Breaking the Barrier of Mental Health: Episode 003

The speaker starts by emphasizing the importance of gratitude and being thankful for each day. They mention a YouTube and Instagram personality named Hangtime who shares Bible verses and has helped restore their faith. The speaker then begins discussing mental health, acknowledging that it is a real issue that many people struggle with. They share their personal journey with mental health, including developing an eating disorder and struggling with anxiety. The speaker emphasizes the importance of seeking support and opening up about mental health issues. They also discuss the routine they developed to improve their mental health, including cold showers, exercise, and journaling. The speaker acknowledges that their routine can sometimes affect their family, but they are working on finding balance. They conclude by encouraging listeners to reflect on their own struggles and to reach out to loved ones for support. What's going on, guys? Welcome back to the podcast. I hope everyone is having a fantastic day, whether it's morning, evening, afternoon, middle of the night, whenever you're watching this. And guess what, guys? It's a new day. And a new day brings new opportunity. And it brings a whole lot of stuff that we can be thankful for and grateful for because, ultimately, God decided to let us live another day because he knew we have more to fulfill in life. If you woke up this morning, be grateful. Be grateful. And I also want to mention, there's this guy by the name of Hangtime on YouTube and Instagram, social media. That's his handle. But his name is Michael Turk. He is a former punter at the University of Oklahoma and, unfortunately, went undrafted in the NFL draft this year but got picked up by the Miami Dolphins and is currently in training camp down there with them. And why Hangtime is relevant right now is with every YouTube video he has, he is a huge believer in Christ and Christianity, and that is one of the main reasons why I watch him. He's kindly helped restore my faith and make me want to improve my relationship with God. And every video he has, he always starts out with a Bible verse. And this particular Bible verse is Psalms 118.24. I'll say it again, Psalms 118.24. The verse states, This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And that really digs deep to me because the past is the past. The future is the future. Today, present is today. You live for the present. And every day is new. Every day is new opportunity. If God decided to wake you up this morning, that means you have more to fulfill in life and your life is so much more than what you think. And you just need to smile. Smile more. Because God has granted you this life, and through Him, we have eternal life. That's what I'm getting at here because this is the day the Lord has made. He made this day. Every day is new. No day is the same. What happened in the past stays in the past. You live for the present. You live in the present for the future. Rejoice, that means smile, be grateful. Do a random act of kindness, you know, stuff along those lines, and be glad in it. Be glad can also be the same thing as rejoice, you know. Smile. Make others smile. Be the reason someone has a smile upon their face. And that actually brings me to the title of this episode and the topic of our episode, and that is breaking the barrier of mental health. Mental health, let's face it, mental health is real. Mental health, there are a lot of people who struggle mentally, and quite frankly, more people than you think. I know a lot of people who struggle that don't open up about it. And I'm here on this podcast today to just say mental health is real. I struggle from it. It used to be really bad, and I've improved since then. But that's why I'm on here today to talk about it. Mental health is real. So we'll talk about my journey with mental health here. So my mental health journey, I was a freshman at the University of Pikeville this past year, and I accepted a scholarship to play basketball there. We moved in in August. Everything was going really smooth the first two months. And I'm just going to keep this quite brief. I'll talk about everything that's happening more in depth in more episodes down the road. But about two months in, I had an injury that sidelined me for three months and ultimately ended my season. I injured my ankle during practice, and I ended up with an avulsion fracture and two partially torn ligaments. And I remember just being in crutches and in a boot, scared to death because I was going to gain weight because I wasn't able to be as active as I was before my injury. And that, quite frankly, scared me to death. I didn't want to end up becoming fat and all that. I don't know how it started. I just remember that. With that, I developed an eating disorder called orthorexia. And orthorexia is where you basically have an unhealthy focus on healthy eating. So, like, I don't even remember. It was, I was, this is hard to put into words. I stopped eating a lot of food, a lot of food, because I thought it was unhealthy for me. And because of that, I lost 15 pounds over the course of the next few months while I was injured. And losing that weight, becoming, having that eating disorder made me lose the 15 pounds and also just destroyed my confidence, my hormones, a lot of stuff. And, you know, as a man, men are, I'm not going to say scared, they're less likely to open up about their mental health. And I was one of those people. I did not want to tell anybody. And that was the first mistake I made. No one's going to judge you based on what mental health, no one's going to judge you based on what you're going through. People are here for you. People want to help you. I mean, if you are, if you're listening to this right now and you're going through some things that, you know, are a challenge for you, or, you know, you have a big, big interview coming up and you're stressed and you're depressed, you have anxiety, first thing I want you to do is I want you to pray about it. I want you to talk to the Lord, whether that's, you know, while you're out for a walk, right before you go to bed, right before you eat dinner. Any time of the day, talk to the Lord and just ask for guidance. Also, I want you to find somebody. Find somebody that you trust. Find somebody that loves you. Find somebody