(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to Farm Connections.

I'm your host Dan Hoffman.

On today's episode, we have a discussion about resilience in the face of hardship and overcoming the stigma of mental illness.

In addition, the University of Minnesota extension provides us with a new best practices, all here today on Farm Connections.

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- Welcome to Farm Connections.

We're so thrilled to have a guest tonight that can help us get through the holiday blues and think positive things.

Cynthie Christensen, welcome.

- Welcome Dan.

Thank you for inviting me.

- Oh, we're so thrilled to have you.

Well, you have some special skills that were developed over the years in some of the places you worked and some of the work you do, tell us about that.

- I had the privilege of working at the male clinic in the psychiatric unit for 21 years.

I retired last December and just really enjoyed being able to care for people as they struggle with their mental health issues.

And following my retirement, I have started my own practice, Oak Ridge Teletherapy, and I see people both in-person and virtually.

- Well, Cynthie, beyond that, you have a lot of experience in agriculture, farming and farm organizations.

Anything there you can share with us?

- I'm the current president of Houston County Farm Bureau, and really love my work as a farm advocate.

I believe that if I had been born the first boy, I would be a farmer, but that honor went to my brothers.

So I just helped out on the farm, but really have a passion for agriculture and farmers and all the work that they do for our country.

- Well, that's part of the reason we wanna talk to you Cynthie.

Winter comes along, it's long.

Some people view it as jury other people look at as an opportunity to have fun.

You're a very active person, a very experienced person, share some things that can help us with coping and resilience, please.

- And in full disclosure, I have to say that winter is not my favorite season either.

But I do enjoy living in a climate that has four seasons.

So I feel like I need to embrace winter more.

And I've been trying to do that over the last few years.

And knowing that what we feel affects what we think and what we do, I think it's really important to look at how we feel about winter, which can then shift our thinking and then get us more active and change our behaviors as we go through the winter months.

So I was listening to the news tonight in my community, there's talk of snow on Friday.

And the anchor was like, oh, it's coming, kind of thing, just with dread.

And it makes me think that we were all children at one point where we were excited for winter and the snow and all of the things that it brought, but then as we age and it becomes more of a hardship.

I think we take those thoughts on that, we're gonna have to shovel snow.

We're gonna have to drive on potentially dangerous roads I'll say, and it just becomes more of a dread.

And I think we forget the good things about winter.

- Well, you mentioned the newscaster and here it is a beautiful day and the newscasters talking about dread.

A wise person once told me that people can't make you feel unhappy unless you let them.

How do we respond to those external messages from the media and from other people to make it more positive?

- Well, I think we just really need to look at our ourselves and not be so influenced by others.

Because I know people who love winter.

I mean, they do cross country skiing, they do snowshoeing and they can't wait for snow.

You don't hear much from those people.

It tends to be more of the dread kind of thing.

So I think there's a continuum of winter lovers or winter haters.

So I think you have to personally decide how you're gonna approach it.

But I would encourage people to be more open to the positives and kind of taking it more as a present moment kind of thing, rather than projecting, we gotta get through this whole winter, and really take a day to day.

Because as we all know, there are some winter days that are beautiful, but we kind of don't celebrate those as much 'cause we're dreading what's the end kind of thing.

We're waiting for the end of it instead of being present as it goes along.

- Well as your sharing, I had an image of a young child, a boy or girl running towards the door when they hear, Hey, it's gonna smell and going to the door, grabbing their boots, grabbing their warm clothes and going to the door and saying, hurry up, hurry up, let's get some snow, let's have some fun.

And you talk about activities.

What besides skiing and just walking in the snow, could someone do that would maybe be soothing, calming and centering.

- I think I'm a bird watcher.

And I think winter is just a fabulous time for feeding the birds and watching the bird feeder.

So I think that's something that you can do, and then helping nature, seems like there's plenty of birds out at my feeder that needs some seeds.

This might make people uncomfortable, but I think even just making snow angels or a snowman or going sledding, trying snowshoeing, cross country skiing, some of those kinds of things, I think are activities that people can do to get out and enjoy the snow.

- So the next time I hear the newscaster talk about weather like that, I'm gonna go on a shopping trip and buy warm clothes - I think that's part of it, Dan.

As I was thinking about our conversation tonight, preparation, I think is a lot of it.

'Cause you said the kids grab their snow pants and all their gear.

I think sometimes as adults, we don't invest in that kind of thing.

