When it comes to poor mental health days (or weeks… or months…) it can be difficult to be proactive about doing things that are good for you. Especially when you might not really be sure what those things are. Everyone around you seems to have a different suggestion for which coping mechanisms to try. It can be overwhelming, and then defeating when you try them and they don’t really seem to work for you.
Today I’m joined by Cope Notes founder Johnny Crowder to talk about coping mechanisms and how to shift into a growth mindset when everything is just too much for you to handle. Different coping mechanisms will work for everyone, so it’s just about finding what works for you. It doesn’t have to be a trending topic, and you don’t have to be some sort of creative mastermind in order to improve your mental health.
You just need to believe that tomorrow can be better than today. Tune in to learn more from Johnny’s personal experiences and expertise as he teaches us how we can improve our mindset and coping strategies.
About Johnny Crowder:
Johnny Crowder is a 29-year-old suicide/abuse survivor, TEDx speaker, touring musician, mental health and sobriety advocate, and the Founder & CEO of Cope Notes, a text-based mental health platform that provides daily support to users in nearly 100 countries around the world.
To learn more you can find Johnny on Facebook and Instagram, and connect with him on LinkedIn.
Mentioned In This Episode:
Transcription:
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
hope, people, life, feel, year, listening, music, mental health, brain, notes, thought, world, experience, johnny, podcast, healthier, paintball, hear, tomorrow, depressed
SPEAKERS
Johnny Crowder, Lindsay Recknell
Lindsay Recknell 00:03
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Hope Motivates Action podcast. I am your host, Lindsay Recknell – a workplace mental health professional, a speaker, a podcaster and an expert in hope. I consider myself so lucky to share a microphone with the guests I have on this podcast – they show up with such heart, and courage, compassion and authenticity, sharing their stories of transformation or how they’ve helped others through transformation. With a foundation in the science of positive psychology, and a focus on hope, action and creating a future better than today, I’d love to inspire you towards your own transformation whether that’s in your career, in your life or even just starting with how you think and show up in the world. Whether it’s through this podcast, my Dream Catalyst coaching program or my many webinars and workshops, I have the best job in the universe because I get to bring you these episodes, with these guests and this message of hope! But enough from me, let’s get on with the show!
You know, those people you meet and after you leave the conversation, you’re kind of wowed by your experience with them. This week’s guest is one of those people for me. Johnny Crowder is a 29 year old suicide abuse survivor, TEDx speaker, touring musician, mental health and sobriety advocate and the founder and CEO of Cope Notes, a text based mental health platform that provides daily support to users in nearly 100 countries around the world. Johnny is using his platform to bring hope to the masses from their pocket, and doing it with grace, compassion, science, and of course, a ton of hope. Johnny truly believes that tomorrow really can be better than today. And I can’t wait for you to hear what he has to say. Enjoy. Hello, Johnny, welcome to the show.
Johnny Crowder 01:35
Thank you a ton for having me.
Lindsay Recknell 01:38
I am so excited to hear your story to hear all about your business. And the you know earlier I called it a bamboo no rocket ship trajectory that you’re on. And you talked about bamboo. So I want to talk about that too.
Johnny Crowder 01:52
Sounds good.
Lindsay Recknell 01:54
Let us start with a little bit about you and how you use hope to motivate action in your life.
Johnny Crowder 02:02
So I think to understand how I’ve done that, you have to understand how I didn’t do it for almost my whole life. So I used to were the perfect snapshot of this rather than me telling you a story is just if you can picture this in your mind, you can understand, close your eyes for a moment and picture, a 15 year old that draws on his arms all day with Sharpies and wears death metal T shirts. And who does bodybuilding. And I literally at this point picture not a death metal t shirt. But instead a t shirt, black T shirt, black jeans, black shoes, everything and a T shirt that says negative outlooks. Now open your eyes. I had no hope. I wrote poems with the title that was like no hope I wrote songs with the lines with lyrics talking about no hope. And I do think I almost want to answer this question by answering the opposite by illustrating how not having hope lead to inaction in my life for a long time, like I resisted treatment because I figured it’s not going to make me feel better. It’s not going to improve my mental health. You know, I’m kind of screwed, I’m stuck the way I am. So I think hope has allowed me to consider potential positive outcomes of taking action, which then motivates me to actually do something rather than just complaining about it like I did for many, many years of my life.
