No Surrender: Embracing the Mental Health Warrior Mindset with Resilience and Practical Strategies

Ever felt like surrendering to your mental health challenges? Join Bruce Schutter as he reveals how the Mental Health Warrior Program "No Surrender" Mindset can transform your life. Drawing from his personal battles with Bipolar, Alcoholism, Anxiety disorders, and PTSD, Bruce shares how resilience and practical strategies can help you regain control over your emotions and daily life. From handling everyday hurdles to embracing new opportunities, Bruce's insights offer a powerful blueprint for building your Mental Health Warrior strength, so you can triumph over life's challenges!

Discover the profound impact of never giving up in the face of life's difficulties. Bruce also introduces a practical tool—the Mental Health Warrior Challenge Coin to serve as a daily reminder of this unyielding mindset. Plus, learn about the wealth of resources available to support your journey, including free books, articles, and podcasts on his Mental Health Warrior Program website. With Bruce's guidance, you can harness your inner warrior, build the resilience needed for personal growth, and steer your life in the direction you truly desire.

Tune in and start your journey towards becoming a Mental Health Warrior today, where we never surrender to life's challenges!

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Bruce Schutter and the Mental Health Warrior Program: 
After struggling with Bipolar, Alcoholism, Anxiety Disorder and PTSD 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 self-help approach for triumphing over life’s challenges and building the life you really want!

At the core of the Mental Health Warrior Program lies the principle of self-empowerment. With practical solutions centered on lifestyle and mindset changes, the program empowers you to respond, not react, to life's challenges, by tapping into your inner strength and resilience. 

So, are you ready to embrace your inner warrior and triumph over your life's challenges? Embrace the Mental Health Warrior Program today and take the first step towards a New Mindset, a New Life, and a New Future.

Chapters

• 0:01 Mental Health Warrior Mindset
• 8:13 Mental Health Benefits of Not Surrendering
• 15:26 Never Surrender

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hi everybody, bruce Shooter here with the Mental Health Warrior Program podcast, no Surrender, and it's that very thing I want to talk about today the mindset and the actions of no Surrender. One, it is very sustainable and two, it is a powerful tool and approach we can use each and every day when we're facing life challenges, mental health challenges, every day when we're facing life challenges, mental health challenges. So let's get excited because we're going to talk about how we can adopt and every day we will never surrender, as mental health warriors, to our life's challenges. So first let's jump into the day. Where are we at? Well, let's just say you have a lot of challenges right in front of you. Now, I'm going to use my examples at this point, because we're saying, bruce, you have a lot of challenges, right, I do Bipolar disorder, alcoholism, anxiety disorders, ptsd, from my time as an EMT, when I was younger, in high school and college.

Speaker 1: 0:58

Now, all of those challenges, they're not going away, but I found a way and you can too to manage them by becoming a mental health warrior, because I have found one. Mental health was so powerful when I didn't take care of it. It took me down to where I didn't even wanna live anymore. Matter of fact, I tried to end my life. That's how bad it got when we don't take care of our mental health. But on the flip side, when I had a second chance, and I did hear, I said, bruce, let's figure this out, let's figure out an answer. And I did. I suddenly realized, if mental health is that powerful, well then let's flip it around and use that power for good, if you will. Let's use that power to triumph over our challenges. Let's use that power so we can take our life in any direction we choose, because if we can manage the emotions, then we can move forward. Now I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself. That's the big picture. But let's go back to our approach, and this is the mental health warrior approach. Now, it's a mindset, but it's also an action step that you can take each and every day, and that is no surrender, no matter what life challenges you're facing. And in this case, I'm facing those four challenges each and every day. Now, I'm also facing life challenges, just like everyone else. There's the daily life challenges that come up problems with the car bills that have to be paid, job concerns, all sorts of things, friends and family, building relationships, keeping control of all the daily tasks in life. Now again, I know I'm launching a whole bunch of things at you, but what we are looking at is these are all perfect examples of how the mental health warrior mindset of no surrender will keep us moving forward and allow us to triumph over those challenges. But it's important that we understand what that means. So today we are going to go through that.

