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Elk Steak on a Campfire | Show Us Your Steak

Description

I speak openly about men's mental health in front of the fire while grilling an elk steak after a long morning of still hunting for deer through the forests of Canada. Please let Joe Rogan, Keegan Allen and Donald Trump Junior know that I have tagged them in Haze Outdoor's "Show Us Your Steak Challenge", encouraging men to speak about men's mental health and how it impacts their lives. On this day in 1918, the allies signed and Armistice agreement with Germany ending WW1. To this day, we celebrate that day as a reminder of the cost of freedom, in Canada we call it Remembrance Day, Veteran's day in America. Please thank a veteran and remember that the stress trauma often leaves indelible marks on the minds of our brave heroes and that those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder need our help and understanding. Mental illness comes in many forms and if we can speak openly about it, maybe we can end the stigma that those with mental illness deal with.

Haze Outdoors - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDzwHsfeQcQJ_0FDnLheU9w

Joe Rogan - https://www.youtube.com/user/PowerfulJRE

Keegan Allen - https://www.instagram.com/keeoone/

Donald Trump Jr - https://www.instagram.com/donaldjtrumpjr/

Canadian Mental Health Association https://cmha.ca

Mental health America https://www.mentalhealthamerica.net

https://www.ptsdassociation.com

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Tags: Self Reliance,wilderness,survival,cooking,bushcraft,forest,Shawn James,steak,show us your steak challenge,mental health,men's mental health,men's health issues,mental illness,outdoor cooking,campfire cooking,camp cook,health,winter,winter camping,veteran's day,remembrance day,joe rogan,donald trump jr,keegan allen,campfire steak

Video Transcription

[Applause]

hi everybody welcome back to the cabin Sean James here for my self-reliance I'm sitting by a fire out in the woods today because a couple of reasons one is that I spent the first half of the day out looking for deer in the backcountry wilderness of Canada as an outdoorsman in the UK with a youtube channel called Hayes outdoors and he started this challenge to get men to start talking about mental illness openly and he created the challenge called show me your steak challenge so what he's doing is encouraging people to go out into the forest and cook up a steak and and then just talk about men's mental health and mental illness and how that's affected their lives and then encouraging people to talk about it and passing the torch on to a couple more people so that they can spread that message as well I think it's very good message so I was happy that I was tagged as you know I'm living this lifestyle sort of my dream life and you know I'm finding that it's not only healthy physically but also mentally and emotionally and spiritually so I'd like to talk about that often on my channel and on my cell other social media platforms so yeah I'm honored to have been tagged and I'll tag a couple of guys at the end of this video as well now this is the second video I'm actually released in two videos because I do think it's that important plus I was cooking a steak in the cabin last night anyway so when I heard I was tagged at that a good opportunity to talk about that as well so if you want to check out that video I'll put a link in the description below where I tagged a couple other guys so I'm going to tag for people too in that video too this video so I think this is timely I'm gonna I just this is November 10th today so I'm going to quickly edit this video on probably Sunday morning on November 11th and that happens to be not only Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day here in Canada I'm sure it's celebrated or acknowledged around the world because it signifies or it's a anniversary of the date of the end of the First World War that's called armistice there's an armistice agreement signed between Germany and the Allies that ended the first world war so very timely and that a lot of men's health a lot of men that end up with with mental anguish or or illness is a result of post-traumatic stress disorder which is you know something that often veterans end up with and people in you know police force and firefighters and ambulance drivers and things like that because you see so much trauma you end up with you know having a hard time coping with regular life so I get a lot of messages from people who watch my youtube videos in particular suffer from mental illness or stress disorder and why they reach out to me is because they find what I'm doing very relaxing and it allows them to de-stress and I'm so happy to be able to do that some small part that I can play in helping people cope but you know I'm amazed how many people not only following me on social media for watching my youtube channel but in my personal life as well amazed at how many people actually have some kind of either mental illness in illness in the form of say anxiety or depression or stress disorders number of things some of them are circumstantial and some of them are a result of Kermit trauma or or genetic biological or chemical what-have-you doesn't matter what the reason is the outcome ends up being the same and unfortunately a lot of men end up not talking about it and they end up committing suicide

75% of the suicides worldwide or are men supposed to 25% who are women and that equates to about 500,000 men per year commit suicide which is a staggering number so unfortunately there's a stigma attached to mental illness or inability to function fully in society can be seen as a form of weakness or a lot of people look at as a form of weakness and most men are a lot of men are guilty of that if imposing their beliefs on somebody else or posturing themselves and then looking down on other people and it's ridiculous because we all have our issues one way or another in one form or another and picking on somebody else because they have an issue is just absolutely unfair and just unkind and I think it's time to change that I'd like to speak openly on my channel about emotions which is odd for a guy who does what I do so there's a tendency for people to think that guys that they would consider macho or whatever term you want to use people who do very masculine things like what I'm doing here you know hunting and fishing and building cabins and living in the outdoors kind of thing and sports that I played before so very masculine activities so there's a tendency just to assume that people like me or or we don't have any mental issues or anxiety or depression or anything else I think everybody has some form of something for me

