Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the Messenger Mic
Dub. My name is Harper, and I'm joined with McKenzie.
I'm Noah. I'm the vice president of Active Minds
here on campus. Today, we are going to basically
just interview Noah and get to know more about
Active Minds. It's semi -new, you said. It's
been around for maybe about a year and a half,
two years. Yeah, it was on campus for a little
while. I believe that ended in 2022. And now
it's just been restarted this year. So we're
trying to get some more members involved and
build up a bigger community base, which I think
will help the students and faculty who are both
involved in the club. Nice. Well, tell us a little
bit more about Active Minds. Like, what does
Active Minds do? Yeah, well, I can kind of paint
the picture, the overall thing that we're up
against. trying to build towards is more awareness
and advocacy for mental health in general. So
to give some background on that, the challenges
are still pretty widespread. Over 60 % of college
students in the US report clinically significant
anxiety over the past year. On top of that, at
least one in three have reported one instance
where they felt they were too depressed to function,
to go to class, to do all sorts of things. And
that really... presents in a number of ways.
It can obviously be feeling sad and down and
not yourself, but it also affects motivation
and some other stuff that's really crucial to
being successful in school. So on top of all
those things and the transition from high school
to college, we're really focusing on trying to
build a better student community. And it's not
just us here at Johnson County. Active Minds
in general is a nationwide nonprofit so I think
there's 600 chapters across the US at different
schools and the whole point is advocacy and changing
the conversation around mental health, reducing
the stigma and just trying to make sure that
everyone is doing okay along with teaching some
strategies to see in your friends and the people
close to you who might be struggling so that
you can be there for them and get a step ahead.
That's super awesome. Active minds obviously
you guys are on Johnson County Community College's
campus. Do you guys have any? weekly meetings
or Events that you guys come up with yeah, we
do We have weekly meetings on Wednesdays in the
MTC building. I think it's room 212 Double check
that but from 3 to 4 on Wednesdays we meet and
like I said, we're still building up Some membership
there. So the meetings don't always go a full
hour, but on top of the weekly engagements, we
also host speaking panels. So the next one is
Joshua Rivadol on November 5th, and he's coming
to the MTC building. He's an author and speaker
just in general about mental health, suicide
prevention, things like that. And he does speaking
tours around the country. So he's stopping in
on the 5th. I'm working on trying to get some
free... and other stuff if anyone can come by,
it would be much appreciated. I'm also taking
order requests, so let me know. But in general,
we're just trying to build that community and
have a space that people can talk and, like I
said, learn some strategies about what might
help, especially in more stressful times like
midterms, finals, whatever it might be. But even
day to day, it's just helpful to have a few talking
points that will help you and the people around
you. No, yeah, 100%. I feel like that's especially
valuable for newer students, high school students.
We mentioned off camera, a lot of people, or
mainly us, because we were talking about us,
were struggling with high school and COVID and
how our grades were different. And the mindset
was definitely different going from high school
to college and introducing active minds to freshmen
students or even second year. students who may
not have heard about it first year, having a
support system like that is definitely great
for getting back into school. Is there something
that drew you to Active Minds to make you want
to be a part of it? Yeah, there is. Well, really
throughout my life, I started my undergraduate
degree and finished that in journalism, so this
feels kind of like coming home. even though I
never did something this cool with my degree.
Just kind of got it and walked out. Waste of
time. But I have since landed on psychology and
I'm finishing up a master's program. So on top
of all the coursework, I also have a lot of family
connections to mental health in general and addiction
and some battles with both. In my family, my
grandpa and my mom are both practicing psychologists
or what he was and she still is. So that drew
me to the field in the first place, but also
going through the undergraduate journey myself,
especially during COVID, like you said, and dealing
with all that and seeing it come out in my friends
and them dealing with anxiety, depression, whatever
it might be as an outcome of losing community
and also just all the changes that come with
college. It was important for me to find something
where I could be helpful and also just anyone
who joins Active Minds. not only is it something
that's nice to show even on things like your
resume or something practically that you're willing
to put in time but also because you might actually
have a real situation where you can help someone
in your circle and so that was the original draw
of it to me and I'm pretty new to the Kansas
City area in general so having something like
this where there are built -in people that might
be like -minded was a big source of community
for me and and some of my motivation in the first
place. We're seeing that even in the first few
meetings already that it's going well and people
are asking questions and learning some stuff
that can help them and their friends too. Right.