that you can rely on and talk to them. I know it's hard, but like I said in the episode before this, the hardest part of doing anything is starting. All you've got to do is just start talking. And trust me, it takes a huge weight off your shoulders, as it did mine. As it did mine. I lost 15 pounds throughout the process over those few months, and my hormones took a huge hit. I noticed I had very inconsistent energy throughout my day. I became sensitive to the cold. My sleep quality took a huge hit. And after a few months, probably a month after I developed this eating disorder, I started developing some anxiety. And my college is only an hour, hour and 15 minutes away from my house. And where I was injured, I wasn't traveling with the team. So whenever they went on away games, I stayed home. And when the weekend would come, I would always drive home every weekend and spend Saturday and Sunday at my house. And I remember just through those months, you know, I was away from my team. I was on my own. I felt like I was on my own, when in reality I wasn't. I had people around me who loved me, who was there for me, who cared for me. But I was just too scared to open up, too afraid to be judged, to open up about my feelings and how I was feeling about my mental health. So when I would stay home for the weekend, I would always tell everybody this during this time. Once I was at school, I was fine. But when I was home and had to go back, I hated that part. I think that's where my anxiety come from. I hated having to go back to school and, you know, be away from the people who I love and who love me and actually were the people who I opened up to about my mental health. That would be my mom. You know, my mom, she's always been there for me. She always cares for me. She loves me. And I know that. And I don't know why it took me so long to tell her about everything I was going through. But once I did, you know, it took a big weight off my shoulders. And I just know that's why my mental health started improving was because of my mother. And, you know, it can be anybody you can go talk to. You know, it doesn't have to be your mother. It can be your grandma. It can be your, like my case, I also went and once a week would talk to my advisor. And just talking to somebody like that outside of your family regard is, I think, is key to developing and improving your mental health because you're seeing it from a different perspective. You're seeing it from somebody who hasn't known you your whole life and who has just known you since, you know, moving into college. And I think that can be a huge help for you guys, too, as well. But, yeah, like I said, whenever I would be at home, I would love being home. But when I had to go back, I would hate it. And I remember every Monday I would go back. There would be these Mental Health Monday motivational quotes that this lady would hand out right in front of the dining hall before, you know, going in. And every Monday I would always get my new motivational quote. And I would always send it to my mom. And I would always talk about, let's just say, for example, one of the quotes said, Sometimes we are not. Let's see. How did it go here? Let me pull out my phone here because I know I got a picture of it. But this lady would stand out around the dining hall, handing out these different motivational quotes. And I would always. I probably got about seven, eight of these. And she would always hand them out. But here it is. It's, Sometimes we are tested not to show our weaknesses but to discover our strengths. Now, let that sink in. That one hit huge for me. Sometimes we're tested not to show our weakness but to discover our strengths. And my mental health, God was testing me not to show my weakness but to discover what my strengths were. And throughout the process, I discovered what my strengths were. I changed everything. So the build back from, you know, being down on mental health, what I did to recover, where I was basically on my own because I was too afraid to talk to everybody, what I did was I sat down one day and I journaled. I said, okay, what do I need to do to improve my life, improve my mental health? What do I need to do? So I created a routine. I got into a routine. And this was actually around, this was the very first week of January. So you can basically call it a New Year's resolution. I sat down. When I got back to school after Christmas break, I sat down and I journaled. What do I need to do to improve my mental health? My New Year's resolution was to create a routine. So the routine I created, every single night, I was in bed by 10 p.m., lights out, 10 p.m., every single night. And I've always been the guy who can just tell my mind the night before, like, hey, wake me up at 7.05. And I've always had that internal clock that just wakes me up at 7.05. So I've never been the guy to wake up to an alarm. So I was in bed by 10, and I always woke up to natural light naturally between the hours of 5.45 and 6.15 a.m. every single day. I would also, 30 minutes before bed, put my phone away, put any electronics away, and just wind down. Put everything I had away. I would also do this, or I would also, once I woke up, no phone within 30 minutes of waking. So no phone 30 minutes prior to bed, and no phone 30 minutes after waking up in the morning. So when I woke up, 5.45 to 6.15, I would get up, I would go to my bathroom, I'd brush my teeth, you know, do all the hygiene, and I would get in the shower. And this right here, I think, was a game changer to me, this next step to my routine. So in my dorm, and in my shower, I would always get in, and I would always take a lukewarm shower. I'd wash my body, do everything, lukewarm water temperature. And once I was done, I would turn the water as cold as I can, and I would go through this little breathing routine, breathing technique, and I would sit in there from anywhere to, you know, 4 to 7 minutes. I would just breathe and focus, and really dial in. That's what I would do every single morning for my, and I still take cold showers like that every single day of my life. I haven't missed a day. Knock on wood. But I haven't missed a day, and I really think that that was the biggest piece to improving my mental health and improving productivity. I recommend cold showers or cold baths, ice baths, anything, cold exposure of any kind to anybody