about the difference between different groups, and I, I don't want to say the words, but on one side That's not my— anyway, on one side they find that there's a group of people that constantly and completely get all of their information from the exact same news sources. On the other side of that, there are these people who will get their information from the news source that they agree with, but then they're also getting their news sources from the other side that they don't agree with. And so that leads to better balancing and allows you to ignore or at least be aware of your biases, because it's very easy to say, well, I drank my chocolate milk and I feel better, so obviously you must drink chocolate milk. And then I'm going to pick on Abigail. I'm not really picking on you, Abigail, I'm just making stuff up, um, but because she's out there. But Abigail is lactose intolerant— not that she is, I don't know these things, I'm making this up. And so if Abigail drinks chocolate milk, well, she's not going to have a good day. Nobody who's lactose intolerant is going to have a good day. Uh, so this is the thing, one size never fits all. Independent thinking is that ability to have these conversations where you and I don't have to agree on anything except to actually listen to each other and actually hear what is being said to us and take it into consideration that I don't know everything and you don't know everything, but you absolutely, positively, without a shadow of a doubt, know something I do not. And vice versa. I am relatively confident there is probably something I know that you do not. And unless we're gonna listen to really learn versus listen to respond, which is one of the biggest challenges we have, especially here on social media, as I've just been talking to you, blah, blah, blah, nonstop for 20 minutes here. Um, is that we have to be willing to learn. We have to understand that the way that we see it is not the way somebody else sees it. Like, for some reason— I don't even know who's out here because I didn't hear— but Mark Thomas, for example, right? For those of you who are on the Facebook side and you look up Mark Thomas, I'm not sure if he's— yeah, anyway, any Mark Thomas's post, his paintball ones crack me up the most. Because I see Mark Thomas this big on my screen once in a while on Hillbilly's channel or something along that, and it cracks me up because when he does his paintball stuff, there's this black mask and then there's this giant beard, and it cracks me up every single— I'm like, oh, there he is! But I don't know why I brought that up. I have no idea because sometimes I just don't know what the heck I'm talking about. Oh, sorry, it must be all of the fireworks and explosions that are going on outside my house. So chocolate milk is the best milk. Exactly. Hey Woods, nice to see you. I like the puppy nose. It's so adorable. So, all right. Um, all right. So that is my blah, blah, blah-ing tonight as far as independent thinking, right on this weekend of Independence Day, becoming an independent thinker. And to me, this is what America was founded on. We do not do what everyone else does because everyone else does it. We believe in our self-reliance, we believe in our critical analysis and our open-mindedness, mindedness. And it's not about being critical and saying you did something wrong and I did it right, or vice versa, but it's about being curious of how we can do this. And my belief is independent thinkers are probably going to be a little more mentally stable than the people who believe what everybody else tells them to believe. Now, I could be wrong because I don't know everything, but there is that. All right, so here's my question for y'all. Drop in the chat wherever it happens to be on your screen: what did you do this weekend to celebrate Independence Day? Oh wait, I forgot, I got another graphic for y'all because this cracks me up. And DJ hasn't seen this yet, but gentle reminder that sometimes your brain can be a lying piece of— from the Mental Health Mallard, because independent thinkers don't believe everything they think either. So if you're having a bad day, by all means know that your brain can be less than honest with you. How about that? Okay. Real quick before we go. I think I can get this done in like 5 minutes or less. So what was my Independence Day like? Would you all like to know? Because I want to know. Let's see. Gizzard's got a hammer. Why do we have a hammer, Gizzard? We've got— oh, it's hammer time. Oh, are we talking about parachute? Oh wait, wait, I'm getting there. Can't Touch This. For those of you who are young and don't know what— if you look up MC Hammer and Can't Touch This, and parachute pants and all of that sort of thing. So anyway, what's up, DJ?

Well, I was going to bring this up to the, to the screen. Uh, New York Outcast did indeed go to the beach and, uh, also live streamed several different times during the day, so I was able to share in that East Coast fun. And I'm glad to see him out there tonight and wanted to give him the, the voice version of the shout out. And thanks for, uh, taking us along, man. That was nice.

