Suicide Prevention Saturday - Let's go outside

All right, so I'm live, but I need to do the thing that does the thing, so y'all just hold on a second. Oh, ta-da! Yeah, okay, that's not what I expected. All right, there we go. Hey everybody, uh, welcome to Suicide Prevention Saturday. We're having slight possible technical challenges, um, but you know, we'll work through it because one of the best things about life is being flexible when things are not going according to plan. And on quite a fair amount of our life in general, life does not go according to plan. So, uh, hi, this is Suicide Prevention Saturday. My name is Brooke Cheney. If you haven't been here before, I am the owner and instructor here at A Great Start Shooting School. And why every Saturday night since 2018 do I come on here and chat about mental health awareness and suicide prevention? Well, those of you who know, know what I'm going to say. Because 2 out of every 3 gun deaths that we talk about in the media, that 30,000 roughly number per year, 2 out of every 3 of those are suicides. And if we really want to save lives, we need to work on mental health and suicide prevention. Now, the additional bonus to that is the stuff that we do for mental health that helps suicide prevention also happens to work to help prevent violence. So I'm just saying we could make really good strides in a positive direction if we stop talking about firearms and instead talked more about mental health and ways to make our lives better. So this is week 2 of May and it is Mental Health Awareness Month. So we've sort of got us, um, we are actually talking about mental health health specifically. So I don't know where you live, but around here in New England it is getting warmer, at least a little bit. We have crazy weather in New England. It's like 40 degrees one day, 79 degrees the next day, 32 degrees, 70. It's just a little bit nuts. But we have some bright sunny skies out, followed by clouds, followed by sunlight, followed by darkness, because, you know, that's how the day goes, right? All right. So tonight we are going to talk about the importance of getting outside into the weather, whatever it happens to be. Now, there's lots of science out there that shows us what is what as far as sun and being outdoors and seeing the sun first thing in the morning. Oh, I didn't put that down. All right, so seeing the sun first thing in the morning, first 15 minutes of you being awake, if you go outside and go look towards the sun, obviously not into the sun, we just had eclipse not that long ago. Y'all have been told many times, don't look directly into the sun. But looking towards the sun for the first 15 minutes of your day actually helps create and reset your clock for being able to sleep well. So I know some people have challenges sleeping, but there are certain things that can help you. So one of the things that we want to talk about was, is getting outside into nature just helps improve your health. So just looking at this picture, right, I'm going to bring it up here a little bit more. So water usually makes us feel calm and quiet unless we're afraid of water. Being out in nature, nice big forest there on a nice quiet canoe. So if you can, The more you can be outside, the happier you're going to be. Why? Well, when we're outside, it helps improve our thinking, reasoning, and other mental abilities. It also improves our physical wellness. Oh wait, and here's another pretty picture. So for those of you who go hiking, when you get to the top of your hike and you look down a valley, you have a couple different things that are helping you which is you have a sense of accomplishment for the thing that you've done. You've moved your body, which also physically helps you. And then just your optic nerve being able to see something as expansive as the valley helps you as well. And then nature can help decrease anxiety levels and can help lessen stress and feelings of anger. Um, exercise helps with that, but it's even better if you're outside. And for those of you who've been with me for a long time, you know that I did a program called 75 Hard. And in 75 Hard, one of the deals was one work— you had to do 2 workouts, 2 45-minute workouts a day, but one of them had to be outdoors. And it really does help you. Now, there's so many studies out there. That was just one of them. All right, so DJ, this is where I have the question of, did everything get fixed? Can you hear me? Okay, because I'm like, I figured if I just talked for a bit that hopefully it would get all fixed. Um, so anywho, now that is all, um, yeah, all that's said, how about you say hi to everybody and I'll put you up front while I look at the comments and get caught up?

Oh, this sounds great. I'm gonna go from reverse order. Um, so out there in the text chat tonight, we have Viejo, we have Chris Broncato is out there, so is Chris from the 740 Chasing Ghosts. Is, uh, two-wheeling all over, all over Texas. Good to see her. Gun Websites is out there, so is Mike Ballinger. So you got the Crabby Turtle coming in from Maryland. We got East Coast well represented. And I do believe, Brooke, that you were the first one in the room. So it says, what, 12 people in the room? So there are a couple of lurkers out there. We care about you too.