Lindsay Recknell 03:39
Amazing how cool to draw the parallels to how much hope had an impact on your life. I mean, in hindsight, you know, hindsight is two is is 2020 vision, right? Of course, we can look back and reflect and all of those things. But how cool that you recognize the power of hope now in your life. And speaking of action, I mean, you are doing incredible things. Can you tell us a little bit about this company you founded all around? I mean, essentially hope and mental health advocacy?
Johnny Crowder 04:15
Yeah, I think like it’s actually built I guess for people who were like me because if you’re depressed I have this um, I had this one friend of mine say if you were to give me an easy button, like the staples, easy button, if you were to give me an easy button, that would fix everything in my life that would improve my career, improve my marriage, improve my financial situation, improve my physical health, but you put it on my dresser and I was too depressed to get out of bed. It wouldn’t help me. And I think that’s the approach I’ve taken to building the company that I now run called coke notes. And basically what we do is we send people text messages at random times that train there. your brain to think in healthier patterns. And the reason why we send the text messages rather than waiting for you to send them is because of that thing that we’re talking about. Like if we said, Yeah, reach out to us, if you’re feeling down, most people won’t do that. And it’s the reason why they don’t reach out is because they’re feeling down, not not in spite of it, it’s because of it.
Lindsay Recknell 05:23
What an incredible approach, you’re totally right, again, with the imagery, you’re really good at this, the imagery of recognizing that we are in a place. And the last thing we want to do or have energy for is to help ourselves. So now because we don’t know we should, or we don’t know where to go, in some cases, we just literally can’t find the energy to do that. So I love that you’re approaching it from the push perspective instead of the pull perspective. And how’s that been received?
Johnny Crowder 05:53
So I think for the first year, people thought the idea was cool, but we didn’t really have like traction. And then the second year, we started taking it way more seriously, like, oh, man, we can actually help a lot of people with this. So we started buckling down and just building because it’s at the end of the day, it’s a technology company. Like even though I don’t view it that way. I view it as like a mental health resource. It really is a technology company. So year two was building. And we kind of had a little more traction. Year three, was when we kind of hit critical mass. And people started, way more people started adopting it and talking about it telling their friends and families. And that’s when we started seeing like the testimonials come in like people saying, you know, this, I was actually on tour in Baltimore. And a family brought me a lasagna. And I was like, what is happening right now they brought a lasagna and chocolate milk. And like, I am so confused. And they said we read online that you like lasagna and chocolate milk. So we made lasagna Ambro chocolate milk? And I was like, well, that’s fascinating, but also why? Like, what is the why? And the guy was like, Oh, it’s just because we love you, we support you. And then he walked away to go to the truck to get something and the wife said, We’re doing this for you. Because you’re the only reason we’re still married.
Lindsay Recknell 07:15
Oh my gosh. Because of that,
Johnny Crowder 07:17
because of Cope Notes. Because of these messages helped us work through some challenges on our in our relationships, and started prioritizing our own mental health and it saved our marriage. And I was like, what, and we’ve had, I’m not even joking, hundreds, if not 1000s of stories like that, that have been told to us in person, or virtually or even anonymously, that we just almost can’t believe they’re like, too good to be true. And yet they are. Oh,
Lindsay Recknell 07:46
how incredible. You are doing very, very powerful work. So I know you have a pretty incredible story that led you to this place. How did you find the hope to do this?
