Event on mental health in Limerick aimed to help ‘Reset Your Mindset’
NORWICH City football club in England have received worldwide acclaim for a moving video to mark World Mental Health Day.
It tells the story of two fans attending matches together for months but all does not appear as it seems in their personalities.
Caroline Stokes, who has helped to raise awareness in Pallasgreen, described it as “powerful”.
The same can be said for an event she organised in Pallasgreen Community Centre called Reset Your Mindset.
“Unfortunately, so many people are suffering in silence and, what’s worse is, they feel ashamed of it.
“We invited people to a talk on sharing insights on cultivating a healthier more resilient mindset,” said Ms Stokes, who feels passionately about helping others.
She hoped for “at best” 40 people to attend but “by God did the people of Pallasgreen and beyond come out in their droves”.
“We couldn’t keep the chairs lashed out quick enough at one stage. We ended up with a full house and people even standing at the back.
“The aim of the night was to inform people of how important their ‘mindset’ is, which basically means what you think about yourself, your belief system and how you see and respond to the world around you. I also wanted to raise mental health awareness in a very local way and show people there is hope,” said Ms Stokes.
The first speaker was local man Robert O'Donnell, known far and wide as ‘the barefoot hurler’. He also starred on TG4's Underdogs which he was inspirational in on and off the pitch.
Ms Stokes said Robert told the large crowd about his own mental health journey, how he spent two years in bed with the false narrative that he was worthless, and how he stopped at nothing to get better.
“He was so brave and kind to share such a personal story in his local parish which could not have been easy for him,” said Ms Stokes.
The second speaker was a health psychologist from Galway, Marguerite Tonery.
“She spoke of how our ‘genetics load the gun but our lifestyle pulls the trigger’ and how trauma can affect all the generations in families. Marguerite advised us to go easier on ourselves, not to take on too much and to get help in the areas of our lives that we need to,” said Ms Stokes.
The organiser stressed that anyone going through dark times in their mental health, “Please know that not all your thoughts are true and sometimes the worst person you listen to while like this is yourself”.
“Reach out to someone you trust for help and, of course, go to see your doctor to discuss your options,” said Ms Stokes.
After both speakers had finished, there was an opportunity for a questions and answer session with the audience.
“I initially dreaded this as I thought no one would ask a question in such a local setting, but in the end we could not keep up with the questions people had and even had to stop so we could wrap up the night.
“What happened on the night to me was unique and special. We created such a safe, non-judgmental space for people to discuss such an important topic.
“In a world where we look outside of ourselves for so much, such as validation for how we look, how we perform in our professional work lives, or sports wise on the field, how we appear to others and so on, the most important place we look is within.
“The relationship we have with ourselves affects every other relationship in our lives and everything that is important to us,” concluded Ms Stokes, who has an Instagram page called Reset Your Mind, which is a non-profit organisation.
Her whole goal is to “turn the word taboo into ta-da” and she plans on doing more events like the one in Pallasgreen in the future.