All right, so yeah, that's true. Not— yeah, some people just come and watch and they don't say anything, but it's really funny and fun-ish is that, like, people who never comment, right? They're out here watching, but they never comment. And, like, I'll see them in live, and it was like, oh yeah, I saw your show on Saturday. And I'm like, okay, you can say hi, you can, it's all right. But, um, it's all good. So yes, uh, I love chasing ghosts. Um, what exactly goes according to plan, or at least the first one? Yeah, one of the things that really does actually help your mental health is having flexibility. It's like, yes, we have to have plans, but when stuff doesn't go wrong, our ability to be flexible— and this goes back to a little bit of why does being in nature help us? Well, being flexible is one of those things that we see in nature, right? There aren't any straight rivers, there aren't any straight paths. Nature works itself around everything that's in nature, right? Uh, everyone who's ever watched a sci-fi movie, right, in the future when like everything has come to an end, what happens? Well, the plants take over and the plants win because they get in all little cracks and they just grow. So our plans don't usually happen the way we expect them to. And that's the other thing that's always interesting or fun. It depends on your sense of humor as to whether it's fun, but, um, it's just, yeah, we have a plan, doesn't go according to plan, we make a turn, we go that way, we make another turn, we go that way. One of the things they talk about in pilot school is you're never going directly straight, even when you're in a plane, you're constantly correcting and making changes. So What else did I see anything? Oh yeah. So bedroom facing east is awesome. And then outside, like, there we go. Walk, hike, paddle or something every day. Well, that is awesome. When I was doing 75 Hard, I'd go for a 45-minute walk every single day, and that was totally the thing that I did. And you really do notice things. Now, I don't know how many of you have ever just sat and literally watched the grass grow. I've never actually seen grass grow, just so we're clear, but just sat and like looked at the grass. And it's one of those things where I do— I have done this, right? So it's like I'll sit down on the ground and I'll look at the grass. And then if you start looking at the grass, you start seeing that it actually moves on a fairly regular basis, whether it's windy or not. And then you start seeing all the little bugs and stuff that are crawling around under there. And then you notice like, oh, wait a second, there's little tiny flowers that are growing up in between them. But that's assuming you're not in one of those manicured lawns because we don't have one of those. So Just noticing, um, sorry, I'm looking for my next article that I have and I need to make it a little bit bigger so y'all can at least see it maybe a little better. All right, so back to more article stuff. Oh, and DJ, I don't know if you can see them or not, but in the private chat in StreamYard, let me know if you can see the links that are there because you'll be able to just cut and paste them. And I'm not sure if you can see them or not.

So in the text chat or the back chat?

In the back chat, the private chat, because I put them all up before you logged on, but then you came on and off, so I'm not sure if you get to see them or not. So, all right, uh, how else can nature benefit my mental health? Spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical well-being. Doing things like growing food or flowers, exercising outdoors, or being around animals can have a lot of positive, positive effects. So those of you who have animals— like Tara, I know, has a cat right now, I think. Or did the cat just die? So horrible that I don't know. Sorry about that, Tara. But, um, so having cats, having dogs, petting those animals Being outdoors reduces feelings of stress, anger, you feel more relaxed, self-esteem, be more active, reduces loneliness. So how does being outdoors reduce loneliness? Well, it's been about 100 years that we have lost contact with nature. In the 100 years ago, so 1911, 1911, sorry, I don't know what year it is. 1925, there were a couple cars around, but most everybody still was working with horses and buggies and farms, and that was really how people lived. And now with so many cities getting so much bigger, and we generally are very far removed from Earth, and so just being outdoors out in a field or in the woods or something along those lines, you get connected and you realize that you're not alone. I could get all metaphysical on y'all, but I'm not going to do that today. But it is amazing how it's like even when you're by yourself, but you're out in a field or in the woods or on the lake. I don't know where Viejo goes. I don't know if he's on the coast or not. So we're on the ocean. The ocean. Ocean. For those of you— I know, DJ, you and I have had this conversation before where, um, you're jealous because I have ocean and you do not have ocean.