Johnny Crowder 08:03
I mean, that’s a great question, right? Like, what the heck makes like a, a young negative guitar playing hole in the wall punching, angry teen. What causes that type of dude to pursue this? And I think I credit. I credit two things. So the first of which is, faith has played a huge part in my experience. But interestingly, I didn’t even want to hear about God until like six years ago, so that I’m late to the party on the God thing. But if you rewind to when I actually started participating in my own recovery and caring about the recovery of others, the catalyst was health education. Like, if all you know is your experience, you’re like, I’m broken, everything sucks. I’m so screwed up. I’m just stuck this way. But then when you start reading real data and research and statistics, and you start listening to TED talks from professionals and you start reading books, and articles, then your your world becomes bigger, and you’re not as confined by your own personal experience. Like if all you know is your experience. You’re living in this like sad, depressed, often tormented, pained state. And then when you zoom out, like I took two years of college level psychology in high school, and it completely changed the trajectory of my life because I’m sitting in a classroom reading about what happens in the brain. When we experience depression, we experience anxiety what happens in the brain when we take medication? What happens in the brain when we experience head trauma, and I’m going home Whoa, like opened up this whole world to be like, Wait a second. I’m just one little speck. I’m one little use case, but they’re doing studies. How do you do a study of 1000 People with schizophrenia, you have to find 1000 People with schizophrenia, which means I’m not alone anymore. And that feeling of knowing that the world is bigger than I thought, that there’s more research that’s been done on what I’m going through than I was aware of, and that, that I’m not the only person experiencing this was it that gave me hope to continue learning and fighting to live a healthier life.
Lindsay Recknell 10:30
Lifelong learning is also my number one value in life. And the reason that I started this work as well, coming from a place of lived experience, and knowing the language to use to have these kinds of conversations with others, to express myself, you know, have a conversation with my husband, all of those things are unbelievably powerful, and, and totally underestimated, I think.
Johnny Crowder 10:57
Yeah, it’s so funny, like, you know, before I was diagnosed, I was like, Oh, I’m just particular. And, you know, I’m just quirky or I’m just sad. Or even with my hallucinations, I wouldn’t even call them hallucinations. Because I didn’t identify them as such. And then the more you learn, the more you’re like, Oh, I wonder if what I’m experiencing right now is an auditory hallucination, because I read about that in my textbook. And it’s turns like, it helps you give shape to it, you know, rather than just thinking like, it’s so liberating to know that your experience isn’t the world. It’s not objective reality. It’s just your perspective of it. And that perspective can change.
Lindsay Recknell 11:46
It absolutely can change that that whole growth mindset concept, which I’m sure you’re very familiar with. For the listeners who aren’t familiar. There is a book by Carol Dweck, you should absolutely check it out. Because it talks all about growth mindset versus fixed, fixed being what you described, not knowing what you what else is out there not knowing anything beyond your personal experience and recognize or believing that what you know, and how you are is all you could possibly ever be. But well, you know that that’s not true at all.
Johnny Crowder 12:19
Yeah, there’s one of my favorite quotes, I think it’s actually from a coke notes, text, I’m gonna get it wrong. So I shouldn’t call it a quote, because I’m not directly quoting it. But there’s, there’s a code notes text that says something to the effect of the only constant in life is changed. Like, the only thing that will never change is the fact that things are going to change. And like even that gives me hope, right? Like the the way that I feel today doesn’t necessarily have to be the way that I’ll feel for the rest of my life. And that feeling of variability is like so freeing to me knowing that like, my, my feeling right now is temporary, my mental state right now is temporary.
Lindsay Recknell 13:03
That is the definition of hope, actually, is that state of that it’s not forever, that it is a moment in time and situational. I have a hope quiz on my website that comes from a hope scientist. Speaking of the brain, it comes from a hope scientist called Dr. Rick Snyder, who created this scale to measure to measure people’s level of hope. And that is one of the that is one of the dimensions that the with the quiz addresses is how permanent does this feeling feel to you?
Johnny Crowder 13:41
I love I’ve never thought about wording it that way. But I liked that a lot. How permanent? How permanent? That’s such a, it’s such a pointed word because it makes you think like, well, I don’t know if it’s permanent, like what a great what a great way to frame it.
Lindsay Recknell 13:59
Well, and if it’s not permanent, that means it it’s going to evolve one way or the other. I mean, it could it could evolve as well. But it also continue along our path to creating that future better than today. I also really liked that you used that language in your in your message back to me about creating hope in your life and moving towards that future better than today because that is that is my definition of hope is taking control, taking action over the things we can control towards a future better than today. Again, that in permanency that you know potential for positive outcome.
