Good Stretch

Yoga might be a great way to improve your flexibility and strength, but a new project aims to show that it can be a powerful tool in the battle against depression and toxic masculinity.

- Graeme Park

Take a look around. It seems like everyone is burning out. For a shockingly large number of men, just coping with modern life seems to be a terminal condition. In the UK for example, suicide is the single biggest killer of men younger than 45. In Britain, “Men are three times more likely than women to take their own lives,” says Simon Gunning, CEO of the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM). Founded in 2006, CALM has provided support to men who are down or in crisis. Importantly, the organisation is campaigning for a culture change to tackle outdated stereotypes of masculinity that often prevent men seeking help.

Gunning explains that the problem is partly the result of deeply entrenched attitudes toward masculinity. “Many men feel forced to stoically ‘man up’ – whatever that means – and grind through bad times without societal permission to open up or seek help.” The organisation’s latest campaign is

called #StillnessInMotion. A partnership with OHMME, a specialist brand of men’s yoga apparel, sees yoga as a way to not only encourage men to open up about their feelings, but to change those dangerous ideas of what it means to be a man.