You can spend so much time trying to become better that you forget to make room for being human. Not every day needs to be a breakthrough. These are five reminders to come back to when everything feels like another thing to get right. Choose one for today. Caring for yourself does not need to become another test. #MentalHealthAwareness #SelfCompassion #IntentionalLiving

Imagine inheriting a house where every window has been boarded shut. Your grandparents put the boards there after a storm nearly destroyed the house. At the time, keeping the outside out was how they protected everyone inside. Your parents grew up behind those boards. They learned that opening the windows was dangerous. Now the house belongs to you. You have never lived through that storm. But letting the light in still feels like taking a risk. That is one way to picture generational trauma. The effects of an experience can reach beyond the person who lived through it. They can influence how a family handles emotions, responds to conflict, builds trust, and teaches children what it takes to be safe. Sometimes that sounds like: "We don't talk about things like that." "Needing help makes you weak." "Keep everyone happy. Don't make things worse." What began as a way of surviving can become an unspoken rule. Eventually, nobody remembers where the rule came from. It is just "how our family is." Understanding where a pattern began does not excuse the harm it caused. But it can help us recognize what we want to carry forward and what we need support to change. Sometimes that work includes therapy, boundaries, or learning how to have a conversation nobody taught us to have. Sometimes a different response sounds like: "You can tell me." "I was wrong." "We can try that again." You do not have to pretend the storm never happened. But understanding why the windows were boarded up does not mean you have to leave them that way.

Spike’s K9 Fund …I knew the dog behind the name. I worked beside Spike. I went on missions with him. He was a working dog, but to me, he was also a teammate and a hero. Knowing him changed my life. Recently, I had the opportunity to attend an event with @Spikesk9fund. Between that experience and talking about Spike on The @ShawnRyanShow I found myself thinking about him again. About the missions. About the trust you put in a dog like that. About his willingness to go into dangerous places alongside us. About how much he gave. There is a difference between hearing about what a working dog can do and being out there with one. You see their capabilities firsthand. You understand the trust placed in them. And you get to know the dog, not just the job. It's also special to have a dog as a teammate. That connection does not end when the mission does. Today, his legacy lives on through Spike’s K9 Fund, which helps provide working dogs with protective equipment, medical care, and support during and after their service. For me, that mission will always be personal. It is about honoring a dog who made a difference in my life while helping make sure other working dogs receive the care and protection they deserve. I will always be grateful that our paths crossed. Spike showed up for us. Supporting the dogs who continue that work is one way we can keep showing up for them. Learn more and support here: spikesk9fund.org/

A lot of men have been taught how to endure. Fewer have been taught what to do with what they are enduring. Suck it up. Handle it yourself. Do not burden anyone else. Stay useful. Stay productive. Stay strong. There are times when those qualities are valuable. The ability to compartmentalize, stay focused, and perform under pressure can get you through incredibly difficult moments. The problem is when survival skills become the only skills you know how to use. Asking for help does not require you to become someone else. Therapy does not mean sitting in a room and being told how to feel. And struggling does not erase the strength, competence, or resilience you have built throughout your life. Sometimes it is simply having an honest conversation with someone who can help you understand what you are carrying, why you respond the way you do, and whether the strategies that once protected you are still serving you. I spent much of my adult life in an environment where pushing through was part of the job. Now, working in mental health, I see strength a little differently. Sometimes strength is enduring. Sometimes it is recognizing that you do not have to endure everything alone. We need to make both normal. #MensMentalHealth #MentalHealthAwareness #EndTheStigma

Not every wound from a traumatic experience comes from what happened to you. Some come from what you did, what you witnessed, what you could not prevent, or the decisions you had to make in a moment. There is a term for this: Moral Injury. Trauma can leave you feeling unsafe long after the danger has passed. Moral injury can challenge something different: your understanding of who you are, what you believe is right, and how you make sense of your own actions or experiences. It is often discussed in the context of combat veterans, and for good reason. War can put people in situations where there is no clean decision, where actions have irreversible consequences, or where survival and deeply held values collide. But moral injury is not exclusive to war. It can happen to healthcare workers, first responders, caregivers, survivors, or anyone who has experienced something that violated their deeply held sense of right and wrong. Sometimes people spend years trying to treat what they think is only trauma without realizing that guilt, shame, grief, anger, or a loss of meaning may also be part of what they are carrying. Giving something a name does not make it disappear. But sometimes understanding what you are actually carrying is the beginning of figuring out how to carry it differently. I often tell my clients that it is important to be a student of ourselves. #MoralInjury #MentalHealthAwareness #TraumaRecovery

