The Friendship Bench and Other Anxiety Solutions

• The episode delves into managing anxiety and fostering community connections in these uncertain times, emphasizing the importance of shared wisdom and positive practices. It discusses practical resources, including podcasts, and offers insights on impactful initiatives like the 'Friendship Bench. 
• Discussing current anxiety levels among seniors
• The importance of shared life experiences in fostering connection
• Resource recommendations: beneficial podcasts and mindfulness practices
• The concept of the 'Friendship Bench' as a mental health initiative
• Encouraging activism without compromising mental well-being
• Announcements about participation in PodcasThon 2025
• Introduction of 'Bill Monty's World of Podcasts' live event series. To learn more write Billmonty04@gmail.com 

For more information about Podcasthon 2025 visit www.podcasthon.org

Enjoy these podcasts to help reduce stress connected to current events:

https://outrageoverload.net/

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-world-gone-mad/id1724089771

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/10-happier-with-dan-harris/id1087147821

Chapters

• 0:01 Navigating Anxiety in a Changing World
• 16:24 Expanding to Florida and Beyond

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older. Hello, my friends, and welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older. As you may have gathered from the name of the podcast and the theme music you just heard, I am your host, bill Monty, and I'm here to ask a basic question how are you doing? Things are really tough right now, aren't they? I mean, there's a lot of changes going on. I'm speaking specifically to Americans, but I know the entire world is wondering what's going on right now. There's a lot of anxiety going on, so I want to talk a little bit about that today and right now. I want to implore you please stay all the way through this episode until the end, because I have some important announcements that I need to make here To say that it's tense here in America if you don't live in America right now. For at least half the population, the anxiety level is so high and people are so afraid right now. This is unlike anything I've ever seen in this country before Now. For those of you who have been listening in the year and a half this podcast has been going on, you know I really don't get into politics. I'm going to try and not do that much here because I really want us to stay neutral when it comes to this.

Speaker 1: 1:25

I believe that the message of this podcast what I want it to be is we have shared life experiences, and those experiences should bond us more as we get older. I don't know that that's happening right now with the separation that we are feeling in our country, but that's what should be happening, and so I think now is the time to call upon the wisdom of the seniors of America to come together and try to help, and I know that a lot of the seniors are the ones who are the most afraid right now. A lot of the changes that seem to be happening or may happen would have a disastrous effect upon their finances or upon their medical care, upon their ability to just continue to live the life they thought they would be living as they got older. I can say, politically, I believe that both sides of the political spectrum are a danger to Social Security and Medicare One side because they believe it should be altered to the point of non-existence and one side because they think it should be kept without consideration of how to keep it going in the long term. It's somewhere in the middle lies the answer. Unfortunately, we seem to have lost the ability to be somewhere in the middle.

Speaker 1: 2:57

So I want to give you a couple of resources that I have found that I think might help you through these difficult times. Number one is you need to turn off social media not my podcast and the news every now and then. Do not stay hyper-focused on what is going on. There's a lot of misinformation coming out from both sides. Not everything you read or hear is actually true about what is actually going on at the time. So, whatever you hear, before you believe it 100% and let it wreck your life, be sure that you do investigate. Is this really what's going to happen? Is this really what is happening? Two, I am a firm believer, if you didn't know it, in the power of podcasting, and there are podcasts that can help you through these times, and I'm going to give you two that I think you should check out. And no, I have nothing to do with either one of them. I do know both people who do these podcasts and I believe that the service they offer is really great. Neither is out there reacting in panic mode or anything like that.

Speaker 1: 4:18

The first is a podcast called Outrage Overload by David Beckmeyer, and it is the science of looking at the outrage going on in our country and using science to think about how we can overcome it. How can we look at the facts of what's happening? David brings on a lot of great guests and just has a lot of insight from his personal experience as to how you can help notch down the temperature in the room so that you don't have the level of anxiety that you might be feeling. The other is a podcast called A World Gone Mad with Jeff Allen Wolf, and this is a podcast that, if you do want to stay on top of it, jeff does three episodes a week of A World Gone Mad and he's talking about what is going on. Now. I'm going to tell you right now, jeff's perspective is that the current president and what he is doing is 100% wrong for this country. So he's going to let you know what's happening and the things that you should be concerned about, while also leveling it out as the things that maybe hey, folks, don't panic too much right now on this.