Yes, ma'am. I am in nearly the center of the country. I think the actual one is in Kansas, so I can't claim it, but, uh-huh. Yeah, there are a lot of things that you've been saying so far that I'm just— I, I wish that I had, but I find myself satisfied by seeking out the opportunities that are here. But yeah, It's a drag that Nebraska is no coast. Yuck.

But, but, but there's still bodies of water. You still have lakes and ponds you can go to.

Indeed.

You sell rivers, uh, streams, all of that, right?

Well, the, the Missouri River is the border between Nebraska and Iowa. And as a matter of fact, I saw that river today. I wasn't trying to be— I wasn't trying to meditate or stop to look. That's another thing. Sometimes we pass by inspirations from previous things. And if you don't write that down or you don't pursue it, you might not have that memory again. And so I actually reinforced today, if I may, I reinforced today, um, a couple of things that you've been talking about. The sun— today is the warmest day of the year, and we too have the bounce up, bounce down. We're having hail today, you know, storms tomorrow, and the sun comes out and it gets damn near 80 degrees.

Yeah.

And I also, the med— you know, the meditation, and it wasn't intentional. I wouldn't have thought to use that word at the time, but I was at a local business and I was sitting outside on their patio and I just tuned into 2 blocks worth of traffic. To my right, that's where the signal stoplight was. To my left, places that I was familiar with. So it was in a neighborhood that is being rejuvenated.. And I didn't marvel, but I, I definitely was stoked. I'm looking at this and it used to be empty. I'm looking at this and this used to be a numismatist shop, these bars, that restaurant kind of thing. And normally, well, usually I will complain about gentrification. I want the old stuff. I want the stuff that, you know, matches what not only my memories are but what I can use materialistically, or we're talking about spirit now, to my advantage. So those two blocks on 13th Street for about half an hour were soothing. And believe, traffic and the slowdown, speed up because of the traffic light— there was a couple— there were a couple of people around me and I started conversations. Uh, Barbecue thinks I'm completely weird to talk to strangers, you know, just like start a conversation, but I'm gregarious and I'm out front. And so today I had the opportunity to talk to somebody about the Second Amendment. I had the opportunity to talk to somebody about motorsports, and I heard not stories, but brief— they were relating, you know, kind of brief things that I related to as a Nebraskan. And so we talked then about Nebraska and I need to wrap this up because I could go on forever, but for, for real, um, but that traffic was— that was a meditation. Also looking at the materials of the buildings, just spacing out on bricks. Now, because I'm no coast, that, that's how I satisfied my situation there. But you're right about the river, you're right about the sun, and you're absolutely right that I am envious of your ability to do a short hop and see a large— but to see an ocean, right?

So, well, I mean, the, the fun thing, like, is like the sun is always shining down on us through the clouds or not, and just the outdoors in general. Now, while you were continuing, where you were chatting about stuff though, I was getting caught up, trying to get caught up on, on comments. And, uh, Syria fans, like, nature helps me. I have a cat. I collect crystals, like to walk whenever we get the chance. And I definitely think that it's so funny because like crystals are part of the earth and so you get all different colors, textures. Matter of fact, I have a rock on my desk and it's just a smooth rock. It actually has— oh wait, it says quality on it. But when I have fidgety students, sometimes I'll just hand them the rock and they can just like hold it and do something with their hands and it helps ground them. So even if you don't have— I mean, so yeah, so it's like having crystals and being able to try different parts and pieces. Sorry, I hit the wrong thing. So Viejo, I guess, does 6 miles from the Pacific. So yeah, he can go paddling in the ocean. So that is always fun. I'm kind of kind of agreeing with Tara as far as if you have to put clothes on to check the mail, your neighbors are too close. And, and I can live near the city, but not in it. Most of us, I think, that are what I call country mice, we would not want to live in the city. And it goes vice versa. But I find that more people that are in the city who come out to the country, like, oh, this is what I've been missing. But not all of them, because I have friends who would never ever leave a city. And that's mainly because they don't have driver's licenses.

