April 2023
Quote
“Mastery is the quest to improve yourself as an end in itself. Comparisons are not made with other people, but only with prior versions of yourself. You’re not trying to become a better writer, musician, podcaster, etc. to improve your standing amongst others. Rather, you’re doing it to prove to yourself that you can exercise your potential by contributing everything you can to actualize that untapped resource.
Status is obtained by collecting attention, whereas mastery is achieved by refining intuition. Status is always relational, so external validation is a prerequisite to feeling secure. Mastery, on the other hand, is gauged by your unique sense of progress, which can only be derived from within.
By pursuing mastery, you march to the beat of your own drum, while ensuring that the quality of that drum continues to improve over time.”
Useful Fact
Spanner in the Works? is a men’s health promotion program designed and delivered by the Australian Men’s Shed Association (AMSA) and Healthy Male. The kit can be used as a comprehensive package or in smaller segments, tailored to your needs.
Use the health promotion event kit to guide you can run a health promotion event, display or information session. Use the posters and fliers to promote men’s health and your event.
The kit includes a booklet designed to provide Australian men with a ‘service and maintenance’ schedule to promote optimal health and wellbeing through the different ages and stages in life.
Interesting Website
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Asphalt Art Initiative responds to the growing number of cities around the world embracing art as an effective and relatively low-cost strategy to activate their streets.
While cities incorporate art into public spaces in a variety of ways, the focus of this initiative is what they are calling asphalt art: visual interventions on roadways (intersections and crosswalks), pedestrian spaces (plazas and sidewalks), and vertical infrastructure (utility boxes, traffic barriers, and underpasses).
Campaign
News literacy is the process of developing critical skills to successfully navigate the news. It includes understanding what the role of the news is; how and why stories are produced; what impact the news has on us; how to judge the trustworthiness of information; and understanding the difference between - and the importance of - both problems-focused and solutions-focused news reporting.
New Literacy Network are fighting an onslaught of negativity and misinformation in the news. It is inescapable and has a powerful impact on our worldview, mindset and behaviour.
How healthy is your news diet?
Key Event
WayAhead, work every day to educate people throughout New South Wales and beyond on mental health and wellbeing and link them to services and resources that improve their mental health.
Their vision is for a society that understands, values and actively supports the best possible mental health and wellbeing.
Find out more with their online directory where you can search for a mental or community health service.
Who are
HERE is a new digital platform which will provide information on suicide and situational distress, connect people of diverse genders and sexualities and their loved ones, along with service providers in NSW, to care, support and resources.
HERE highlight the importance and need of peer led LGBTQ+ specific suicide prevention services and resources and spotlighting the value of lived experience.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community who have been affected by suicide have been invited to talk about their own experiences, and the importance of talking openly about suicide in their communities.
Out & About
Better Off With You draws on the power of peer-to-peer storytelling – sharing the experiences of individuals who have had suicidal thoughts and survived suicide attempts, to reach people in the community who are contemplating suicide.
As many as 500,000 Australians have attempted suicide at some point in their lives and sharing their experiences can help others who are feeling suicidal.
The campaign seeks to challenge the perceptions of those who are contemplating suicide that they are a burden on their family, friends and other people.
This campaign concept draws on Thomas Joiner’s Interpersonal Theory of Suicide, which identifies ‘perceived burdensomeness’ as a key belief in individuals who are having suicidal thoughts. Better Off With You features real stories of people with experiences of suicidal thoughts and actions from two communities in Sydney and Northern Queensland.
Resource
Are you concerned about changes in your thinking? Games and challenges on this new app give you data you can share with your GP.
BrainTrack is a free app that helps you monitor and understand changes in cognition over time, which you can use to start a conversation with your GP.
The app will help you explore this common concern, providing brain health information through fun, travel-themed games that test your cognition. The resulting conversation and monitoring may lead to an earlier diagnosis of dementia.
Diary Dates
Join us as we host our line up of On The Couch guest speakers for 2023 including Chris Cheers, Maggie Smith (not the actress) on Transgender health, Ruiqi Fan on cross cultural sexual health knowledge & more!
There are also free modules like Doin it Right, Nitty Gritty & Because You Care that you can sign up for and complete for free in your own time.