September 9th, 2019

Bryant Wood: My experience with mental health has been a rollercoaster.

Bryant Wood opens up about his mental health.
Mental Health | In the Barber Chair
2 MIN READ
 

My experience with mental health has been such a rollercoaster. 

At around age 22 I started realizing that I am responsible for my own reality. Life doesn’t happen to me and if I focus and cultivate awareness and love, I'm actually co-creating a better world for all of us. When I was able to release and find tools to let go of the anxiety, stress, and addiction in my life, I was able to live a life that I actually imagined.

 
“Being a man of more words means having the humility and confidence to express what you are feeling”
 

Being a man of more words means having the humility and confidence to express what you are feeling. It is more important than ever to be able to communicate and express what is going on in your mind to others because they're probably going through it too. To me, being a man of more words is being vulnerable and standing in front of the world and saying this is me.

I've had so many different mental health breakdowns. I was having an existential crisis when I was around 21 years old. I didn't know who or what I was and the world just didn't make sense to me. When I was able to break down those barriers and communicate with others I realized that the little things that actually rented so much time in my head ceased to exist. Then you start having all these new thoughts and they're actually about how to help and change the world and it makes you feel alive again. It actually motivated me to to wake up in the morning and instead of having a negative sound in my head, I had a beautiful symphony of oneness and love. And I had people to share it with.  

Three out of four that take their lives by suicide are men. Knowing that, now more than ever it’s important to build that community and be vulnerable. If you have even an inkling or a thought that you should reach out to someone, do it. Reach out and ask the men in your life how they are doing or how they are feeling. You don’t know what kind of mind someone goes home to and it should all be talked about.