I'm one of them, honestly. I know that it's going to change, as some things have, because I'm aging. And I do eventually want to have a spot that is past suburbia even. And I've known that about myself for a while, but growing up in farmland kind of thing, I am nearly sick to death. I mean, I can only look at so much corn, so much wheat, you know, so many cows or you know, pigs or whatever, and that, that thirst— oh wow, water and thirst— for bodies of water that I don't have is grounding. I'm— I don't know where I'm going, man. I'll pass it back to you. No, I wanted to bring this, but I want—

yeah, it's all good.

I wanted to bring this to the screen. This is Chris Brancato.

Yeah, agreed. Some change is good, but home needs to stay the same in some ways, right? I mean, and and we always change and we always grow. I'm going to bring up one more article that I pulled up, and this one is Nurtured by Nature from our American Psychological Association. Time in nature can improve our mental health and sharpen our cognition. One of the things I'm reading right now is a book. It's a fiction book, but it's talking about fractals and all sorts of fun stuff. And fractals are just something that repeats itself over and over again, getting smaller and larger. So when we look at a tree, for example, if you look at a tree, you see the stem, and then you see all the branches and the leaves. But then when a leaf falls from that tree, you look at the leaf, and now you see a stem and all of the branches, i.e., the veins of the leaf, and so on and so forth. And it gets smaller and smaller and larger and larger. And if you were able to see into the ground, you would see the same thing all over again. So here is the brutal truth here about us, us folks here on the YouTubes. How much time do you spend staring at a screen each day? For most Americans, that number clocks in at more than 10 hours according to a 2016 Nielsen Total Audience Report. And I know some of us, it's even worse than that, and some of us it's a lot less. But they are just talking about the research that's been done that just the benefits for physical and psychological human well-being is about going outside, being outside, taking the— just taking the walk of being outdoors. So cognitive, you're smarter when you spend more time out in the woods. You have more fun. Nature generally brings you much more happiness. And goodness knows, I don't know, uh, we could— most of us could use a little more happiness in this world. So these were just a couple things I wanted to bring up for those of you who caught my really kind of short stream earlier this week. I don't remember what day it was, but I did streaming my stream on YouTube. I meant to make a little short for you guys, but I came up on live instead. So DJ, I see there's been a couple more folks who popped in and said hi. Are you keeping track so you could help me out?

I am. Do you want that? Would you like that revised roll call or shall I wait to the end?

Oh no, you just go right ahead because I think we should be done relatively soon.

All right, so, uh, new people in the room I see. Sorry, fan out there, good to see you. C&T Designs and Arms Coop, what's up? Gizzard Gary is out there. We got Chris from the Seven 40. Oh hey, Buck is in here. We got Tactical Fudd. Let's see, I have to scroll up to do this. I was actually compiling the list as you passed it to me.

And Ghost Tactical— I have the worst timing, what can I say?

Ghost Tactical is out there as well. Let's see, I'm going to scroll just a moment more and I will make that— there we go. I think I'm complete. If I didn't get you— oh, here comes jh586. Hey Jamie! So last in the room there, and I pass it back to you.

Very cool. All right, so, all right, so hi Jamie, hi everybody. CNT, Coop, uh, yeah, Gizzard, and who else I see? Yeah, all the things that DJ just said. I don't know why I'm going back for it, but it was one of those things. I haven't seen Ghost in here in a while, so that's what I'm like. Oh yeah, nice to see you, man. I haven't seen you. It was very cool, by the way. Speaking of getting out of places and going places, going to SHOT Show and getting to see so many folks live and in person was really a lot of fun. And I realize that's months ago, but, um, if that is— it is what it is. All right, so outside, get outside, do something. I don't care what it is that you do out there. You can be like me and sit on the ground and literally watch the grass and watch the bugs crawl around and realize that there's smaller cosmoses and then bigger cosmoses. Oh, depending on where you were, uh, did any of you guys see the Aurora Borealis last night around 2 AM, 3 AM? I don't know, DJ, you don't sleep, you might have seen it.

I did. Oh, did you? Yeah, that's a rare thing for us, and I've seen Northern Lights from where, you know, where they are, where they originate, sort of thing, and that was just fantastic, unbelievable kind of thing to watch. But we get a little bit. I didn't go outside of town though, so The light pollution killed a lot of it for me. But yeah, pass it back to you.

