Living with Enthusiasm: The Power of Fun and the Mental Health Warrior Mindset Rule 10

Imagine transforming your mental health journey into an adventure filled with joy and excitement. On this episode of No Surrender, I, Bruce Schutter, invite you to join me as we uncover the magic of blending fun with serious mental health work. Drawing from my own experiences with bipolar disorder, alcoholism, anxiety disorders, and PTSD, I reveal how embracing mental health as a key tool empowered me to reclaim my passion for life. Learn about Mindset Rule 10: "Have fun," and see firsthand how incorporating fun into daily routines—like moving to a new place—can boost your balance and motivation.

We dive deep into the Empowering Mental Health Warrior Program, highlighting the critical role of internal motivation and continuous effort in navigating mental health challenges. Discover how adopting a positive mindset and utilizing mental health tools can transform everyday activities into sources of joy. From overcoming anxiety in social settings to enjoying simple tasks like grocery shopping, this episode is filled with powerful insights and personal stories. Tap into your inner warrior and maintain that incredible enthusiasm by visiting BruceSchutter.com for additional resources, including books and the Mental Health Warrior Challenge Coin.

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Bruce Schutter & the Mental Health Warrior Program

After struggling with Bipolar, Alcoholism and Anxiety Disorder for over 20+ years, I reached a breaking point where I attempted suicide. But with a second chance at life, I set out to find an answer to my life’s challenges. I discovered that Mental Health is the key to triumphing over any challenge in life!

Armed with this knowledge, I created the Mental Health Warrior Program. A new self-help approach, centered on lifestyle and mindset changes, so you can take charge of your mental health and triumph over your life’s challenges! 

Each book in the program offers a unique solution, drawn from real-life experiences, for building strong mental health. These books are designed to serve as your daily companion, guiding you on a life-long path to mental wellness. And to further support your journey, I've designed the Mental Health Warrior Challenge Coin – that you can carry with you every day, so you can celebrate your achievements and support your mental health! 

For you are a Mental Health Warrior, and the power to change your life is within your grasp!

Chapters

• 0:01 Empowerment Through Fun in Mental Health
• 11:13 Empowering Mental Health Warrior Program
• 15:42 Embrace Being a Mental Health Warrior

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey everybody, bruce Shooter here with the Mental Health Warrior Program Podcast, no Surrender. Now, today, you know what I want to talk about. I want to talk about the reason that you are becoming a mental health warrior, the reason I became a mental health warrior and the reason anybody should become a mental health warrior. It is so we can live life. But one of the things I think we get hung up on with mental health challenges is we get very serious about it and, of course, we have serious issues to work on. But I'm going to bring you out something extra and something powerful that sometimes we forget, and that is also we are allowed to have fun. Yes, think about that for a minute. So let me jump into this, because when I started out this journey in being a mental health warrior now as I talked about I had bipolar disorder, alcoholism, anxiety disorders, ptsd, a host of problems and I had let my life go where they were in control for over 20 years and they took me down the path to where I basically tried to end it all. I tried to commit suicide because they had put me in such a dark place. You know why? Because I also forgot that when you live life, it's supposed to be about having fun too. So I faced up with my challenges and said I got a second chance at life. I'm going to go forward. I'm going to figure out the answer, and I did. I figured out and found mental health is the most powerful thing out there. It is the way we can triumph over challenges. It's the way we can get the full life experience. It is the secret to moving forward also. Now, one of the things, though, is, again, with these challenges, there's a lot of work we need to do, there's a lot of struggle, there's the past we have to deal with, but we can never forget the reason we're doing this To live life, which includes here it is, have some fun. Now, that is important, because I feel like sometimes, we get so hung up in the details of trying to solve all of our problems that we lose a little bit of the motivation, because we feel like we have to be serious all the time, we have to be structured, we have to make sure everything is controlled. We do want to use some of those things, and, as a mental health warrior, it's important to stay in control, but we're allowed to have fun, because that is what keeps you going each day and really that's what the full life experience is about Having the good experiences as well as managing the tough times. Now, this is so important.

Speaker 1: 2:40

One of the ways as a mental health warrior and I've talked about this in my book I triumphed over bipolar alcoholism, anxiety disorders and, by becoming a mental health warrior, got ahead of myself. One of the things is I introduce you to the components of a warrior, and one of the things is a warrior weapon that is called mindset rules. Now, mindset rules are reminders of certain truths and they can help keep you centered. They will also help you stay out of trouble or get you out of trouble, so they're very powerful tools. Now, in the first book there's 10 of them to get you started. Overall, just so you know, there's 53 of them in another book that has the complete library of mindset rules, so we can be fully empowered each and every day.

Speaker 1: 3:31

But what I want to talk about is mindset rule number 10. Because remember I said a lot of times we've got to remember this. Now we're dealing with all these serious challenges, we're dealing with struggles. It's very easy to forget and get lost in the hectic pace of the day, hectic pace of our problems. Mindset rule 10 says have fun. Yes, it's that simple. I've made it that simple. Sometimes, like I said, we need these reminders and that's what mindset rules do.

