In this live “Suicide Prevention Saturday” session, host Brooke Cheney delivers a series of informal, spoken‑word flashcards aimed at reducing stress, fostering resilience, and encouraging compassionate interaction during a time of heightened anxiety. She opens with a brief explanation of the livestream format and acknowledges the challenges of discussing mental health across cultures. The core of the talk consists of a set of mindset principles presented as flashcards, each illustrated with personal anecdotes or everyday analogies: 1. Beginner’s Mind – embracing the unknown and avoiding the trap of expert certainty; 2. One Size Never Fits All – recognizing that coping strategies are personal and urging grace toward differing choices (e.g., mask use); 3. Multiple Perspectives – using a statistics‑survey example to illustrate that the same data can be framed in many ways, encouraging curiosity; 4. Focus on What You Want – a driving‑metaphor about directing attention to desired outcomes; 5. Speed, Failure, and Learning – the paradox of pushing faster to reveal limits, then iterating; 6. Failure as a Path to Success – stories of Babe Ruth, Sylvester Stallone, Tony Robbins, and Dean Graziosi to normalize failure and promote rapid iteration. Interwoven throughout are practical stress‑reduction tips (limiting news intake, breathing, “duck” metaphor) and a vivid personal story of stopping on a highway to push a stranded driver’s car, illustrating calm action under pressure. The session concludes with a call for mutual respect, freedom of choice (mask decisions), and a reminder that one can only control one’s reactions, not external events. Brooke signs off, promising another weekly session.
Chapters
Okay, hi everyone, this is Suicide Prevention Saturday and it is Saturday and I'm on YouTube and Facebook because on YouTube you can go back and watch it, whereas on Facebook I do them and they sort of get lost, except for when Facebook says, hey, you did this a year ago, share again. So there is that, and this is always where we Hi replay viewers, because you are the only ones who are here, although someone popped on. And I'm not gonna lie, I can't see that far right now. So Suicide Friends is Saturday because suicide sucks, and my name is Brooke Cheney and I'm here at a Great Start Shooting school, um, hence the bullets and stuff like that behind me. Mental health is hard to talk about, uh, depending on what culture you're from. It's like verboten, like no, don't talk about it ever. Um, and then in general, it's just not spectacular that people don't want to talk about stuff. So sorry again, I have too many screens going, so it's really exciting. So anyway, happy Saturday, and I'm looking for something because my thought is maybe I will be able to see comments easier. All right. Oh my goodness. So I look like a little— I don't know. Here. Oh wait, ready? There we go. Social distancing on the internet, just like that. Ta-da! Um, but no, seriously, I think that's kind of funny. All right, I'm amusing myself. I hope you're all amused as well. Oh man, Giuseppe is here. That's it, I need to stop because, you know, I just can't even handle that. Um, Steffi's hysterical, by the way. Um, so look, I have flashcards and I don't even know if they're backwards when you see them or if they're only backwards when I see them. So I'm going to read them backwards because I can. You guys got to let me know whether or not they are actually backwards when you see them because I don't know how to fix that. But anywho, um, favorite sayings, that's what I have right here. In today's, today's, uh, society where everybody is super smart and everybody knows the answers to everything because they know what is right and they know what is wrong, I am just here to remind us to all be humble and to remember that you do not know what you do not know. And, um, I had a student today because I am actually teaching currently, and we talked about beginner's mind, which is a Zen concept. And the idea is simply that when you don't know anything, the possibilities are endless of what you could learn. When you become an expert in something, your possibilities are smaller and less. So the idea of you don't know what you don't know Anyone who has majored in anything, anyone who has deep— done a deep dive onto something, into something regarding knowledge, chances are you understand this idea of you don't know what you don't know. Because my daughter and I were having a conversation and we were talking if I needed to know what a particular Pokémon's name was or what the Pokémon's evolution was, I would need to ask her because she knows all of the stuff about the Pokémon. I do not know the things about the Pokémon because I don't know the things I don't know. So why is this so important? Because some of you silly people still watch the news. And I say some because I know me personally, when I was pregnant with my kids, I stopped watching the news. Because it was too upsetting, and that was back in 2005. And I'm happier because I don't watch the news. So not knowing things sometimes is definitely a better thing. All right, next. If you've been here to my school before, you've heard this one, you've seen this one. It is one size never fits all. Try to remember that whatever your perfect thing is, however you like to do things, with or without masks, um, you know, one size is not for all. Be free, be happy, and realize that you need to have grace for people who don't want to live by your rules because you