If The Walls Could Talk

Drugs and alcohol don’t kill. Mental health challenges don’t kill. Guns don’t kill. Silence kills. A person experiencing a substance use crisis- a person experiencing a mental health crisis – a person contemplating the abuse of power and violent acts with use of a firearm- all are having a conversation with themselves, that none of us know about. In fact we all go into a space to have the tough conversations with ourselves- where we handle life’s challenges alone; grief, losses, fear, pain, injury, confusion, and disappointment. A space where we beat ourselves up for ways we are insecure, for ways we cannot love ourselves, be forgiving of ourselves, and for ways we feel as though we are powerless, and we are not enough. We say things to ourselves in this space, which we vow to never repeat to another human being- not even our loved ones. If these walls we build in this space could talk, what would they say? Where is it safe to speak it? How does that conversation, begin? If these walls could talk- then and only then, are we truly breaking silence. In my talk, I will share the design and process for living on purpose and living out loud.