One More Wave is one of the clearest ways I get to live out my mission to impact human suffering. I founded it around a simple belief: The equipment should adapt to the veteran…not the veteran to the equipment. We provide customized surfing solutions for wounded and disabled veterans, but the equipment is only one part of the mission. The community around the rider matters just as much. A shared paddle out. A familiar face on the beach. A place to keep showing up. Swipe to learn who we serve, why we surf, where our communities meet, and how you can help us put the next wave within reach. A convo I have often with people when they see some of our adaptive athletes surfing large waves: Observer: “Aren't you afraid you are going to hurt these veterans by getting them into more challenging surf? My response is always, “No, I believe we are helping them live again.” Visit the One More Wave website to apply for a grant, join a chapter, donate, or support the mission. #OneMoreWave #VeteranMentalHealth #SurfTherapy

What are your favorite books on mental health? Some books give you answers. Others give you better questions. These are some books I recommend for thinking more deeply about war, trauma, belonging, meaning, the body, and presence. I do not treat any book as the final word, but each of these offers something worth wrestling with. Save this list for later and tell me what else belongs on this list... #BookRecommendations #MentalHealthAwareness #VeteranMentalHealth

To everyone who watched my conversation with @ShawnRyan762, reached out, shared your own story, sent encouragement, or simply took the time to listen, thank you. The response has been more than I ever expected, and I want you to know how much it means to me. I have seen so many of your messages, comments and texts. I may not be able to personally respond to all of them, or I may be slower to respond than I would like. I am still seeing clients, running my practice, keeping up with life, and doing my best to stay present for the people and responsibilities in front of me. I am also trying to practice what I talk about. Sharing so much of my life publicly was vulnerable for me. The kindness, support and stories people have shared in return have meant more than I can adequately put into words. So if I have not responded to you personally, please know that your support has not gone unnoticed. I see it. I feel it. And I am incredibly grateful for it. Thank you for listening. Thank you for caring. And thank you for being part of this with me.

The Moment Obama Earned This SEAL Team 6 Operator’s Respect 😳 Continue watching the FULL episode at 12:30 PM CST. @AlexWestImpact

Why SEAL Team 6 Only Had 38 Minutes to Get Bin Laden 😳 @AlexWestImpact

How the Taliban Saved His Life 😳 @AlexWestImpact

A Live Grenade Rolled Down This SEAL’s Shin 😳 @AlexWestImpact

The Deadliest Loss in SEAL History Came After the Bin Laden Raid 😔 @AlexWestImpact

The Tradition He Keeps for His Fallen Teammates 😔 @AlexWestImpact

How SEAL Team 6 Used an Empty Helicopter to Lure Out Nearly 30 Taliban “We were following this group of Taliban, about 30 of them. We knew if we went toe-to-toe with them, some of our guys were definitely going to get killed or wounded. As a ruse or a fake-out, we brought in an empty helicopter close to the valley to make a lot of noise. They started to get out and run, and we waited for all of them to get out in the open and ambushed all of them.” “I pull the M67 frag grenade, and I try to get the perfect angle. I drop it in perfectly, and I turn to run. And I slip. I start sliding down into the hole of the bunker with the hand grenade. I could feel it rolling on my shin. The hand grenade with the pin pulled. I started crawling my way out and finally got out of the bunker just in time for it to be like, boom. Almost completely blew myself up.” @AlexWestImpact

This was one of the hardest parts of my story to share. The attack snapped me back into the present and into the responsibility I had to the team around me. People can look capable on the outside while carrying more pain than anyone realizes. If this feels familiar, please don’t carry it alone. In the U.S., call or text 988.

SEAL Team 6 Operator Recounts the Ambush That Killed Delta Force Operator Robert Horrigan “Bob looked at me and he just says, ‘Get back.’ Then he drops his gun, it’s just slung, and he just starts maneuvering his hand like this, like, ‘Get the fuck back.’ There was no tactical reason for it. It was so unlike him to do that.” “As Bob and Mike enter the door, there was two belt fed machine guns waiting for them and just unloaded on our train as we were running in. You could feel the bullets going right past you. When we got back, we were told they had both passed. I was just shattered by it.” “Years later, he showed up to me and I asked him, ‘Why would you not let me die with you?’ And he said, ‘That’s because you have work to do. You need to help show people a healing path.’ I feel his spirit when I’m down. I can feel it in my heart that he’s like pushing me. ‘Just keep going.’” @AlexWestImpact

A lot easier to laugh about now…that one was a little too close for comfort.

War can hold triumph and devastation almost in the same breath. Any sense of victory was forever changed by losing so many friends in an instant. That contrast is something that is hard to live through and to process.