When I went to the hospital to give birth to my first child, I tried to get through labor without an epidural. A nurse came into my room and watched me grimace with pain during a contraction. I was convinced that good moms didn’t give their kids drugs before they’re even born. The nurse asked me, “Do you routinely punch yourself in the face?” 

I was shocked by her question. Laughing at the idea, I replied, “No.” She went on to tell me that if I did routinely sock myself, I could continue experiencing pain with her blessing, but that it didn’t need to be this way. I didn’t need to make it harder than it was already going to be. I wouldn’t get a gold star on my son’s birth certificate that differentiated me from the other moms. We all wanted the same thing: a safe birth and a healthy baby. 

I was rocked by postpartum depression just a couple of days later and I repeated her words often to myself during those dark days. I continue to tell myself that mantra, especially when I feel sad, anxious, or depressed. I don’t need to do this alone. You don’t need to do this alone. We don’t need to do this alone.

I don’t need to do this alone. You don’t need to do this alone. We don’t need to do this alone.

Today, my mental health is not optimal. As the executive director of the Born This Way Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Lady Gaga that supports the wellness of young people, I’m frequently overwhelmed by the need in the world for our work. I’m also a little sad about my birthday this week, and not reaching the goals I had hoped I might. I feel anxious about big decisions that my family and our community are making in the coming weeks. I want to take a nap. 

I feel safe telling you that because it reflects what I ask people to do all the time as part of my job — to have honest, vulnerable, difficult conversations about their mental health. So today, on World Mental Health Day, I want to share my advice for fostering conversations about your own mental wellness and the mental wellbeing of those you love. 

These are five go-to strategies that help me get through life’s toughest moments:  

1. Be curious.

When I was growing up, my dad was a really angry man. The car that cut him off during his commute must have followed him, researched him, and picked him specifically to cut off. The person who, in their hurry, neglected to hold the door open for him must have seen him coming and chose to slam the door in his face. The world attacked my father, in big and small ways, and he never took the time to think about situations from anyone else’s vantage point but his own. When I was 8 years old, I made him a little sign on the refrigerator that read “For every 60 seconds of anger, you lost 1 minute of happiness.” It was my way of trying to tell him that the same minute could be spent blaming or it could be spent asking, forgiving, or understanding. 

SEE ALSO: 21 reasons to keep living when you feel suicidal

Today, one of the most important ways I care for my mental health is the curiosity I have for other people, the understanding I afford everyone, and the deep knowledge that each person walking around this world is fighting their own challenges – big and small – and that I have a role to play in not only understanding that challenge but softening the blow that the world is delivering them today.

2. Turn (it) off.

My friend Monica recently texted me and asked me if I wanted to go to yoga or SoulCycle. I’ve been kicked out of more than a few yoga classes for checking my cell phone (that’s a conversation for another day) and I told her to meet me at SoulCycle. She came and asked why I chose that workout. Besides the fact that SoulCycle is supporting Born This Way Foundation this month, I told her that I needed to turn my brain off. In the dark, loud, crowded room – without my cell phone – and dripping in sweat and trying to catch a beat, I could turn off my brain, my cell phone, and my laptop for 45 minutes. 

For you, it might be yoga. For others, it might be sleeping. Please, find the time and the space to turn off whatever you need to turn off to recharge yourself and take care of yourself. On more than one occasion, I’ve found myself weeping in the back row of that studio and realizing the value of finding a place to not just turn it off – but to let it go.

3. Don’t judge.

I told my mom some of the hardest things she could have ever heard: when I was hurting, when I was making mistakes, when I was headed down roads that she knew I couldn’t come back from, and when she saw things that no mother should have to see. She sat and listened to me. It must have taken every ounce of strength in her body to not hit me, cry for me, shake me, and lock me in my room, but she listened to me and never, ever judged me. She asked me questions focused on me. Why was I making that choice? What did I think might happen? 

I am certain that she closed the door to her bedroom many nights and wept, screamed, and prayed for me. But in front of me, she was my strong, non-judgmental, and supportive ally. She guided me with love. Her constant presence in my life, regardless of the choices I made, reassured me that I would always have someone to turn to. I learned from her that when people are brave enough to tell you the truth – whatever that truth is – you owe them to listen, to withhold judgment, and to support them the best that you can. I hope that I can bottle her strength and stand by my children’s sides as life happens to them, and I promise I’ll try.

4. Words matter.

“Did your boss act crazy today?” “Did the driver on the highway next to you act like a psycho?” “Will you just die if you don’t get an invite to the party?”

SEE ALSO: A helpful list of mental health resources to remind you there’s always hope

As we try and build a world without stigma, where people feel safe to share their emotions, their challenges, and their successes, we have to create a space that honors those emotions, challenges and successes. My children could drop an F bomb if they wanted to, but they can’t say “hate” and they can’t say “crazy.” We need to take responsibility for the words we say, recognizing that the people we are talking to and about might have different experiences with so many of those words. We need to encourage, invite, and model safe, healthy conversations about mental health and we need the tools – words – to do so. 

