Mental Fitness and Firefighting - Published on CrackylMag.com
Hey, everyone!
I haven’t been blogging at all. Life has been beyond crazy, between my dad being sick (Eff cancer!), working & taking freelance clients (yay!), fire department stuff, dealing with my leg, and everything in-between, which apparently includes blogger’s block. However, I made some updates to the website that I am really happy with. I am hoping to be back soon with some great posts in 2022!
I did, however, write a couple articles for CRACKYL Magazine, a firefighter lifestyle and health magazine. They are putting out some really great articles and are absolutely awesome to work with. The magazine is strictly lifestyle and health - not talking about tactics, operations, or any of that. It is about managing your health as a firefighter. We all know the health risks that come with the work, and we have to find the balance that comes with maintaining our health so we can perform optimally physically and mentally, but also recognizing that we are human, make mistakes/have limits, and are not perfect.
As an advocate for mental health, I really appreciate the opportunity to write for the magazine and discuss mental health in the fire service. My first article was published on the website a few days ago - Mental Fitness and Firefighting. It discusses the importance of consistently working on your mental health and ways to do that, such as self-care, building resilience, and more. I was fortunate enough to interview leaders with the NVFC and IAFF on this issue.
My second article will be published in their January print issue on misconceptions of therapy. I’m really excited for this one; I have had my fair share of good and bad therapy experiences and I think it can be really misunderstood. What is kind of funny in all this is that initially I just pitched the one article on therapy misconceptions…and it took on another life that resulted in a second article. Once I have a link to that article, I will share on here as well.
Also, for those interested - CRACKYL Magazine is currently offering 20% off a print subscription with the code CRACKYLHOLIDAY20 at checkout (I don’t get anything from sharing this code. I do get paid to write articles).
If you read the articles - and I hope you will - I would love to hear your thoughts!
Have a great Christmas and happy New Year. I will see you in 2022 - if somehow I get a blog post out next week, that’ll be a miracle in itself. So see you soon!
