prominent figures can help shed light on the ubiquitous strain of mental health
They’re all around us: everywhere we look and throughout life as particular thoughts, come to mind. The people who often inspire us the most are not the usual suspects in terms of money but rather, those at the other end of the scale. The weary mother or father or anyone you please, rising at dawn and walking through a run-down environment to catch two or three buses, to the first of many jobs. Add cold and wet weather and incentives for getting up lie in a family: so, continue they must and on a daily basis do. Then, with wages in mind and an eye on inflation, the swell of employment rises and falls as they move in time to their needs and commitments.
Equally, those moving from wherever to push against the odds may eventually smile at the reap of what’s sown. If it’s material riches, so what? It’s the beauty of hard work but so long as the planet doesn’t keel over on our watch, the cycle continues to give meaning of sorts. So, filter the influences and take what’s real, so you can by-pass avoidable failure over time. If you make it then great, you can build on what’s there, but if you fail then at least you’ve got a blueprint for the future.
When it comes to admiration, we all have our reasons from nurturing and experiences to our ambitions. People we’d emulate if we possibly could in one way or another as an end goal to the means, threatening that dream. So, it seems we all dream that happiness finds us before a bleeping transponder deep in our souls, fades and dies before a chance to shine. Yet, in the end, it’s the journey and we know that it’s true from the roads well-travelled by others, to shared experiences at changing scales.
During the pandemic, for example, many of us were on the edge with just millimetres between hope and elements of dread. So, well-known faces stepped up to the plate with personal truths to remind us all that the terror within, was playing across continents. Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, for one, spoke boldly in a 2020 interview with Gavin Newsom, the governor of California. As reported in The Hill, he said: ‘It’s been about 50:50. I’ve had some really good days where I feel anchored and balanced, and I feel optimistic and hopeful and then the opposite side of that: honestly, days where I’m wobbling because you don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.’ For a man with a public persona built on physical power, it was a refreshing reveal.
‘Mental health can be nasty but there is light, at the end of the tunnel.’
Kerry Katona
So, as we exit 2023, we’ll look back on a similar tilting of norms with the actress and singer, Selena Gomez, posting photographs of herself online without any make-up. Again, in a candid move reported on Good Morning America, she said: ‘I don’t think anybody deserves to feel less than.’ Well, in a world where women are defined by the wrestling of youth and the marketing designed to reinforce it, her brave actions should be applauded. It seems, your identity is yours unless it’s for sale in which case read the terms but then, life demands different things from us all.
Take the incredibly inspiring Sam Berns, who until 2014 lived with the genetic condition, Progeria. His approach to life spoke volumes about the sort of mindset it takes to process things that are beyond our control, and he commands attention in what may be fifteen of the most fruitful minutes you’ll spend, in a while.
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Images:
Museum Walk, by Wal 172619, Pixabay – Main Image
Gawping Gallery, by Alexas Fotos, Pixabay
References:
Quote – Kerry Katona, ‘Mental health can be nasty…’, Brainy Quote, 2023, accessed 29th December 2023, https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/kerry_katona_1213024
Judy Kurtz, ‘Dwayne Johnson Stresses Importance of Maintaining Mental Health Amid Pandemic’, The Hill, 4th October 2020, accessed 29th December 2023, https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/492283-dwayne-johnson-stresses-importance-of-maintaining-mental-health/
GMA Team, ‘Selena Gomez Shares Make-up Free Selfie With Nod to Miley Cyrus’ ‘Violent Chemistry’, 14th March 2023, accessed 29th December 2023, https://www.goodmorningamerica.com/style/story/selena-gomez-shares-makeup-free-selfie-nod-miley-97847220
TEDx Talks, ‘My Philosophy for a Happy Life’, Sam Berns, TEDx MidAtlantic, Youtube, 13th December 2013, accessed 30th December 2023, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36m1o-tM05g
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