My buddy Gavin has written a great post about this new initiative to get men to accept that it’s OK to soften up and admit when things aren’t going well.
I met with one of the founders Ehon Chan last week and had a fabulous chat with him about the issues we (men) face and how ‘Soften’ is attempting to change things. It’s related to the decision behind why Raz, Robbie & I started Riding4aCause. I hope theres an opportunity to combine the 2 in the future!
I am once again doing my bit to raise the awareness of mental health issues by embarking on a 7,000km motorcycle ride to the red centre of Australia. I participated in this ride last year with my Riding4aCause buddies and loved it because I met new people, got to ride my bike and found out first hand more about the illness known by many as ‘The Black Dog’.
I am a strong believer that we need to talk more about the things that truly matter in our lives. Men, in particular, seem to miss opportunities to share their thoughts and feelings on topics that are important – families, relationships, money, and how they’re coping with the many changes going on in society today.
In every conversation I have, I urge people to share their stories, to discuss what’s important in their lives with the ones that matter to them most and to let go of any fears they may have of opening up about their thoughts, feelings and emotions. There’s enough to worry about in this world and keeping things inside is not the way to live and stay healthy. It’s the self-same philosophy behind MyProactiveLife that’s truly changed my life over the past few years. I hope that in everything I do I continue to have a positive effect on people, no matter where they’re at in the journey of life.
What I expect from this year’s ride:
To enjoy the ride and stress less than last time ’round.
To affect each and every person I come into contact with through my blog, Facebook, Twitter, and ask them to begin sharing more of themselves with the people that matter in their lives.
To connect with people on a deeper level to understand how they dealt with/are dealing with depression
I recently applied to have my drivers licence renewed at the RTA (Roads & Traffic Authority), and as part of the process, another photograph needed to be taken. I’ve gladly submitted a smiley, happy face in the past and thought this would be no exception, until I heard the words: “No Smiling, please”
I wasn’t sure I heard the lady properly, so continued to smile, until I heard her say: “No smiling, please. As part of our new facial recognition system you cannot smile”
What?!? I cannot smile? I’ve made it a feature of almost any picture taken of me that I absolutely DO smile! I was immediately transported to the the scene in “Validation” (see below) where Hugh Newman was asked not to smile and shown the poster that stated: “Absolutely NO smiling, smirking, humor or general gaiety permitted“. I honestly felt like I’d been transported right into the movie in the place of Hugh Newman! 🙂
My new pic
I stuck with my charming smile with the lady at the RTA, but she was having none of it! Once my photo had been taken, I spoke with her and she said that the facial recognition software worked best with a neutral face, not a smiling face. I am not sure I had my ‘best’ neutral face on for the picture but am happy with the result, in light of things – see for yourself with the picture at left. *cheeky grin*
I checked out the information on the RTA website, and sure enough, here’s what is says:
I LOVE the short film Validation and urge you to spend the 14 mins to watch it through. I found it extremely inspiring and try my best to make other people feel better each and every day.
On Friday 10th June 2011, I am going for a walk; but not just any walk.
walking...
I decided that when I had the time I would go for a walk to see how far I can go within a certain time. Rather than plan, plot, scheme, re-plan, deliberate, discuss and re-re-plan, I’ve decided to just go for a 10 hr walk this Friday and see how far I can go (roughly the amount of daylight available in Sydney at the moment). It’s been dubbed the Freaky Friday Footslog.
This walk is going to be the first fundraising activity I undertake to support my participation in the Black Dog Ride 2011. All donations will go to the Black Dog Institute to fund their ongoing research into mood disorders such as depression and bipolar.
There won’t be much in the way of structure to this walk but I do have some guidelines:
I aim to meander through suburbs and stop for rest breaks as & when needed
I will carry food & water with me, but may stop for a hot chocolate somewhere along the way
I should be able to keep a sustained walking pace of 5km/h, for a distance of 40-50km (factoring in breaks, traffic lights, major road crossings, etc.)
And in the theme of throwing planning out the window, at the moment I have no idea how I will get home.
Let me know if you’d like to join me or recommend any suburbs to try and wander through (and don’t forget to donate if you can! :-))
ADDENDUM: 5:30pm Friday 10th June:
I’m back from the walk! Here are the stats on what I achieved today. Unfortunately you can’t see the entire route as the app crashed after approx 28km, but The big numbers first:
28km in 4:37:55 avg pace 9:56 min/km (the big part)
1.3km in 12:47 avg pace 9:49 min/km (this was ‘rushing’ to get some lunch 😉 )
9.98km in 1:39:03 avg pace 9:55min/km (the return journey to 3pm)
Total: 39.28km in 6:29:45 avg pace 9:54min/km.
My legs are sore, and so are my feet, but I feel good for doing it.
I did not reach the 40km mark but believe I can do better next time with a different pair of shoes and better weather at the end.
“Oh, my ways are strange ways and new ways and old ways, And deep ways and steep ways and high ways and low, I’m at home and at ease on a track that I know not, And restless and lost on a road that I know” – Henry Lawson
As a result of having some time on my hands, for the foreseeable future I have a new meeting to attend on Monday mornings – helping out for an hour in Mr6’s Year 1 class. I help the students with an activity known as ‘Recount’ – where the kids write an account of what they did on the weekend.