enjoy following your rules as much as the other person enjoys following their rules. And there is not a one size that fits all. There is not a one solution that is the best solution. The reality of is if you and I disagree on stuff together, we have a possibility of finding a best solution. Still no perfect. There is no such thing as perfection. Oh, that's one that I didn't put in here, which was perfection is the lowest standard. Um, but one size never fits all. You don't know where someone is at. Like when I was a teenager and I was suicidal, that would not be the time I would be doing something like this because that's not where I was in my journey. So have grace for yourself and understand that what's working for someone else may not work for you right now and vice versa. So do you. Do you see another one of the things I totally should have put up here, but I totally forgot. All right, next. There is always another way to look at a situation— oh, to look at something. Yeah, see, I can only read sort of backwards. So any piece of information you have, like, uh, one of the things someone asked on Facebook the other day was 'What was the most useful class you ever took in college?' And my answer was statistics. And he asked, 'Oh, how do you use statistics on a daily or weekly basis or monthly basis?' And I'm like, 'You use statistics because no matter what there is, you can always realize that there is another way to look at it.' Sample size, all sorts of crazy number-crunchy things, but also just perception. So I'll give you the example I remember from class all those years ago, which is if I have a— so one of the things they talk about is if you have a survey, and let's say I want to find out everyone's favorite color, and my survey is, what is your favorite color? And you fill in the blank. And then another survey question is, is your favorite color red? Now, in theory, both of those questions are trying to find out what your favorite color is. However, allowing you to choose what your favorite color is versus a yes/no question of, is your favorite color red, it gives you an idea that, you know, questions can be asked differently, questions could be answered differently. There's always another way to look at something. Because you have knowledge that someone doesn't, and someone else has knowledge that you do not. So be curious. That's really kind of the way to— don't assume you know everything. Try to be curious. Have that beginner's mind. Like I said, this is all because I taught today on my range. Yay! It was so lovely. Uh, the sun actually came out and everything. So always look at something from another angle. You get more of what you focus on. So again, back to why I stopped watching the news when I was, uh, in 2005 when I was pregnant. Because if you don't focus on the news, you don't get caught up in the news. And do you need to be educated? Sure, but you can do that really fast for about 5 minutes, and you don't have to be part of the news cycle in order to be, um, educated. So pay attention to what you are feeding your brain on a regular basis. I try to do lots of things, and, um, I'm not always successful. Hey Nikki! Um, hi Peter! There's my number one fan. Well, I'm sorry, there's— I've got lots of number one fans, so I can't say that about anyone, but Peter is actually pretty, pretty good. Um, so anyway, You get more of what you focus on. If you focus on everything that sucks, you really do get more of that. If you focus on what is good in the world, you do get more of that. Um, in our current situation, example is, uh, there's too many things to name that suck right now, so I don't want to focus on that. So I'm like, all right, what's awesome? Uh, all these people donating their time, all these people making stuff for people who need it, all these people doing the best that they can America being a great place to live because we do have ingenuity and places, um, people are doing the best they can and showing how adaptive they can be. So focus on what you want, not what you don't. One of my favorite stories, which I know from having been a go-kart racer, dirt bike rider, all of that, and been trained for, um, driving, is that if you are driving and your car starts to spin and you look where you don't want to go, even if you've not ever been trained, you will go to where you do not want to go. You must focus on where you want to go, because as long as you focus on where you want to go, you'll go there. Those of you who've done like gymnastics or diving or any of that, where your head goes, the rest of your body follows. So So your focus is like your head, where if you focus on something, that's where you're going to end up going. Hope that makes sense. All right, so because we're all having fun at home with our children and stuff like that, I've been playing Beat Saber. And, uh, for those of you who don't know what it is, go look it up. I'm not gonna explain. But one of the things that I find, and it's also true in the shooting sports, which is you have to go— the harder you try to go fast, the more likely you are to have to do it over again. Because like my, my, uh, there's so many tasks that I've done in my life where I'm like, I just gotta get through this, get through this, get through this. And I try to do it super fast and it doesn't work because I'm trying so hard to rush. And then I realize that because I tried hard and fast, it did not work out so well. And guess what? To every positive, there's a negative, because sometimes