If last night was New life's eve then today is

New life's day and in true tradition I start it with a hangover. 

Not a metaphorical one, an actual one. 

We were given a fair amount of champagne and my house currently resembles the village I grew up in... 

There's not much to do there but drink 😂

I had some uni friends over to say good bye. 

There is a book called Tribe by Sebastian Junger (my favourite book this year) that talks about depression and PTSD. 

It talks about how the most disconnected cultures suffer the most. Namely America and the U.K. 

"Does this make sense tribally?" is one of the filters I use to question ideas and concepts. 

We do this thing, men. 

We call each other out, we shine a light on each others insecurities, we mock each other. 

We loving *cough* in a manly way, give each other permission to let stuff out, be judged and move on. 

We do this, constantly within our teams and clubs and pubs... 

Our tribes 

But then something happens...

We start families,
We get busy,
We become grown ups, 

... and the first thing we sacrifice is man time. 

... and in doing so we lose our therapy. 

Depression isn't sadness 

It's suppression. 

That's just the extreme because we don't have a label for the grey area. 

The stress, the loss of humour, the loss confidence the over confidence, the self awareness or lack thereof. 

Having those people in your life that will say
"Dude, those shoes, no"
Or
"You've been complaining about your job long enough, either quit or find a way to enjoy it, either way, nobody likes a complainer" 
Or
"Mate, that comb over, no." 

It's of so much more value than we realise.

When we lose the man time
We lose the man 

Ed Ley