Wagaliciousness Begins Here!

Today is the day for an observance you probably don’t know about. By the end of this newsletter, I hope you’ll be planning ways to make this day a better one for you and those you love before October 10^th 2024. Today’s observance is all about something I work with veterinary teams to improve – mental wellbeing. Welcome to World Mental Health Day 2023.

First observed in 1992, there’s been a great need in our society for decades longer than that to eliminate the stigma around mental illness. When most of us were growing up, those with different mental abilities were considered “slow” or “nuts” or just plain “weird.” We’ve made a lot of progress as research has identified different mental diseases and conditions, instead of lumping everyone into the same category and “slow learner” classes in school.

Around the world, one in 8 people suffers some sort of mental illness or condition that sets them apart from others. In developed countries, there’s more opportunity for understanding, incl...

This week let’s talk about some mental shortcuts many people take, and how harmful they can be to relationships of every kind.

• Republicans think Democrats are soft in the head. Democrats think Republicans have no heart.
• Minorities think authorities are out to get them. Authorities think minorities are the source of all the problems.
• Baby Boomers think Millennials are lazy. Millennials think Baby Boomers are greedy and wasteful.

If you’ve watched the news, scrolled through social media, or listened to conversations around you, you’ve probably been exposed to those common mental shortcuts, as well as many others. Our human brains are wired to see the things around us that support what we already believe, strengthening those beliefs and making the shortcuts feel valid.

In addition to being common, the shortcuts cited above are incorrect, unkind, and unloving. When we allow ourselves to rely on the shortcuts our brains want to take, we cut ourselves off from learning, growing and ...