Johnny Crowder 14:40
Yeah, I love that.
Lindsay Recknell 14:43
Definitely very aligned there. Tell me about your music. So you mentioned guitar playing. What kind of an impact has music had on your life and your mental health journey?
Johnny Crowder 14:55
I think music I mean, I still you know I went to a concert last night I was at a car answered like less than 12 hours ago. So I’m like, and I’m in the studio tomorrow tracking with my band. So, music is like very much still a mainstay in my life. And I think there’s this kind of misconception that if a coping mechanism helps you, during one season, it will help you forever. Like sometimes coping mechanisms are great for you while you know what you know. And then you develop something new or something healthier, and you adhere to that. But there’s also a misconception that, um, coping mechanisms only lasts so long, and then you have to jump to a new one, I think they’re kind of fluid, right? Like, music has been in my life. You know, I was the kid I was like, six years old, sitting in front of the stereo, staring at the speakers listening to like, you know, see, there’s something on the on the radio, and just thinking like, wow, I want to be a rock star. And then like, I started playing guitar when I was eight. And I think especially, you know, as a as a younger kid, so you’re talking Elementary, Middle High School, like K through 12. If you’re living with depression, if you’re living with bipolar, or schizophrenia, PTSD, as a child, it’s really difficult to articulate those things because your vocabulary is fairly limited. And you don’t always feel safe bringing that stuff up, because you don’t want to get in trouble. Or you don’t want to, you know, there I had a lot of concerns around expressing those things verbally. So music at the time, and still now, but especially at the time felt like a safe and creative and productive way to communicate what I was experiencing. Because if I couldn’t, you know, if I’m if I’m 11 years old, I might not know how to describe what I’m feeling. But I might know how to play a chord progression on a guitar, or paint a picture that feels much more representative of how I’m feeling. And even if I don’t show anybody, like you said, having the having the words giving something shape, I felt like that’s what I was doing. Like if I couldn’t explain how I felt to somebody. But I would play a chord progression ago that that’s how that’s how I feel. It’s that now it’s not some intangible, shapeless thing. I found it. And it’s not words, it’s the sound, you know?
Lindsay Recknell 17:27
Well, in intuitively, if you were to have shown that sound, or had someone else listened to that sound, they would have, they could feel it too. Right, it would evoke a feeling in them that would probably close that gap in comprehension between the two of you. Because music is such a huge part of I mean, our daily life truly from you know, music scores come to mind. And, you know, if you hear elevator Muzak, you can imagine exactly where you are when you hear that music. And so it’s, it’s a good nonverbal gap closer and communication.
Johnny Crowder 18:03
Yeah, I’ve i It’s so funny. I’ve heard um, you know, I’m not sure if you’ve ever looked on YouTube at like movie scenes with no music. No, it’s so freaking weird. Like, some people don’t even realize that there’s music playing in the score. But then when you hear it without the music, you’re like, This is so awkward. And I feel like I’m not feeling what I normally feeling when I watch a movie. And we we forget how powerful those like nonverbal methods of communication are until they’re not there. And we’re like, whoa, weird,
Lindsay Recknell 18:39
willing, creative expression has huge positive impacts on the brain as well. And I’m sure you know, this, right, the neural pathways that are created and enhanced by through creative expression, whether it’s music, whether it’s art, whether it’s acting on a stage, or any of that kind of thing that I mean, the science backs it up to
Johnny Crowder 19:03
Yeah, I love the idea that some fun things are really healthy for you, too. And that’s like I consider fruit to be in that category. It’s like wait a second pineapples. Good for me. It’s so freakin good. What are you kidding me? Like, How is this not junk food. And I feel like that’s how I feel about art. Like, there’s no way that playing guitar is good for my brain. There’s no way that coloring in a coloring book is helping improve my memory and focus, but it’s like, some enjoyable things really are great for you.
Lindsay Recknell 19:34
And I love the mindset shift that’s accompanying that. Because often, I mean, I can even think yeah, I’m 43 years old, and I can think back when I was in high school, so less than, you know, let’s call it 30 years ago. And if you’re thinking about what kind of higher education if somebody had said, You’re gonna go do a Bachelor of Arts degree, they were like, Oh, what are you going to do with that? That’s useless. It’s not teaching you anything. thing is not gonna be good for your life. But now, it’s all kinds of good for your life. And I love how we’re seeing from that perspective. Now.
