Mental Health Matters Weathering the Storm Ice, snow, rain, wind
In this livestream, host Brooke Cheney opens with a stark statistic that two‑thirds of gun deaths are suicides, framing the urgent need to discuss mental health and suicide prevention. She uses seasonal weather elements—water, ice, mud, snow, and earth—as metaphors for how circumstances can both nurture and hinder us, illustrating the importance of perspective and the choice of how we react. Brooke shares personal anecdotes about recent weather challenges, her work at the Women's Expo, and distributing Walk the Talk America wristbands and free mental‑health assessments. She emphasizes that while external factors (like weather or societal pressures) are beyond our control, our reactions are not, urging listeners to become aware of their responses as a path to resilience. The show includes interactive dialogue with co‑host DJ, who contributes quotes about water, flow, and optical‑illusion metaphors, and references to outdoor experiences that reinforce the theme of perspective. Brooke also announces upcoming advocacy actions: testifying at the state Capitol on suicide‑prevention legislation and working on a curriculum proposal. Throughout, the tone remains conversational, supportive, and motivational, aiming to equip the audience with practical coping insights and resources while fostering community engagement.
Chapters
Hey everybody, welcome to Mental Health Matters. And why are we here? Because 2 out of 3 gun deaths you hear about are suicides. So if we actually want to save lives, then we need to talk about mental health. And the bonus is when we talk about mental health, we also can help reduce violence. Hi, I'm Brooke Cheney. For those of you who are new, because I did talk to a bunch of people at the Women's Expo this evening, or today earlier and told them I'd be on here. So, um, yes, I'm not in my fancy clothes that I was, uh, just a few hours ago, but every Saturday night since 2018, come on to talk about mental health because suicide prevention is not something people want to talk about. Mental health is not something people want to talk about. So here I am so that we can talk about it because I get to talk about it and you just get to listen. Y'all get to entertain me in the side chat. Which from time to time I shall try to ignore. Uh, DJ is in the back and he will say hi to you all and he will, uh, star comments for me and that sort of thing. And he remembers to turn things on like mine. So my co-host is DJ because he does tech stuff and introduces everybody, welcomes everyone to the room, all that good stuff. So tonight scheduled events are snow, water, ice, mud, earth. And that's what I've been having going around in my head because the idea is things that help us grow can sometimes also be stuff that crushes us. For those of you who don't know, I am here in Connecticut and we are in New England. If— yeah, that makes sense, right? Anywho, we've been having crazy weather. Um, it's the first real winter we have had in quite a long time. Last couple years we've had mud season, and all we had is rain and mud and rain and mud and rain and mud. And as a former skier, it makes me very sad that we've had more mud. This year, however, we had tons of snow, like lots and lots of snow. Like, there's mountains of snow in the parking lots all over New England right now. And when I say mountains, I mean like big honking huge mountains of snow. Um, and, and so we've got lots of snow. In the last week or two, we've gotten some warm weather and some cold weather and some icy weather. And so we have mud, snow, ice season right now, which for a girl who's got an outdoor range, I'm just gonna say mud, snow, ice season, not my favorite season at all. No. So water. Oh wait, where is it? My water. I drank a fair amount today for once because I had to stay in my little cubicle from 10 AM till 3 PM, which is what I'm doing tomorrow again too, down at Fairfield University. And I've been talking all day, so I warned DJ we might have a very short show. But water. Now, when it's coming out of the well to drink and nourish your body, awesome. Um, for those of you who are old enough for this story, water can also kill you multiple ways. Yes, you can drown in it. That's sort of the most obvious way. Apparently, we learned back when the Wii consoles came out, the water can also kill you if you drink too much of it, which I didn't know until that horrible tragedy where a child lost his mom because she drank too much water. Now, water coming down from the sky and raining on your crops and nourishing your crops is a beautiful thing. Water falling down from the sky and flooding things and taking your house away, not so awesome. Um, and we have had a lot of ice lately, so that's water coming down, freezing. Making it very dangerous for many people. And, um, so kind of the idea is behind the water, snow, ice, mud, earth thing is that everything that's around us could kill us— yes, no, um, everything around us can either nurture us or be too much of something. And it just seems like a very good mental health topic because those of us who are in long-term relationships, married, family— it's a long-term relationship with most people. And to think about the things that build us up can also crush us. So to be aware of how we pay attention to the water in our life, right? Right now, the frozen water that's in my life is less than spectacular. However, on that next 90-degree hot summer day, I am going to be so happy to have ice cubes in my iced tea as I sit upon the porch or by the pool or wherever I'm going to be. So it's about perspective. It's like, when does this serve us versus when does it not serve us? And water is just an example because it's one of those things most of us learn in school. It has many forms, right? We— when we went through science, you have solid, liquid, gaseous, right? And water does