Above Ground Podcast

 We can find ourselves in the "Toxic Waltz" if we deny too much that we can explain. Denial is a byproduct of toxic positivity. The state of being overly positive at the expense of your emotions. Telling yourself you got a fist full of diamonds and your holding lint. 

So many of us want to believe what we want to believe is so. Yet doesn't make it tangible. But by believing in something so hard it can cause delusion. When you ignore your emotions to constantly look at everything in the rosiest of terms, leaving a zero sum game. 

We need to stop being overly positive, when so many of us need hope and we are only judged. Sometimes you just want to yell at the top of your lungs, "I am mad as hell and I am not going to take anymore."

The floor is lava and the bridge is eggshells when you have a mentally ill parent. When it's the only normal you have, you normalize the abnormal. We often want a diagonally different life when we are old enough to choose. Mental illness affects the whole family. It can lead to many outcomes including depression and even suicide. 

Michael Shook, originally from the 5-1-8, is a retired educator and writes at Medium.com. His upbringing made him, pleaser, protector, educator and survivor. Shaping his life around education. Like many children, school becomes the safest space. A place where they can just be as much of a kid as their emotions will allow. It often catches up with you as an adult. 

Often feeling like childhood didn't exist we spend a lifetime healing the wounded child in us. There is often a vacancy that we somehow never fill or heal. He tells us the journey that he has taken from cradle to California. 

Check out another article he also wrote for Medium called, Mental Illness is not a Choice. He is still behind his 3000 mile wall of safety. 

Don't forget to support our team, Patrick's Shamrocks. October 4, 2020 is the Out of the Darkness Walk for R.I.T.A. in Saratoga Spa State Park 12866. Hope will not be canceled in 2020. Not at a time when we need more light. Please join a walk in your community and support American Foundation for Suicide Prevention by donating, joining a team and finding an event in your area. 

Communication is an art we have lost. In the age of one minute sound bytes, magic pills and willful ignorance. We have become uninterested in others and the breakdown is evident. The delicate dance of communicating starts with eye contact, empathy and the willingness to open the mind and LISTEN!

Rapport, as described by Tony Robbins, is a set of skills we can use to create quality connection with others. Sometimes it takes stepping out of our comfort zones and confronting our fears head on. 

Please don't forget about this Sunday, September 20,2020. Jacque Ecuyer will be doing his walk. check out the link below. 

22 for 22

4S4Life AFSP Fundraiser

The podcast is now on YouTube...

Until next time...be WELL, be SAFE, be ABOVE

When our foundation is weak and cracked, it can lead to emotional storms, physical torment and mental collapse. Trauma is the leading earthquake that shifts our ground and swallows us up in the sink hole. But, we can let light shine into the cracks and open us to a new version of groundskeeping.

September is Suicide Awareness month. This week is Suicide Prevention Week. The 10th of September is World Suicide Awareness day. Above Ground Podcast feels that everyday is Suicide Prevention/Awareness Year. Please donate to       Patrick's Shamrocks, the official team, AGP support in memory of our great friend, Pat Brearton. 

AGP is officially on YouTube now. 

From Fear of Flying to making a difference in the urban school landscape. Artists and musicians often make the best social workers.Tearle Ashby, (ask him how to pronounce it) embodies the reasons for that; empathy, creativity, awareness, openness, honesty, caring.

Our conversation covers the ups and downs of working in the world of test scores over trauma response. Common core to emotional IQ. Are we causing the anxiety and depression in our children? We agree that we need to do some work and soul searching. We cover recovery and talk of the ACES, again.

Tearle is a fantastic Singer, Songwriter, Bassist, Producer. He was the glue that held Fear of Flying together as their bassist. His first solo release, Simpatico (2012) is available. Showcasing his vast musical influences and talents. 

www.tearleashby.com

www.simpatico.com

"You down with P.T.G? Yea, you know me! Wait, what?!? W.T.F. is P.T.G.? Post Traumatic Growth is the idea that we can be fundamentally changed in a positive way by our traumas and challenges. 

Psychologists Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun developed this concept in the mid-90s. Post Traumatic Growth was becoming measurable. An inventory of 21 items were used to assess individual's response to traumatic events. Their perceptions of self, story, and show. 

When we think of masks we often think of Halloween and not our emotions or persona. So many of us are hiding our true face. Behind a false covering of ourselves. So many negative emotions fill in the spaces between the cracks. 

We are filled with a lack of self confidence, fear, sadness and dread. Our emotions overwhelm our need for connection and we find isolation. Making the negative feelings more up front. Louder, faster. 

We live in a social media diet world of micro-chaos and micro-aggression every time we scroll a post. All masks on full display behind a stage full of smoke and mirrors. See me! Look how perfect my life is! All masks hiding real anguish, sorrow and even despair. 

Somewhere between childhood and adulting our dreams, hopes and fantasies, are replaced by dread, fear, and anger. Adding up to a despair often left unacknowledged until it leads to a crisis, or worse, death. 

"You get right up then sit back down  The revolution is one spin 'round.."

sings Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age on the track, "Domesticated Animals". 

Jordan won't back down from life. It takes strength, solutions and stamina. A member of some distinguished clubs, like the club of divorced parents, suicide attempt survivors, bad therapists, the hospitalized and the largest club of all; the club of the unseen. 

His story is riddled with ups and downs. Trials and tribulations. Diagnosed with bipolar and over medicated as so many are. When the cracks are deep they may never be filled in. 

Jordan is a huge supporter of Big Brothers/Big Sisters. If you like hearing his story and want to show some support he asks for you donate to the American Cancer Society.  He speaks of his wife's battle with brain cancer. Manifest your energy into productive means. 

Grief takes over the entire body. We can spend many years grieving and not realize we are grieving. Grief is an emotional response to loss. We have experienced much loss in 2020. We haven't seen the toll this year will take on us all, and may not for years to come. 

The Stages of Grief, are not linear and you may or may not experience all the emotions related. Identity seems to permeate our grieving processes. Or does our identity lead to grief? What we have learned is that grief is a sticky form of suffering. Suffering is optional, yet sometimes unavoidable. Fill your garden with tools to combat the grief gremlin...don't feed after midnight.