20:11
I love that.
Lindsay Recknell 20:14
You also mentioned a concept I’d like to dive a little deeper on is this idea of the coping mechanisms? And how frequently or how long in duration we use them for it. It’s funny, because it came up yesterday as well. And in a future podcast episode. And the science to back that up now that every one is different, that what works for you today may or may not work for you tomorrow. And the beauty is that we get to keep trying, we get to keep listening to these experts. And we get to keep trying to see what works for us.
Johnny Crowder 20:53
Yeah, I always wanted to be like, I was the guy who’s like, why can’t I just like yoga? Why can I like it? I tried to like it. I went to classes. Why isn’t this clicking for me? And then I was like, Am I just like, not serious about my mental health? Am I just not like a Zen person? Am I not aligned? Am I and I started like criticizing myself. And after a while, I just thought like, Hey, dude, maybe it’s just that yoga isn’t your thing right now? Like, did you consider that? Like, maybe, maybe you’re not broken? Maybe it’s just try something else. And I meet a lot of people who are like, oh, yeah, you know, I tried meditation, and it didn’t really help me with anything. And then I’m like, oh, then what did you try? And then like, I basically just figured nothing would work. And it’s like, Bro, that’s one drop in the bucket. I mean, imagine listening to one song and deciding you don’t like music. It’d be like, What? No way. There’s like infinity songs. Like you gotta listen to some other stuff.
Lindsay Recknell 22:02
Again, back with it. Excellent analogies. It’s so true. People who say, Oh, you know, I’m not this kind of person, or I’m not that kind of person. Doesn’t mean it’s a foregone conclusion that you always have to be just that kind of person. You just haven’t found your thing yet. Oh, yeah. And you get to keep trying, I was at a, I delivered a keynote yesterday at an organization and the one of the one of the participants stopped by, and he was talking about exactly that about. So he, the context was around, feeling like he wasn’t showing up as his best self when he was triggered in different situations, and how he was learning to kind of come back down to calm behavior, but it was taking 10 or 12 minutes before he could sort of come back from it. And he says, you know, what, what can I do? To come back from it faster? Like, well, what have you tried? Oh, this, this and this? Cool. Maybe try this, this? And then assess, and if it doesn’t work, try something different. There’s infinite options out there. It’s always going to be a yes. And
Johnny Crowder 23:16
yeah, I think there’s there’s also hoping that like, even in what you just said, is like, there are people listening to this right now who think, you know, I tried therapy, and it didn’t work for me. And then all of a sudden, now there’s a kernel of hope, like, Well, maybe if I tried another therapist, I would like that. Maybe it was related to my therapist, or, or maybe I didn’t like it. Because nine months ago, I was going through a breakup, and I was so upset about the breakup, that I couldn’t be present in my therapy sessions. Like, then you start thinking, oh, man, maybe there are opportunities for things to resonate with me in the future. And that, that feeling of hope. And like that, that experimentation without needing any one option to do it, like, I’m not gonna lie, bro, when COVID happened. I was like, What do I even like to do because I used to tour full time. Like before COVID I was on tour like, eight months a year with my band. So then COVID happens and I’m, I’m in one state for an entire year. I haven’t done that since high school. So I was like, shoot, what do I even like to do and I I’m serious. I went and played tennis and I was like, maybe, I don’t know. Maybe it’s not tennis. And then I like went to do like, you know, yoga, social distance yoga in the park or whatever. And I was like, this isn’t really it either. And I just kept like, kind of plugging away. But I didn’t get upset when something didn’t work. I just thought okay, well, if not that, then what? Maybe it’s cooking. Maybe it’s painting. Maybe it’s, I don’t know, just, there’s freedom and remembering that um, If it’s not you that’s broken, if you don’t like a thing, or if something doesn’t resonate with you, and it doesn’t even mean that it won’t resonate with you the next year.
