Mental Health Workshop held at KCS

By Joan Janzen

A mental health workshop was held on Sunday afternoon, January 15th. ‘Thrive Workshop’ took place due to the combined efforts of the Iron Horse Kindersley Klippers and the Better Together Mental Health Initiative.

Guest speaker, Rob Parkman resides in Outlook, but remembers playing provincial hockey in Kindersley in earlier years. He shared about his own personal mental health challenges, and included a number of interactive exercises.

He touched on mind-renewing, physical health, supportive work/home environment, financial peace, vocational alignment/enjoyment, social support and spiritual refreshing. He included many nuggets of information, but two important warnings were: isolation is the enemy of us all, and dark emotions serve as a warning that you are believing a lie.

PHOTOS BY JOAN JANZEN

Rob Parkman speaks to the Iron Horse Klippers and others in the audience at a mental health workshop on Sunday, January 15th at Kindersley Composite School.

“Just because you faced hardships in life, doesn’t mean you won’t achieve your dreams,” he said. He told the true story of a little boy in the Dominican Republic who sold juice boxes so his family could eat. His dad had rejected him, and the little boy felt worthless. A charitable organization in the area took him in, and kept telling him he was valuable and had a purpose in life. Pretty soon he came to believe it and took pride in selling his juice boxes.

Fifteen years later Rob met the boy who had become a young 20-year-old man. Rob shook the hand of this confident young man, who looked him in the eye and told Rob his goal was to become the president of the Dominican.

“Workshops like this give us practical tools and methods for finding positive ways to process our negative thoughts, and helps us to get a sense of control back in our lives,” Rob explained.

He noted that connecting with others gives a sense of belonging, and being understood and heard. Helping to encourage someone else also produces positive feelings.

“My biggest concerns for young adults is that they are given a model of a sedentary lifestyle, and are sent a misleading message from society that they are what they feel, versus they can influence how they feel,” he said.

Simply put, Rob encourages young adults to renounce lies about themselves that they have embraced, and to receive truths about themselves that set them free.