The Eastgate Project

The lesson is: keep caring and keep taking precautions!

Ok, this one got to me. #liftmeup #imnotcryingyourecrying

I am of a few minds about #BellLetsTalk. First, I am glad that 5 cents of every share of this video is donated to mental health causes and awareness. As a private practitioner, I'm keenly aware that not everyone can access the kind of treatment they need, and I hope that the money actually goes where it should. However, second, I hesitate to promote corporations like Bell and their virtue signalling. Although I don't doubt that mental health difficulties have reached the hig...hest echelons of their corporate structure (because they affect everyone), I work with enough people to know that you may speak of "wellness" and promote it through various campaigns, but the power dynamics and real callousness inherent in any human relational system often tell a different story than the one the corporation wants to make known. Third, I work in the field of "mental health" but I don't like how it's often seen as separate from accessibility to basic human rights such as housing, education, medical care, good home lives, anti-racism and egalitarian initiatives, lower government corruption, and the need to enact sweeping changes to halt the degradation of our planet. Not to get too psychological about this (though I hope as a psychologist my opinion carries some weight), when you have all of these stresses and pressures bearing down on people on a constant basis, it's more likely that cracks start to appear. So yes, let's talk. I am about to spend the rest of my day talking! (Well, actually, more listening than talking-- but "let's listen" may not be as catchy.) But let's not forget that mental health is inseparable from social justice and that for many of us, mental health is not a one-day event, but a year-round struggle. #bellletstalkday #howaboutthemapples

"The Green Bay Packers are a socialist organization." Although it's been a few days since they've (we've?) lost the NFC Championship, I thought I'd share an article that analyzes one of the reasons I decided over a decade ago that the Green Bay Packers were going to be MY team. I admit that it's somewhat troubling to me to be a football fan now that we have greater awareness of the toll it takes on people's bodies and especially their minds. But for me, the success of the G...reen Bay Packers organization as a community-owned "non-profit" signals that there are other ways to do business that benefit small communities, against the thought that billionaire owners with deep pockets in big cities are the only situations that will produce successful teams. The tldr of this 2018 article is, of course, that the Packers are not a socialist enterprise. But I and many others love the fact that they apparently try very hard to adhere to the best parts of socialism-- the thought that the benefit of labour should fall closer to those who provide it. https://theconversation.com/green-bay-packers-fans-love-tha #gopackgo

After a bit of a break, I've finally had some time to gather a few thoughts on a cultural psychological view of my particular subculture: Chinese Canadian Christians.

"Rivera noted how the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin in Detroit, Michigan, was a result of fears that Japan’s then booming economy meant that country would soon take over American industries such as auto and real estate. Chin, a Chinese man, was murdered by two disgruntled white male auto workers who assumed he was Japanese. He added, Techno-oriental fears are mapped as easily upon Japanese people as the Japanese cars: mass reproducible, intrusive, and overwhelming the more ‘hu...man’ white man. I'm probably never going to play Cyberpunk 2077, but I'd be lying if I told you that movies like Bladerunner don't hold a special place in my heart. But as we continue to grow in awareness, it's important to recognize the subtle messages that various forms of media send our way. One such message is that "Asians are other and not 'us'," and that nefarious motives can always be pinned on multinational corporations of Asian origin. https://www.wired.com//orientalism-cyberpunk-2077-yellow-/

Episode 5(ish) is now up! It was a lot of fun to welcome back Joel Jin of Seattle Pacific University to discuss things like emotional intelligence, Asian (church) culture and how much work it is to be mindful of your emotional life.

"Whether you have experienced illness, relocated, lost a loved one or a job, got a kitten or got divorced, eaten more or exercised more, spent longer showering each morning or reached every day for the same clothes, it is an inescapable truth that the pandemic alters us all. But how?" As a mental health professional, the "tidal wave" of mental health problems is not just something for the future, but for the present. Everyone is struggling with greater stress overall, which ...leads those who maybe had lower levels of problematic symptoms (which shows up as anxiety and depression) to feel it even more. But what this article proposes is that even if our collective mental health (an ambiguous term in general) will suffer both now and for generations to come, the tremendous halt that the pandemic has put on us may provide us with opportunities for change. https://www.theguardian.com//covid-19-rewired-our-brains-p

So very grateful.

"Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead... to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones. But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die. You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said." We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.