I am attending the 'R U OK' conference today. I'm reflecting on the state of mind of the thousands of people living with depression, anxiety and overwhelm: people at all levels, from all industries, both genders, of all ages and cultures. Emotional overwhelm isn't tangible. Sometimes it's not even rational. It's because it's not tangible that our emotions tend to confuse and rattle us; the magical experiences and the painful experiences are both purely that, an experience, they are not tangible. And unless I can find words to express how I feel, they cannot even be explained to, or understood by, another. We almost always remember how something/someone made us feel. Rightly or wrongly, when we communicate we generally come from a place that is intangible. I bring my intangible, you bring yours, and we dance in this game called communication. The only tangible thing in this video are this man's musical instrument, the location and my video camera. The experience, my experience, his experience, is intangible. Ignoring, dismissing or undervaluing the emotional experience, the 'intangible', plays a significant role in why we have such high depression, stress, and suicide statistics in this nation. Living in the black and white makes life so much easier, yes. Add emotions and it tends to become grey. Making the grey wrong doesn't make it go away. All it does is add more judgement to an already self-inflicted-shame state-of-being. R U OK is about expressing and sharing our 'intangibles', and doing so in a safe environment. Just as important, it's about asking and listening with the intent to understand someone else's 'intangibles'. Or else, why ask in the first place? Learning to acknowledge, understand, balance and soothe my intangibles is the hardest self-work I've ever done, and continue to do. Finding the courage to share them with the right people and at the right time, well, that's a minute by minute progress. #RUOK #resilience #selfawareness #awarenessofothers #tessnobile #emotionalguidancesystem #howyoufeelmatters (at Sydney Harbour)