and everybody. All you have to do is trust me. Do it for a week. Tell me how you feel. I promise. So after I would get out of the shower, I would take a picture in the mirror, take a progress picture, and I would upload it to MyFitnessPal. You know, I blogged, which at college I didn't have a scale, so I would just take a picture and just upload the image every single day on MyFitnessPal. So after that, I would get my clothes on that I had laid out the night before prior, and I would go lift. Now, I worked out four days a week, Monday, Tuesday, off Wednesday, worked out Thursday and Friday, every single morning. And I find that after a cold shower, when you have that three-hour of slowly rising dopamine, it just increases your energy and just gives you a ton of energy throughout your day, and I think that was a great way to start my day. You know, everybody's different. Everybody's routine is different. Don't mold mine because that's how I improve my mental health. Find something that works for you. This worked for me and worked great. So I would go lift, get down there about 6, 45, 7 o'clock-ish, work out for about an hour. And after every routine or after every lift, I would always go through a stretching slash mobility routine at the end of every workout. And once that was finished, I would go to breakfast. I would eat breakfast. And once I ate breakfast, this was another key game changer, and I still do this to this day. I would go on a walk after breakfast, and I would do it for every single meal, actually. And I'd aim for 10 minutes or longer. And going on walks, it just helps stimulate digestion, helps improve your mood, helps with nutrient uptake, helps you burn a few more calories if you're looking to do that. And it just has so many positive effects to it. So I would always go on a 10-minute walk or more. My morning walks, I would aim for, you know, 20 to 30 minutes, actually. And those would be my biggest walks in my day. But after every sit-down meal I would have, I would go for a walk, 10-minute walk, just to help stimulate digestion, increase nutrient uptake, and all that good stuff. I would also make sure, and actually for Christmas, my grandma got me these shaker bottles, and I had five of them, so it was perfect, one for Monday, Tuesday, and so forth. And I would always carry it with me everywhere I went, and I would make sure to drink my water. I would shoot for a gallon a day, but no less than half my body weight in ounces. And I'd focus on that every single day. So this routine helped me tremendously. And it's still something I follow to this day. And that's my next point I'm getting to. What is the downside to this routine? The downside to my routine is how it affects my family. It affects my family because we can't be out past a certain time. We can't, you know, enjoy going out for bowling, going to watch a movie, because I was so afraid if I wasn't in bed by 10 p.m. I would, you know, lose my habits, get out of my routine, the mental health would come back, I would go right back down into this hole. And I was just so afraid of that. And I'm getting better. You know, like everything, it takes time. I'm getting better, but that really just is what the downside of my routine is. It affects my family, and I'm working on it. This book I'm reading right now is helping a ton with that, and it's helping alleviate a lot of stress off my shoulders because of that. And the book I'm reading is called Atomic Habits by James Clear. Highly recommend it. I'm about halfway through it right now. But I'm not going to say anything else about the book. I'm going to do a book review on it once I finish, and I'm going to get back to you guys with that. But I'm working on it, working on that, and I just know that one day I'm going to have to break the routine. And until that day comes, I'm going to keep sticking to my routine, keep doing what I'm doing. But when that day comes, I'm going to adapt. I'm going to, you know, fight through adversity. I'm going to, you know, just live life and, you know, just let things come naturally to me. And, oh, man, they just had to get a drink of my water. And it was a drink from my water from my shaker cup my grandma got me. Believe that. So with that being said, guys, that is my, well, before we conclude here, I just want to say how much better my life has got since the mental health stuff. I can definitely tell the difference in my hormones and my energy levels and my sleep quality. Oh, my gosh. My sleep quality is amazing. I fall asleep within seconds, and it's awesome. It used to take me forever to fall asleep, and now I can fall asleep within seconds. So take that and put that into perspective how important a routine is, a sleep routine for that matter. A sleep routine is key to improving your sleep quality. So where I lost the 15 pounds, I haven't gained that back. I'm actually only up one or two pounds since. But I feel great. I'm still working out. I'm still getting stronger. Like I said, I'm still trying to overcome this eating disorder and trying to slowly increase my calories and my caloric intake to put on muscle and gain some weight. But it is hard to overcome that hill of eating monstrous amounts of food because you're scared to gain all that back. And you're scared to gain it all back, and it'd be body fat as opposed to muscle is what I'm getting at. So I'm still overcoming that. And let me tell you, I've improved drastically, and my health feels amazing. But with that being said, guys, I think that's going to do it for our episode here. And like I'm doing for every single episode, I'm going to leave you guys with a little something to ponder on. And today, what I want you to ponder on is what am I going through? What are my struggles? What am I struggling with? How can I overcome this struggle? Who can I talk to? Just questions along those lines. I want you guys to think, ponder on. And also, I want you to call somebody today. I want you to call a relative, call a friend, call somebody, and just tell them how much you appreciate them and how much you appreciate their hard work and how much they mean to you. Because mental health is real, guys. And I'm always here for anybody, anybody if you need. If you need it, I'm here. And that's just how I want to end this video, guys. So I want to thank you all for tuning in. And as always, stay safe and be careful.