Speaker 1: 5:32

So those are two podcasts that I think you should be checking out to help get you through this, but there are hundreds of podcasts that can present solutions for you and you should check them out. So, whatever it is you're looking for, you can Google. Or, if you use Spotify or Apple, whatever it might be, just go to the search bar and put what it is you're looking for and I'm sure there's a podcast about it. There's something like 452,000 active podcasts going on in the world right now, but as of February of 2024, so a year ago from when I'm recording this very few of those actually recorded more than 20 episodes. So, while you might find a podcast of what you're looking for, be sure to check those dates of when the last episode was dropped. But there's a lot of great information out there.

Speaker 1: 6:25

Also, maybe just look up a podcast that lets you escape the world. So maybe it's about a hobby, maybe you're into gardening, maybe you're into old-time radio, maybe you're into comic books. Whatever it might be, there's a podcast out there. There's nothing wrong with escaping the troubles of the world for a little while, and I think that's something that maybe all of us need to do. Don't be afraid to not be upset all the time. That is not a way to live. You want to be sure you're living your life and you're not afraid of living a life the second resource I want to talk to you about, besides podcasts, is one I have talked about before and it goes a little bit into the world of podcasts, but it's also books and everything else, and that is a book called 10% Happier by Dan Harris. Now again, you can go back to earlier episodes of this podcast and I go into great detail about how this book affected me in a positive way. And Dan Harris has a podcast called 10% Happier and a couple of books and there's some great information there it is. The focus of it is mindfulness meditation, and, before you roll your eyes when the word meditation is brought up, I want you to really think about reading this book, especially today, especially now, and I want you to really think about perhaps listening to an episode or two of the podcast. And if you're on Facebook or some social media, dan Harris is active on those also. You can do yoga, you can do mindfulness meditation, you can take a walk on the beach at sunset or at sunrise or in the midday.

Speaker 1: 8:14

Find a place of solitude and peace for you, your soul, your family, so that you don't get caught up in the whirlwind of world events at this moment. Let me be clear I'm not saying, ignore what's going on. I think activism needs to come back. I think if people are really afraid for their democracy, as I am right now, then activism is our only hope, making sure that we are staying in contact with our leaders in the Senate and the House, at both the state and the federal level. I'm not going to go into it more than that, because I want to tell you about something that I saw this morning on CBS Sunday Morning. I'm not affiliated with CBS or CBS Sunday Morning at all, but I do watch it. That's one of the things I do every Sunday, my wife will tell you To kind of disconnect from the world, because they always have a lot of good stories, fun stories. Anyone who remembers Charles Kuralt and the stories he used to do for the CBS Evening News, where he went on the road and talked to just average Americans, knows what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 9:29

Cbs Sunday Morning had a story this morning about a doctor in Zimbabwe. His name is Dixon Chibanda. Dr Chibanda found that there was very little help for the people as they were trying to deal with their troubles. There were no therapists, there was nothing like that going on and he didn't know what to do and he tried to bring in the medical community, tried to round people up and finally someone around him suggested using a grandmother approach to turn to their elders to become basically therapists. Now we all remember our grandmothers. We all remember the hope and the help they gave us when we were younger not just children, but even as teenagers and young adults. We were younger, not just children, but even as teenagers and young adults. If you were blessed enough to have a grandmother into your adulthood or a grandfather, then you know how wonderful and how important they were and how much they could mean to your well-being. He recruited and trained a group of about 20 grandmothers and he set up a bench in a park and over it a sign he put mental health. The goal was that people would just stop and speak with these grandmothers, needless to say, with a sign of mental health above the bench. No one showed up, but one of the grandmothers suggested changing that to friendship bench and putting a sign out that said Would you like to talk?

