The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
The Farmer's Greatest Asset podcast is dedicated to supporting and empowering farmers by recognizing that their greatest assets are the knowledge, experience, mind and health. Hosted by husband-and-wife duo Jesse and Dr. Leah, this podcast combines their unique backgrounds to provide valuable insights. Together, they explore topics that help farmers thrive both personally and professionally. Tune in for a blend of practical advice, real conversations, while having a little fun along the way as they talk about all thing's agriculture and family.
The Farmer's Greatest Asset Podcast
Seven Simple Steps to Feel Better Today
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May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and today we discuss practical strategies for farmers, ranchers, and anyone who's been running on empty during busy seasons. We share our personal experiences with burnout and stress while offering seven simple, research-backed steps to improve mental wellness.
• Morning sunlight exposure within the first hour of waking resets circadian rhythms and boosts mood
• Naming your stresses through journaling, prayer, or conversation decreases their power over you
• Human connection is essential medicine—reach out to friends or family regularly to combat isolation
• Movement and physical activity improve mental health even if it's just getting out of the tractor to stretch
• Real food from the farm (protein, vegetables, fruits) stabilizes energy levels better than processed convenience foods
• Intentional breathing practices like box breathing (4-second inhale, hold, exhale, hold) reduce stress instantly
• Focusing on purpose and practicing gratitude helps maintain perspective during challenging times
Share this episode with five friends who might benefit from these mental health strategies. If there's something you'd love for us to talk about on the podcast, reach out anytime at farmersgreatesasset@gmail.com.
the farmer's greatest asset podcast. We believe the farm's greatest asset is the farmer, their knowledge, knowledge, experience, mind and health. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm Jesse.
Speaker 2And I'm Dr Leah.
Speaker 1May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This is for farmers, ranchers or anyone who's been running on empty.
Speaker 2I know lately I have been really struggling with my energy levels. I feel like my tank is just running on fumes all the time between planting and hay and trying to get my greenhouse filled. It's just been a lot this spring. It seems like this every spring, though, really, and you want to be outside, so the stuff inside isn't getting done as much and it just feels like it's piling up.
Speaker 1You're always going from one thing to the next and kind of how the things happen on the farm anyway.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1There's always something.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 1Putting out fires. Yeah, somebody said it on one of the socials recently about how they can see why farmers have such a high suicide rate because we have so many punches coming at us from so many different directions, whether it's weather could be too wet, could be too dry, too hot, too cold, markets, and then just family stuff, you know, running kids to ball games and different stuff there's always always something coming at you.
Speaker 2Yeah, we really wanted to talk about this topic this month because it really hits home, but I think that it's. This is for all farmers and ranchers and their families, but I think it really will be good for a lot of families out there.
Speaker 1So Well, for me it hits too close to home. I mean, same for you. We've had a neighbor and then good high school friend of mine and college roommate for two years. Uh, we both moved home around the same time, or did move home at the same time, to farm, and I ended up going back to school. So I moved away, away, away, um, but he, he took his own life and I still think about him all the time and I wonder what I could have done. And there's probably nothing I could have done. But I always tell myself I probably could have been a better friend to maybe call him more often or something, even though I moved away. If you're ever feeling that way, you need to need to reach out to somebody. There's hotlines, or just if you can reach out to anybody.
Speaker 2I think a lot of times when people hit their lows they don't know where to turn. So if you feel like you're getting to a very low point in your life, find someone that will listen and really listen to you, not just brush it off like, oh, you're going to be fine, You'll snap out of this.
Speaker 1You could put that farmer away for a little bit and go talk. If you're that bad, you need to talk, and it's okay we all get down. Today we have seven easy steps.
Seven Steps for Mental Wellness
Speaker 2So I delved into traditional medicine, functional medicine and natural medicine to kind of come up with some easy things that someone could do to incorporate into their life every day that would make them feel better. All of these things will be supported by research in all three of those.
Speaker 1But they're also very simple.
Speaker 2Yes.
Speaker 1Simple or hard right.
Speaker 2It's just, however you do it.
Speaker 1And it's not that you've got to do all seven of these. They're pretty easy to do.
Speaker 2Yes, number one is getting out into the morning light.
Speaker 1We have kind of talked about that a little bit before. Yes, and how that's just good stuff, right, the sun is powerful.