So we're not as comfortable when we go out because we don't maybe have snow pants or something like that.

So just encouraging people to be prepared for being outside too.

I think that makes a world of difference.

- Bringing back memories of my childhood on the farm, where when winter was coming, it meant preparing, it meant storing up things in the root cellar, mother lining the shells with canned vegetables and fruit, meats, the sauerkraut bat, the carrots in the sand.

So that ritual of preparing and the busy-ness and the warmth of the hearth, anything come to mind when I mentioned that to you?

- I think just gathering things, would the farmers put up all the bales for the cattle?

I think there is something about being ready and having supplies that also create some resilience and feeling like you've got things in the best order they can be, I guess.

- What about games or things that people can do to socialize?

- I think that card games, board games, obviously.

I know one family who is doing a virtual gaming night with their siblings, like every Friday night, they all get together on a Zoom meeting and play games, virtually, which I think is something that probably, that this COVID pandemic has taught us how to do.

Something that they would not have thought of doing before, but it's been really a source of connection for them.

I think sometimes we get caught up in feeling like our house isn't clean enough or we can have people over kind of thing, it becomes a big deal.

And I think particularly in the winter, we should let that go because I think socialization is really important in those winter months when the tendency to not go out after dark, if the roads are a bit uncertain, it's really easy to stay home.

So I think it's really something to think about and resist getting isolated and creating some loneliness for yourself, particularly if you're living alone or in a really isolated area.

I think it's really something to watch out for in the winter.

Yeah.

- What about volunteer work or charity work or giving to others?

- Well, it's very good medicine for a person to help someone else.

I mean, you really help yourself more than you help them, I believe when you volunteer.

I think it depends on the community and what's available for organizations.

I know in my community, there's always a need for meals on wheels, drivers for medical appointments, that kind of thing.

Churches have a lot of volunteer opportunities.

Again, I think if you become known as a good volunteer, I think you almost make yourself a full time job 'cause people really reach out to you knowing that you're a generous person.

So I think that is a good way that you can connect and contribute to community as well.

- We've talked about a lot of things and a lot of things well, Cynthie, but fundamentally, what do people need most to feel good about themselves?

- I think that the most important thing when someone is struggling is to think about what they tell themselves.

Because your internal voice is the most powerful voice you hear, and if you're negative or criticizing yourself, you believe that, what you're hearing, even though it may not be true.

So I think it's really important to think about what am I telling myself, that internal dialogue, because that can really manifest all kinds of things from how you're feeling, what you think, and then what you do.

For example, if you think, nobody really wants me to, if I call somebody they really don't wanna answer the phone or something like that.

You tend to not even try with that kind of thinking 'cause you kind of talked yourself out of it.

So just recognizing that what we're telling ourselves is very important to how we feel and what we end up doing.

- What is someone's internal voice is messaging negativity, and it brings them down to the point, they're really not functional.

How do we bring them out of that?

How do they bring themselves out of that?

- Well, that's a great question because I think you can get to a point where it's really difficult to reach out for help.

I would encourage people if someone is in that situation, where they're just feeling very despondent, you could reach out to your physician, that tends to be a trusted person that you know and talk to them about how you're feeling.

Could also reach out to a pastor, if you have one and you feel comfortable with that, or a friend.

Oftentimes when you get really down, it's hard to do those things alone.

So if you can reach out and partner with someone to help you get the help that you need.

Therapy can be very helpful.

There's also medications that you can take if you are clinically depressed.

So the message that I would just wanna spread is that there is help out there, that you don't need to struggle and feel helpless and helpless alone, that to reach out.

- Great advice.

Cynthie, do you have a website to share for your consulting business?

- Yes.

It's Oak Ridge Teletherapy.

- And I understand you're very busy, but you would also field a email or question if somebody had one?

- Absolutely.

I think it takes a lot of courage to reach out for help.

I think we feel like we should be able to fix ourselves and just kind of pull ourselves up by the bootstraps, but it really is not that easy when you get really in a dark place and feel really depressed and hopeless.

It takes a lot of courage to ask for help.

So if somebody feels like they would be comfortable reaching out to me, I'd be happy to talk to them.

- Thanks for joining us today, Cynthie.

- Thank you for having me, Dan, and I hope you enjoy the winter.

And remember that spring is coming.

- Stay tuned for more on Farm Connections.

