Introducing MENTAL Squares
Have you ever heard of a talking circle? It’s where people come together, chat and support one another. Well, we want to do that in squares. Besides the shape, nothing else is really different. Nothing special or too creative, simply a space to share, listen, and support.
That’s what MENTAL Squares is all about, a new event that we are launching in partnership with one of our biggest Dorks, Ram. Ram is one-of-a-kind. Nobody like him. Most always smiling, often laughing, a big proponent of goofing around and not taking things too seriously. He’s an ideal dork who has grown within our community, alongside us.
Ram is not only a dork dancer, but also an advocate for public speaking. He believes public speaking is an incredible tool for self-growth because he has grown tremendously through it. For this reason, he leads a community, the Stage is Yours, to extend speaking opportunities to others in Da Nang.
The communities of Dork Dancing & The Stage is Yours are coming together to bring this new MENTAL event, because it fits our themes and values. Dork Dancers advocate for mental health and The Stage is Yours is about speaking up for yourself. Combining these two ideas, and you get speaking for mental health.
This will be different for us, something new. A 2 hour event to speak and/or listen. Here’s Ram’s description, in his own words…
It's a safe space to let out our feelings, fears, happiness, joy, excitement, anxiety and anything else that you feel you want to say out loud so you could feel better or could help others.
We envision it as a group of people who are genuine, open-minded, non-judgemental and compassionate. We don't force anyone to share anything, you can just sit and listen to others' thoughts just to let them know someone cares about them.
We are not professionals to provide you advice or counseling instead we are a group with a similar motive who want to support each other through our struggles, challenges and growth. It is not a class/workshop, it's more like a group of people sitting together and opening up to each other. Hope to see you all and connect with each other on a deeper level.
We are VERY excited to see how this goes, considering this was one of our goals when Dork Dancing first started — creating space for people to speak more openly and personally about mental health topics. Already, we dance, learn, play games, set goals, play sports, and eat well (and so forth). Next, we look forward to speaking about our emotions well. Ram’s here to help with that! Hope to see you in our support square.
Dork Dancing is a grassroots mental health idea, campaign, and community. Our efforts depend entirely on charitable giving to inspire impact. We hope you may consider supporting by donating.