OH! Magazine - Australian Version August 2015 | Page 20

FELLAS, IT’S TIME WE
HAVE A TALK!

MIKE
CAMPBELL

Mike Campbell explains the importance of being
vulnerable among your mates.
ne could easily assume from
observing society, that part of
being a man is to only talk in banter, jokes
and superficialities. Unless it’s with our
significant other; although even then a lot
of us are poor at communicating what
we’re really thinking!

talk. This can cause men to get stuck in
their deep inner man cave, which is
typically a dark place, hard to get out of,
and a likely contributor to the fact that
men aged 35 to 44 years are among the
highest sufferers of suicide, anxiety and
depression.

A few things can lead from this way of
living: an insular relationship where you
lack quality man time; never sharing
anything of significance with other guys;
and a general lack of real conversations
about meaningful topics with other men in
a purely masculine space. Too often we
are reluctant to get deep and meaningful,
unless we’re already too far deep – in the
booze!

The solution is to embrace man time! So
start scheduling it in, look for signs that
your mates need to have a real chat and
talk about some of life’s big things. Not
just footy and female/male anatomy. And
please do not think that being vulnerable
is a weakness.

O

Although time away with ‘the boys’ is
precious and valuable (it can help to keep
us honest, as we know our mates will pull
us up on things that the wife or partner
won’t), it can also lead to a sense of
isolation and even less desire to talk and
share what’s really going on in life.
For optimum health, what men actually
need is mature, adult man time.
Unfortunately, invitations to have real
conversations with other guys is seriously
lacking in today’s society, and one of the
big reasons why so many guys are
emotionally defunct. If you only ever have
deep or emotional chats with females – or
never at all – then you’re going to find it
hard to be courageous enough to share
your sh*t with other men. Or, conversely,
you’ll find you have no idea of how to do it
anyway, because your only interactions
with guys are based on superficial, macho

20

AUGUST 2015 ( OH! MAGAZINE )

I’ve been set the challenge to raise
$7,500*; however, my goal is to contribute
even more.
Firstly I think I can raise well over $10,000
so this is my initial aim. Secondly, and
most importantly, I firmly believe that the
issue of modern slavery, sex trafficking
and human trafficking in general, is an
issue that starts and stops with men. As
such, I want to raise awareness by
encouraging more men to have
conversations around it, spread the
message that this practice must stop, and
take action to make sure it does.

On the contrary, it takes courage to be
vulnerable with your mates, and if you do,
not only will you benefit from it, but you’ll
open the door for them to do the same
thing. And because we’re such closed
beings a lot of the time, you might just
encour vR