Why Does Mental Health Mean?

Hi, folks. How are you today? I'm just gonna give this about 5 seconds and let who's ever able to attend. Come on in. 54321. Hey, there. My name is Nick the poet, and I am a creative coach here at Cadre. I'm also a person who is in long term sobriety and mental health recovery. And today I wanted to talk about what mental health means to me, and also some actionable tips that you can use for your own mental health or share with loved ones, family, friends in your life who are going through mental health issues.

And it doesn't take, necessarily, having to be in sobriety recovery or have a diagnosed mental health issue to worry about your own mental health and to work on it. And so one thing is, I do like to say mental health now, as opposed to mental illness, and I think that's still up for debate with a lot of different clinicians. But mental health has a more positive aspect to it. And I know after, you know, I received a mental health diagnosis in my early twenties, and it was referred to as a mental illness, it did change things in my mind.

It made me feel less than in some ways, and it took, you know, quite some time to recover from that. So I prefer the term mental health, but it's certainly something to discuss and. And study further. And so, you know, for me, my mental health and healing journey has been, you know, long and powerful, and I've just been really lucky to meet great people along the way. And so that's one of the first tips that I have, you know, for to recommend to one of your family, friends, or loved ones who, you know, may be struggling with mental health diagnosis.

I'm sorry about that. My camera. Okay, I'm gonna. Okay, there we go. My. My gimbal fell apart there. My tripod. But we will. We will continue. It's a good mental health challenge. You need to improvise and. And adapt to challenges as they arise. But certainly, you know, we want to connect with a professional or a therapist and, you know, really, you know, get down to the root causes and issues and someone to stay consistent with and to give you the tools that you need to succeed. And one of the greatest things that my first therapist gave me was this idea of staying within the range of stability within, you know, I might get up a little high and excited sometimes, and I might get a little bit low and depressed sometimes, but if I'm able to stay within this range, I can keep getting enough sleep.

I can show up for work, I can show up for my loved ones and so this idea of stability, I think, is really big for mental health. And the things that help me do that are having a consistent routine, exercise, meditation, you know, seeing my therapist and my support groups on a regular basis, getting enough water, you know, not overworking, staying balanced. These are all things that help my mental health. And a second tip that I have for you is to potentially join some sort of a support group. Now, this could be an informal group of friends just trying to, you know, keep each other accountable with their mental health.

It could be, you know, through a hospital, it could be through a community, it could be a twelve step program. But I think it's really important to stay connected. And we can learn, you know, the therapists and professionals can play such an important role, but there's nothing like having those peers who are going through the same issues and we can feel that relatability and that connection with them, and it's just crucial. And it's. It reminds us also that it's over, okay to not be okay. You know, it's okay if we can share with others, like, hey, I am really struggling right now.

And, you know, there's a quote that no man or woman, no person is an island, right? And we're not meant to be off on our own struggle. We need to stick together. And nowhere is it more important than with our mental health, you know? Cause that connection is what saves us. And the isolation is, you know, is what is really problematic. And my third tip is that lack of expression can lead to depression. And so we need to have ways to be human and to emote. And that can look so different for different people.

For me, it's poetry, it's creativity, it's exercise. For other people, it might be watching their favorite sport team, it might be fishing, bowling, it could be ballroom dancing, it could be just listening to music. It could be doing just nothing, you know, for the day. Sometimes the imagination works slowly and quietly, and we just have to have those times of boredom to relax and, you know, recuperate. And, you know, I used to have a poem that started with the thing about the mind is that when it's on the grind, it might never stop.

And that's how I felt when my mental health was out of whack. My mind's just going and going, but there's. There's nothing I could do. But now I've learned through being on this healing mental health journey that there's so many tools that are in my toolkit that I can use when I'm feeling out of sorts. I can call a friend, you know, from one of my support groups. I can talk to a professional. I can go for a walk. I can exercise. I can meditate. There's all these very proactive things that I can do for my mental health.

And if I'm just not feeling okay, I can reach out and say that, too. So here's what I want you to do. If you can, over the next week, try out one of these techniques, whether whether it's you or a loved one, you know, connecting with a professional, joining a support group of some type, and figuring out how you can express yourself in a positive manner. So those are my tips. I hope you have an awesome weekend. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'm Nick the poet. This is Cadre. Have an amazing day.

Bye.