You Have A Little Something On Your Upper Lip
Why the month of November is vitally important to me.
Two guys were hanging out at a bar in Australia in 2003. Their conversation shifted to how fashion trends tended to die and then come back, yet they noticed one particular fashion trend that didn’t seem to come back as regularly as others; the mustache.
Another one of their friends had a mother who was raising funds for Breast Cancer Awareness. They were inspired by this and decided they would challenge their friends to put $10 on the table and grow a Mo (the Australian slang term for mustache) to help generate awareness around men’s health and prostate cancer. The two men were Travis Garone and Luke Slattery and they quickly found that they had 30 of their best friends signed up for the challenge. A year later, in 2004, they decided to formalize the challenge and branded it Movember. By 2007 Movember was an international charity and campaign where ‘Mo Bros’ and ‘Mo Sistas’ would work together during the month of November to raise awareness around men’s health issues. Supporters would raise awareness by growing mustaches, giving up bad habits, be more physically active, or simply host events to bring people together. Today Movember is now the leading charity for mental health and suicide prevention as well as testicular and prostate cancer research with 5 million people supporting it since 2003.
2022 will be my 12th year supporting Movember. When I first learned about Movember in 2010, I was excited to use it as a way to gather my ‘mates’ and work towards a common cause. I noticed in my own life that as I got older, I found it more and more difficult to maintain tight bonds with the men around me. I think men in general tend to be more closed off with each other and don’t really make the time to engage and interact at a deeper level. I would see my wife go out with girl friend groups regularly where they would share life stories with one another and ultimately find ways to support each other, which in turn allowed then to grow closer. So, I signed up for Movember and convinced a few family members and friends to join me as we shaved clean and grew mustaches to raise awareness.
I would host events each year with an eagerness to gather the men in my life and have some fun as we would laugh at each other’s lip fuzz. But the organization is now wildly more important and personal for me now. Beginning in 2018 I began to experience sudden and unexplained panic attacks. They were so bad that I wound up in the ER multiple times and was at a point where my day-to-day interactions and activities were severely affected and limited. As I worked with doctors and therapists to figure out what was going on, I remember feeling extremely alone. I gratefully had the full support of my wonderful wife, yet I felt the need to have a guy friend around who could sympathize with me and understand what I was going through as a husband and father. I think part of that desire was present because, as men, we traditionally have been taught to “suck it up” or “man up” when things get difficult. But this was a very real problem that I was experiencing and I was feeling hopeless and lost. It was really hard feeling out of control or weak in front of my wife and kids and I longed for support from someone who perhaps had been through something similar.
During this period, I remembered Movember and turned to resources that they provided. Ultimately I began a journey through therapy. Fortunately, with those resources and help I was able to regain control over my anxiety and stress and have been back to my “normal self” for the last several years with zero panic attacks. As I talk about my experiences with other men, I am not surprised at how many of them have also quietly been dealing with similar issues and concerns and are desperate to talk about it with someone.
I am grateful for Movember and for the vision it has as we work to raise awareness around men’s health. It is still a fun way for me to engage with friends and family and we currently have a team of Mo Bros and Mo Sistas who are each complete rock stars. We are working on ways to improve ourselves this month and have the support and friendship of the entire team.
I will not be growing my Mo this year (fortunately for some, unfortunately for others) because I just can’t cope with shaving off my beard right now. So, to show support and to push myself this year, I am committing to logging my daily calories for the entire month. I know that when I do this, I feel better, I lose body fat (which is a huge personal goal right now), and my confidence goes up. But counting calories is a major pain in my butt. I really don’t like doing it, but every time I do, I see results. That is why I am committing to it this month. It’s a sacrifice that I am willing to make to help raise funds for the cause.
If you would like to get involved or make a donation, you can check out my Mo Space by clicking the button above. You can learn more about the charity, find resources around men’s health, and join our team if you would like to get even more involved. Liking this post will mean a lot to me, but a $1.00 donation would mean the world to the billions of people that will benefit from this organization. Happy Movember!!