"It'll Be OK, Friend." Mental Health - The Elephant in the Room - Yours Truly Considers Brent Pope's Phenomenal Pendulum Talk

There is a Global Pandemic affecting 1 in 4 of us – Mental Health IS The Elephant in the Room.   I was blessed to attend Pendulum Summit in Dublin during the week along with another 2,000 souls, twenty of whom had come together as The Vagabonds’ to have fun and learn and make friends over the few days. It was everything I expected, and more.   I was moved to action (or consideration at least) by several of the speakers, but the one that ‘hit me’ unexpectedly was Brent Pope talking about his mission to normalize the conversation about Mental Health, through his organization “The Elephant in the Room”.   Brent is six foot three inches, 17 stone, the last man you would pick out of a lineup as someone who might be vulnerable, yet he was.   When he hit rock bottom, he picked up the phone, in a last-ditch attempt to avoid the seemingly inevitable, and the guy who answered the phone saved his life (and likely thousands of lives through Brent’s work now). Instead of answering “Hello, Samaritans.”, his first words were, “It’ll Be OK, Friend.” Please, please stick on the kettle, grab a coffee, and think alongside Brent and me for a few minutes; it could make all the difference to someone you know.