At the SMG, we are passionate about guiding men not only to personal growth but also to health and vitality. With this goal in mind, we have been working on a new five-session online masterclass to invite men into a conversation about their mental and emotional health. Now, we are excited to announce that this course is live and available to purchase.

Masterclass Title: Overcoming Stress & Building Resilience

Masterclass Objective: To learn how to cultivate a more resilient rule of life & overcome the effects of stress & pressure in life & leadership.

To help set the tone for the content of this interactive online class, let’s take a trip back to a significant geological event in recent history.

MOUNT ST. HELENS

In 1980, Mount St Helens, tucked away in the Cascade Mountain range – was a source and site of much outdoor recreation. Rising nearly 10,000 feet above the forest with a cone-shaped peak, it was known by many as “the Jewell of the Cascades.” Its many hiking trails and lakes attracted visitors from around the world. Because the mountain was also a dormant volcano, it was a famous mountain to climb.

But in the Spring of 1980, Mount St Helens awakened and began shooting off steam and ash. A series of earthquakes shook the hillside. Because it had not erupted in recent history, many scientists and volcanologists debated what exactly to do. And then, on May 18, 1980, everyone’s fears were realized. A day that began for many as peaceful and sunny would turn into one long nightmare.

THE FORCE OF THE MOUNTAIN’S FURY

When the mountain erupted in full force, it released pressure that had been building internally underneath the surface for over 100 years. When many people think of a volcanic eruption, they imagine molten lava bubbling and spewing out of the surface and then flowing downward like a glowing glob of syrup. But this wasn’t the case for Mount St. Helens. On the morning of the eruption, a massive earthquake shook the mountain, which caused an entire side of the mountain to collapse.

When the structure of the mountain collapsed, Mount St Helens exploded like a shotgun full of steam, ash, and rock over 1,000 times more powerful than the atomic bomb.

Superheated gas sent rock and ash more than twelve miles into the air.

Soon, a superheated steam cloud soared down the mountain and swept up snow, ice, tree fragments, dirt, and boulders as big as cars. This flow then split in several different directions and accelerated to speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. At its maximum speed, it would have covered an entire mile in under ten seconds.

For over a day, the magma chamber inside Mount St. Helens pumped ash into the atmosphere.

In total, fifty-seven lost their lives either in the explosion, the superheated steam cloud that roared down the mountain, the mudslides, or due to the inhalation of the volcanic ash. The total impact of the explosion had far-reaching effects.

When the mountain broke down internally, its eruption permanently altered people and places all over the globe.

And if we were to view Mount St Helens as a metaphor, we could accurately say that anything, under enough internal or unrelieved pressure, has a breaking point.

A FITTING METAPHOR

Now, this is a famous story in history that many people who were alive at the time remember. But a fact about the eruption that many people do not know is this: People near the volcano did not hear it.

In contrast, more than 200 miles away countless people reported hearing a series of deep, muffled booms. To explain this, volcanologists will tell you that the sound of eruptions travels upward more than outward. Things like topography, the amount and direction of winds, and temperatures near the ground versus higher in the atmosphere can all dramatically change how the sound of a volcanic explosion travels.

This reveals why people hiking, camping, or working on Mount St. Helens on the day of the eruption did not hear the initial blast. Many reported being able to see it, but not hear it.

Some camping on the mountain were awakened not by the blast but by the sound of rocks hitting one another and the dull thuds of the trees as they fell throughout the forest. Because they did not hear the explosion, they had little time to react or run for safety. They had no audible evidence that a structural collapse was in progress. Due to the unique nature of the blast, it was largely silent to those closest to it.

It's no stretch of the imagination to assume that of the fifty-seven people who died that day, all of them would have acted differently if they fully understood the explosive pressure brewing underneath the surface of the mountain.

Now, I'm sharing all this with you to talk about a very important point about mental health.

Mental health refers to our internal well-being. It encompasses the state of our emotions, our thought-life, and “how we are doing” on an internal level.
It should be stated that much of our mental health has “relational” triggers and causes.
Furthermore, the state of our mental/emotional health is often tied to the condition of our core/primary relationships.

If a man is navigating difficult mental health issues, it refers to all the pressure, stressors, and other internal things brewing and churning underneath the surface of their life. . . kind of like a volcano.

Though Volcanoes erupt in a massive show of power, mental health eruptions or breakdowns are more often internal. You see, a breakdown today isn’t always associated with getting checked in to a hospital.

More often, our breakdowns are expressed in an internal collapse of hope.

Many times, we don’t tell anybody what we’re going through. Much like Mount St Helens, our internal breakdowns are often silent. Nobody knows about them. And many times, the people closest to us – those who could have helped – are left in the dark to guess what is going on under the surface in our lives.

We deal with it alone and silently.
We repress our pain and push it deeper and deeper into our souls.
We never process our pain. Thus, we never find true healing.

You see, a hard truth about mental health is this: what is repressed and never expressed will never heal.

GETTING REAL

My background is that of a pastor. Before launching the SMG, I traveled extensively as a men’s ministry strategist and speaker. Across all my years of ministry, one of the hardest things has been to convince people that they need counseling. If a person comes into my office and shares a heavy burden or a problem in their life or marriage, they will often agree that they need to talk to somebody about it. Getting them to show up to the first counseling session, however, is another thing entirely. This is especially true for men.

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention reports that men are 3.6 times more likely to die by suicide than women. When asked why this is the case, the AFSP has stated that men are less likely to seek help.
This trend is supported by the National Center for Health, which says that 49 percent of men feel more depressed than they admit to the people in their lives.
Furthermore, of the men who report periodic bouts with depression, less than half seek treatment.

Many men fear shame and judgment if they express their struggles. Others view the expression of their innermost feelings as weak. Others have difficulty expressing emotions and verbalizing their feelings. In many cases, people have been ingrained with the belief that they should deal with it themselves. Whatever the reason, men who don’t get help hide their struggles in plain sight.

Like Mount St. Helens, they are a silent eruption waiting to happen.

LOOKING WITHIN

In his book Battles Men Face, Dr. Gregory Jantz describes men like this as “concealers.” While a percentage may live as an open book written in large, bold print, the majority keep the deeper portions of what they think and feel hidden. He writes and says,

This hiding in plain sight is used as an angry or fearful shield against a perceived hostile world. When this concealment becomes entwined around their personality, it can be difficult to unravel the reasons and to coax them back into the light.

Not only does this tendency for emotional withdrawal inhibit the flourishing of our relationships, but it also inhibits his ability to be resilient in the face of stress or pressure. If we desire to endure the harder seasons of our lives, we must learn to reveal, rather than conceal, our internal pain.

WHAT CAN I EXPECT IN THE MASTERCLASS?

If this article has resonated with your life experiences, then we invite you to check out our five-session masterclass that builds upon these concepts and shares practical ways to not only overcome the effects of everyday stress but also how to grow more resilient in life and leadership.

Each session lasts anywhere from 15-25 mins and includes a downloadable PDF worksheet to help maximize learning and content retention.

If you are curious about the content of the class, here is an outline of the five sessions:

**SESSION 1: Getting Real About Mental Health**

If you are interested in learning more or enrolling in this masterclass, click the enroll button below. If you would like to talk to a Strategic Mentor and learn about our mentoring and personal development tracks, let us know. As you need, we can focus on building a framework in your life to improve your mental health as part of a larger personal development action plan.

If you’d like to email me directly for questions or comments, you can do so HERE.

Praying for God’s Best in Your Life,
Paul Records, SMG CEO

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