Our Community Outreach Initiative
The team at Standing Up to Stigma recently launched an initiative to help share ideas and connect people who have insights about maintain a positive mindset in regards to Mental Health. We reached out to over a hundred individuals in the community and asked them the eleven questions about their habits, routines and mindsets. We asked that the respondents fill out two to three of these questions to give people an insight into their lives and how they approach mental health and life. Some questions are simple and others are tough to answer. We believe that each question produced meaningful and deep insights into the respondent’s life. You can read them below and answer them yourself:
Questions:
- What is something that made you smile today?
- Do you have any habits, routines or activities that help you achieve happiness consistently?
- Explain a personal trait or attribute of yours that you have tried to improve on in the past year
- Have you ever attended therapy? If so tell us about your experience.
- Tell us about a personal struggle and how you overcame it.
- If you could have a message on a billboard that everyone would see what would it be?
- Imagine you have had a bad day and think about your happy place. Where are you?
- What do you do to turn a bad day around?
- What have you changed in your life in the past year that has had a positive impact?
- Write about one person in your life who brings you happiness.
- What does happiness mean to you?
The responses came from actors, lawyers, students, athletes and more. While we continue to receive responses, our founder Mike answered several questions himself. He hopes that by doing so we can reach more people and spur inspirational individuals to respond as well. Thank you for your commitment Mike, read about what makes Mike happy and messages he would like to spread to the world below.
Do you have any habits, routines or activities that help you achieve happiness consistently?
This is going to sound like a cliché answer, but working out and eating semi healthy! While I do enjoy my days of sitting on the couch, watching football, and eating chicken wings it is important to give your body and mind the fuel that it needs to perform. For nutrition, I try to eliminate fast food (outside of the one cheat day a week) and replace my typically unhealthy chips with snacks such as peanuts and clementines. To exercise, I enjoy kickboxing, as it is a perfect way for me to work my cardio, without having to run. For me, keeping these habits has made my anxiety a lot easier to manage! One day I hope to fight at an amateur level.
If you could have a message on a billboard that everyone would see what would it be?
“No matter how bad it is, keep fighting”. Oftentimes I find myself gripped by my thoughts, or upset by a negative event throughout my day, and it manifests to become worse. When a bad feeling, or an anxiety attack overtakes you, sometimes it can feel like you’re alone, or that it will never get better. No matter how bad you feel, I encourage you to fight that feeling, whether it be struggling to get out of bed in the morning, or simply not wanting to talk to anyone. Although something may seem horrible at the time, take a pause and really try to channel positive thoughts into your brain. Sometimes the brain can become very clouded through emotion and thought, but through your support system and a fighting attitude one can learn to be non-complacent with these feelings. No problem is too big to be solved, and there are plenty of people in the world who care and appreciate you more than they’ve put into words. Sometimes the business of life can cause us to be more of an individual, but just remember all the people who do care.
Write about one person in your life who brings you happiness:
My dad, Brad Lockhart, he’s without a doubt my best friend. Everyone I have ever met has told me two things: “You look just like your dad” and “You don’t know how great your dad is”. The first one is an insult, because I’m clearly much more handsome, but I have never understood the weight that the second phrase carried until this past year. From an early age, he taught me simple rights from wrongs, and showed me how to bring happiness into my own life. Whether it be through a simple act of kindness to a stranger, or a nice conversation over a drink with a friend, there is nothing better than treating others with kindness and respect, and having the same done back to you. As life went on from a young age, my dad and I began to have a more friendly bond over our shared love for basketball strategy, and watching our hometown Cincinnati Bengals on Sundays. It was always nice to have someone with as strong of passions for the two subjects as I did. During my late high school years, I began being effected by anxiety and depression, something that complicated our relationship as I truly did not understand how to live with these problems. However, as I taught treatment and began learning how to manage these problems, my dad and I once again grew closer, but this time it was unique. Brad opened up to me emotionally, and we sat on our couch and had a nice long talk, him telling me stories I had never heard, and hearing how he had battled through what life had thrown at him. This was a large step in our father-son relationship, as I now knew I had someone in my support system who understood what it was like to be knocked down. My dad and I still fuss over the Bengals losing record, and note a good basketball play when we see one, but I can truly say we have gotten closer and closer as life has progressed for me, and I appreciate what he does for me every day.
More to Come:
Mike kicked off our campaign by sincerely answering some of the questions we asked. In the near future, we are going to publish a a handful of responses from a variety of people who also wished to share their experiences and make an impact.
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