So, all right, so anyway, so the whole point of today, Mental Health Month of May, is each week I'm going to be dropping something else with mental health. So tonight it was get outside, playtime, playtime in nature. Go for a walk, sit, put your feet in a stream, do something so you're helping reconnect to the earth. Um, in that again, it's only been about 100 years that we've disconnected from being a farming, agricultural, hunting society, and it is not doing good things for here and here. So, um, it's one of those things like Jamie— I'm gonna pick on him a little bit, not picking on him, but, um, you know, as a pastor, it's like one of the things when you look up, like if you just take your eyeballs and look up towards the ceiling you feel more of a sense of awe and connected to the heavens. But if you're just in a building like this and you look up there, you still feel that. But go ahead, y'all, go outside. Just go outside and look up if it's not raining. If it's raining, it's a little bit yucky. But it is just like that connection to God, that connection to the universe, whatever it is that makes you happy. Just looking up while you're outdoors. You can do it inside, but it's way better to go outside. Taking a breath of nice fresh air. To be fair, right now, if those of you who, uh, are struggling with allergies and stuff, not so awesome here in the east. We have lots of pollen right now, but there's still lots of fun stuff to do. So for your mental health and my mental health, just being aware of knowing that going outside for a little bit and spending time in nature one way or another, whether it's planting your garden, picking your garden, weeding your garden, going for a walk in the woods, taking the cat for a walk. I don't know. I see people do that. There's just so many benefits. And here's even more fun. If you're feeling alone and separated, invite somebody else to go for a walk with you. So that is kind of what I have for you guys. I'm glad you're all out there chatting and saying hi to each other. Buck, nice to see you. Jamie, C&T. I'm just going to go like, oh, Gizzard Gary. That's who I can see on my screen right now. So with all of that, resources always, 911. If you got any issues whatsoever, it's not just mental health. If you know somebody who's got mental health issues, by all means, you can call 211, or our newest federal one at 988. Oh, and I don't know, DJ, I think that is kind of what I got for everybody tonight. Make sure everybody pops in and says hi to our buddy Hillbilly Up's channel. That's going to be at the top of the hour, and I figured Jamie will be there at the very least. I don't know who else here. Uh, because they're Gary, probably all of that. I, on the other hand, going to bed because— oh yeah, wait, I gotta, I gotta I gotta find that. Somebody said happy Mother's Day, so I want to say thank you for that. But do I find that to put that up? Uh, DJ, you got it. I don't know where it went. Someone said happy Mother's Day, so— oh, there it is. C&T, gotcha. All right, so because tomorrow's Mother's Day and I am still working and teaching tomorrow because we have to, because there's lots of silly things in Connecticut and we're trying to get people permits as quick as possible So happy Mother's Day to the mothers out there watching, and next month I'll say happy Father's Day to the fathers that are out there watching because we got a month for that. And that is all I've got. DJ, are you ready to do your normal goodbye?

I am. I'm just grabbing things to put out there in the text chat, and so I couldn't respond to you just now. I'm sorry I wasn't able to do that. Yeah. Once again, if I miss— have missed anybody, because this is a scattered sort of thing for me as I'm in temporary quarters, uh, Crabby Turtle was out there, Mike Ballinger as well, Viejo, nice to see you, man. Chasing Ghosts is out there, uh, Chris from the 740, dude, nice to see you too. Sorry, Fan Gear Websites, Ghost Tactical, Tactical Fudd. I got Gizzard Gary, and Jamie is out there, and I think if I scroll up I might find somebody that I missed because I feel like it was more. C&T, hey man. Coop, sorry I missed you, man. I think that that's your roll call.

All right, well, with that, I'm gonna say good night to y'all. See you next Saturday. Thanks for popping in. Uh, DJ had a lovely little thing saying thank you. If you're brand new, uh, subscribe, those things, which I forget to say all the time. For those of you who pop in all the time, thank you for coming and encouraging me to show up every Saturday night, because if you were not here, I would not be here. And I hope this is helpful. And if I think of it, I will edit the thing to have all the links of those articles I was looking at. All right, y'all have a lovely, spectacular evening. Looking forward to seeing you all next week. And any ideas, comments you want to hear about, let me know. And, uh, enjoy Hillbilly's, uh, thing at the top of the hour. Night, everybody. Oh yeah.