Toward Total Health
This was an important piece to write for two reasons:
This subject means a great deal to me.
It’s important to us at Vision Corsa that this organization becomes both a resource to you and a rich community filled with openness, inclusivity, and positivity.
Over the past few years, mental health has been discussed an increasing amount in motorsport, most notably in Formula 1. Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo and Toto Wolff are all on record emphasizing the importance of maintaining and investing effort into improving one’s mental health. Much of what they talk about is refracted through the lens of being an ultra-high performing athlete at the pinnacle of motorsport. But the underlying idea is so beneficial for everyone to engage with, no matter what they do or who they are.
From a personal standpoint, incorporating mental health and physical health into a single idea of my “health” has been extremely beneficial - it’s very logical for me to spend as much time working on one as I do on the other. This interview Mercedes F1 driver George Russell did with Men’s Health UK captures the concept well.
That’s a framework that’s helpful for me; I spend time in the gym. I spend time on my mental wellbeing. I encourage everyone to investigate their own relationship between mental and physical health and find a framework that works for them.
Nobody has a responsibility to discuss their health but I do feel it’s important to consider talking about it openly.
I’m a white, cis male who goes to therapy every week. I like it and it makes me feel better. For too many years, I associated going to therapy with not being able to handle issues myself.
But there are no secret meanings behind going to therapy. So I approach it like this:
I am curious about who I am and how I became what I am.
I assess who I am and compare it to the me I’d like to become.
I work to improve on who I was yesterday.
There’s a lot of work to do. But that’s okay.
Improvement is everything.
Onward. Together. Always.