Lindsay Recknell 25:12
Yeah, because you’re continuing to evolve as a human. And those experiences will continue to evolve. I imagine that someone listening might say, but Johnny, I don’t know where to start. Where do I go? How do I, how do I know? I’m not I’m not a creative thinker. I don’t know what to try next. What do you say when you come across people like that?
Johnny Crowder 25:32
I want to respectfully push back and say that there’s no such thing as someone who isn’t a creative thinker. Because you literally make up every word you say, every time you speak. So like, I don’t buy it personally, I think, I think people who, who respond that way. My encouragement to them would be you have a supercomputer in your pocket. And if you Google, a list of things that have helped other people, or you simply ask a few friends what they’ve done, and trust me my like, I asked my buddy, Andreas, what helps you? And he goes, Oh, paintball. And I’m like, No, I am not trying to get shot by paintball guns. But at least I asked. So if if you don’t Google, ask somebody. And if you don’t ask somebody, Google, and you, you’ll be able to get a sense, because keep in mind, by me saying no, thanks to paintball, I now have a better understanding of what I do want by learning what I don’t want. So the human psyche has a desire to confirm or correct. So that means if you say two plus two is four, I want to confirm it. I’m like, Oh, definitely. Yeah, you’re absolutely right. Or if you say two plus two is five ago. Oh, I’m going to try to bite my tongue. But she’s totally wrong on that. So lean into that when people say, hey, why don’t you try scuba diving? And you are I don’t want to be underwater. All of a sudden, you go, Oh, wow. I didn’t even know that. I didn’t want to be underwater. Now. I know. And I’m kind of narrowing down my list.
Lindsay Recknell 27:15
Yeah. Well, and making connection to you know, if you’re not Googling, you’re asking people and that connection is a huge part of mental health recovery as well. Oh, yeah. As a tool, you know? And what about those fine folks that are going I can’t get out of bed? How can I possibly do paintball, scuba diving or music? Other than the obvious, which is sign up for Cope Notes.
Johnny Crowder 27:40
I, I think that if you’re too depressed to pursue anything, then my encouragement to you is, you now know, the thing that’s standing in your way, which is the depression. Like some people, I think a lot of people go through life trying to look the other way. And they don’t actually identify what’s standing in their way, but they can’t quite put their finger on it. But if you identify with that, you say, Well, I can’t do those things. Because I’m too depressed, boom, you’re already you’ve taken 30 steps forward in your recovery journey, by being able to identify that and that’s such a huge victory, you’re skipping past the years that people spend trying to identify the thing. So it’s actually it’s a hidden victory, because now you know, where to place your focus. And maybe your focus shouldn’t be on scuba diving right now, maybe your focus should be on treatment. And that’s awesome that you know, that.
Lindsay Recknell 28:51
Well, and back to that comprehension, and understanding of our emotions and our feelings and figuring out how to either articulate it with words or with music, or just admit it to ourselves and self reflection. That’s a huge deal. And maybe the first physical step is to start wiggling your toes. You know, if you’re lying in bed and you’re wiggling your toes, and then your brain goes, Oh, I can do that. I can do that. Maybe I can knock my knees you know. Giving that giving that a little bit of encouragement and kudos recognition doesn’t matter how big or small the recognition but celebrating that awareness is huge. Oh, yeah. Johnny, tell us more about how we can how we can get enrolled in Cope Notes. Where do we go? How do we do it? What’s it all about?
Johnny Crowder 29:46
So using Cope Notes, we purposely tried to make signing up as easy as possible. So you literally go to coconuts.com and you type in your phone number. And that’s the whole story. It’s we don’t collect your name. We don’t collect your personal health information, you don’t need to link up your insurance or anything like that. You just type in your phone number, you press enter, we text you once a day, we help you feel better. So it’s literally https://copenotes.com It’s the easiest thing you’ll ever do. And I encourage anybody who’s listening, even people who are like, Oh, I don’t need a mental health resource, or that’s not for me. I want to first of all say respectfully, that you’re wrong, I built it, it is for you. I know who it’s for, because I built it. And the second thing I want to say is, you know, it’s kind of like, saying, well, oh, you’re given out toothbrushes. Well, I don’t have any cavities. But my sister has cavities, maybe I’ll get a toothbrush for her. Dude, if you have teeth, you should be brushing them. So if you have a brain inside of your skull, you should absolutely be taking care of it. And we do have a free trial. It you don’t type in your credit card, it doesn’t automatically charge you there are no tricks. It’s a way to use coke notes for a week for free. And if nothing else, if you never give a penny to coke notes, if you never tell another soul about it, as long as you live, I’m asking you let us pay for you to use Cope Notes for one week. Even if you’re not feeling down, even if you don’t think you need it, just as a gift. We want you to experience it.