That's really awesome. It's nice to have a community
to come back to. You didn't say you're from Kansas?
No, I'm from Minneapolis. I was born and raised
in the Twin Cities and now my family actually
has a little farm south of the cities. So we've
got dogs and horses. I think gonna get goats
at some point soon. It's just a zoo up there.
It's a lot of fun. There's a lot going on. But
that was definitely a gear shift for me coming
from that environment down here and learning
more about Kansas City, which has been amazing.
And the master's program that I'm in right now,
I was in Boston for most of the summer to finishing
that up. And the school, which happens to be
Harvard, did one of the biggest studies, longitudinal
studies, in the history of research on happiness
and resilience, and it's the Harvard Happiness
Study. And throughout that whole thing, one of
the biggest findings is that community support
was the biggest indicator of someone's not only
happiness, but also their longevity. So even
people who had heart surgery. Lifelong smokers
who might have battled cancer things like that
that really impact your physical health Having
a strong support network was the number one protective
factor against that and the study compares people
from all kinds of socioeconomic racial ethnic
backgrounds just across the board in Boston and
it's I think coming up on a hundred years of
these longitudinal studies where they follow
people from high school through their entire
lives. So it's a really unique data set and that
also just reinforced everything that I was hoping
to find here in Active Minds and on the Johnson
County Community Campus anyway, which is just
that strong network and finding your people and
doing all that because it really does impact
not only your mental but your physical health
too. So it's important. It's coming from Minneapolis
to Kansas City. I'm sure that's a bit of a difference
considering I don't know it based off of I've
never been there but from what I've heard isn't
it majority just as you're saying farmlands and
I know that they do have Minneapolis with the
city yeah and there's some nightlife there for
sure the difference between here and there I
don't want to say Minneapolis is smaller than
Kansas City, but is it? It's actually the opposite.
Okay, yeah, I always get that so wrong. I always
assume Kansas is way bigger than it is, and I'm
like, ugh. It's kind of funny. It is a huge difference
between downtown city life in Minneapolis and
being outside of that, so I... went to school
downtown at the University of Minnesota. And
that is absolutely a big city vibe. I mean, the
whole place, I think, combined between Minneapolis
and St. Paul is three million people, whereas
Casey is half a million or something like that.
Obviously, the Twin Cities are more spread out,
too. So it's, you know, it's a bigger area. She
would know she she corrected me last episode
of how many people are in Kansas City. Really?
I think so. We were talking about going from.
Were we talking about you going to like Texas
to Kansas City or something or maybe uh because
there's way more people in Dallas than there
is in Kansas City obviously but but we were talking
about something and I don't know if it was on
or off camera where you looked up how much uh
of a difference there was between the two cities
and I was so wrong I always have this mind bubble
of Kansas City being so giant for some reason
But it is getting on the map. A lot of celebrities
and influencers are talking about it, thanks
to what? Chaperone, Taylor Swift. Yeah. I mean,
a lot of celebrities come here now, nowadays,
especially with the, what is it, the World Cup?
Yeah. This year, right? 26. 26? OK. Yeah. It's
exciting. It might be the next edition to the
studio. Like a normal map and then like a harper
map with Kansas City just three times Right here
would be nice. Oh my god. We can have it for
a little background We've been looking for a
poster or something to put right there. That
would be perfect. Oh my god This giant Kansas
City. It's like the Geological maps where they
think America is huge or like smaller compared
to all the others. Have you seen like people
who come from Europe are saying that Americans
are not well -traveled, but America is like freaking
huge, so it's hard to like get around the entire
country, but in Europe, they're saying they're
like 30 minutes from France when they're in like
the UK or something. It's like we're not that
close to everything in the US. No, I know. This
is so off -topic. Yeah. Fire away. Well, not
to that but to active minds But there was a I
don't know if it was like a joke but it was this
map of a France tourists, I believe because he's
like yeah, I think I'm gonna you know drive 30
minutes from Chicago to Texas or something and
then like take another 45 minute train to like
Like it was just like an all over be like, I
want to see all the sites. And everyone's like,
that's not how it works. No. I mean, they have
Paris. We have Louisiana. Pretty cool. It's pretty
good. We do have. They have. What? We have, I
mean, lots of stuff. It's almost too much to
name. They have the Eiffel Tower. We have the
Statue of Liberty. True. We're going toe to toe.
