R U OK? and ♥R U2 OK?

♥DAILY LOVE TIP – Thursday September 15, 2011

Hello ♥Lovelies,

Today is the official R U OK? Day in Australia. It’s a national day of action which aims to prevent suicide by encouraging Australians to connect with people they care about and help stop little problems turning into big ones.

The idea is that everyone across the country, from all backgrounds and walks of life, is to ask family, friends and colleagues: “Are you OK?”.

“In the time it takes to have your coffee, you can start a conversation that could change a life. On R U OK?Day, who will you ask?”

♡Gavin Larkin, Founder R U OK?

How wonderful to have so many caring about and reaching out and checking in with their friends and people around them.

It’s only in its 2nd year and over 2 million Australians have participated in R U OK? Day. How amazing and commendable!

Statistics – from the 2010 Video:

• 8 Australians take their own life each day – more than 2500 deaths each year
• about 180 people attempt it every day
• 65,000 Australians attempt to take their own life every year

The idea is asking R U OK? in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee or tea. There is heaps of fantastic information and a protocol on their website that one can follow to ask the question.

Our Imago Communication ♡TOOLS of  ♡MIRRORING,  ♡VALIDATION and ♡EMPATHY are also excellent to use. When we give our undivided attention and deep heart listening to another it is remarkable how much you can connect and discover about them.

There are many of our TOOLS that help: we cross the bridge into their world. We have Curiosity – we are inquiring and open to exploring with them while putting our own Video Tape and our ♥SIMU – (Story I Make Up) ‘on the shelf’ all the time holding our own QTIP  (we Quit Taking It Personally)

Many creative events have been organized around Australia.  One that stood out for me was the fun flash mob in central Melbourne with the one and only ♡Glenn Capelli, who with his friend ♡Steve Woodsey, were inspired to write an RU OK? song and teach people how to “sing” the RU OK? message using sign language.I have only just discovered this extraordinary and amazingly creative campaign today and after I researched it I started thinking about how we could add another dimension by checking in on our family and friend’s marriages/relationships.

I came up with ♥R U2 OK?

We would have the same caring conversation and checking-in and as well we could offer that there are resources and ♡TOOLS and Skills available and sometimes this is all that is needed to stop relationships from dying.

Those who have done the Imago Couples Workshop will recognize how fitting this cute cow is as an image…😊

We know that there are many marriages ‘dying’ everyday with the divorce rates in Australia being at around 40%.

• That’s about 40 percent of marriages are expected to end in divorce!!
• If we add a small fraction for marriage breakdowns which are never formalised by divorce, it is estimated that about 43 per cent of marriages end in separation within 30 years of the marriage.
• The divorce rate in Australia stands at around 3 divorces per 1000 marriages.
• Census records show that more than 55,000 divorces were granted in 2001. During the same period around 103,000 marriages were registered.
  [Source: Australian Historical Statistics and Australian Bureau of Statistics]

And nearly half of all divorces involve children. In 2008 alone, 43,000 children experienced the divorce of their parents. And this does not include children who experience the breakdown of their parents’ de facto relationship.

Around one in four of today’s children will experience parental divorce/permanent separation before the age of 18!

“…This experience can result in emotional and economic hardship for the family and a reduction in resources available to the child during their development. On average, those who experienced parental divorce or separation as a child had lower levels of school completion, employment participation and lower personal income as an adult than those who did not…” Australian Bureau of Statistics:- http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/4102.0Main+Features40Sep+2010

Let’s make asking ♥R U2 OK? a regular thing we do!!

Question for you: R U OK? and ♥R U2 OK?

♥MIRRORING TOPIC: R U OK? and ♥R U2 OK?

Check R U O K?’s website for heaps of information on what you can do and this short video interview with ♡Gavin Larkin where he shares about what motivated him to create the R U OK? campaign……Says ♡Larkin:

“……….it is the one thing we can all do to make a difference – reach out to the people in our lives and ask them R U O K? and let them know we do care……”♡

I care about you and your relationships and how you are feeling and I will check in with you regularly. As well, you can ask me to ask you R U OK? or ♥R U2 OK? at any  time.

Thinking of you, with the hope you are experiencing that there are many who care about you and how you are doing, ♡LOVE Susie.

Todays’ Addition to Shelton’s list of ♥favourite things is…MASSAGE and Thursday is massage day – Yay! He just loves it and HINT – you can get him to do almost anything if you massage him!! 😊

sometimes all it takes is a smiley face 😊 in a coffee cup or a chalk message on the pavement…