Men's Mental Health Awareness: Movember!

Because we love to focus on the positive as much as possible, let’s start with a quick history on when Men’s Mental Health Awareness month actually is, and why “No Shave November” came into being.

So: men’s mental health awareness months are typically recognized as taking place in June, but also in November.

Here’s why. No Shave November first began as a campaign designed to raise awareness for male-specific health concerns such as certain cancers. It is geared to raise money for cancer research, promote awareness, and the idea behind it is to avoid all sorts of shaving-type grooming for the month.

Since 2003, Australia has recognized Movember, which has a similar mission to stop shaving or cutting one’s hair for the month, but has a broader scope of spreading awareness to all sorts of men’s health issues, including mental health.

Got it? The main points here are:

Your male friends may be hairier than normal in November.

If they are, they’re part of a positive movement towards greater health and mental health among our male friends.

Oh! And the ribbon color for men’s mental health is green.

In the coming weeks, we are going to discuss so much more about how the mental health discussion often looks different for men than women, why that is, and how to support our male friends, but for now, let’s do our part to raise awareness and get the conversation started for November!

A wonderful website to check out:

Movember.com

Movember as a movement did indeed first start in Australia in 2003, but No-Shave November has taken hold in the US, and this site has so many great resources surrounding men’s health and men’s mental health.

There are stories, resources, and activities you can participate in to help raise awareness.

What you could do to help raise awareness

To help raise awareness and have a little fun along the way, here are our two favorite activities:

Grow a mustache!

Okay, some of us- both male and female- simply aren’t built to grow a mustache, but if that’s your thing and you’re normally clean-shaven, this is a great time to help get the conversation going!

The Movember site offers a place to sign up and even raise money while growing your stache!

Move 60 miles in the month of November!

Again, this is an offering on the Movember site, and one we whole heartedly support!

Average two miles a day walking or running, or do it all in one day if you are feeling ambitious!

Why 60? Because 60 men are lost to suicide globally, each and every hour.

You can sign up here on the Movember site to be a part of this movement. We will be participating!

So hopefully this has you thinking about Movember and feeling inspired to support men’s mental health awareness, in whatever way feels right to you.

If you’re a guy, we hope you will gain some tools and resources to begin to just be honest and open about whatever you’re dealing with- from plain old daily stress to even much harder feelings.

And if you’re not a guy, we hope this is your chance to start helping make it easier for your guy friends to talk about their feelings!

We will be discussing why it can be harder for men to do just that, as well as sharing inspiring stories- and we hope you’ll stick around and join us, and even share as you see fit!