Why is emotional health so important for men?

It's become strikingly obvious over the last twenty years that men have needed to shift their focus.

By that I mean the popular jobs like labouring, grounds people and such where industries would just need bodies to heavy lift and do odd jobs have been swapped out for machinery and tools that can adequately take the position of several workers for a fraction of the price. I remember talking to my tree surgeon friend that bought his first wood chipper for $40,000, and he was super excited because he wouldn't need as much people to work with him!

Jobs for men are getting less and less as more machinery and technology is taking the place of bodies. And men are suffering because of it. Father's advice from old person to young is just not adequate any more because what worked for them as a young lad would not work now. For instance the world was a very different place when I was a kid compared to now.

And when our dads taught us to be strong and stoic and to plod on -- that works, but sometimes it just isn't enough in todays age. I mean that advice used to be solid. You'd keep a stiff upper lip, work hard, and come back with the money and everything would be OK.

But times are changing. Women have now entered the workforce on a massive scale, and they are starting to (and being encouraged to) enter jobs where men are the dominant employees. The workforce is changing, as is the general feeling and consensus of society; as we adopt more women into roles and responsibilities we are becoming softer in the process. And there's no point in trying to fight against it because it's a direction we've been going in a long time.

So to thrive men are having to change their roles and responsibilities, and a lot of them are finding themselves jobless and out of work. I'm in the UK and when Margaret Thatcher closed all the coal mines in the North because we were making a move to different energy then a lot of men (again) found themselves displaced, and a lot of them committed suicide.

This is why men need to be on top of our emotional health when we haven't really necessarily thought about it in the past. How we can thrive and survive in between long bouts of being workless, and how to be comfortable in their own skin when everything seems to be falling apart around us. I know through surveying the general landscape alone that men and people in general are suffering with all the change.

A big part of stoicism is being able to muddle through the tough times to get to the good times, and half that battle is being comfortable in your own skin and being able to withstand the often hardship that comes with that, and being able to muddle through.

How to BE comfortable in your own skin? Well, that's another whole post entirely and something I might write later. But it starts with accepting things as they are. Not trying to wish it was different, because that will just cause you more problems. Accepting things as they are and ploughing through it or making changes to help.

Hope this helps!!

Peace.