Michigan State University students and members of the public alike covered Dem Field in yoga mats, stretching and meditating at the annual Flex and Flow event for suicide prevention awareness. The event occurred a week before National Suicide Prevention Day. It was put on by the Gregory H. Montgomery Association for Ultimate Growth.
The Gregory H. Montgomery Association funded mental health resources for student-athletes. President of the organization Margot Montgomery-Moran started it to honor her brother, Gregory Montgomery, an MSU football player who died by suicide in 2020. Montgomery-Moran’s family has deep ties to MSU and wanted to find a way to help bring awareness of mental health resources to students.
“MSU Athletic Wellness gave tips to everybody about the [Counseling and Psychiatric Services] CAPS program and where they can receive help on and off campus,” Montgomery-Moran said. “As far as the goal for awareness, it is for [students] to check in with themselves but also be cognizant of their friends and family and to pay closer attention to warning signs that might have been missed if we do not pay attention.”
Organizers of the event also raised awareness for mental health resources outside of MSU. Third year public relations student Natalie Szliter learned about the 988 number for suicide and that you can call it on behalf of someone else. Slizer and third year supply chain management student Lily Isho both attended this event with their sorority, Kappa Kappa Gamma, which supports Ultimate Growth.
“Our philanthropy supports mental health […] so we just came to support and spread awareness about mental health and just take a break from all the chaos about moving in and stuff,” Isho said.
After the education, a yoga instructor took the group through an hour long yoga class followed by a meditation session. Montgomery-Moran said that the organization chose yoga because it incorporates breathwork, which can decrease heart rate and improve overall anxiety. Szliter described yoga as grounding, while Isho identified exercise as helping her mental health as well.
“I think it just calms you and it just shuts your mind off for however long the exercise is, let’s say it is an hour, it just shuts your mind off from all the chaos in life,” Isho said.
Stigma still exists surrounding conversations about mental health, according to Montgomery. She claimed that bringing people together through events like this is one of the best strategies to decrease that.
“I really do think it is just about talking about it and having the courage to just be yourself and once that one person starts the conversation it is kind of like a domino effect,” Montgomery-Moran said.
Through the community the event brought, attendees were encouraged to reflect and have these conversations about mental health. The stigma around the mental health of men and student-athletes is even greater, according to Szliter.
“I think a topic that people are addressing more recently is how much it overwhelmingly affects men but it is not really talked about and that is something that this kind of taught me, the fact that 98 of the athlete suicides in the past year were men, it definitely opened my eyes to that. There is a lot of stigma around men opening up about their own mental health that we should fix,” Szliter said.