Statue of Liberty is from France, though. That's
true. That is technically... They did give that,
yeah. Have you seen it in person? Yeah. I have
not. You really? Really. I feel like New York's
one of the places where everyone's like, oh,
you have to go. Never been. It's really like...
New York's great. I'm not hating on New York.
Obviously. It's... It's New York. You wanna stand
in a, I got overstimulated, that's what I'm trying
to say. That's what I feel like you wouldn't
happen. It's for that. Constantly stand in crowds
of people and smell sewage and hot dogs, go to
New York. No. 10 out of 10. It is a social anxiety
simulator that you just walk in and you feel
uncomfortable, which is how it usually goes.
I have no idea how people do it, and I don't
know how people enjoy it, but people enjoy chaos
sometimes. True. I like my pee. I think a good
segue would be the social anxiety in New York.
So the Active Minds Club is for mental health,
like you guys help with social anxiety as well.
Just like tips to help with that. Exactly. Yeah,
we do. We've got a couple different agenda items
for most meetings, making sure that everyone
is getting something back out of giving us their
time. So we have a couple different quick strategies
and things, little talking points that I like
to mention with people who are stopping by because
like I said, it's not only for them, but might
help with other friends of theirs and stuff as
well. So building routines is one of the biggest
ones. It's taught for almost all levels of psychotherapy
as well, just in general, that having some structure
reduces stress, makes things a little bit more
predictable, even if it's small parts of your
day. It really makes a big difference to have
some anchor points about maybe when you go to
bed, when you wake up, lots of research on even
making your bed, stuff like that. But just little
points of something that you do every day and
at a specific time tend to ground you a lot.
Speaking of that even probably bigger would be
prioritizing sleep as much as we can It's something
that you trip over cliches trying to talk about
but it really is important for every level of
mental health and one of the things I'm putting
together for our next few meetings are just little
mindfulness cards little things that have meditation
and deep breathing practices things that are
clinically proven to lower your stress and kind
of change the way that you Feeling in your body
make sure that you are as relaxed as possible
Especially when there's new things like class
or maybe exams or anything else like that coming
up Staying connected obviously like I said with
the happiness study to just making sure you're
checking in with your people and and knowing
that it's okay for Them to help you out to is
is a big point And one of my favorites that we
are going to go over next week is setting realistic
goals So one popular way to do that is the one
three five rule just having one big goal which
might be Graduating from Johnson County or it
could be any any number of things on whatever
scale makes sense to you But it's having one
big goal three medium tasks and then five small
actions that you can do in a day to get a little
bit closer to that. And by small, I mean tiny.
Can be anything that really gives you a better
sense of feeling like yourself, moving towards
whatever that goal might be. So could be grabbing
some coffee and studying or doing something like
that. It doesn't need to be something where you're
taking off a big bite of the apple every single
time that you're trying to better yourself. And
we also talk about finding meaning and purpose,
which is something that obviously goes along
with happiness and hopefully is something that
people find going to school here as well, which
is not only a job or something that you're studying
for, but something that actually gives back to
you and that you can see yourself working on
over a long period of time because those things
that bring purpose also grounds you in a better
sense of who you are. And lastly, we talk about
anxiety and depression a fair amount because
those are the two most common mental disorders
that we might come across or mental conditions.