- [Announcer] Farm Connections, best practices brought to you by.

(upbeat music) - My name is Daniel Kaiser.

I am with the University of Minnesota extension and on today's best practices segment, I will be focusing on selecting the best source of sulfur.

When focusing on best practices for selecting the right source of sulfur, it is important to start by asking, is the crop I am growing sensitive to sulfur deficiency, and when during that crops lifecycle is sulfur important.

For example, research has shown a benefit for sulfur applied to corn and sulfur uptake for corn ramps up when the crop is about a foot tall, peaking through late vegetative stages and slows down once pollination has completed.

For Minnesota, our research has consistently shown a greater need for sulfur early in the growing season as cool and wet soils do not release much sulfur to the crops.

Lack of sulfur early in the growing season can hinder uptake and reduce yields of soils cannot mineralize sulfur early enough.

When deciding on what source of sulfur, keep in mind that plants take sulfur up in the sulfate form.

Sources such as ammonium or calcium sulfate, commonly referred to as gypsum contain immediately available sulfur for your crop.

There are several products for sale containing elemental sulfur.

One thing about elemental sulfurs that must undergo a process called oxidation where sulfur is changed to the sulfate form.

Oxidation of elemental sulfur is a microbial process, therefore adequate but not excessive soil moisture and warmer soil temperatures are key factors in determining the rate of oxidation.

Simply put, peak oxidation will generally not occur here in Minnesota until we get into later stages of the growing season.

Another factor which impacts oxidation is the fineness of the elemental sulfur particles.

Drawing on some comparisons to lime, larger elemental sulfur particles will take longer to react within the soil.

Elemental sulfur is also hydrophobic and will not dissolve in water like other fertilizer sources.

So in closing, the main thing I really want you to know is that you have options when applying sulfur and as long as the source you're applying can supply available software at the time the crop needs it, there really is no wrong option.

I would suggest on keeping up on as much as you can on current research and take a four hour approach as much as you can when applying sulfur to your crops.

So that was today's best practices segment.

Again, my name is Daniel Kaiser, and I wanna thank you for joining us today.

- Welcome to Farm Connections.

Our guest today is Ruth Merrick from the Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation.

Hello, Ruth.

- Hi Dan.

It's great to be back.

- Well for sure.

Well, it looks like you're in an office setting.

Is that true?

- I am, I think the last time we got to visit it was a beautiful day in June, out on the south three farm and we were enjoying sunshine and people coming out to enjoy a fabulous day at breakfast on the farm.

A little bit different.

Yes, it's fall now when I have to be in the office.

- Well, I'm glad you could join us and technology has helped connect us.

But thinking about that scenario of what you just said, beautiful weather, outside, green grass, trees, nature, farms, people, we've had a tough go.

We've had a lot with COVID, we've had some issues politically.

What can people do to move forward and cope and be resilient, thinking about mental health?

- Dan, I think some of the things that we really need to think about is that yes, we have kind of come off a lot of really heavy things that have happened to us over the past year, COVID.

We had a drought and most of the Minnesota, and we're kind of going into that time of year where there seems to be, or has a tendency to be a little bit more depression.

And as people involved in agriculture, we certainly wanna be-- We are always concerned about the wellness of our farm families and our farmers and ranchers across the state of Minnesota.

So things that we can do that we can help with depression and sadness that sometimes we feel at this time of year, sometimes new people say it's seasonal, it isn't always.

There are some definite things that we can do as far as coping skills.

I think one of the first things is, is to think about how we behave and our behavior activists.

How do we activate our behavior?

Do we kind of go in and shut down at the end of the day, or are we still participating in activities that we do?

And those activities might be enjoy a great walk outside.

And I know sometimes when the cold weather comes, we have to bundle up and we may not like doing that, but just being outside and enjoying it, we talk about exercise and how important that is.

And I tell you what, I'm the first one to say, I'm not a big exerciser and I kind of make jokes about that.

But honestly, the feeling that you get after a long walk or the feeling you get after going to the gym, sometimes when we get depressed, we start to pull away from those types of things and we need to continue those.

And exercise can be what you want it to be.

It can be harder, it can be make it a very joyful type thing as well.

Socializing.

I think that's another thing is that sometimes when we get sad or depressed, I mentioned it, we start to pull back and we may not go to an event or function that we normally would go to.

And we need to make sure that we've push ourselves, that we continue to socialize, and whether that'd be a church or groups that we're involved in.