Speaker 1: 2:56

Now for myself, triumphing over my challenges. One does not mean, as I've mentioned, that they go away. I don't have a magic wand. A mental health warrior doesn't have a magic wand. I can't make my bipolar disorder disappear. I can't make my anxiety just suddenly disappear. But before you get depressed and before you think, where is he going with this, you can make and manage those challenges. You can make them under your control, sorry, and then you can manage them. So I can manage my emotions, which means by never surrendering to them. I can deal with wherever bipolar sends me on that emotional spectrum, and it does. It likes to spin me around like a top with my emotions. That's part of bipolar disorder.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Now, one of the things is that we can remove that power, we can gain back control with our no-surrender approach, because when we don't fall apart and that's what happened before that's how I got to the point where I just couldn't take it anymore and saw no more forward action and no path out of these challenges and, as I spoke about, that's a really horrible place to be in. But when we don't surrender, we have taken a powerful and important step each and every day. So that's why I'm going to encourage you to embrace this new mindset as a mental health warrior, kind of think of it as one of those building blocks for your foundation. You're going to be a mental health warrior and you're building this solid foundation to handle all of life's challenges and to triumph over them, and we're going to have a very solid block in our mindset of no surrender. Now that's going to allow us to then not give up, to never feel like we don't have power. And that's the important part, because that is where my story, as I mentioned, that downhill 20-year ride with those challenges controlling the direction of my life took me, because at the end I felt I didn't have any power and I certainly didn't see a way forward or a way to even achieve the things or enjoy life like I wanted to. But today it's completely different, because when I became a mental health warrior now not only do we learn to ally with our emotions, to work with them, get comfortable with them, but I also put into play the mindset First thing I do is don't give up.

Speaker 1: 5:31

Now I know you may be saying, okay, bruce, is this another one of your duh rules? Yes and no, and a duh rule, what I like to call it is. It's so obvious that we almost skip over it and we say, boy, I just can't have any real power. But the funny thing is they actually are very solid pieces of being a warrior. And in this case, not surrendering allows us to one process the emotions, see what's going on and actually understand the challenge we're facing. And then secondly, more importantly here now, because this is where we take action it allows us to use warrior tools, use all the mindset, the solutions, the tools that we are going to build as a warrior, so that we can then triumph whatever challenge is sitting right in front of us, whatever challenge is presented.

Speaker 1: 6:20

And what I'm saying at this point is so let's just take bipolar and it decides to spin me into depression for no reason, because sometimes that just happens, but by not surrendering, because sometimes that just happens. But by not surrendering I don't give it the power, I don't relinquish my power to it and while I may be into a bit of depression, I can stop it in its tracks so it doesn't take over my whole day, my whole week or take over and start controlling my actions of the day. Now that is a big, big win and you can start to see now why it's so important and why I wanted to dedicate this episode to all the benefits and the excitement of no surrender. Because, again, this is not a magic wand and I know I've said that several times, but we're not presenting a solution, as much as we are building a foundation which we can then use lifelong to triumph over our challenges, meaning move forward each day, control the direction of our life, and we can also manage any challenge mental health, life challenges, anything dealing with emotions, because we are mental health warriors. Now, what does it look like today for me, when I was giving those examples? Well, with bipolar disorder, as I mentioned, it spins me around into maybe everything's perfect or everything is the worst. So we have that full end of the spectrum of emotions. Now, today, I'm able to manage with this no surrender spectrum of emotions. Now, today, I'm able to manage with this no surrender both of those challenges, both of those situations. And again you can do the same, because if you imagine any one of the mental health challenges or any emotion that comes up, if we can manage the emotions, we can then be in a calm, centered place and we can take the right actions to triumph over those challenges.

Speaker 1: 8:13

Now, in the past, I will let you in. Here's what happened before as a secret. A lot of times this is where, as I couldn't handle any of my emotions, so maybe the anxiety, my anxiety disorders overwhelmed me, or the bipolar sent me into such a deep depression. I was overwhelmed and felt life was just useless and it really is that sad. It brings you down to that level. But what happened is then I would turn to drinking to try to hide from those emotions. I certainly didn't want to handle it now. Secondly, I also might turn to trying to do short-term adventures going out and buying something extravagantly expensive. Term adventures going out and buying something extravagantly expensive, going out and actually needing to have that huge new project Now again, not really a good solution.