And like I said before, it's something that really
can impact different parts of your day and how
you see yourself. So the best way to fight that
obviously are some of these routines and other
other strategies I mentioned, but it can also
impact your self worth and maybe. you, how you
feel about yourself, how that interacts with
the world. And one of the best ways to improve
your self -worth is to do things that make you
feel worthy. Things like could be as small as
working out, it could be volunteering, could
be calling your friend, things like that. Even
studying really small pieces of your day that
will build and over time, dealing with mental
illness struggles is really like anything else.
It's just practice over and over that will make
a huge difference even if it's something that
you're dealing with that's small. So all of those
things are stuff we try to cover in the meetings.
It's also usually covered by our speaking panels
and all that as well, but it's really important.
So that's what I hope people get out of coming
to those meetings, which are Wednesdays three
to four at the MTC building in room 212. 212
confirmed? 212 confirmed. Perfect. Yeah, those
are definitely some great exercises that people
can do like we mentioned earlier New students
freshmen and Yeah, the overall social anxiety
from New York But those are all things that definitely
can get someone started and I know Yeah, little
things like working out reading like those are
things that have definitely helped my mental
health personally, and things that keep going,
or to keep it going, like journaling, and on
top of that, if it's available, like a therapist,
or at least someone to talk to, a best friend,
gosh, everyone knows, everyone in here knows,
I love a good gossip session. Oh my gosh. Does
wonders, for sure. Oh yeah. Yeah, I think you're
absolutely right. And the timing of that, whether
it's gossip, talking with a friend, actually
going to some sort of therapy, or any of the
online options as well, the early interventions
and stuff makes a big difference. And that's
true clinically too. I mean, between 18 and 25
is usually when most mental stuff might come
to the surface, which obviously is right during
college too. So that's. Just fun for everybody.
That's how the timeline works out. But doing
something early, like you said, even if it's
chatting with a friend, can make a big difference.
Waiting and waiting and fighting that is just
going to make things harder mentally, but also
maybe more expensive, maybe more time consuming,
stuff like that. So gossip for sure. Yeah, for
sure. And I know we are kind of running on time
here. Zach, do we have like enough? Yes. OK,
cool. Sorry, we do have one question and we're
still testing this out. And this may not be the
question that we ask everyone. But we hope to
have other club presidents or club members join
us on the podcast to tell us about their clubs.
And this question is specific for you. If you.
If you were shrunk down to the size of a pencil
and stuck in a blender, how would you get out?
That's a stupid question. In all the talking
points that I thought about for this interview
that didn't come up, honestly, I do feel like
I'd be a Ticonderoga, probably classic, you know,
the yellow, nice pink eraser, not chewed on.
I think I'd be a good pencil to start with. I
mean, I'm just saying you toss that in a blender
Rude, I think I want to correct you real quick.
I didn't say you were a pencil I'm saying if
you were shrunk down to the size of one I Mean
either way if I was the size of a pencil Just
get thrown in a blender who's throwing me in
the blender first one I need more information
someone hate you right now because it's them
Are they going to turn the blender on? No, I
hope not. You're leaving a lot to the imagination.
This is a wild question. It's a crazy premise.
It's a question that I was asked and I was left
with the same open -ended questions. If they're
turning the blender on, I think I'm hugging one
blade if I'm that small and just going to get
really dizzy. I think I'm just going to lock
in. You're hugging the blade and not the little
middle part that the blades are connected to?
All right, it's either that or it's just like
a pull -up hang from the top right, you know
I think scamper would be the verb to get up,
you know, and then you just hang that could happen,
too But I'd probably just really try to stay
dialed Someone could add it if they don't see
you But if we're just saying that you're sitting
in a blender, how do you get out? In it just
Not turned on or plugged in blender, but it's
there right how do you get out? Well, I'd imagine
I'd get pretty nervous So I'd use the natural
clamminess of my hands to just plant on the side
I think and you'd probably have to give dogs
out as well. So shoes are coming off And then
you just plant the grippers kind of going up
the side. And once you get to the top, assuming
there's not a lid on it, then you have a whole
other issue, which is how to gracefully slither,
if you will, probably down the side. I'm not
going to jump if I'm the size of a pencil. That's
definitely a broken ankle minimum. So either
the same strategy, kind of just gripper down
or you wait for someone of a slightly larger
size to come help you kind of a B movie situation.
