More than just a shake..

I recently read somewhere…

“The road to recovery with mental health is more serious than an Instagram account full of meals and gym selfies.”

It annoyed me.

I have been very open about using health and fitness as a catalyst and focus for escaping the dark times. I’m building a brand around the very concept. So to hear someone depreciate it so easily struck a chord.

For anyone who has read or understands the principal of the book “The Chimp Paradox” you will know that there are essentially three parts to your brain. The section that deals with your emotions, good and happy (The Chimp), the section that controls your logic dealing in facts or truth (The Human) and the computer which stores memory, programmed thoughts and behaviours.

Anyway, my chimp went wild, jumping up and raging at the narrow minded nature of such a comment. How could they know what is or isn’t right when it comes to recovering from mental illness? How limiting can a quote like that be to someone who feels damaged and insecure about their path in life. To someone who has taken what can be a monumental step in the right direction and cooked that healthy meal or stepped foot in the gym for the first time. This can often be the hardest decision ever made, yet to others it seems so simple.

Pretty much every study out there will link a healthy mind with a healthy body and vice versa. This is a fact and cannot be disputed.

The human element of my brain then kicked in. Neuroscience is a powerful thing.

For starters, that comment wasn’t aimed at me, and in context, may even be a fair one. After all, although my own Instagram is full of meals, protein shakes, selfies, workout plans and diet tips, what it doesn’t show is a hidden side to me. A side where I regularly receive counselling to help me better understand myself and deal with what life throws at me. Would fitness alone have taken me from ground zero to forward thinking? Maybe, but additional guidance fast tracked me there and gave me the support I needed to get back on track.

This is a deeply personal area of my life which I have treated for the best part of a year as a completely closed book. My main fear is that people will judge me for the worse. See me as weaker than them or incapable in and out of the work place.

“How can he stand in front of a brand and influence them to purchase when he needs weekly help to prevent himself from falling apart?”

“How can I tell him I have split up with my girlfriend and need his friendship when he has so much on his plate?”

This is just the way I think. A paranoid thought process that can eat away at me unless managed the right way.

I guess the point here is that we all have our own journey. When it comes to mental health or simply feeling down and out, there is no one size fits all. For every protein shake, there is a song, or a family trip, or a poem. Whatever it is that helps you to focus on what’s important, spark the surge of endorphins that could quite literally make or break your day.

We have a duty to ignore our Chimp, and the factors around us we cannot control. Our duty is to focus on what makes us happy, focus on ourselves and whatever it takes to move forward.

I have pledged to me more open and honest with how I feel, opening the pages of that book a little to let you read the first chapter. Maybe if the response is a positive one I may even give you the whole book.

Now that’s a thought…