“First – thanks so much for bringing awareness to World Mental Health Day! It’s so important that we practice self-awareness and other-awareness in this way, particularly. As an Active Duty U.S. Naval Officer, I cannot overstate the value and importance of our Sailors making time to meditate, laugh, hit the gym, read, pray, etc. It’s amazing to see how restorative these practices can be, and even more inspiring to observe just how much more fluidly we work together as a team doing the nation’s work when we’ve been able to devote time to caring for ourselves. Second – “How do you keep your mind healthy?”: On Sunday mornings here on board RONALD REAGAN, a good buddy of mine and I head up to the Flight Deck or Flag Bridge to just shoot the s***hit and speak our minds about the past and future weeks’ hopes/failures/etc. It’s a small kindness to make space in an environment like ours, afloat, for honest, vulnerable conversation. We challenge each other, and value the small steps we’re each taking to improve ourselves and others. We celebrate small and big wins alike, and afford each other grace in moments of loss or sorrow. Stepping into and out of our individual headspace has been a really critical way to remind ourselves of our oneness with each other and humanity more broadly. Pic for tribute. Also, we’re celebrating the 245th birthday of the U.S. Navy this week, too, so there’s that!” Thanks again and all my best. -Becca