Welcome to the drunken worm podcast. Each week, I will be bringing you dynamic content that will educate and inspire. This podcast was created to talk to mental health professionals about addiction recovery and their own personal stories that can help inspire us to become better people and live healthier lives. Alright, I want to welcome everybody to the drunken warm podcast. My name is Carl, the host and the creator. And Happy Thursday. Whoa, you're probably thinking to yourself, Carl, what is going on? Normally, we have our episodes on Tuesdays. While we're doing a new series on the drunk norm, it's called the Five and five, we're going to be releasing five episodes in five days. And this is going to be a series of episodes that will tie in with each other. So the topic that we're going to be talking about during these episodes, is we're going to be talking about five steps to mental well being. Evidence suggests that there are five steps that we can take to improve our mental health and well being trying these things can help us feel more positive, it can get us out of our mindsets, and we can get the most out of life. So the first topic we're going to be talking about for this episode, and this is what this one episode is it's going to be a short episode. But we are going to be connecting with other people, good relationships, guys are so important for our mental well being. Right, they can have us build a sense of belonging and a sense of self worth, it can give us an opportunity to share positive experiences with each other. And it can also provide that emotional support that we look for, and allow us to support other people. So you know, maybe you belong to an organization already, and you're able to fulfill some of these things that I just mentioned. But maybe with the virus and everything else that's been happening in our lives, it's going to be good for us to start getting back out into the community, and keeping safety measures in mind, right. So if it's possible, take time each day to be with your family. Take time each day to be with your family go out to eat, spend time with each other, arrange a day out with friends that you haven't seen in a while, you know, my we I just got Six Flags tickets. And I'm going to be going with friends out to Six Flags in marine world. And it's outdoors. And yes, it's a little bit scary to think about getting back involved in crowds and everything. But I think it's going to be a good time. Try switching off the television, we are so linked to our devices. And this is a whole nother addiction that really kind of plagues people is our devices, right? But take time, turn the TV off, play a game, do something outside with your children, do something outside with your friends, barbecue, and have the whole family come outside, you know, we're coming into summertime. And this is going to be barbecue season, I can feel it. You know. So instead of having everybody inside on their devices, while you're out there grilling, why don't you invite the family out there to sit out there you guys can talk gets get to know each other again, you know, maybe swim in the pool once it starts to warm up a little bit. Another really good idea is take time from work and go and have lunch, get yourself out of the office. That's really important because, you know, like myself, I even sit in my office. Most days I eat lunch at my desk. And you know, it's kind of the same grind day in and day out. But if we can take ourselves out of that environment, if it's only for 30 minutes, or maybe an hour if you're able to take that much time for lunch. But getting outside of that environment and changing the scenery is important for our mental well being. Visit a friend or family who needs support in our community too is such another valuable thing that we can do. Seek those who are needing our support that we know. I mentioned volunteer work before maybe belonging to a group where you can volunteer. So you know, there's lots of community groups out there that are looking for people to come out there to help them out and to volunteer. So you know, check your websites, maybe you can volunteer if you go to church at but find something that you can do to help the community. So last thing I want to talk about is making the most of technology you know, we need to stay in touch with our friends and our family. So If it's hard for us to get out, and it's hard for us to see people, or maybe they're further away, and we don't have the time to travel, you know, use the video apps, like Skype, Facetime. And these are so useful to make those connections. I know it isn't the in person connection that we are accustomed to. But these technologies have come so far in the past two years, that it is now so much easier for us to stay connected with friends and family. And you know, like my parents say, they get together with their friends on Skype calls. And there's like eight or nine of them sometimes on these calls. And they'll be talking with each other. And they'll spend 45 minutes on there. And it's like all of them are getting together. But they're doing it using technology. It's keeping them safe. And it's easier, because a lot of them have now kind of spread out over the Northern California area. So really good idea to start using some of the technology. But please do not rely on the technology or social media alone to build relationships. It's easy for us to get into the habit of only ever texting, messaging or emailing people. So do not rely on these solely to communicate. And I can't tell you how many times I receive texts from somebody and the you know, it gets screwed up because I'm taking things out of context or I'm not understanding the way that they're trying to deliver the message, you know, and we've all heard horror stories of relationships going bad friendships going bad over text messaging, so please, do yourself a favor. Get out there today. Get involved. Go visit some friends, take a walk, but do something for your own mental well being