Very cool, very cool. All right, so, uh, Surya fan worked, and then the pool, and you still can't swim. Well, it's good to realize that you can't swim before you jump in the pool, so, you know, there's that. Or as long as you're in the— nothing but play guitar. Yeah, it was kind of a nice relaxed day, I say, as I'm about to show you what I did. So Friday morning, got up, went to the gym, uh, and this is my 15, 15% incline. That's the part that I was most excited about because my coach had asked me, hey, when is, uh, how do you put some incline in there? And 15% is as far as it goes on that machine. But I got to go shopping, went shopping for food, and I love my Big Y because they have this big honking flag out front And this is, uh, my favorite thing every time I go shopping. Got myself some flowers because who doesn't love some red, white, and blue flowers? And then I like Serbian. God want me swimming would have allowed me to breathe underwater. Yeah, that's possibly, um, oh, and then I got to realize Corvettes, the, the Car and Driver issue. I love me a Corvette, so I had to take a picture of that because next to, you know, red, white, and blue, to me a Corvette is nice and Americana. And then we had guests, so I prepared for my guests and yummy fruits and some, um, watermelon. And just like, it's so much fun to have friends over from time to time. It wasn't anything big, it was just like, okay, we're gonna have some water and some fruits and some hot dogs, and it didn't have to be anything crazy. And make sure that our flag was flying the way it was supposed to and the wind was blowing just a little bit. So I put some balloons out by my Great Start Shooting School, um, whatever, my sign, little hearts and little, um, whatever those are called, hearts and stars, because who doesn't love being all patriotic? And there's my little house for those who have not watched my YouTube videos as far as what to do when you get here. But there's our dog, because, you know, German Shepherds— that's another American thing, right? No, wait, that'd be German. But he got to play too. Was one of his favorite things is tug on rope. And then it's even more fun if I tug on the rope to hang him, because he likes it when his feet are actually off the ground. I don't think I got that picture. That's almost his feet being off the ground. And then there was our little cubby hole where we had our little friends come over, and I had some pictures, but they didn't come out so well. So that's as far as our day goes. Oh, but wait, there's more. I almost forgot. I made this little video for Hillbilly Up. Well, I mean, I made it for in general, but, um, a little bit of our whole day. And there's my husband and my daughter, and then there's the fireworks. Y'all know it sucks taking pictures of fireworks, but it was way fun being there. So for all those people like, oh, people never say watch your fireworks, here you go. Um, but it was an hour-long show. It was absolutely insane to some significant rock and music, and I'd share that with you, but I haven't checked in with, uh, G-Web to find out how long I could actually play music without it yelling at me and saying that, you know, I'm whatever, that's copyright infringement stuff. So that's where there's no sound in this part, but it was very cool. This one was actually Bonnie Raitt. So for those of you who didn't get any fireworks yesterday, here's some. 0 seconds. All right, G Webs. Good to know. Oh yeah, sorry. For those of you who can't see the YouTube conversation, there is that. But that was my Independence Day and that was the end of the videos I had for you all. And yeah, when I say little friends, can everyone see them or just you? Well, it depends on the day, Hillbilly. There are some that only I can see, usually at night in the shadows when I'm walking in the woods by myself. Those are the ones that freak me out a little bit. But no, they were real people. It was mostly family. It was mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and the kids. But there are times when I see things that I don't think anybody else sees. And then I do worry about myself a little bit sometimes. Um, and, uh, yeah, and chasing ghosts, I can see that. I can see you riding a motorcycle, not running away from one. And, uh, yeah, wasabi is yummy. Probably not 5,000 gallons of ammonia, but wasabi would be yummy. Um, but yeah, I think that's everybody's. Uh, what do you think, DJ? Are we good to go, sir? Do you think you got a good, uh Good, um, whatever that's connection now.

I am— it's subject to whim, and I do not appreciate its whim right now. So, uh, you're moving your head.

Everybody hold still, like hold the rabbit ears just so.

No doubt, no doubt. I really enjoyed the message this week. Uh, I do every week. This one, uh, resounded that much more deeply, being open-minded and monitoring you know, some self-reflection, your own thoughts, regulating what it is that you bring in and considering it and seeking out accuracy and truth. What better way to prepare yourself for a day and a life lived in our culture? Joining us tonight, we had Chasing Ghosts, the Crabby Turtle, Kizer Gary was in the room, so we're sorry if I have 93. Mike Bellinger is out there, so it's Chris Broncato, Abigail Sorge Finnegan checking in from Florida. We got gun websites out there. Hillbilly Up, Mario Mosin joined us tonight. Viejo is out there, so is Vanessa Kitty, New York Outcast, and the man of the Great Pacific Northwest, Mr. Woods. So thanks for bringing everybody, uh, in tonight, Brooke. And everybody, thanks for being here the day after your Fourth of July, where we celebrate Independence Day. Uh, next week, bring a friend, come on back, we'd love to have you. Be safe, everybody, have fun. Take care of your crew, and rawr, we're out.