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Grow your own life

Ross_Minton
Ross_Minton Community member Posts: 10 Listener

Ross Minton vlogs about disability, his allotment, fishing and metal detecting. He likes to talk about doing the things he loves, on the days that he can and hopes to inspire more people to get outside. In this vlog, he talks about his battle with the 'black dog' depression and his philosophy of growing your own life.
(Auto-generated captions are available on the video, but a transcript has also been prepared further down the page.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc7eFCnugGo

Transcript of Ross' video:
Hi there, I'm Ross Minton and this is Grow Your Own Life.
Grow Your Own Life isn't just about growing vegetables, it's about growing your life. Yes it's about hobbies, it's about interests, it's about getting outside and enjoying the wonderful world that we have before us. You only get one life, so let's get out there and enjoy it people. Let's grow our lives.
So, what is grow your own life? It's basically about growing life. It's not just about growing fruits and vegetables, it's about enjoying the outdoors, enjoying your hobbies and just getting out there in nature in your back garden on your balcony. No matter what you do, just get outside and do something. So I'm going to show you my hobbies as a guy with a disability, I think it's really important to get outside wherever you can and just enjoy those good days and days like today when it's really sunny. So I'm gonna show you my hobbies that is fishing, metal-detecting and obviously my allotment and I just love being outside and that's what it's all about because I honestly believe anyone can garden and anyone can explore, whether you need a wheelchair, a mobility scooter, you need the help of somebody else. Anyone can get out there and do a little bit of what they love.
Don't let our illnesses or disabilities and our conditions get in the way of doing the things we love, people. So please enjoy.
So, I'm off fishing today. Woohoo. And this'll be the first time in over a year that I've fished one of my favourite spots. [Sounds of seagulls and an aeroplane flying overhead] And yet whenever I come spinning down I'm in. Right camera's gotta go guys. I never thought we'd get to fish that particular swim again, simply because I have the distance from the car and obviously carrying your fishing rods. But I was there. I caught two tench.
I don't really do these emotional vlogs to camera that often, in fact I don't think I've done any. But I've had a really rough couple of weeks really. That's probably why I haven't posted a lot. It all started with starting to get a bad back, as I do from time to time and then I went and slipped over on the allotment and jarred my back. So, that led to the week of doing fat lot of nothing, lying on the sofa. 
I get so down when that happens. Probably not a great person to be around to be honest. It is the black dog just hits me hard really. You feel a complete and utter failure and I struggled with that for the last few years really. You feel rubbish and men need to talk about these things, we've been grown up to keep quiet and that's exactly what I did. I'm thirty-five. My generation have been told to man up, stiff upper lip and all that best of British. When it comes to our own mental well-being, we just bottle it up, it just festers and it brews and it's horrible. And then it makes us feel worse. We need to stop doing it really. 
If we feel ****, we need to tell people. I've started doing it at home now. I've started saying to my other half, she's like well I can't do anything about that. You need to do something about that. You need to get out, you need to do something. Make yourself a plan of what you want to do. She tells me that kind of thing and started doing it and it made me feel better, but just because we're doing it, the gardening, the exercise, playing walking football, whatever it is you do. Go fishing. I don't know what your hobbies are. Just because we do these things. It doesn't mean that it's a cure for basically being depressed and it's tough. It really is tough. Because you know exactly what it is. I know I'm depressed. I don't know why and you can't shake it up and it's bizarre and I'd like to think I'm an intelligent person, but you sit there and think to yourself, 'Ross, you've got a muscle disability. Your muscles are gonna hurt. You can't do these things every day. Right, but my brain, the other part of it, just doesn't accept it. There's gotta be other people out there that feel like me from time to time. It does get better. I'm getting there. On the mend.
Hello folks, how you doing? What a nice day! I've got some followers. Keep my eye on those.
Do you find getting outside helps with your mental health? What sort of hobbies have you discovered make it easier to cope?

Comments

  • Ross_Minton
    Ross_Minton Community member Posts: 10 Listener
    Thank you for sharing this, I truly hope it helps people. any questions please ask.  :)
  • Antonia_Alumni
    Antonia_Alumni Scope alumni Posts: 1,780 Pioneering
    Great post and video @Ross_Minton thanks for sharing this with us, great advice. :)
  • Adrian_Scope
    Adrian_Scope Posts: 10,821 Scope online community team
    I find geocaching's a good way to get me out of the house. It gives me that incentive to explore and the sense of achievement from finding a cache, however small, can really help when things aren't going so great.

    Definitely need to start fishing though.
    Community Manager
    Scope
  • April2018mom
    April2018mom Posts: 2,882 Disability Gamechanger
    I love this. I recently started playing tennis down at a local court it helps me keep fit. I also am a member of a local gym and sometimes use the pool for free. I also go walking. I used to do orienteering as a child but that stopped after I left school. Gardening is essential to my wellbeing. It has been a while but I was a member of my closest golf club. 

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