Go Ahead and Fart - World Mental Health Day

Yesterday was World Mental Health day.

Smile today!

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I choose to write and release this post today, a day late - slightly ironically - because, it shouldn't be just on the world-widely-recognized-days that Mental Health is a topic of conversation. It should be every day.

The words we speak are little things, that can have a not so little impact on our mental health.

(A fart is also a little thing, that can have a not so little impact (on our nostrils) - bear with me here! Hahaha...)

These words are the carriers of our essence - our feelings, thoughts, beliefs (bad or good).

If we do not release these words. The baggage of these words will be released within us.

...

I was listening to a podcast by Lewis Howes the other day, in what he coined "his favorite podcast to this date". He was in conversation with Dr. Edith Eger - a holocaust survivor. A few of her statements stuck with me:

"We either vent it or depress it."

"The opposite of depression is expression."

She also said, "what comes out of your body does not make you ill, what stays in does."

I am someone who has by no means had a smooth sailing ride through mental challenges - but I also haven't been through anything near what we would consider mental health issues. As a result, I appreciate hearing words from individuals who have better perspectives on the subject than I - listening to Dr. Edith Eger was so profound.

To create a more tangible representation of what she is saying, I will take something profound and make a riot of it - bring in the FART.

Farts are a gassy by-product of eating and digesting something that our stomach doesn't agree with.

The natural cycle of a fart begins with the stimulus of ingesting some food, we then digest the food, but in response, a gassy byproduct is oftentimes created - based then on the decision of whether this is the right time and place - the gas is released, and finally smelled by anyone and everyone in the proximity of you - and the job is done.

This all seems so simple.

But think about when you keep a fart in - when maybe you decide this isn't the right time and place. Often, as a result of keeping it in long enough, the fart will turn to the trapped wind in your belly - causing us discomfort, maybe a bellyache, and well ultimately, all the more urge to want to release what we are trying to keep in - due to shame of not wanting to let off an ABSOLUTE STINKER IN PUBLIC.

I'm sure this is not new news to anyone, but what I am trying to get at here is that... Well...

A fart can be like a bad feeling.

Keep it in, and it causes us pain - release it, and yes the feeling/smell may linger for a little, cause a reaction from the people around us, but oftentimes it'll make you smile and you'll almost always feel better for having gotten it out of your system - compared to having kept it in.

The point Dr. Edith Egar tries to get at - in all her literature and talks she does base on her experiences in the holocaust - is that what you keep in will damage you more, than when you release it.

Whether it be met with any reaction from a funny face, to a smile, to a hug, to an embrace - if we could just release a few words about our troubles, to those around us - just as we can fart in front of those we feel comfortable with - then what's been troubling us will no longer be caged in like a prisoner or bubbling like gas.

Words are a little thing. (So are farts...)

I wanted to put a light-hearted spin on such a heavy subject, to allow us all to smile today and think of the burdens of mental health in a new light.

I wish for you all to release your bad feelings, thoughts, or beliefs like they are farts.

Smile about it, crack a laugh, and talk it through.

The world will be a better place for you if you did - after all, bad feelings don't smell as bad as farts do they? I know you are capable of releasing these feelings, without as much shame or hurt or fear, as you do when you drop a silent but deadly on the table at dinner - because even that's not so bad in the grand scheme of things.

Words are a little thing that can have a not so little impact.

Remember, farts are your deadly weapon - to providing you Great Mental Health!!!

Smile today.