Last week was my first foray into the class and I enjoyed my trip, but suspect the students enjoyed it even more! They were genuinely excited to have someone else in the class to help them with their work. One of the girls did seem to act up a little more than usual and had to be given 2 warnings!
The biggest thing I noticed was the spread of capabilities inside one classroom – there are kids who have trouble with their spelling and sentence structure and others who are quite good at putting their weekend into words. I wonder whether this is an isolated case or whether this can be found in every class in every school in every state across our country. I hope that my presence in the class is both welcoming and helpful to the students, many of whom I already know by name!
I feel honoured to be able to provide a small contribution to the development of our future generation, and recommend it to any parent out there. 🙂
I came across this post a couple of weeks ago and felt compelled to share it with you. Take the time (about 10 mins) to read the entire post to understand the full extent of the message behind the words. This paragraph caught my eye, and along with my posts on crashing my motorcycle, part 1 & part 2), underpin just why I’m doing what I do whilst I can:
As mentioned, do yourself a favour and read the entire post. It may make you cry, but I believe it’s a fabulous post from someone who’s been able to share his thoughts up until the very end. Derek passed away on May 3rd, 2011.
EDIT 2nd June, 2011 (you’ll need tissues!) : Derek’s wife Airdrie has posted a follow-up post, and I urge you to read it for her reply and to find out more about Derek. I’m not sure we’ve ever had the privilege to get both sides of such a wonderful story – My heart goes out to anyone who has lost their soulmate or someone immeasurably precious.
I am doing my best to live each day deliberately, and with a goal of each day being better than the previous. How am I doing? How are you doing? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
As you may know, I took an opportunity to change my working situation (Many of you knew this – if not, you can read my goodbye message). In this former role I worked from home and had a fairly steady routine (even if I had been up until 2am on conference calls, or up for a conference call at 5am), and part of this routine was to drink 1-1.5L of water per day.
There’ve been days recently where I’ve felt ‘flat’ and didn’t have the usual amount of zing that I regularly have. For the most part my routine is now different, granted; but I am eating the same food, going to bed at the same time, and waking at the same time, so something else was missing – I wasn’t drinking enough water!
I am looking forward to what’s ahead both professionally and personally, and am relishing the opportunity to explore the wide world and where I could go next. However, I now need to ensure I drink enough water during the day to keep me on top of things!
Some of the benefits of getting enough water and staying hydrated:
Improves mental clarity
Improves organ functions (such as the heart, brain, kidneys, muscles and joints)
Improves circulation
Improves digestion
My recommendation for drinking water each day:
If you know you need to get away from the desk at regular intervals, fill up a large glass and refill it when you see it’s empty. This works well when the tap is some distance from your desk 🙂
If you don’t need to get up, fill a large water bottle (like mine, pictured) and top up a glass/cup each time it’s empty. I make an effort to empty the bottle by lunchtime.
One note: There’s conjecture out there about not drinking before or during mealtimes as the water can dilute your stomach acid and slow digestion. I don’t usually drink during meals anyway but recommend you do what feels natural.
I read Should We Buy Expensive Wine earlier today and was struck by something that seems so innocent and simple, yet can help us all understand a little more about how we use our brains. Here’s the segment of the post by Jonah Lehrer (highlights by me):
I know there are many who don’t think hard enough about how we use our brains, and once I read this (specifically about experience and sense) it clicked for me as to how we take our senses for granted in how they shape our thoughts. Senses take in the ‘real’ – what is seen, heard, etc from the outside world. The brain needs to firstly process this information, then experience comes into play to help shape what we think – in this case, cost has been shown to alter the ‘perceived’ taste of the wine.
Be careful next time you ask someone for their ‘experience’. You may get more than you bargained for! 🙂
The world often conspires in ways to being things to your attention, and I feel that acknowledging these things is important to help spread the message. Here follows 3 tweets/blog posts that made me stop and think. Hard. About life, love and those that mean so much to us.
On Monday, I saw a tweet about The Last Post, read the first paragraph and stopped what I was doing to let it soak in. I have read a little more of the blog post in the past 2 days but not digested it all (yet).
Tonight, I saw another tweet from Sara Lucas (aka SassLucas), doing her bit to try and enrich the women & children of the world, and traced the tweet back to it’s owner, a lovely lady called Eden Riley:
Eden’s blog post (Every Little Thing) is a real, moving story about the passing of her friend Vee’s husband one year ago. After reading the post, I then followed the link to Vee’s story titled Why You Where Here. Equally real, moving and a lovely tribute to one of the most important things in her life. I think both Eden and Vee are awesome, brave and courageous to share their stories.
ADDED 12th May: I could not let this one slip. I saw a tweet from my wonderful friend Francie Jones earlier today which fits right into the theme here of loss and living your life. Ben Pobjie recently wrote of his experience with depression (aka the Black Dog) in a post titled Crumple Zone. (Many of you will remember the Black Dog Ride I participated in as a member of Riding4Cause in September 2010). It’s but a small way we can begin to see what it’s like from the inside, from someone who’s been to the brink of suicide. It’s a powerful post that brought tears to my eyes and I offer it here as part of the theme of “living your life”.
Life is a cycle. Things happen, they happen to everyone at different times, and whilst one person grieves, another celebrates. No matter what happens, you need to continue to live your life. Go out there and live it, love yourself, love your family and friends and don’t sweat the small stuff.
