Take the #AmericaIsKind Challenge today!
Here's How:
-On social media SHARE an ACT OF KINDNESS someone has done for you, or that you have done for someone, with #AmericaIsKind
-TAG 3-5 friends to take the #AmericaIsKind Challenge
-PAY IT FORWARD by doing a random act of kindness for a stranger
OR
-Take the full 30-day #AmericaIsKind Challenge, with daily gratitudes, acts of goods, and our highlighted charities HERE. You can jump in or out any day...whenever you find the challenge is the perfect time to begin.
Today is Day 20 of the 30-Day #AmericaIsKind Challenge:
Our theme today is MENTAL HEALTH, and our Charity of the Day is: Johns Hopkins Study for the Treatment of Major Depression
"Current popular antidepressant medications have significant adverse side effects, with up to 50% of patients failing to respond fully and as many as 30% remaining completely resistant... This study could help establish an alternative."
--Tim Ferris, Author of 3 #1 NYT/WSJ bestsellers (The 4-Hour Workweek, etc.), investor, human guinea pig, and champion of this ground-breaking research
Gratitude: “I am grateful for my mental health."
After a 14-month battle with Major Depression, I am very grateful to be solidly in recovery. With the help of a great doctor and therapist, my treatment worked. But that isn't the case for many who suffer from depression. It is a condition that kills, and it must be fought with research like this study at Johns Hopkins. If you do not suffer from depression or another mental health issue, please pause for a moment to be grateful--and reach out to help someone who is suffering.
Good: Be a friend. Send a free Blue Mountain e-card to a friend who is struggling with depression. Let him or her know you care and are there to listen and help.
Good: Silence is the enemy of recovery; the more we talk about the reality of depression, the fewer people it will kill. Read and share Tim Ferris's post Depression: How You Label Determines How You Feel and Some Practical Thoughts on Suicide. .
Good: Plan meals. A person who is dealing with depression is a person who is seriously ill and needs support. They need help with things like dinners and errands, just like someone dealing with another serious medical condition would. Take them a meal, or a few meals. Better yet, take them a meal and sit down and eat it with them.
Good: Offer concrete help. For a depressed person, doing the things that can help them recover feels impossible. If you have a loved one you suspect is dealing with an undiagnosed mental health issue, offer to find a doctor and therapist for them, make the appointment, and go with them (if they want you to.
Good: Consider donating to our Charity of the Day Johns Hopkins Study for the Treatment of Major Depression
Need more kindness & gratitude ideas? We have them. Find the other days of The #AmericaIsKind Challenge HERE.
Reba Riley is the author of Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome: One Woman's Desperate, Funny, and Healing Journey to Explore 30 Religions by Her 30th Birthday, a humorous memoir of hope & healing author Elizabeth Gilbert called: “Eat Pray Love’s gutsy, wise, hilarious little sister”.