Tuesday Jan 24, 2023

Destigmatizing Men’s Mental Health with Simon Rinne

In this episode, I share the mic with Simon Rinne. Simon is the host of the Mindful Men podcast, as well as a social worker with 15 years experience in the Australian Public Service, who shares his personal experiences and perspective to help men who desire and need emotional support as they navigate challenging life circumstances.

Our conversation sheds light on the importance of offering a safe space for men to be vulnerable and how we can all join the effort to make this world a happier & healthier place for every gender. Tune in to hear Simon open up about:

Societal expectations of masculinity set during childhood
What forced him to confront his personal mental health issues
How his obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, and anxiety diagnoses led him to pursue a career path in social work
Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) and how it changed his approach to managing OCD
Working through the shame associated with taking medication to help manage mental illness
How regularly practicing mindfulness improves your quality of life
The importance of having a strong support system to encourage personal growth

A few of Simon’s quotable moments from this episode:

“I said, mate, you've just gotta stop crying. You've gotta stop it. He goes, why? I said, boys don't cry. We're not allowed to cry. We don't, we're not meant to cry. And he looked at me and said, Simon, I can cry if I want to, and that planted a seed.”

“I didn't even know mental health wasn't even in the dictionary from my perspective. Like nobody talked about it at all.”

“I said to myself, Simon, no matter how dark today is, or seems like, the sun will always rise tomorrow.”

“When you get it out of your brain into the world, it just becomes words which disempowers it.”

“Mindfulness has been something that I'm really practicing as well. And, and I've found that through my burnout, recovery as a way to reconnect, find joy again, but also ground myself..”

Interested in working with Simon?

Visit the Mindful Men website to learn more.

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