The Mental Health Update - Free Event/Early Puberty/Thoreau Wisdom

The Mental Health Update exists to help curious people make sense of mental health. We do this through highly accessible, deeply meaningful mental-health content created for all learning styles.

1. Join Me At a Free Mental Health Webinar On 5/11 Featuring Former NIMH Director, Dr. Thomas Insel
2. Learn How Early Puberty is Affecting Girls' Mental Health
3. See New Credit Cards for the Visually Impaired
4. If You Think Kindness Is Weakness, You Need to Read This Short Article
5. The Productivity Book That Started it All For Me Back in 2015 and Seriously Decreased My Anxiety
6. An Equally Excellent, Alternative Approach to Managing Your Digital Life
7. Thoreau on the Difference Between an Artisan, an Artist, and a Genius
8. A Weird Hotline-Marketing Ploy That Actually Made Me Smile

Join Me At a Free Mental Health Webinar On 5/11 Featuring Former NIMH Director, Dr. Thomas Insel

Second, Director Matt Kuntz repeatedly has been getting outstanding guests for the webinar series they run.

Third, Dr. Thomas Insel might be the best guest yet for this final webinar of the year, and the free event is happening TOMORROW, 5/11/22.

This is going to be so worth your time.

By the way, Dr. Insel has a new book out called Healing: Our Path From Mental Illness to Mental Health. He has to be one of the most-qualified individuals on the planet to write a mental health book.

Learn How Early Puberty is Affecting Girls' Mental Health

Read about the challenges many girls are facing due to the early onset of puberty.

See New Credit Cards for the Visually Impaired

Even if this initiative feels a bit performative (I mean, why haven't credit cards for the visually impaired been around for years and years already??) it's still very important.

Again, we all have our own challenges, visible or invisible. We often think of mental health challenges as invisible, but as a former coworker living with paralysis told me, sometimes your physical disability brings lots of unwanted attention and questions, all of the time.

You just never know what someone's dealing with. I want to live in a world that makes everyone feel welcome.

If You Think Kindness Is Weakness, You Need to Read This Short Article

This School of Life article will take one minute to read. It really made me think about the role kindness plays in my life. I've been accused of being "too nice" in my life. It's weird to think of kindness as a detriment to living.

Randomly, I never knew about the unfortunate life that poet John Keats had, described briefly in the article.

Here's a quote that made me think:

"Rather than seeing practicality and sympathy as alternatives, we could see them as different ingredients within a life. We’re not being asked to choose; good results must depend on a combination."

The Productivity Book That Started it All For Me Back in 2015 and Seriously Decreased My Task-Based Anxiety

I'm balancing a lot of client work as of late, and it made me reconsider how I organize all my various task systems. I now have a more streamlined approach that sends all my tasks through Todoist.

Doing this made me think about the first time I read Getting Things Done way back in 2015. The book absolutely changed my life, as I never realized just how much anxiety I had from trying to keep track of all the tasks I needed to do.

My advice if you read this book: you DON'T need to adopt the entire Getting Things Done system to a tee--take what works for you and keep it simple. Or, check out the alternative system discussed below. Still, Getting Things Done is the book that made me fall in love with personal development. I'm not kidding.

An Equally Excellent, Alternative Approach to Managing Your Digital Life

Tiago Forte is a legend in the knowledge-management space. He's basically a guru for modern knowledge workers. His recently-published video, How I Answer Email in 17 Minutes, is truly amazing.

But as I have felt about the systems of Getting Things Done, I think Forte goes overboard sometimes to optimize all aspects of life. But to each his own.

I still think this article is well worth your time, if only to consider structuring your life and work in different ways.

Thoreau on the Difference Between an Artisan, an Artist, and a Genius

Do people like Henry David Thoreau still exist in modern times? Could they exist? I thought his take on the meaning of the above-mentioned terms was so interesting.

Thoreau was a master of mindfulness. This takes about a minute to read.

Also, it would never be a bad idea if you got lost for hours in the mind-blowingly beautiful content that The Marginalian (Formerly Brain Pickings) has on the site.

A Weird Hotline-Marketing Ploy That Actually Made Me Smile

Why this strange hotline matters for your mental health
Ok, what in the actual heck?

I read this article and my stupid brain said, "Well this is stupid."

Then, I bit my brain tongue and called the free hotline. It actually made me smile. 

Sometimes marketing can improve mental health. I guess that's what I'm trying to do with this weekly newsletter, after all...