you need to go faster to slow down. This is also useful in video games and shooting. The example I have for you is simply that if I'm trying to improve my speed, I go faster than I can be successful. And I see what my body and my mind is capable of. And by going faster, as we call it, you know, going, you know, it's just going faster than I really can go, or trying in video games, trying at a higher level than I can actually accomplish. And then when I step back, all of a sudden I can do more because I tried harder. Yeah, I know it's backwards. I don't know. On YouTube, I think I'll be able to change it. So, but also, you know, it's good mind exercise. Read it backwards, you can figure it out. It'll stick better, I'm thinking. So, and thanks, Gina. So anyway, go fast. Go as fast as you can with something and then figure out how to do it better. And then failure is the only way to success. This is probably the most important one. This is the one that I have to remind myself all the time because I'm a huge failure. I screw up things all the time. I fail at things all the time. And, um, I fail because I am trying. I would not be successful if I did not fail over and over and over again. And I think so many people forget that in order to fail— in order to be successful, most people just have to fail more often than people who do not. And Babe Ruth is an example. He failed so many more times than he succeeded, and yet he has world records, or he had world records. Um, Let's see, Sylvester Stallone. If you've not ever heard the story, he was living on the street, had to sell his dog, um, before he got his break in Rocky, which was a film that— a script that he put together himself. Tony Robbins, one of the guys I follow, I talk to you guys about him from time to time. He was living out of his car at the 7-Eleven, and now he's like this mega crazy dude, millionaire, billionaire, whatever. Hey, Dom. So if you're not failing and learning from your failures, because yeah, just failing sucks, um, but you want to fail and learn from your failures and go forward. Because Dean Grazioso, who's another one, that guy that I talk to, talk about here on this thing often, is sometimes you just want to fail faster. It's like, keep trying stuff, keep trying stuff, keep trying stuff. And have faith. Don't— do as best as you can. So those are my things tonight. I had flashcards, even if they're backwards, uh, not really sure how to fix that. Hopefully I can do it on YouTube because Facebook is not editable. Editable. Yeah, okay. So there you have it. It's just mindset for Saturday night, things to think about amongst all the noise and the craziness that is currently going on. Don't get sucked up into the news cycle, and don't fight about it with people. Allow people to have their opinions. Allow people to do what they believe is the right thing to do, because you want to have that same grace given to you. So if you want to wear a mask, you wear a mask. If you don't wear— want to wear a mask, don't wear a mask. It's not freedom if you don't have the freedom to choose. We are in America and we are supposed to have freedom, and we need to have grace for one another. Everyone is stressed out of their minds right now. People are losing so much and the stress is so high And we need to really start stepping back, taking deep breaths. Think about the golden rule of do unto others as you wish done unto you. And it's not about making someone believe your side of the story or your point of view. It's allowing and believing in your point of view and allowing others to have theirs without having to change it. And I'm telling you this on Suicide Awareness Saturday simply for the fact that the The idea is lower your stress level, allow things, be the duck, let the water just roll off the back. Because the only thing you really control is how you behave. You control your reaction to stuff. It does not matter what is happening around you. It is up to you. I, uh, was driving home last night. And there was a car in the highway broken down, ran out of gas, I found out. So I've got my kid and our new dog in the car, and I pull into the median and I run back to where the car is stuck. I get behind the car and help the dude push his, push his car off the road because he's like smack dab in the highway. And you know, it's not good because I know I came up and I saw him like, holy crap, are you kidding me? So what happened then was I saw a guy in the middle of the road, pulled over, put my car in park, put my flashers on, jumped out of the car, ran back to the dude's car, got behind him, pushed the car over the median. And about an hour and a half later, my heart start— stopped pounding because that's the most running I have done in quite some time. And part of it was also the fact that I was running towards vehicles that were coming at me at 65, 75 miles an hour, and the stress level didn't actually kick in. So pay attention to your stress level, pay attention to your surroundings, do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, and know that the right thing for you may not be the right thing for somebody else. And that's all I got for tonight because you're all being all very quiet. You're just watching and not saying anything. So, um, try not to stress. Pay attention to the good things in life. Focus on what you can control, which is your reaction to stuff, not to the stuff that's actually going down. And do good things for yourself. And good night. And I will see you all next week.
