At 6:30 a.m. every Monday, mental health advocate Lisa Sugarman laces up her sneakers with a group of people as part of her WalkTalk Collective, launched in September. Sugarman is now partnering with the Recreation and Parks Commission in the effort.
“We want to break the stigma around mental health and marry our physical well-being and emotional well-being,” Sugarman said at an Oct. 1 Rec & Parks meeting.
Sugarman describes the WalkTalk Collective as a “mental health and wellness group dedicated to moving our bodies and talking about what’s weighing on our minds, as a way of normalizing that our mental health is just as important as our physical well-being.
“Because when we get out and move, we feel better. And when we unburden our minds through conversation, we’re one step closer to finding peace and balance,” she adds.
Christiana Plum is a single mom and business owner in Marblehead. She looks forward to the WalkTalk Collective every week.
“It’s a sense of connection,” she said. “As humans, we need that. We crave that feeling of being part of a community. I’m also a proponent of physically moving my body every day.”
Plum calls the collective “heart-centric.”
“Lisa makes you feel like you’re in a safe space,” she says.
The group meets at Marblehead High School tennis courts and walks a paved path around MHS for 60 minutes. All ages, abilities and paces are welcome. People can talk, listen or both. The walk is “designed to get us moving, help us create connection and community, and encourage us to start talking about the hard stuff we keep locked inside,” Sugarman said.
When asked about the kinds of topics that have come up so far, Sugarman said, “ We’ve really run the gamut of topics, ranging from maintaining the work-life balance to everyone’s unique self-care practices to the challenge of maintaining healthy boundaries to the relationship with our kids as they navigate their teen years to how we manage conflict. We’ve also been talking about the nuances of family dynamics and how to overcome the feeling of needing to be all things to all people all the time. “
There’s an expectation that everything shared during the walk stays within the group, Sugarman emphasized.
“It’s been so empowering to watch people who started out more as listeners become more engaged with the conversation as they’ve grown more comfortable in the group,” she said. “And as new people continue to show up, our conversations become more and more diverse, which adds to the feeling of this being an inclusive and safe space to come and share what’s happening in our day-to-day lives.”
People can reigster with the Rec & Parks department or just show up. To connect with Sugarman, email lisasugarman@hotmail.com.
**This story was updated Wednesday to reflect that the group meets by the MHS tennis courts and walks a paved path around MHS.
