Yesterday, for Mental Health Action Day, @mikesweetney & I visited the staff w the NY Yankees at The Stadium, in the Bronx (➡️slides).
The team was kind enough to give us an hr & a half for this opening session we typically do w schools, colleges, offices, service depts, etc. But…their questions at the end were so good, that we ended up going way over – which we were pleased to see the staff leaders & HR were fully supportive of.
A # of interesting things were brought up in those questions – from how we feel abt the DSM5 to why ppl end up trying modalities like meditation only to move away so quickly & assume “that ‘other’ stuff’s not for me.”
W/ questions like that (& if you’ve followed this page) you’re prob not surprised that much of the content in our intro session often focuses on how similar we all are…& how a strict clinical MH model focused on diagnoses can often separate us into buckets – leading to isolation & lack of connection.
W/ that bkgrnd, the last question of the day came from a staffer watching on zoom who asked: This all logically makes sense, & I can see how our sadness at things often gets labeled too quickly even if it’s persistent & these STARR exercises you teach can help w sadness that builds…but in the same context, how would you then work on anger?
A great question – & the reality is in MOST cases, anger is our sadness – turned outward. The SAME stressors & even traumas inside us can lead to sadness (our flight or freeze response) but so too can they turn to anger (our fight response), bc we often try to avoid the sadness by projecting. Ever see school kids – one is sunken in their desk, one is screaming & “off the wall”…could be from the SAME stress – eg, parents fighting. We can work on “releasing & rewiring” it from our body the SAME way, despite it outwardly looking different.
It made me think of this month’s LIFESaver families. Today is Kevin ➡️ from @hopeforhallie. Losing a child to suicide comes w such sadness. But to see how these fams have channeled their sadness into purpose/meaning, & not paralyzing anger…they’re to be commended greatly. Hallie’s share will be in Stories.