5. You’re not alone (I promise).

This week, Born This Way Foundation launched #Someone2Turn2 as a way to spark healthy conversations about mental wellness and as an invitation for each of us to think about the people in our lives that we can turn to for support. That includes our family members and our friends, our coworkers and neighbors, our exercise class instructors and teammates, and, of course, the endless number of caring individuals just waiting to listen to our troubles on helplines. In our darkest moments, we can feel most alone. That’s why it’s so important to “resource map” our own lives, so that when we’re tempted to think that we have no recourse and no one to turn to, we’ll have a list at the ready to prove us wrong. 

I hope you’ll take the pledge to find and be #Someone2Turn2. I hope that you’ll reach out to your someone today, to have that conversation that might feel awkward in the moment but will be so important in the long run. Then tell us on social media who your #Someone2Turn2 is. It may seem like a minor thing now, but small things usually end up making the most critical difference when it counts.   

Maya Enista Smith is the executive director of the Born This Way Foundation.

If you want to talk to someone or are experiencing suicidal thoughts, text the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255. Here is a list of international resources.

We’ve had our fair share of dogs invading sports fields, and boy, we don’t think they’ll ever get old.

In the Republic of Georgia’s National Football League, a stray dog ran onto the pitch during a game between FC Dila and Torpedo Kutaisi in Gori on Sunday, according to the Associated Press.

Like the other good pitch-invading dogs that have come before it, this pooch was very reluctant to leave the field, staying for approximately three minutes.

In fact, all it seemed to want was a pat, a play, and a big ol’ belly rub from the goalkeeper, who unfortunately didn’t give what it wanted. Next time, maybe.

Rock The Vote, the progressive nonprofit which has been working to get young people voting, is not happy with Eric Trump. 

Trump was accused of taking and cropping an image originally posted by RTV, an edit which removed any references to the organization.

SEE ALSO: Let’s bring back the super weird 1990 Rock the Vote campaign

The post tells people in each state the last date they can register to vote for the midterm elections on Nov. 6. President Donald Trump also retweeted his son’s post.

Here’s what the original looked like, posted the day before Trump’s tweet.

The Rock The Vote Action Fund angrily responded on Twitter, calling Trump’s tweet a “hack job.”

“We know you’re accustomed to ripping folks off, but claiming our graphic for partisan hackery when you support voter suppression & the disenfranchisement of millions is gross, even for you,” the group’s tweet read. 

In his tweet, Trump’s link took users to a GOP-affiliated voter registration page, which made for another source of ire for Rock The Vote. 

“This is a new low. We are an unaffiliated, non partisan organization who encourages everyone to vote, not just one group,” its tweet reads.

Carolyn DeWitt, president and executive director of Rock The Vote, told CNN that the post “goes beyond the pale of how our democracy should work.”

Speaking of which, if you haven’t registered to vote — and still can — maybe you should hey.

Brett Kavanaugh didn’t buy a domain with his name in it.

So now, if you go to BrettKavanaugh.com, .org or .net, you won’t find an official site for the contentious Supreme Court Justice, sworn in on Monday after an FBI investigation into multiple accusations of sexual assault. 

Instead, you’ll find a website that links to resources for sexual assault survivors. 

SEE ALSO: Trump declares Kavanaugh ‘proven innocent’, internet calls him out

The page is emblazoned with a simple, but strong message that was echoed throughout Kavanaugh’s confirmation saga: “We believe survivors.”

The domains were purchased by an organization called Fix The Court, which pushes for accountability and transparency in the Supreme Court. 

Executive director Gabe Roth said in a statement that he bought the URLs three years ago, thinking that it “might be useful in any forthcoming Supreme Court confirmation battles.” 

On Tuesday, he redirected those three domains to a landing page with resources for victims of sexual assault, including the National Sexual Violence Resource Center and End Rape on Campus (EROC), which provides support for campus assault survivors. It’s fitting, as one of Kavanaugh’s accusers, Christine Blasey Ford, said he sexually assaulted her when they were in high school in the 1980s, and another, Deborah Ramirez, accused him of sexual misconduct when he was a Yale student.

“I believe Dr. Ford. I believe Prof. Hill. I also believe that asking for forgiveness is a sign of maturity and strength, not weakness,” Roth wrote.

“Watching last night’s White House event and listening to the President again cast doubt on veracity of Dr. Ford’s claims, while not hearing a word of contrition from the newest justice, was difficult for many Americans who have experienced sexual misconduct firsthand.”

It’s not the only Kavanaugh-related URL that’s been snapped up. Comedian Dave Weasel bought honbrettkavanaugh.com, and it now links to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, also linked by Fix The Court’s site.

Nickelback are pretty good sports when it comes to being one of the most ridiculed bands on the planet. I guess you have to be.

In the latest edition of Jimmy Kimmel’s way harsh segment “Mean Tweets,” music stars like Pink, Miley Cyrus, The Strokes, Schoolboy Q, Imagine Dragons, Tyga, Dua Lipa, and Gwen Stefani read out awful things people have written about them on Twitter.

Heck, Korn even takes a deep burn with a comparative reference to Nickelback. 

But it’s the ever-slammed, ever-noble Nickelback that takes the final blow, with lead singer Chad Kroeger offering up a quick comeback without missing a beat. Guess he’s heard it all before.