Have you ever seen Honey, I Shrunk the Kids?
No, actually, I haven't. What is that? Oh. What?
This is another movie we have to add to our list.
OK. Have you ever seen Hotel for Dogs? No. I'm
absolutely the wrong person to be asking this
to. I'm the only one in this room here has, so.
Media, illiterate. What about the B -movie, though?
I've seen the B -movie. I've seen it. It's a
big marching band thing. What? Marching band
theme thing. Oh, OK. It's just because. In high
school, we had a bee -themed marching show. OK.
And so the saxophonists, all of them, they dressed
up as the bees. Bees. And we're quoting it. And
they have the whole. Do they have the fingers
on their head? No. Dang. They were quoting the
whole movie, too. You would just walk past them.
They'd be like, you like jazz? All right. All
right. I mean, that is a good line if you do
play this. Exactly. That's not bad. But that's
that's I never knew there was a marching band.
Well, just for that, I guess. What was your favorite
quote from the B movie? It's not you like jazz.
No, it's not. It's the one where he's talking
about yogurt night. It's like you ruined yogurt
night. It's a great choice. Yeah. It's an excellent
choice. Do you have a favorite quote? I don't
know about a quote. I just like listening to
Jerry Seinfeld just, ah, you know, the really
high -pitched yelling. Right. Yeah. In pretty
much all instances of flight. But I mean, I do
feel bad for the guy who came back and is not
fiance, I think. Yes, I think. As fiance or wife.
Serious relationship. Really, I mean, like. Over
a B is insane. I mean, if you do something like
that. I would crash out. I would go to therapy.
I've probably joined some sort of organization,
student -led, ideally. I wonder if there's one
maybe called Act of Minds. That is a catchy name,
and I like that. You should probably check that
out. If I were to crash out because my fiance
wanted to be best friends with a bee. I think
it was more than that, but go ahead. For the
sake of... I constantly get called out for censorship.
Oh, I see. So, that friendship with that bee.
Right, entanglement. Yes, their little picnic
dates. What? I think, yeah, I would definitely
join Active Minds. But that's not the only scenario
that I would join Active Minds, of course not.
No, that would be ridiculous. No, that would
be a far stretch. I would do it for any insect,
stealing my romantic partner and... Just if I
happen to be a student at Active Minds, or at
Johnson County, I'd say, hey, let's get some
mental health going here today. No, yeah. Specifically,
Wednesdays at 3. At 3, in the MTC 112. 212, hang
on. 212, MTC at 3 p .m. on Wednesdays. Appreciate
it. Yeah. Thank you so much for coming on The
Messenger Mic'd Up. Thanks for having me. Talking
about Active Minds and... spreading mental health
awareness. And yeah, just being here, being such
a great guest because this is our first guest
of this semester. Yeah. No way. Yeah. Do I get
some sort of like a plaque or something? We can
give you a sticker and some pens. Nice. I'm thrilled.
We have a whole candy bowl in there. Oh, yeah.
She can't eat any of the Reese's though. So we
have like that whole bowl is just full. Perfect.
Well, I mean, Active Minds is a nonprofit organization,
but we do accept fruit snacks. No, with that.
No, thank you. And yeah, everyone on the listener
side or viewer side. um go stop by see if it's
your vibe and if you need any help they do have
resources 100 and they are uh like actively willing
to work with you talk with you if you have any
questions you can hit up the vp right here absolutely
and um yeah just what was the word i was thinking
of better better your mental health like put
yourself first you Yeah, yeah, you deserve it
you have the midterms coming out It's it is fall
and it is October Which we will talk about next
week, but yeah, no, thank you and thank you guys
for listening and watching again last week we
had some technical Last week we had some technical
difficulties and if you weren't watching, you
can watch now on our YouTube channel which is
connected to The Messenger or on our Instagram
page. You can click the link there and it takes
you to Messenger or Messenger YouTube. But yeah,
thank you guys so much for listening and watching.
We'll see you next week. Bye!