Speaker 1: 4:01

Now, what's fantastic is there is so much depth to those two words, because what it is saying is, for example, with me. It's saying, bruce, you need to not go back to drinking. You cannot go back Because I know right now, if I were to take that drink, I would lose the 17 years of sobriety I have. I'd lose everything I had going because I could slide easily back into using that as a short-term fix, using that to hide from my emotions, and we do not want to start that snowball rolling in the bad direction downhill Now. At the same time, I don't want to choose any of my old ways to handle when my bipolar sends me in a variety of directions, sometimes all at the same time, in mania and depression at the same time. But what I want to tell you is, with these tools today and the ways I can manage it, it's fantastic to have that control, it's fantastic to be able to work with my emotions. But I also have to remember and I'm going to encourage you right here.

Speaker 1: 5:03

One of the things is, we do not want to forget the reason we are doing this and why we're trying to work on this, so we can live life and, yep, you can fill it in. Have fun With Mindset Rule 10,. We will not forget that and it's super important because when challenges come up and life will always throw you those challenges well, we can easily forget to live life and have fun. Now I'm going to use a quick example because again in the last couple of podcast episodes and I'm going so fast here I got to slow down. Hold on one second. Okay, I'm having fun, having too much fun, so I'm going to slow down so you can follow me.

Speaker 1: 5:44

But one of the things is, as I mentioned last couple episodes, we moved, so there was a lot of challenges to that. We're still dealing with them. There's the challenges of leaving a place, challenges of going to a new, unknown place, challenges of just moving your stuff and the challenges of trying to find where the heck is the grocery store. There's a challenge, but I remembered to bring mindset rule number 10 with me, because every time I face a challenge, I also remember and bring that rule up and say don't forget to have some fun, because even in the move, even as we're going between states, I looked at it and said, well, this can be fun. It's a little adventure Certainly not the normal week when you're traveling between three states. Then you get somewhere. Or, let's say, when you're leaving, you get to say goodbye to some people in certain areas. You're leaving, you get to say goodbye to some people in certain areas you're leaving, you're going to embrace a new topography, a new geography, a new climate, whatever you're going to do new work situations.

Speaker 1: 6:43

It can be fun too and that is some great internal motivation and we want to build that because it's important, because, again, it's not enough to just be in control as a warrior. We have to remember why we're doing this and that we are doing this so we can live the life we wanted, so we can take our life in the direction we want to go, and so we can accomplish or follow whatever pursuits and interests we have. Now I know that's a lot and you're thinking, whew, that is a lot of things, but those are all possible and I'll put the one line up here. When you can manage your emotions, think about it. And I know personally in the past, every time I got stuck. Every time I wanted to go on and try a new challenge. Every time I was struggling at work, every time I was struggling personally, it's because of emotions and I could not manage them.

Speaker 1: 7:36

But think about it. We flip the coin on this and we say I can manage all my emotions, I'm not fearful of any of the emotions in life because I'm going to be able to work through them. We've just opened up the world and we can go anywhere, do anything, and that is how powerful being a mental health warrior is and again gonna bring in. We can do all that. It will take hard work. It will take using all the tools of the warrior and it will be something we need to work on each and every day. But don't be fearful, because in your back pocket you got mindset rule number 10.

Speaker 1: 8:13

And it reminds you, no matter what struggles you're going through, there is a fun element to everything, and having some fun means accepting your successes. Maybe you have a success at work, maybe you get a project done. Don't forget to, in this case, have fun and celebrate it. I know it may sound a little odd. You're saying well, that's a work project, that's different, but it's not. Having fun means celebrating your life, celebrating what you're doing, your accomplishments. It means a host of things. It does not just mean going to get ice cream, although that's a good idea, so let's table that one and make sure we keep that one, so we can use that one on, say, friday nights, so we'll have ice cream, definitely for that.

Speaker 1: 8:55

But all the rest is all about also having fun, because I know, for example, myself facing a host of challenges and these are chronic problems, lifelong problems. They're not going to go away. The Mental Health Warrior does give me the ability to manage them, to learn to work with them and take my life in any direction, because I have that power, but I'm still going to have to work on them. But I also see that reward, that having fun, and each and every day I see that as I do things before I couldn't even imagine. Now, one thing I want to bring up too is like everything in life, think of it like a sliding scale. So when we say have fun, we do not just mean now you can take that giant trip to Europe Okay, you could do that, and maybe that is one of your things you want to do. But I'm talking about having fun and just being able to enjoy life. I'm saying, think about it and I'll give you an example.

Speaker 1: 9:52

I used to be so filled with anxiety my nights were just a mess. They were terrible, because my anxiety would creep in. I'm either worrying about what happened during the day, I'm worried about what's going to happen tomorrow, I'm just worried. In general. It does not make for any time to relax and enjoy anything, even if I had accomplished things. But today one of the things I can do is I can take some moments after work day. I can take moments after we've gone out and maybe run some errands, take a little break for 5, 10, 15 minutes, just sitting out enjoying maybe a summer afternoon, maybe enjoying a rainstorm.

