My ‘One Word’ this week is: LISTEN

We owe it to our kids to normalize the conversation around mental health and suicide!

“Open the door. Then shut up and listen!”

Those words from my podcast conversation with Leslie Weirich sit at the forefront of my brain every time I now have this conversation with my Gen Z children, Samantha (21) and Zachary (24).

Leslie’s son Austin died by suicide in 2016 and she has made it her mission to end the stigma surrounding mental health. While these types of conversations aren’t necessarily new, they are more important than ever.

Disruption and change have been the norm for Gen Z—gun violence, recession, gender equality, and FOMO given the rise of social media, just to name a few—and it has taken a toll on their mental health!

In fact, Harmony Healthcare IT surveyed 1,000 18-24-year-olds and found that approximately 42 percent of Gen Z have been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

That stat woke me up. Having-it-all on the outside means absolutely nothing if we don’t have the conversation to begin understanding how our kids are feeling on the inside.

So, I do two things now to try and make it easier for my kids to talk to me:

1. I share how my therapy journey (10 years and counting) makes me much more comfortable expressing my struggles, fears and insecurities with my inner ⭕️ (that includes them).
2. I let them know that I continue to experience a lot of the same challenges they’re encountering…and that we actually have way more in common when it comes to managing our mental health, regardless of our age difference.

I can’t express how much these actions have deepened the connection with my kids.  Both of my kids have shared their appreciation for imparting the lessons I learned (the hard way) onto them because it creates the safety they need to share their struggles and ask for advice on how to navigate what they’re experiencing.

When you show your children that you’re NOT perfect and life takes effort at every age, it transforms the relationship. Now they see you as their advocate. I wish I could capture the relief I see in their faces knowing that they have a dad who now listens more and judges less.

I guess the following is really true: “God gave us two ears and only one mouth, so we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

I’m forever indebted to Leslie for this wake up call.

Now it’s your turn to normalize the conversation. Open the door. Then shut up and listen!

Please take the time to listen to this life-saving conversation with Leslie…it’s a real game changer.

#HOPE37🏈