all of those things. And when it comes to things that are around us that are serving us, depends on what form they're in, depends what we're paying attention to. Because if you are drowning, literally, water is not your friend. If you are out in a desert and are dehydrated, water is your friend. And so your perspective matters, and paying attention to what your perspective actually is also matters. Because if my face is just getting wet and it's annoying me, then it's no good. If I'm hot and I'm in the sauna and I can't breathe, but getting some water on my face will make it easier for me to breathe, then it's good. So long ago and far away, I can actually tell you, 14 years ago, yes, 14 years ago, a friend of mine who's a shaman came to my house and blessed my land. And one of the things that he taught me was, it just is. And at the time, 15, 14 years ago, I'm like, It is not just is, things are good or bad and that is just how they are. And the older I get, the more I realize it is possible to realize things just are. Again, today I spent most of the day at Women's Expo, talked to people about all sorts of things, and guns are neither good nor bad because a gun cannot do anything. Water is neither good nor bad because it just depends on what you're doing with it. So paying attention to how we perceive stuff and maybe considering the possibility that it just is. Now, it is very hard because I can give some really simple examples of, mm-hmm, that is definitely bad, or, oh yeah, that's certainly good. The answer is always, it depends. So if something is driving you absolutely insane, think about it for a second, like right now, mud and ice and water combo in my backyard, oh, not awesome. I am not enjoying it. However, Is the mud, water, or ice actually trying to kill me? No, it's really not. What it is doing is it's making me have to slow down. It's making me have to be more particular about how I put my feet down and where I put my feet down. So, so many things in our life that are annoying to us, there's a good chance they're really just trying to teach us lessons.. And if you can get the lesson, if you can be focused on the lesson and realize that no, most things are not out to get you. However, you put in whatever word you want here, but God has a plan. And the idea that there are lessons we have to learn, and a lot of us— DJ, I know we're just talking about how well I know some of the people out there, not so well some of the others. A lot of us can be very stubborn about what plan, what lesson we are willing to learn. So these are the things: pay attention to what's going on around you. When stuff is starting to bug you, ask the question, dare to ask the question, what do I need to learn right now? Because anger, frustration, hatred— I'm not going to say that I hate the mud, But I'm maybe a little bit— the ice, the water on the ice, because I actually had to cancel lessons, uh, not once but two days this week for the ice in the water. So impacted me financially, impacted my time, impacted my students, which really annoys me because most of us will take the hit. Like, I didn't make the money for that day, but I feel worse about impacting my students, and then I'm like, whoa, I can't control the weather, I can't control the freezing point outside. What can I control? Those of you who've been here long enough, you should know the answer to what can I control. I'll give you a moment because I know there's at least a 6-second lag here, and I'm not looking at the chat, so if you got it right, good job. And, um, what can you control? The one thing— I'm waiting for those 3 seconds so I, you know, the chat will catch up— the one thing you control is how you react to the thing. So this week, as I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off, overscheduled, undersleeping, and having a whole lot of stuff surprise pop up in this week, I was annoyed with the water, the ice, in the mud because it was slowing me down. And the reality of it is, is because I am overscheduled, uh, less sleep, and have too many things to do in these past couple days, it's a blessing to realize I need to suck it up, take careful steps, make sure I don't slip and fall or break anything, and be thankful for taking the time to pay attention to these things. All right, so DJ, sir, uh, are you ready to do your hey, hello, and all of those things?
I am, and I'm glad to see a crew out there tonight with, uh, at least one new or not as frequent face. We got 14 folks or more out there tonight. We're joined by Taryn Gomez, first in the room. Chasing Ghosts is also out there. How you doing? Gun websites, uh, Mike Ballinger, Ron 2A Matters, Sariafan93, Chris Bulldog, Abigail Sorge Finnegan, Hillbilly Up, Viejo 2A, and Jamie JH5869 is the last new crew to roll into the room. Water, water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink is the first one that pops into my head. I said that before show when you told me what subject was going to be. The second The first thing that pops into my head is something that my mother said when I was growing up. She's from Missouri. Um, it's a Mark Twain quote, uh, water taken in moderation cannot hurt anybody. And then she would say my name because I was always going wanting soda or Kool-Aid or something like that, something besides water. So yeah, water and taken in moderation cannot hurt anybody. And, uh, yeah, and I dig that. Um, another couple things that popped into my head One of them, along with the Queens of the Stone Age song, was 'go with the flow.' People say that a lot. I'm pretty sure that's in reference to water. Um, and one of the things that about water that continues to amaze me, but it is just science and gravity kind of thing, liquid mechanics, um, follow the path of least resistance. That's another one that sometimes works into a quote or a strategy, even the path of least resistance. Bruce Lee, right on.