Speaker 1: 10:30

You may say they don't sound really exciting, bruce. I thought we were going to talk about excitement. But that can be exciting because if you face mental health challenges, I know everyday things become so difficult. So let's start from that bottom, work our way up. We start and we start to see the excitement and we're having fun with those everyday activities. It's going to blossom as we go up and it's going to blossom into our work. It's going to blossom into further personal things, interests that we can pursue, where maybe we never had the time or the ability to handle the scared emotions that came with learning a new skill. All of these things will keep blossoming and building and we'll be having fun. Will keep blossoming and building and we'll be having fun.

Speaker 1: 11:13

That's the internal motivation to keep putting in that work to manage your emotions, to work with their emotions, keep putting in the work to use the mental health warrior tools each and every day to triumph over a challenge that life throws your way, because we will not surrender Correct, we're not going to surrender so we can keep having fun and, like I said, that means enjoying life. There's a lot of text behind those two words, there's a lot of meaning behind those, and that is what is so amazing is you can get all that and it will start to build. And as you learn to manage more and more things, and even as you learn to take on more challenges, as you learn to manage more and more things, and even as you learn to take on more challenges, even tougher challenges, trying to maybe new things in your career or new interests in your life, you will find more happiness comes right alongside of that. And so, again, this mindset rule always reminds us of that because it keeps us motivated to do that. So one of the things we wanna do here today is we were just talking about the reasons we're going to take on mental health challenges, why we're going to handle our mental health disorders, our mental health challenges, whether they're diagnosed or not. Again we are stepping up to the plate and that is fantastic. I want to congratulate you on doing that and watching this warrior stuff to get the tools because again, don't forget, the whole program is about self-empowerment and it's a self-help program giving you self-empowerment, because that builds again internally, and right alongside those tools comes a greater enjoyment and happiness with each and every day.

Speaker 1: 12:53

So I'm going to tell you just a couple of funny things, because one of the things today is there's a lot of little everyday tasks that have blossomed into being able to do new and exciting things. We like to go work out outside. We do some workouts outside. We're not going to a gym anymore and one of the exciting things is you're going to run into people and in the past I was extremely scared of that. I was very scared. I wanted to meet people, but I was scared. My anxiety took over.

Speaker 1: 13:19

Today I can just meet people as we're working out, have little conversations. The entire experience has grown to be that much more enjoyable. That is exciting. We can also go around town and engage. I have had more fun going to a grocery store. Now I like to cook and it's one of the mental health tools I use as a warrior. It's very therapeutic and we can talk about that more later. Don't worry, it'll be on the website. There'll be more information about this. But as one of these tools, here's an everyday experience that has gotten really exciting because I've run into people as I'm picking out my recipe ingredients and I've had fantastic conversations and gotten ideas from other people who also like to cook. We're all there gathering our ingredients and everyday experience tons more fun because no more anxiety, no more depression and those things. We're managing them, so if they come up, we stop them. We can go to the store, we can engage in conversations and then we can come home and do things like cook and enjoy the meals and have a really enjoyable evening. So I'm hoping, explaining some neat things you can do and the power of never forgetting as serious as we are about mental health challenges and I do know they are serious and they do know. Like I said, they took me to where I tried to end my life, and that is exactly how bad that can get. But then you can turn it around to where, every day, you want to live life and you want to seek out all of those fun experiences. So you can flip it around.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Now, if you're looking for information about the Mental Health Warrior Program at this point, remember to go to BruceSchutercom. That's the home of the Mental Health Warrior Program. Type that into a search engine too. If you can't remember the name of how to spell it, it's okay, you'll get there. You'll get started. You'll find a lot of free resources. You'll also find there's nine books there that will talk about all the different ways.

Speaker 1: 15:18

As a mental health warrior, we can do lifestyle changes, mindset changes, various tools you can use. So I want you to be fully empowered. Also, the Mental Health Warrior Challenge Coin is there. You can see how you can bring the program with you each and every day. It's exciting because, again, it's a way to bring something tangible. So, no matter where you're at, you can remind yourself you're a mental health warrior and you can triumph over any challenge.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Now, all of that is fantastic. What I encourage you to do is to remember and tap into that I'm going to have fun. I want to live life. That's the reason to go check out the site, because that will get you and we can tap into that motivation and I'll show you how to become a warrior and you can join me with this over the top excitement each and every day. Now. Thanks for joining in. I hope you got excited from this. I know I got so excited a couple times I ran over myself talking, but that is just how exciting it is to be a mental health warrior today and to live life. So I'm going to tune out and we're going to talk with you more as we keep exploring all these things on the podcast. Don't forget plenty of other information out there to get you going. Please check out the site. Talk with you more later. Bruce signing out.