I'm involved with Farm Bureau and we have activities with County Farm Bureau meetings and those types of things.

To continue to participate in those.

Continue to do your hobbies that you've always done.

Responsibilities that you've always been.

You need to be mindful and make sure you continue those responsibilities.

And then also just self care.

Take care of yourself, getting the right amount of sleep, eating well.

Those are just, when we talk about behavior, those are some of the behavioral things we can do.

I talked a lot about social support.

Lean on existing relationships that you have.

If you have somebody that you always talk to, continue to talk to those.

I tell people that when I'm hurting or when they're hurting, let me hurt with you.

Let me be sad along with you and let's talk through it.

If I can't be a good friend, then that's not a great feeling.

I'm not a friend, I don't think if I'm not a good friend.

I talked about saying yes to socializing.

And the other thing is, and sometimes this is really difficult.

Join a support group.

And whatever that support group might be, participated in that support group, find people that are struggling or going through the same challenges that you are and be a participant with them.

Talking about things that we're going through can be some of the best medicine.

I tease my kids at home and say, if you're not feeling good, I want you to sit down and write three good things about yourself.

And they don't like it because sometimes it's really hard for them at that moment where they're not feeling the best, is to write three good things down.

But then we kind of talk about those.

And then I, of course, as a mom, and again, you can be a friend, you can be a spouse, you can be a relative and you can always add onto those three good things to a conversation.

Make them repeat it, make them say it out loud, make them believe what they wrote on that piece of paper when they think that's really important.

And then just be mindful of yourself and think about those good things.

Think about things that you have a positive influence on, the accomplishments that you make.

We often think about-- And I remember I went through a divorce and I had kind of this tough time in my life.

And honestly, I was depressed.

I went through a whole state of depression and I felt that I was kind of a failure.

And then you have to really be mindful and think about the good things that I've done.

Well, I was a pretty good friend and I was a good volunteer and I was a good daughter and a good mom.

So sometimes there's a lot of good things that is pretty easy to push aside.

We have to be mindful to pull back and remember those good things that we are.

- Ruth, thank you for that.

I'm thinking also about a program that you've worked with called Break the Stigma with the Chatfield High School, FFA.

Can you elaborate on that some?

- Yeah, so Break the Stigma is-- Well, it was actually Break the Stigma week, it ended last Sunday, and it's really a campaign to kind of break the stigma of mental health.

There is stigma to that and we know through education and conversation that we can help break that down.

We talk a little bit about our farm families and farm culture and how we act as farmers, we're private and our conversations are often a very closed door or not spoken about at all, whether it be mental health or addiction or those types of things, and that we need to have conversations.

So it's really a drive to have the conversation about mental health.

Kudos to the Chatfield FFA for having and tackling this tough topic with their students and their community leaders or people from the community.

We partnered with them.

They reached out to me and wanted to raise dollars for this course and I said, we would be 100% behind them.

So they held a walk.

They did face paintings, they raised money.

They sold t-shirts.

They had yard signs that they sold, all in an effort to raise dollars to have a living work, safe talk presenter come down and have some community meetings where individuals learn how to have conversations about mental health, suicide awareness, but most importantly, how to intervene if somebody is thinking about death by suicide.

That can be really, really tough.

And to have people who know how to intervene and provide resources such as mental health experts in their communities, to be that individual or be able to intervene is so very important.

Being able to know how to have a conversation that you really don't wanna have.

I've actually been through the training twice myself and have hosted two of them.

I guess four times.

You could technically say that I learned something new every single time that I've done it.

And I've actually had to use the skills that I learned in my training to have some dark conversations with some people.

They were tough conversations.

They were conversations that I felt kind of a little bit of anxiety having, but I would have never had them had I not gone through one of those trainings.

So for chat built to not only, kind of have conversations with these FFA students and members, and not just FFA students, but students from the high school, as well as their parents and other community leaders or individual volunteers, they've opened up a door and now they can move into the safe talk training and dig a little bit deeper into a subject that sometimes we just don't wanna talk to them.

- Ruth, thanks again.

- Thank you, Dan.

It was great visiting.

- Stay tuned for more on Farm Connections.

Community is built on trust and care.

A little bit of decency and treating our neighbors with kindness and compassion goes a long way in making sure that we as friends and family stay connected.

I'm Dan Hoffman.

Thanks for watching Farm Connections.

(upbeat music)