Sunday Serenity

Happy Sunday to the Cadre Sphere. I hope you're all having wonderful weekends out there. I am Jason Lennox here with you for Sunday serenity and I am your resident recovery champion. And what I mean by that is I live my life, my professional life, my personal life all kind of intertwined around recovery and being a champion for recovery, being in recovery, fighting for recovery and here to talk about all things recovery, mental health and well being in general because I believe they're all so interconnected that we can't talk about one without the other.

So looking forward to chat with some of you this evening. And you know, the. I want to start with a question, a question I've been asking a lot lately and will continue to ask a lot over the next couple weeks and hopefully far beyond that. And the question is, how you doing? And you know, I would love it with hey Shannon, happy Sunday, glad to see you here. But really, how you doing? Would love to see you Just drop in the chat 1 to 10, where you @ today? How are things feeling? How are things going?

And that's a question and I want to get into that a little bit. This question, this how you doing? I think there are a couple issues with it. One, we don't, we don't do it enough. I mean we all have such busy lives that, you know, we don't stop in, we don't check in and when we do, we have this, how you doing? And Sherry's jumping in, asking as well. It's become more of a greeting, less meaning to it and more of a greeting. Seven. Shannon's a seven. I like it. I feel like I was thinking about this earlier, probably a 7 today, just kind of feeling like, you know, things are good but just a little bit tired or low energy.

Something season. Yeah, Holiday feelings. But so anyway, how you doing? So I asked that and I, you know, thought about it. Last week I got home from a 10 day trip and I was not, I was not feeling the best. I was tired a lot going on, a couple big months coming up. Just a lot of planning, organizing, running business, all the things. And you know, if you were on in the last couple weeks, you know, I lost a buddy here just a few weeks ago, an old buddy of mine. We did a lot of fun things together, got in a lot of trouble together and yeah, it's unfortunate.

Mental health just kind of got the best of him. And it's really, really shocking when something like that happens, you know, especially to someone you just like. We wouldn't see that. We wouldn't Expect that. And so it really stopped me in my tracks and kind of shook me up a little bit, partly because this is a really good friend. He's got a family, kids, really tough and tough situation. Really hard. The funeral was hard. But it also takes me back to when I was there. And some of you maybe have been there to that point where it's, you know, is this life worth living?

I've experienced that, and I know that pain. I know what that feels like. And so I think it just kind of rocked me. But I remember leaving the funeral going, this doesn't feel good. And I can do one of two things. Either go back to the normal life. That's going to. Most people are going to go back to. It's one of the issues with these funerals and these tragic events is there's a lot that happens over a week. The family's there, all these people are here, all this support. And then the funeral comes and goes, and everybody goes back to kind of life.

Yeah. Thanks, Sherry and Shannon. Sherry. A6 body is sore and tired. All right. Grateful. Grateful at a six. I like it. One of the things when I was. And so I was tired. I'll get back to. I was tired. Just all those things still kind of spinning around in me. So I was like a six some parts of the week, probably three. I feel like I went from a three to a nine to down to four. And, hey, Jules, good to see you here as well. So anyway, yeah, Jules. Anyone else joining? We're just talking about how you doing?

And dropping in some numbers, 1 to 10. Where you at? How you feeling? Actually creating a little meaning behind that question versus the kind of informal greeting that we've made it. So I asked the question and I shared a little transparently, authentically, on social media that, hey, this is where I'm at. Where are you all at? We should be talking about this. Things aren't always the greatest. And it started some good conversation. And I realized again that we don't do that enough. And when we do, it's just not really like, how you doing?

Yeah, good, fine. All the things. But no, really, really, how are you doing? And I think I'm gonna have a lot of fun with that. And again, the point was, you know, go through this funeral and think, you gotta do, you know, I gotta do something. Like, we gotta do something about this. Because mental health and suicide and all the things that come with, you know, the side effects and just what our mental health can do if we're not taking care of it. If we're not talking about it is really staggering.

I knew that mental health and suicide, Jules, is a 7. Getting prepared for travel work tomorrow. Good. Glad you're at a seven. Anyone else out there? Drop them in. Drop those numbers. I like seeing sixes, sevens, eights in there. But it's okay to be at the three that I was at earlier this week. It was kind of funny that people would say I was a three, then a six, then a two, then a nine. And I thought, gosh, I think I do that in one hour sometimes during the week. But anyway, doing something with this and actually checking in and creating space to have these conversations.

So back to the statistics. I knew that mental health and suicide was top 10. It's about the 10th, 11th, 10th that floats around there, leading cause of death in the US which is unbelievable. 50,000 people last year died by suicide. And I understood that. I got the gravity of that. 6 million people in the US attempted suicide last year. 6 million. Now, that's almost three times as much as any other leading cause of death. Thank goodness. The success rates, if you call it that, are not that good. 3%.

6 million. That means there are over one and a half million people in our country alone in the US that felt like ending life was the best, like that was the only option. And that's really terrifying. It really is. And social media and just where we've gotten as a society, these numbers are staggering. And so what do we actually do with that? You know? And again, one of the. It becomes much more personal, and there's so much more meaning to it when it actually happens really close to us. Right? And I imagine all of us know at least one person that we've lost to suicide.

