Published on amyoes.com

Messages and the Media – Ideas Worth Spreading?

TEDx is all about “ideas worth spreading.”  My TEDx idea stemmed from discoveries I made from the world around me as I healed from a decade of traumatic medical “detours,” as well as the pain and anguish of processing my sexual abuse.  In a world with no roadmap, we need to anchor each of ourselves in our own idea “worth spreading” – in our own truth.  But it can be pretty difficult to spread our own idea when constantly combatted by the ideas that scream much louder from that same world around us.  Even worse, sometimes the outside “noise” is so loud that we can’t even allow ourselves the “dream-space” to find those “revelations worth discovering” and “ideas worth spreading” above all of the messages from the media.

Think about it.  Every day, how many headlines do you encounter?  How many commercials are you exposed to?  What’s playing on the radio right now?

When the Media gives you messages, fight back with even better ones.

We read so many articles about the “benefits of being in the moment,” mindfulness, or meditation.  The great thing about truly being in the moment, is that you’re truly in your SELF too. When anchored in who YOU really are, messages from the world around us can inform us, but they don’t have to influence us.

What messages do you get from the media about mental health?  What do you see on TV, hear on the news, listen to on the radio, see on posters, billboards, and read in magazines that tell you to think, act or look a certain way?

I’ve thought a lot about this in my own life.

Soaking Up Messages: Are You a Sponge?

Every day, whether we like it or not, we are walking, breathing, talking, living sponges, soaking up messages from everywhere.

However, this is not a post about the negative messages we get from the media. 

This is not a post about how society makes us feel like we’re not good enough, smart enough, successful enough, pretty enough.

Unfortunately, those messages will always be there, whether we like it or not.  We’ll always be blasted with perceptions of how we should act, there will always be some message that threatens to perpetuate stigma, and there will always be individuals who make assumptions, no matter how much awareness we spread.

So then why should we advocate for mental health?

I fight in the open for mental health to speak my truth, and hope that with my story, I might be able to affect one person and cause a chain reaction.

.As advocates, that’s all we can do, right? Help spread mental health awareness to others?

Wrong. There is one more thing we can do.  The MOST important thing, actually:

No matter what message we hear, we must take care of ourselves.

I struggle with symptoms of PTSD. (You can read more about that here.)

When we struggle with

 signs of depression,

or PTSD,

fiery red anxiety,

or a relentless addiction,

any kind of physical or

mental health obstacle…

How do we get in the moment? 

If we’re truly in the moment, nothing can break us.  We have ourselves – the most powerful tool of all.

We can overcome everything when we just ARE.

IN the moment, we realize how beautiful we really are.  Beauty is true power.

And stigma can’t hold a candle to that.

We get many different messages daily from the media.  But…only you can determine what messages will influence you.  So get in that moment and decide for yourself.  Speak the message that’s truthful to YOU.

…What message are YOU sending into the world today?

(Here’s mine!)

All artwork was created by Amy on her detour. Learn about her speaking, or catch her touring Gutless & Grateful, her one woman musical, to theatres, colleges, conferences and organizations nationwide.   Learn about hermental health advocacy programs for students, and find out how to take part in the#LoveMyDetour movement, and learn about her upcoming book, My Beautiful Detour at www.amyoes.com.