Yeah. So I didn't know. Yeah, well, no, I mean, so yes, in the, um, in the training, it's about flowing like water in that, like you said, the least resistance thing of it will just go around and through and under and over and around everything.
Um, water will beat you.
Yeah, it's like water wins every time.
And we have a I got it.
Yep, sorry, I'll put them up. Tag me. I'm not supposed to touch the keyboard to put anything up like this. Uh, DJ's in charge and I made the mistake of grabbing it. But be water. Yeah, and it's for all of those reasons, because water can do everything. And like I said, I had to step back with my annoyance and frustration of all the ice and the next month is going to be mud. But the icy, slushy mud right now is like, I can't have my students here because it's just that much of a disaster. So, but, um, yeah, I like the go with the flow and, um, just the fact that, you know, the Grand Canyon wasn't put there by someone digging. It was water.
Yeah, amazing that wind and water erosion can create such, um, incredible impact on substances as hard as a rock. I can also remember learning that when I was a kid. And I've learned more about this quote from Woods as I've aged— when it rains, it pours. And it seems like, uh, people are not using that reference when it comes to happy, positive things seeming to pelt them from every side. Yeah, yeah, I can relate to that one too, Woods.
Oh yeah, for sure. Well, he is a teacher, so it makes— all right, so yes, um, I have to laugh at that one because I didn't know. I have, um, I put a quote on a set of business cards, and I'm looking over there because I'm like, do I have any of them left? And, um, it's from the the collaborate portion of the song. And I just like pulled the quote and I didn't realize it was out of the Ice Ice Baby song.
Did you seriously have stop before that? Did you do the whole thing and it just was like in your head and you thought it was an original idea until you discovered that it wasn't?
No, no, no, it was just stop, collaborate, and listen. Um, yep, that there was another part of it, but it was when I first started testifying, which I get to go do on Wednesday, so y'all can wish me luck Wednesday. But it was, it was stop, collaborate, and listen. And I think that was kind of it. But it wasn't, it wasn't, I wasn't singing the song. It was just everybody stop, actually work together, collaborate, and then listen to one another is what I've had for why I had it on the thing. Sorry, I'm looking at G-Webs's next comment. Um, but see, I'm not touching. Oh, but yeah, I don't know. I've been seeing a lot of those. Have you been seeing any of those chalk drawings? It seems like I've seen memes of chalk drawings everywhere where the chalk drawing looks like it's actually a pit. Have you seen those, DJ?
No, ma'am, but I've seen, um, people with welcome mats at their door with a, like, a, uh, the optical illusion of there being a pit right in front. So I would imagine same concept.
Yeah, yeah, um, yeah, it's the funniest thing because, uh, the, that they're shorts, and I think they're on Facebook that I've seen them more than YouTube, where it's like it's literally like a bridge over a gully and people are just walking along, then all of a sudden they look down and they do like, ah, because it looks like it's got the depth, which I just don't understand how that works because optical illusions are one of those things from like perspective shift and drop shadows. Yep, all of that. And so it's like, yeah, I have no idea. I'd like to see something like that in person to figure out where you have to be to see the, the depth.
One of my favorite versions of that I've only seen it online, but I think it was in the UK somewhere. Someone at a dead-end street had painted, um, a barrel vault bridge on a, on a flat wall at the end of the lane with the coyote from, uh, Road Runner splatted next to it. And yet that village had like several people drive straight into it, and so they took it down. Oh, realism at a distance. Yeah, perspective shift, that's difficult.
Yeah. Oh yeah, and, um, she was with the cats. It— yeah, it's, it's the optical illusion of things. Oh, but of course, um, hiked the entire Grand Canyon rim to rim. It weren't no sidewalk drawings. But yeah, for those of you who haven't met Viejo yet, Walter is quite the outdoorsman. And, um, and does lots of things outside all of the time.
