This Mental Health Ad Got Over 50 Million Views When Launched

And for good reason... it hits hard.

Set Your Pulse: Take a breath. Turn your attention to your body and release any tension. Breathe slowly into the area of your heart for 60 seconds, focusing on feeling a sense of ease. Stay connected to your body as you read. Click here to learn why we suggest this.

---

My next piece coming in a few days will very much relate to this piece from the standpoint of exploring interconnection within the metacrisis. I wanted to release this today to set the stage to explore one driver in why so many are feeling unwell.

Some stats suggest that by age 40, 50% of the population in Canada will have had a mental health illness. These numbers are rather similar in other developed countries. I would also venture to say the truth is probably much higher given many will never seek help or get a diagnosis.

These days in the US, about one-third, or 30% of female teens have seriously considered suicide. Perhaps it’s because 57% of US girls report feeling many consecutive days of consistent sadness. For boys, there has been a sharp rise in suicides among teens 15 and older since 2000. They now die by suicide at three to four times the rate of girls. Epidemics of loneliness and meaninglessness are felt in countries around the world.

Part of the ongoing meaning/meta crisis we are facing is the decline of mental health. The good news is we are also seeing a rise in awareness about the issue. That said, there is certainly something going on with the way we are living that is not producing thriving human beings, and we have to talk about it. I think many people sense this.

I want to kick this off with a powerful mental health ad that was viewed over 50 million times in a week between TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and others when it was released.

UK soccer club Norwich City FC produced the ad to raise awareness about mental health. I had not seen the ad until just yesterday. But it was so powerful I wanted to share it.

Check out the ad before we continue.

“Check in on those around you.”

Powerful ad isn’t it?

I’m sure we all know someone who might say they are ‘fine’ but we might sense something is off. Perhaps that person is us. Further, we might know someone who seems perfectly fine all the time but is silently struggling inside.

This has also been one of the big revelations of the social media era. People can pretend to be perfectly fine for years on end, only to one day come out revealing how much their entire online persona was fake as they struggled behind the scenes.

The truth is, the same can happen in the offline world too.

How can we be there for one another? How can we better create space for us to talk about mental health in a supportive way? Then again, how can we know if someone is truly having a tough time?

In life, my client work as a breath and nervous system coach, and just talking with friends and family, several things come up that seem to touch on why mental health can be a conundrum.

1. Given our current world and the stigma around talking about our true feelings, people have a hard time knowing how other people around them are actually doing. This makes it hard to know where we land in the mix, which can create a sense of silence as we don’t want to be the odd one out.
   

2. Another issue is a bit more tricky. We don’t have a good societal sense of what good mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health is. We see health as the absence of disease, but in reality, we’ve come to accept many unhealthy things as normal because that’s how we’ve mal-adapted to be in the world. Constant stress is normal. Chronic health conditions are normal. Emotional repression is normal. Being fidgety and anxious is normal. Weak digestion is normal. Mediocre sleep is normal. Phone addiction is normal. A lack of exercise is normal. Being tired a lot is normal. Daily drinking, smoking cannabis, eating a lot, and other distractions are normal.

Sure, not everyone finds this ‘normal,’ but most do. When all of this becomes normal, why would we think there is something wrong? Something that can be improved upon? It may not lead to suicide in most cases, but we simply accept ‘meh’ as normal for human function. Because we can laugh during a movie, all other things we struggle with are ‘just how it is.’

The truth is, we don’t have a good sense of what a healthy human actually looks like, and we’re all mostly just doing our best to get by in a world so poorly designed that it makes us sick. Economies, GDP, growth, etc are what’s important, human health comes second.

joemartino29

A post shared by @joemartino29

That said, it’s OK. We can do a lot to improve how we feel regardless of current our societal design and state of the world.

As I talk about in my soon-to-be-released course on building personal resilience, we have to become more resilient to solve our local and collective challenges. WE, as WELL people, will be the drivers of solving our collective metacrisis - as opposed to externalities solving us. It’s not just thinking that will solve things either, it’s deeper than that.

Some Simple Steps Toward Better Wellbeing

We are whole beings. Our brain, heart, body, and spirit are all connected. They don’t operate separately from one another. Taking care of our total being feeds into our wellness and helps to keep mental health (and other health) issues at bay.

Here are some basic places to start. Remember, it rarely works to overhaul your entire life in one go. Think of small manageable steps and build as new habits strengthen.

1. Social Connection - As mammals, we thrive on being connected with other humans. Make some time to have coffee/tea/other arbitrary beverage with a friend. The face to face connection sparks up our ventral vagus nerve and signals safety, support, and connection. This builds our wellbeing. Make it a point to connect with people you enjoy multiple times a week, even if for 15, 20 or 30 mins each time. Heck, say a momentary connection with cashiers, workers, waiters etc. Spark up connection.

2. Slow Down - We move through life very quickly, moving from one thing to the next to the next. This can be very dysregulating to the brain and nervous system, and promotes further angst. Move more slowly, take breaks, add more time between tasks, and avoid multi tasking. I was one of those people who used to multi task. Stopping was powerful. I know some are proud of their ability to do it, but it’s not doing our mental, physical and emotional health any favors.

3. Move Daily - We’re meant to move. Sitting still all day long eats away at our mental and physical health in big ways. Our spiritual and emotional health won’t be too far behind. Make it a point to walk at a pretty decent pace for 20 or 30 mins a day. Start at just 5 minutes if you have to. I used to target my heart rate at about 110 - 115 when I began walking as my form of movement. At that rate, it’s zone 2 exercise and very helpful for your overall energy levels and wellbeing.

4. Get Good Sleep - Limit phones, TV, and similar forms of blue light for 30 - 60 minutes before bed, and don’t bring your phone to your room. Make your sleeping conditions ideal for you to sleep well. A solid 7 - 8 hrs will help restore and repair your body and brain daily. As sleep declines, everything else follows.

5. Hydrate Well - 2 - 3 litres of water a day is key. More if you exercise a lot, and more if you drink coffee. Chronic dehydration leads to other health issues, poor sleep etc. Think interconnection.

6. Eat Real Food - Cooking at home as much as you can is key. Eat real fresh food. Avoid processed stuff including sugars. Fruits, vegetables, and whole foods all nourish the body and brain.

7. Practice Embodiment - Whether you want to meditate, do QiGong, breathe, or simply come back to your body with your awareness, having a practice that can start as little as 5 mins a day and build up is key. We’re quick to make time for our phones but dread taking 5 fully focused minutes to slow down and be with ourselves. Yet it’s one of the best things we can do. Here is a practice I often recommend as it’s powerful as simple. There are audio only versions I created so you can download them and take them where you want.

8. Reach out To Someone - Working with someone has benefits for many reasons. It provides support, helps to move things forward, and provides a palatable sense of becoming healthier. Talk therapy can be helpful, but working with a somatic or body-based practitioner can be even more helpful in my experience. I am also a big believer in IFS (Internal Family Systems or Part Work). In work with my clients, those who show up with an open heart and mind, and practice outside of sessions, see good results. Key takeaway, the practice lifestyle is important. (No self promo here, not taking any more clients right now.)

In closing, what does it mean to be well? What have we accepted as normal that may not be? Is there a part of yourself you know you’ve been wanting to improve upon but have been putting it off? Perhaps it’s time to explore!

How do you check in with your friends and family about how they are doing? Is there someone out there who could use 15 minutes of connection?

It’s up to us to take care of each other. No need to wait for governments to fumble around trying to figure it out while they kick us in the proverbial nuts every chance they get.