[2023-05-01] Stories give others hope

Mental Health Week in Canada kicks off today, running from May 1 to 7. The Canadian Mental Health Association, which inaugurated the annual campaign in 1951, describes the week's objectives as educating the public and shifting beliefs and perceptions about mental health. Now in its 72nd year, Mental Health Week helps promote behaviours and attitudes that foster well-being, support good mental health, and create a culture of understanding and acceptance.

This year's theme is MY STORY. CMHA states:
  • Sharing stories and experiences with each other, especially of difficult times and challenges, can benefit a person’s mental health and help others feel like they are not alone.
  • For those struggling with mental health challenges, hearing others' brave stories can offer a sense of comfort and solidarity that helps to reduce feelings of isolation.
  • The vulnerability we show in telling our stories gives other people hope, courage and strength to overcome their own struggles.
  • Research shows that using expressive writing (a method of storytelling) can help us deal with stressful and traumatic events and can even positively impact our health.
  • Sharing experiences with each other can help destigmatize mental health disorders. The more we share stories of the challenges and difficulties we’ve overcome, the easier it is to talk about such conditions and disorders.
  • By hearing, seeing and learning of others’ experiences in the world through storytelling, we can destigmatize mental health and raise awareness of important issues, while encouraging individuals to seek help and support.
Sharing my story in Jenesis benefited my mental health, helping me to cope with the emotions that came with facing cancer twice, undergoing physically and mentally challenging treatments, and contemplating my mortality. My choice to "live out loud"—as one of my friends described this blog—also helped others to bravely face their own challenges and to share their own stories.

When written down and readily accessible, stories can educate, entertain and influence us, both in the moment and whenever we go back to them. They can be like our favourite songs that we play again and again. In fact, as I write this post, I'm listening to a Spotify playlist I created in May 2021 called Stronger, which I subtitled: "Songs from which to draw strength when going through a tough time." Among the songs on this playlist is one called "Japanese Bowl" by Peter Mayer, whose lyrics are these:

I'm like one of those Japanese bowls
That were made long ago
I have some cracks in me
They have been filled with gold

That's what they used back then
When they had a bowl to mend
It did not hide the cracks
It made them shine instead

So now every old scar shows
From every time I broke
And anyone's eyes can see
I'm not what I used to be

But in a collector's mind
All of these jagged lines
Make me more beautiful
And worth a much higher price

I'm like one of those Japanese bowls
I was made long ago
I have some cracks, you can see
See how they shine of gold

There is much hope in this song. It has the power to shift our thinking from hardships as flaws to hardships—once overcome—as evidence of determination, resilience and survival. Often, those hardships make us more beautiful people: more empathic, more understanding, more supportive.

I often talk with my daughter about what our stories are about, but also what our stories are about. On the face of it, a story might be about having tea with an old friend. But look deeper, and that same story might be about validation, comfort and permission to feel scared.

During this Mental Health Week, remember the power of stories to give other people hope, courage and strength to overcome their own struggles.