So anyhow, what an amazing walk that must have been. Oh yeah, what an amazing journey. That's not a walk, that's a journey, for God's sake.
Wow. There is that. There, there was, um, there, uh, there was a time I was actually just talking about today because I was talking to some New Yorkers and I went to school in Lake Placid, New York. And one of the big things we did at school was to— the goal was while you're during your time there was to get all 46 of the 46,000-mile or 4,600-foot peaks in the Adirondacks. And so, you know, part of going to 4th through 8th grade was to get all your 46ers and lots of hiking back then. I can't believe it was only a 24-mile hike. That's pretty crazy. But, um, yeah, Snake River Range, Grand Teton. Yeah, I've had some cool hikes. They— there, there have been some fun ones, all before I turned 20 though. That's been a long time since I've done any hiking. So also no, no 20— well, 24 miles, but not all in a day. Um, I don't know if Walter did it all in a day or not.
Yeah, the youth advantage there, I completely understand. I have not attempted anything near like the kind of energy, the robustness of my energy in my youth. Um, something I kind of miss these days, gotta say.
Yeah, yeah. Well, um, have you ever seen the movie Tag?
I don't think so.
All right, so my favorite line from Tag is, you don't get old— you don't stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing. Hence Walter has found the ultimate, um, fountain of youth because he's never stopped playing. So, but yeah, it is— it's crazy. It's about having perspective on the things that drive you crazy. Was my hope to give you guys all for tonight. Oh, I got to give a bunch of Walk the Talk America, uh, wristbands out today. Talk about that. Nice. Um, I think I have a banner in there for Walk the Talk America because again, I don't know if and who is new tonight.
I'll grab some of that. Okay.
Or not. I don't know. I don't remember. Um, so yeah, so my whole point for for tonight generally is the same thing every week. Talk about mental health, talk about suicide prevention, understand that you are the number one person who is in control of how you react to stuff, and the only way you become in control of that is to start being aware of it. And that's where the hard work is. That's the, ah, take that breath, and actually do something. Um, oops, I thought that you started a comment and I went to that, but it's now gone, so never mind. So, um, yeah, like I told you guys at the beginning, this is going to be a shorter one. Hey, but we've made it 20 minutes and DJ didn't have to talk that much. Um, Jamie, has never been further west than Houston. Oh, there it is. Oh yeah, so the stuff I gave out at the Women's Expo today was the wtt.org/love, where you can go and get a free assessment done. And it doesn't have to be for you, it can be something you do for yourself, it can be something that you're doing as if you were the other person you are concerned about. Because at the end of that assessment, there's also free additional resources.
So, ah, and links are in the text chat.
Okay, good job. Oh, on text chat on YouTube, just so you know, because he— that's where Mr. DJ is out in the real world while I'm just in here. And when I put stuff out, it goes to both YouTube and Facebook. Houston, Texas. Houston, I don't know. See, this is the challenge with traveling. So, all right, Mr. DJ, any last final comments or anything I forgot or something I should share? Let's see, gonna be at the Women's Expo tomorrow, finishing up that crazy RSO class that I did last weekend on Monday. I'm gonna go testify at the Capitol on Wednesday. Oh, and Massachusetts has lost their ever-loving mind and sent out an email on Thursday afternoon saying, hey, we need a curriculum from— for you guys that we may or may not approve. So that's the other thing I'm currently working on. So there's my— it's a little full this weekend and this week. So yeah, I got that going for me. So DJ, I'm gonna go now. You want to tell everybody for me?
I do. Thanks everybody for coming out again for another Mental Health Matters next week. If you can, bring a friend. After the show, uh, do me a favor, pause after it ends, wait for the reload symbol to appear, hit the reload dropdown. A quick comment will help the algorithm to recognize the, the good things, the importance of something like this. These discussions fly under YouTube's radar quite a bit, and it was another great one. Brooke, thank you for giving us your time. And Tarrant, Chasing Ghosts, Gun Websites, Mike Ballinger, uh, Ron 2A Matters, Sorry a Fan, Chris Bulldog, Abigail Sorcha Finnegan, Hillbilly Up, Viejo 2A, Jamie JH 5869, Woods 71, and other listeners in other times and places were here tonight. I hope y'all come back again. Thanks for being here. Hillbilly Up is going to have a chat coming up next. I'll drop a link in the text chat for that show. Until we see everybody else again, Remember, uh, water taken in moderation cannot hurt anybody. Have a good one, y'all.