I think anxiety it would be my issue and and you know it's not debilitating but it has been to pill it debilitating for me in the past this platform has allowed me to start opening up about things like that and nobody's attacking me for that nobody so I don't think thinking less of me for showing my vulnerability in fact I think that's part of what people are connecting with and why the YouTube channels been successful that I'm able to express myself fully without being judged so there's a I'm going to provide links in the description below and then probably in the top comment bin comment with links to mental health associations in various areas and I'm hoping some of you guys can also comment and give me some other resources that I can pin as well but I think more importantly for me the message that I want to convey is that yes there's professional help and certainly seek that if you have any kind of mental illness or or mental health issues but I think even more important to reach out to the people that you love the people that are in your life that can help you through that I think it's so unfortunate that we don't think that we can talk to her friends and and family about what's going on or in our heads without feeling judged and then to going do something as drastic as commit suicide or or something else that could be prevented I think is so unfortunate I feel that in bottling up anything bottling up emotions and thoughts is extremely harmful and and should be avoided at all costs so when somebody does something or you know it's commit suicide or something with anybody even knowing that there was an issue to begin with I think that's the most tragic thing there is so I think so what I'm trying to do what I'm trying to say here is that I'm encouraging guys to open up to your friends open up to your family and even guys sitting around a campfire hunt camp

here's some hunters moving in the area for deer season next week second week of deer season

all those guys sitting around drinking you know maybe not fry the whole group if you don't feel comfortable but if you have a friend there you can talk to about what's going through your head I think just do that but I also encourage men that don't have mental health issues to open up your mind and accept that and don't judge somebody for for opening up or showing their weakness vulnerability and I think that would go a long way to preventing a lot of unfortunate circumstances so obviously there's a you note unders that's an endless conversation I could go on and on but I'm trying to keep this short but feel free please to comment below Sam key to continue to send me your private messages on facebook messenger Instagram message email you can comment through here

privately I'm open to that I'm more than happy I can't get back to everybody of course but I'm I listen to you I hear your stories and I encourage you to not only seek help but give advice wherever I can whatever for whatever that's worth so let's continue this conversation I'll continue to create the videos that I always create and I'll continue to talk about what's going through my head and and people that I know and I like to have in this open platform where we can talk about this openly I got to get this steak on in the meantime it's this cool these coals are starting to die down to the point where they might not be hot enough

[Applause]

[Applause]

all right I think it's done well obviously I bought this elk steak I didn't shoot it myself and then label it now elk is one of my favorite meats but it's something I've never been able to hunt because they just reintroduce them the past few decades here in Ontario Canada they were eliminated back a hundred years ago or something for the most part and it's hard to get a tag there's only a few allocated each year for now so saw my bucket list is one of the things I'd like to do in the future but for now I need to go to special order it from a special butcher any game that I don't have access to so part of the reason I bought this steak in particular though is because I want to tag somebody who I know has been elk hunting recently and eats a lot of well game and feel strongly about hunting and in particular and a number of men's issues as well so I think it's oh he's a great guy to tag I don't know if you would we'll do this this challenge or not a little bit below him maybe but the message is not and I think if we can get him to to spread the see message that he started and that I'm and that I'm continuing and I think the audience would be much broader and maybe we can get more traction with this thing and get more people talking about about men's mental health and more important than adjustment mental health is speaking about it and not feeling ostracized and not ostracizing people men for being open about their feelings and it's gonna be a good steak I think perfect

hmm

that's a big hunk of outside fat on that but is that ever good I like fat anyway but when it's cold like this and I'm burning a lot of calories that fat is more important on the protein tender if you haven't tried elk and you get an opportunity definitely take it it's really really good that's perfect for me yeah look at that fat calories you know I eat a lot of game and lately you've been seeing me cook a lot of game on the channel

I think bear a moose a deer fish of course one of the cooked goose or duck and what else we've got some rabbit coming up and a couple other things but I have to say that's probably the best that I've tasted this year no it's a farm raised but it's still different than beef and other animals it was really really good it's part of what I was thinking with tagging Joe Rogan - it's not only that he would get the message out to a bigger audience but also this is not doesn't have to be restricted to youtube I think Instagram is maybe easier for some guys like the other who are busy Joe if you if you do end up watching part of this just to cook steak inside your house or whatever and I don't know if you actually go go out into the woods like this - probably don't have time now but maybe when you're hunting you could do something like this took the steak and talk about about mental illness and and just tell them you're buddies to open up a little bit more about it stop hiding in the closet and you know by doing it inside though maybe that's more accessible especially this time of year post hunting season and colder temperatures another couple of guys I would tag if they would be open to it I know they follow me on Instagram one is Donald Trump jr. I'm not political so I'm this is not a political post and I'm not going to talk about the politics behind it they're behind Trump but he's an outdoorsman and a good family man so those are the things that I connect with him on and he does a lot of hunting and fishing so I'd love to see him do something like this - and talk about him and the other guy is Keegan Allen he's a an actor from the American actor lives in in California and he and I go back and forth a lot on Instagram he is a cabin that his his mother lives in a cat log cabin as well up in the mountains and he wants to go out into the forest and do something like that I'd courage you Keegan to do something like that I think if you could get the message out to to get your buddies and all your fans and followers on Instagram and in your career in general to to be more open about mental it means mental health and that mental health for anybody but we're focusing on men right now so if you're willing and to do that that'd be awesome if you could spread that message and again if you don't want to do it on YouTube or don't have YouTube channel then Instagram or Facebook same thing that message would get out there that much faster

this is just in time I'm getting up a bit of a chill from staying still for too long that winds starting to pick up again - so I'm gonna finish this up and I'll go out for another hike see what I can see out there and then go back to the cabin and stoke that fire you

About the Author

My Self Reliance

My Self Reliance

Shawn James Canadian outdoorsman, photographer, guide and self-reliance educator. Writer for Ontario Tourism. myselfreliance.com Outdoor adventures, including survival, bushcraft, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, snowshoeing, fishing and camping.

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