So, again, like, the decision in my head going away from his funeral was, do I just go back to my normal life and forget about this or. And not that I would intentionally do that, but that's what happens. We get so busy and we don't have time to stop. It's just we jump into one thing. And now certain people probably have already forgotten that this guy is gone. So I knew I wanted to do a little something more than that, and so I created a little how you do enlist. And because I'm as guilty as anyone of the busy life and just going back and forgetting about all the things, if I don't become intentional about it, track it, create reminders, do those kinds of things, my life is a whirlwind and so I created a little bit of a list and I just keep adding people to it.

And every day or two I jump onto that list and I find a few people and I reach out and ask. And it's been fun to have some of those conversations. And to some extent, I've always done that a little bit it. But this is really amplified, just kind of the need and the desire to do it. So anyway, the how you doing list is, you know, something I think we could all do. You know, just drop a few people, you know, people in your life that you know are going through it, struggling, add them to the list, check in a week from now, check in a month from now, and just keep doing that.

It's just a little list and I just keep it right on my phone. A little app there that tracks all my notes. And I'll just again, kick it out a day or two and I'll keep coming back to that thing and I'll check in, really check in again. There's a difference between how you doing? And know really, how you doing? Like, what's there for you, where you at? On a scale of 1 to 10, what's causing the 1 to the 10 and what do we need to talk about in there? And I've already had some fascinating conversations around that.

So I think all of us could do that. I would love if you would join me in that. I mean, I think if even if a fraction of our society was able to do something like that, I'm certain we would be preventing the tragedies that I just went through and experienced a few weeks ago. And his family and his kids, I hurt more for them than I probably ever could even imagine. I just couldn't imagine going through that. So would love it if you would join. Yes. Sherry. Ebbs and flows. That's what life is. That's the beautiful thing about this conversation that I've been engaging in, though.

I'm hearing this and people are talking about I was a two and then I was an eight and I was a seven and I was a four, and boy, there's just a lot of hope in that and a lot of resilience that comes through. Like to realize that I can be a three one day and then the next day, two days later, I can be popping up to a nine is, you know, that's hopeful. Like, we're not going to stay there. We don't stay there. But part of it is we talk about it. We need to talk about it. We need to have the conversation I know for me, when I have the conversations and I can share like that and engage with people just like it just inevitably moves in the right direction.

And so it starts with opening up. So I would love it if you would join me in that. And you know, we get done here, you hang this up, I hang this up. Just one person, just shoot a message over to one person. That's all I'm asking. If we could all just do that once a day, once every other day, boy, what a difference we might make and what benefit we might get back from that. We just never know what these conversations will bring. So I'm going to have a lot of fun with it. I would love to have you join me and create your own little how you doing?

List and reach out to someone. As soon as you hang up, please, as soon as this thing is done, send a message. It's three words with a question mark, how you doing? And really, really, really check in. And then I would love it if you would join. I'm going to be launching a campaign early this coming week and really it's for my good friend and they're in honor of him. His birthday is coming up in just two and a half weeks here and I'd like to, you know, add a little funds to the benefit fund set up for his children, 15 and 10 year olds.

So it's really sad. They'll need some support. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna launch something here and I would love for you to follow along and engage and reach out and find ways to support both on the, you know, when I do raise some funds. But also there are going to be pledges and opportunities for us to, you know, commit to doing this, reach out this outreach and checking in. How you doing? And make it a big thing. On 14 November, when his birthday would be, he would have been, would have been 40, but would love to have you there.

I'll share more about that, maybe next week, but connect with me, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you are. And would love to chat a little more and to keep this thing going. So we're all making one commitment. I think if I let us go now and you were planning on spending 15 minutes, that means you'll have two minutes and you can send at least two messages. Who's with me? Who's in? Give me a thumbs up, give me a yes, give me a whatever in the next 30 seconds as we wrap this thing up. Because I really think we can all make a lot bigger difference than we think.

Really? Really. Who knows what would have happened if my buddy would have received a message, you know, that day, the day before or before. Maybe nothing, but maybe something. We know what happens when we don't do anything and that's just nothing's going to change. But we do know that it's possible for something to happen, something good and positive and change to happen if we do something and we act. So I'd love it if you'd join me with that. Otherwise, really look forward to catching up with you all next week.

Jules, you're in. I'm glad I got one hand raised by the end. I'm going to do it. I'm going to have to hold myself accountable and just send a note or two after this as well, because I can't ask you to without doing it on my own. So we'll get back at it next Sunday. I would love to hear. I'll engage in this conversation for at least a couple more weeks and really start to make something of this. Sherry's got two hands up. That must mean two. I love it. I love it, I love it. And really look forward to continuing this conversation with you all.

Thank you for participating, engaging, just being part of this. We can make a real difference in this world with the little growing army that's here in the Cadre sphere and of course out there. So I look forward to catching up with you all. We'll check in next Sunday. Go get them and