Speaker 1: 11:04

The Friendship Bench offers what has been seen as an effective, simple, cost-effective option to provide evidence-based mental health care in under-resourced settings. Dr Chabon has written a book about it. You can find it, I'm sure in your bookstore, or you can just YouTube I'm probably starting tonight or, if you have Paramount+, you can stream the episode that talks about the wonders and the simplicity of the friendship bench. And I think, as we talk about the people who have been growing older for a long time, you and me we have wisdom and life experience that we can share to help younger people get through this time, because we know about patience, we know about the art of compromise without giving up your soul. We have been through the hard times and we know that good times are usually on the other side somewhere. It might not be the good times that you want it to be or that you envision, because you want what was and what was is gone, but it becomes something different on the other side, and what was is gone, but it becomes something different on the other side. So, my friends, what I ask is that maybe you make your own informal friendship bench. If you're at a family gathering or gathering of friends, if you're seeing someone on social media who's having a tough time of it, offer your nonjudgmental wisdom to help them. It will make them feel better and it will help you feel better, because we all want to feel that what we have to give to the world is still necessary, that it is still needed and we, as young people who have been alive a very long time, we have the tools to help guide people. I invite you to use those.

Speaker 1: 13:08

I want to thank you for joining me for this episode of Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older. I hope you are taking care of yourself. If you need help, please reach out to your doctor, your physician, to a mental health organization. Please make sure that you take care of you and please make sure that you always hit that subscribe or follow button. That way, you will be alerted when a new episode of Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older drops. And it does help us to grow the podcast, which I do so appreciate. And it does help us to grow the podcast, which I do so appreciate. I'd appreciate it, too, if you just like or comment or share this and other episodes of the podcast.

Speaker 1: 13:47

And, as I said before my friends, stick around for another few minutes because I have some exciting announcements to make. If you don't, until then, I remind you be safe and be kind. Hey, thank you for sticking around, like I asked you to. I know that a few people are checking out right now, so let's just wave goodbye to them. But I'm glad that you decided to stay, because I want to tell you about a couple of things. One is I am so excited that both of my podcasts Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older and Tales from South Florida will be participating in Podcast Thon 2025. What is Podcast Thon 2025, you ask? It is an opportunity for podcasters and their listeners to give back to the community in a way that helps specific charities chosen by the podcast. I'll be announcing my charities in just a few days that I'll be working with. They will be local charities, local to South Florida, and I hope that when Podcast On goes live, which will be from March 15th to March 21st, that you will listen and, if you are so moved and if you are able to, you'll give. Even a small donation helps when we're talking about giving and charity. I do appreciate it. For more information, please go to podcastthonorg Podcastthonorg.

Speaker 1: 15:14

My second announcement that I ask you to stick around for is I am again excited to bring out a brand new Bill Monty presentation. Bill Monty's World of Podcasts is a new live multimedia presentation that I bring to senior residences to help them become familiar with and enjoy the world of podcasting. Whether or not it's my podcast or someone else's podcast, it doesn't really matter to me, because I do believe that podcasting is something that is so important, especially these days, and seniors, unfortunately, are a group that are a little confused by the technology or even what a podcast is. So what I'm able to do is come in, I explain podcasting, I explain how I do my podcast, I let them listen to a couple of episodes of it, I play them my great theme songs Don't you love my theme songs? Because I do? Then, at the end of it, if the technological infrastructure allows, I record an episode of a podcast with one of the guests as a participant, and that will go out live, as all of my podcasts do, to the entire world.

Speaker 1: 16:24

How exciting is that? So right now, this is going to be strictly for Southeast and Southwest Florida. We're going to expand to the rest of Florida in the coming months and then we hope to go across the country. So if you live at a residence where you think you would enjoy this if you know of one or if you work at residence where you think you would enjoy this, if you know of one, or if you work at one where you would like to pursue this, I invite you to please write to me at BillMonte04 at gmailcom BillMonte M-O-N-T-Y 04 at gmailcom, and I'll respond as quick as I can. I'll send you some information on it and I hope that I will see you live in the near future. Until then, my friends, again thank you for listening. It does mean so much to me. I appreciate it. Be safe, be kind, and now let's play that great theme song. If it's warm outside but you're feeling cold or not sure what to do, without a friendly shoulder You're not alone. Start feeling bolder. Welcome to Bill Monty's guide for getting older.