The Giant Fundamentals: Men's Mental Health & Wellness

Mindfulness and meditation are the hidden secret to the top performers of the world. It makes them loose, free and ready to perform at the highest level. Players like Lebron and Tom Brady use mindfulness and meditation techniques in order to get a competitive edge. In this episode Jono gives a thorough education on the two.

Social media plays a major part in our lives; how we communicate, how we build relationships, even how we find employment. In the same breath social media can be a dangerous place especially for those who are high performers. There is a major amount of unwarranted criticism that comes from being on social media and if an athlete who is always in the spotlight not careful they can get caught in believe false narratives about themselves. In this episode Jono goes into depth about the 2 things that can happen if athletes do not take time to step away from social media.

Mental health has been increasingly emerging as a priority in the sports and entertainment world these past 5 years. Athletes are coming out discussing their mental health challenges along with being mental health advocates. Even though there is more of an awareness of the importance of mental health there is still some resistance due to a lack of understanding regarding mental health. In this episode Jono debunks the 2 misconceptions athletes have concerning mental health.

In this episode Jono talks about how nerves and anxiety are normal when an athlete is about to perform in a big game. However, Jono gives the secret that most athletes do not consider when it comes to calming their nerves and performance anxiety. It is simple yet highly impactful, and thats taking the attention on how well you need to perform and put the attention on how your performance will bless and inspire someone looking on.

The 2008 Olympic Basketball team, also known as the "Redeem Team" came out with a documentary showing the behind the scenes photo age of what took place leading up to them winning the gold medal. During this documentary many great things were said by Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Kobe Bryant, Carmelo Anthony and others. From this collection of 12 NBA players many things were said that shinned light on their mindset and why they were chosen to bring back the gold for the USA. In this episode Jono extracts 4 lessons that all athletes can use in order to help them with their mindset when in their respective sport.

In this episode Jono talks about the 3 biggest mistakes athletes make regarding their mental health. If these mistakes were to be corrected athletes would see not just their performance gets better but their lives as a whole.

Athletes in every sport from tennis to basketball to football and etc are always looking for a competitive edge. They try everything from training harder and longer than most and have the best diet regimen according to their weight goals and body type. Coaches and trainers instill all sorts of techniques in order to make their athletic client stand above the rest. However, there is one foundational ingredient that if all athletes had it would increase their chance of winning and lower their chances of depression after a major defeat and in this episode Jono goes into great detail on how parents of athletes have the power to instill foundational ingredient into their child-athlete.

Every athlete wants to get the most out of their body. Truth be told every athlete wants to always perform at their very best and win as much as they can. Many athletes, trainers and coaches mainly focus on the physical training and not so much on the mental training. However, the mental training is more important than the physical because its the mental that supports the body to do what it does best. In this episode Jono talks about the power of mental imagery; visualization and how it can catapult an athletes performance to new heights. 

In this episode Jono goes in depth on the NFL QB Lamar Jackson's current contract talks with the Baltimore Ravens. Lamar has decided to enter into these negotiations with the Ravens with no agent to represent him. Many have highly criticized Lamar for taking this approach. However, Jono discusses the root of Lamar's psyche and what everyone watching on can learn from it.

This past week the NBA player John Wall came out and expressed how he had suicidal thoughts the last few years dealing with the death of his mom, grandmother and rehabbing from a torn achilles and knee injury. In this episode Jono talks about how grief can affect an athlete in so many different ways but not only when dealing with death but with being traded, recovering from a career threatening injury and etc. In addition, Jono touches on the advantage an athlete has when seeing a mental health professional when facing these obstacles and how a therapist can alter the emotional, mental and spiritual state of an athlete for the better.