We've been on the move, right back to Edinburgh where it all began... This time we've had a couple of days at the Festival Fringe and while there we met up with the Edinburgh Blue Balls to join them on their weekly dip in the sea at Portobello beach! Blue Balls is a group for men to find community and the (potentially rather cold) swim is an opportunity to support each other and improve our mental and physical health. We like to swim, but do we like to swim off the Scottish coast...?
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
Sometimes we just need to talk for a while about how we feel and what’s going on with us. This is one of those times. With Wez away on magical duties, Matt and Nick began talking about friendship, but ended up having a much longer mental health check-in than usual.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
The boys get together to talk about physical health, fitness and its effect on mental health. We’re all at different levels of fitness and interest in exercise, though we seem to have sprouted some unexpected new year’s resolutions (not that we’d admit to them, of course).
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
We were slightly delayed in recording this episode because of a health problem, so it seemed fitting that we talk about it. Much of our discussion is about Matt’s recent heart attack, how it made him feel, and the impacts of health – good and bad – on us and those around us.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
In this episode we’re talking about time (and using the word “time” far too many times). All of memories and much of how our modern life is organised and driven are rooted in time. We talk about how we feel about time, the mental health issues where time seems to have an effect, whether it’s OK to be late for meetings, but also how our relationship with time has changed as we’ve gotten older. It’s a strange elastic thing that controls our lives and it can be hard to get a grip on.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.9
We do it every night, and are supposed to spend up to one third of our whole lives doing it, but catching a good night’s sleep can be really difficult. And when we don’t get enough sleep, everything seems to harder. This time we’re talking about sleep – whether we manage to get enough, what happens to us when we don’t, and what we can do to ensure we catch as many Zs as possible.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
The world around us is complex, confusing and at times can be simply overwhelming. Even worse, it’s impossible to escape the world entirely. This time, our conversation is inspired by a recent article in The Guardian (see link below if you’d like to read it too) about how our environments affect us, and that perhaps many aspects of bad mental health are from an inescapable world around us. It’s tough, but we can get through it together.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
We met up at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, where Matt is performing his acclaimed one-man mental health music and spoken word show. Among the many shows at the Fringe is Man Shed, a dramatised one-man play inspired by the international Men’s Shed organisation. We sat down outside the Symposium Hall with the playwright Euan Martin and actor Ron Emslie to talk about these two shows, their mental health themes and what it’s like to do a show rooted in trauma.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
Links:
Men’s Shed UK: https://menssheds.org.uk/
Man Shed: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/man-shed - at the Pleasant Courtyard, 14:15 till 29 August
Matt’s show, We Are What We Overcome: https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/we-are-what-we-overcome - at theSpace @ Symposium Hall till 27 August
Both the past and the future are filled with things to think about, fret about, and hope for. Sometimes those thoughts can be intensely distracting, and take us away from being in the present. Being in the moment means different things to each of us, but for all us it’s a way to pay more attention to ourselves, to those we’re with, and to appreciate what we have.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
Are you happy? It’s a harder question to answer than we think. Overloaded with expectations, ambitions and comparing ourselves with others, we dive into a discussion about something that we’re all “supposed” to be aiming for: happiness.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
What do you do when someone opens up to you? It’s a privilege, but it’s also potentially terrifying, very awkward and just difficult to know how to respond! We talk about what it feels like when a friend, family member, or even a complete stranger shares something deeply personal with us, and how we might respond.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
This episode is about being in counselling, sharing how the process can feel, and what can be gained from the experience. Ten years after being in counselling, Nick shares some excerpts from the notes he made after those sessions. He talks about piecing shattered memories back together, why that’s a fundamental part of his here and now, and with a detached approach he wanders through his scattered reflections on that past. This episode contains conversations and personal thoughts about child abuse, self-harm, and trauma - please use your own judgement before listening.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
Modern life is filled with a seemingly endless barrage of information - news, social media feeds, gossip... stuff. Sometimes it can feel overwhelming, but you can't just turn it off... can you? This time we chat about how being constantly fed news affects us, how we feel about it and what we can do to manage the insistent external voices.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
We talk about the barriers to seeking help, recognising whether we need help, and why it is that so many people don't reach out when they're in distress. It's complicated, and we talk about our own personal experiences with realising we need help, as well as how we've seen others seek aid.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
This month we talk about something that can linger in the back of our minds... regret. It's a slippery feeling, and so we spend some time trying to figure out what regret is, and what leads us to hold onto feelings that often hurt.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
Gosh it's been a long year... or super-short? Either way, there's a new one coming up in just a couple of days. For some that brings promise of hope and change, for others it's the beginning of the same old cycle.
We met up just before Christmas to talk about this annual event, hanging out at Derby Arena's Sleeping Beauty pantomime during set construction, which set a cheery tone for the conversation to follow.
Join us as we consider hope, reflecting on the past, making positive changes and whether new year makes any sense at all.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.
It's that time of year. Snow, Real Fires, Baileys (other Irish Cream Liqueurs are available but not necessarily as good) Relatives, Cold (both varieties), Present shopping, Panto, stories about immigrants seeking refuge and finding a stable etc.
It's a tricky and diverse time of year, met with polar opposite emotions depending where you're at in this life.
Wes, Nick and Matt talk through it all, the upsides, the downsides. It's good to chat x
At last we’re able to meet up in person again, and we took advantage of a gloriously sunny day to gather and talk about mental health. This episode is about perspectives, particularly that sensation we sometimes have when our perspective suddenly changes and everything feels different. We’re interested in what that feels like, and what prompts such a change in our mental landscape.
CW: this conversation includes a discussion about sexual abuse and its impact.
This episode was recorded on 18 July 2021, outside in Woodhouse Moor in Leeds, so there may be some background sounds of other folks enjoying themselves.
Everyone needs to talk more about mental health and we’re no exception, especially in these weird times. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counselling.