My Favorite Bit of Information From The Week:
| Surfing and Mental Health |
| Ted Talk from Waves For Change Founder Tim Conibear South African Leaders and Mentors on Waves For Change |
I found a Ted Talk on how surfing has the potential to help us with mental health this past week. I enjoyed this talk and found it inspirational for a few reasons: 1. The project that the speaker mentions, Waves For Change (W4C), is a grass roots organization started just like this community. 2. The talk addresses the fact that we need to start finding more affordable ways to say it’s O.K not to be O.K. It can be incredibly challenging to find a therapist or psychotherapist that you love and can afford in the states, but it can be truly impossible in other countries. Waves for change is based in South Africa. The project started in a town where there was an average of 8 traumatic incidents per year for each child, 60,000 people, two social workers, and no psychologists. Now, I am a huge fan of therapy, therapy has saved my life. But I also believe it is important to identify other, more affordable and more accessible means of aiding mental illness or mental heath in general. We are slowly getting to the point that we see the value of offering affordable mental health care for everyone, but we are still a long was off. I do have a list of affordable therapy options on my website, but even that can be inaccessible for some folks. As we continue to get our shit together as a community let’s keep finding other ways to be O.K with not being O.K. What If I Cannot Surf? Surfing itself isn’t an option for all, but going to a body of water is usually affordable. Just being outside and near the water, or trying something you might not normally try, offer the same benefits as the tests shown in the studies done for the surfers. My past posts on swimming and cold water immersion also pair nicely within this topic. Talking Helps Another element of the research done in the Ted Talk shows how much it helps just to talk to someone who will not judge you, a community of people who also believe it is O.K not to be O.K. Hope For The Day offers this with free events every month. I love going to these events because they are so supportive and they truly feel like a safe space to me. The following are a few of my favorites events they have coming up. If you are not in Chicago, they also offer free online resources! Should you have a hard time finding supportive groups in your community, please reach out and I will do my best to help. 1. Conversations Cafe, a free mental health podcast hosted at Sip Of Hope coffee bar on Thursday March 19th. All baristas here are trained in mental health CPR and are usually open to chat if you want to talk. 2. Monthly PeerVention Workshop: PEERvention is Hope For The Day’s shorthand for Peer-to-Peer Proactive Suicide Prevention. The PEERvention Workshop is designed to educate you on the obstacles, tools, and strategies to enable proactive and effective mental health care as individuals and communities. I have taken this course before and it is incredible, empowering, and free! The next one is April 18th. 3. The Annual Humboldt Mile! To register for this race it is 15 dollars, but if you just want to come and cheer folks on it is free! This is one of my favorite community events I have attended for Hope For The Day. Registration is open now for the June 6th event. |
Update On My Show:
| Hope to see you all THIS COMING MONDAY! One Woman Hamlet will be performing at Nasty, Brutish & Short: A Puppet Cabaret on March 16th! I will be performing the Gertrude and Hamlet scene from act three with a twist! This is an excellent way to support One Woman Hamlet while also supporting other amazing puppeteers from around the city! Tickets and more information can be found on Rough House Theater’s Website. Rough House is an incredible puppet based company in Chicago, they are worth investigating whether you are free for the Cabaret or no. |