Lindsay Recknell 31:26
Incredible, incredible. We’ll absolutely link to that in the show notes and on the website make it as super, super easy for people to get a hold of you. Where do you get your content from?
Johnny Crowder 31:39
So interesting question and interesting answer. All of our text messages are written by peers with lived experience. And they’re, you know, concepts that are pulled from like TED Talks and articles and textbooks and research studies. And like all of these really, you know, some places that might not feel really user friendly in terms of like, not everybody has a textbook laying around. Not everybody can read a research study because they can be complicated. So we actually have peers who have lived experience writing the content and sourcing it from those resources. And then we have clinicians reviewing the content to make sure it’s accurate and helpful. So what’s really cool about using Coke notes, is it does make it a positive impact on your brain. But it doesn’t feel like you’re like in a therapy session or in a clinical environment or anything like that. It feels very casual and formal and easy to understand.
Lindsay Recknell 32:40
And intuitive and will just make you feel better. And you might not even know why.
Johnny Crowder 32:45
Yeah, we’re sneaky like that.
Lindsay Recknell 32:49
Johnny, what gives you hope.
Johnny Crowder 32:55
My all share this my favorite phrase, this is kind of like my life motto. Now, I talked about it in my second TED Talk. i My favorite phrase is just four words, and I use it as often as possible. I say the phrase tomorrow might be better. Because it is always true. It is a statement that is literally always true. Tomorrow might be better. That’s it. I say it all the time. And it helps me remember that I don’t know what tomorrow is going to look like. So projecting out how I feel today if I’m down or disappointed or frustrated. Assuming that I’ll feel that way tomorrow is ridiculous. Because I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. And that feeling of the unknown. Like tomorrow might be better. It could I don’t know. You don’t know. We have no way of knowing and that feeling of like getting to roll the dice again tomorrow. gives me hope.
Lindsay Recknell 34:08
Well, it is very hopeful that idea that the future can be better than tomorrow is very, very hopeful. Johnny, you are an incredible human. Thank you so so much for joining me. Thank you for the the resource that you’re putting into the world and just the way that you make mental health and talking about it feel like something we can all do. You’re talking out loud, and that’s encouraging others to share their stories out loud as well. Fears are louder in the dark. And when we can get them out into the world. It has such a positive impact on everyone. And I really appreciate you coming on the show to share your story with us today.
Johnny Crowder 34:45
Thank you so much, Lindsay. This was awesome. And thanks to everybody for listening. It was nice to hang out with you.
Lindsay Recknell 34:51
been a real pleasure. We’ll talk again soon.
Lindsay Recknell 34:56
Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Hope Motivates Action podcast. The science of hope and positive psychology has had such a huge impact on me and my work so I also love that I get to share knowledge, research and stories from this evidence-based science as well. It is my sincere wish that you hear something that resonates with you in these episodes, that you feel the contagious power of hope and you are motivated to take action over what you can control, all towards creating a future better than today. I have such a passion for this work and I love connecting with you my listeners, my clients and with the guests on this show to help create transformation. Hope is contagious so thank you for listening, for sharing the podcast with your friends and family and engaging with me through my programs, my workshops and my speaking. As one of this season’s guests mentioned to me off air, if everyone listening could give the podcast a five-star rating on Apple podcasts, imagine the hopeful content Apple could start curating in their podcast algorithm! it’s conversations like these that spread more hope and joy into the world. Looking forward to keeping the conversation going so reach out anytime. As always, here when you need me.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Lindsay Recknell | Expert in Hope | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram
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