Roger Harty: It’s Ok Not To Be Ok

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IT’S ok not to be ok.

This is the slogan of ‘Suicide Aware’, a very powerful organisation which would obviously choose a very powerful slogan.

It is without doubt that a lot of thought and effort was put into the choice of this slogan in order to get the right message out there.

I commend them for their choice of slogan as it is indeed very powerful; I honestly don’t think they could have chosen a better one.

I also think it is extremely important to examine the slogan in detail to see where the power lies within that slogan.

Let’s play with this a little. Supposing the slogan was –‘It’s Ok to be Ok’, well that’s easy to understand because everyone is happy when things are going well.

I think it is helpful to look at a sporting analogy here. If a team is winning and all is going well then it is obvious that it is easy to motivate players.

Now let’s change the scenario to ‘It’s Ok not to be Ok’. In sporting terms that would be like being 2-0 down in a game.

Things are going against you. It is best to start with a reality check (Acceptance – We need to do something about this!), then muster support (gather your team around you and encourage each other to do something about it) – Implement a plan.

It is in troublesome times like this that we discover our inner resolve and true character. These are the type of players that any coach on any team would like to have i.e. players who can stand up even when the tide is going against them.

Ireland experienced this sort of  ‘Never say die’ type of attitude recently in their match against Italy in the Euro Championship.

In life it can be similar when things are getting on top of you. It is important to start with a reality check (it’s ok not to be ok), gather helping and loving guidance and support (Suicide aware, counselling, Samaritans etc.) which will in turn give you hope and help you to formulate a plan for recovery.

As an added bonus telling yourself that it’s Ok (Even when it’s not Ok!), brings calm to any situation.

This is like a reversal of ‘Theme Park situation’. A fair question to ask here is – Roger What do you mean by ‘Theme park situation?’

Well in a ‘theme park’ you could be on a rollercoaster – terrified out of your wits – but the reality is that you are absolutely safe. The mind can work in reversal to reality.

On a similar note – if you are experiencing psychological fear – you can also through your thought process (change your thoughts) convince yourself that all is well.

In other words you are convincing yourself that all is well even when you are experiencing psychological fear – remember the body cannot really tell the difference between real fear and psychological fear.

So that is why telling yourself ‘It’s OK’ (All is well…good positive thoughts) is a very powerful thing to tell yourself especially when things are ‘Not Ok’ (psychological fear).

In a funny way, the realisation of this phenomenon was the very thing that resulted in Walt Disney making millions of dollars through his Theme Parks.

Next week I am going to write about  ‘How Walt Disney made Millions’.