Speaker 1: 8:59

These are short term solutions, just looking to get through the day, and as warriors, we're not going to do that anymore. We are looking for a lifelong path where we are in control and, most importantly, think about it. When you're in control, each and every day, you get to build the path and take your life in the direction you want it in. And that's almost like a side benefit, but a very powerful benefit of no surrender Because, again, not only do we get to handle the challenges that are in front of us from that solid foundation, but by handling each and every day, as you can imagine, you handle things Monday, tuesday. Your Wednesday is going to end up where you want it and you're still in control. And again, when we're looking at things like pursuing passions, careers, jobs, just making the best out of where we live and the experiences in life, well, that's something we want to do each and every day. So we want to never surrender, so that each day we can control it and keep moving forward, which in turn allows us to build that path forward and be in control. So we've just covered two huge benefits, almost like I view them, as there's the daily benefit staying in control, better solutions, better answers. We don't get in more trouble. Long-term benefit of not surrendering is we're controlling the direction of our life, taking it in the direction we want, and we are ready.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Here's that third benefit for new challenges. Now that is really really exciting and powerful because again in my own life there were things I wanted to do when my anxiety disorder was running rampant, controlling my life, but I was too scared to do them. The anxiety would stop me from taking those actions. I actually suffered through terrible anxiety attacks and maybe bailed out of things I wish today I could do. But here's the good side, because again, we don't want to leave you with the negative. The good side is today I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to bail out on anything with anxiety because I've learned to manage it. So that third benefit is we can take on new challenges. We can take on anything you want to do, and I am trying new things today.

Speaker 1: 11:23

I started out in the field, as mentioned before. I was an EMT. Then I went into college, got an IT degree, started out in the information technology field, became a small business owner after that, and then here I am today, writing books, talking to you on podcasts certainly not something I expected and never, ever could have achieved when my anxiety or my depression from bipolar ran the show. So today, that experience shows to me and I'm hoping it shows to you how far and how exciting it is when we stay in control and never surrender. We can take our life into new directions. We can take on those new challenges. Now, they will be tough, don't get me wrong. Any challenge is going to be tough, but as warriors, we remember we're never going to surrender.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Now, I know at this point you've probably got the point of we're not going to surrender. I know I've said it 20 times, but it's important because, like I mentioned, I count this as one of those rules or one of those approaches. We'll say in this case, or actually we'll say it's a mindset, so it's all three. We're going to say it's those three, and it is so obvious and the power is so great. But we often miss it because we think that's a fairly simple action. Could it really have that much power? And again, that first step is so important.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Now, you probably heard the term on any journey of a thousand steps or a thousand miles, the most important one is that first step and for mental health warriors, when we're challenged, that first thing we do in order to get a good solution and triumph over our challenges is to learn we're not going to surrender. So that's why we're going to have this whole podcast episode on it, and I want you to walk away today saying I can do this today. I can start today and next time a challenge comes up, even if you struggle with it, even if there's missteps in trying to solve it, just don't surrender. Do not give back the power to your mental health challenges. If they're mental health disorders and they're trying to take over your life, like they did with me, if we don't surrender, we have gained that first essential foothold on the way to triumph and, man, that will open up a whole new life to you. It did to me and it is fantastic because today, being back in charge means we get to pursue our interests, our passions and build that life we really want.

Speaker 1: 13:58

Now. I don't know anything more exciting than that is to take our life in the direction. And I can tell you that because when I gave up control all those years, I was not happy and I certainly wasn't happy with all my decisions being essentially controlled by my mental health disorders and challenges. But today they are not in charge and you can be the same. So remember this first step no surrender. It is more than just a battle cry. It is a way of living and a way we will approach things. And remember there's three big benefits. You get the benefit today of getting that time where you don't give up so you can answer today's challenges. You get the next benefit where you're controlling your direction in your life. And that third benefit is you can take your life into new directions. Wow, that is exciting. So how do you make all this happen? Well, the Mental Health Warrior Program will teach you to be a mental health warrior and to build that foundation of strength.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Go to bruceshootercom S-C-H-U-T-T-E-R. I know it's a tough spelling, but if you get stuck, go to any search engine, type in Mental Health Warrior Program and Bruce and it'll pop up and you go to that site. You'll find all of our resources. So we've got nine books out there. We also have a Mental Health Warrior Challenge Coin. It's a way to take the program with you each and every day.

Speaker 1: 15:26

It provides that portable motivation to not surrender. In this case, as a matter of fact, it's on the back of one of the coins, so that's a perfect way to remind yourself of this all-important step, but also go there because there's things and links to other free resources, like this podcast. There's a free book to get you started and numerous articles. Plus, as I mentioned, there's nine books that are filled with lifestyle, mindset changes, unique solutions in each book to build that mental health warrior strength, because we are all going after the big win. And, most importantly, I want to remind you, you have the power to change your life. It's within your grasp. The only question is are you going to take action on it today? And I know you will, so go to that site. I can't wait to see you there, bruce, signing off, and remember never surrender to life's challenges. Bye.