Speaker 2Well, the sun is where we derive all of our energy from and can really help fill up our mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of our cell. So we need to be out in nature and in the sun. In nature and in the sun, the best thing you can do is really get up, get out of bed and go put your eyes out in the sun. If you are getting up before the sunrise, as soon as it starts coming up, get outside, and it doesn't have to be for a long period of time, just get that sun in your eyeballs.
Speaker 1I think, kind of the. To me anyway, it's as farmers. You think we're outside a lot, but I think this idea is, just before you look at your phone or turn the news on on the TV or something you know, go, go outside and get some fresh air, get the sun, sun shining on you. Right now it's summer, or going into summer, so it's sun's coming up at 530 ish. All right, so rather than grabbing the phone first, just go outside and get some sun.
Speaker 2So natural light within the first hour resets your circadian rhythms and it boosts serotonin and can help stabilize your mood. So get up, get out there. Five to 10 minutes of morning sun without sunglasses or a hat, so it's really shining on your face, your eyes actually are the first step in resetting your circadian rhythm. So if you have sun protection on your glasses that you have to wear all the time or you have sunglasses out, that won't help with that circadian rhythm reset. Go out, walk the pasture, drink your coffee on the porch. Find a way to get out there first thing in the morning.
Speaker 1Good stuff. That's pretty simple.
Speaker 2Yeah, really simple.
Speaker 1Grab your cup of coffee. Leave your phone in the house, go outside and drink your coffee on the porch.
Speaker 2Why is that phone so important? We do just take it with us wherever we go huh, it doesn't ever leave your side.
Speaker 1I know.
Speaker 2It's such an unhealthy habit I cannot talk today.
Speaker 1So number two what do we got for number two?
Speaker 2name that stress. So if you name what's going, what's weighing you down, you can decrease its power over you. Face your stresses. If you write them down, put them out there, they have less power over you.
Speaker 1Just say what's irritating you at the moment and get it off your chest.
Connection and Movement
Speaker 2So you can journal it, you can pray to God about it, you can talk with your spouse or a friend about it. But don't hold all of it in, because it will only maintain that negative energy within you.
Speaker 1We tell our kids that all the time this weighs you down, Get it off your chest right.
Speaker 2Yeah, so release. It's an emotion, it's supposed to be in motion. Right, get it out there.
Speaker 1Get it out. So number three what have we got?
Speaker 2Number three is about connecting. We as human beings all seek connection and whether it be going out and being social with some friends or just calling someone or sharing some time with your spouse I know farmers tend to be very much isolated, especially during really busy times of the year and they're in the tractor a lot. That can increase the amount that they're out there thinking about problems and issues and sometimes you know two and three together. If you can talk with someone, reach out to someone, talk through what's stressing you, you can kind of get those thoughts out and bring more positive thoughts in.
Speaker 1I would say find a person that you can be on a personal level with and not just coffee shop talk right and go and complain about the weather or something right. It needs to be somebody that you can confide in and you're pretty close with. It goes back to number two getting it off your chest and having somebody to talk to really, really is the key and luckily I have that in you and I and you maybe you get tired of me calling all the time, or maybe we've got that many problems, or I have that many problems well, I'm glad I can help you process them.
Speaker 2Some days it is hard to get anything else done, but I mean that road goes both ways. Yeah, for sure, so you know. Text a friend call your dad, just connect. Connection is medicine and isolation is definitely a silent killer in agriculture. So reach out.
Speaker 1Number four is a pretty simple one but move your body. Just get out and have some physical activity and we have said it before in that just because we're farmers and we're outside, we're active. That doesn't replace exercise, is what we've said before but it's getting some good, intentional, essential exercise. Get out there and move.
Speaker 2I know when I am feeling that overwhelm, burnout, whatever you want to call it. One thing I love to do is to go on a hike in the woods with nothing else, no music, nobody else, just me in the woods, and that can reset me. Like a 30 minute hike is nature's medicine.
Speaker 1Again, ties into some sun. Get some energy out of the sun and nature is powerful If you can just be out there and see the blessings in nature.
Speaker 2And if it's your really busy time and you are in the tractor, get out. You know, get out of the tractor and stretch, walk around the tractor, like just get your body moving. We were not meant as human beings to be sitting all day. We were meant to be in motion, moving, stretching that type of thing. So get out and get some movement out there every day, Like that is something that's really important. It doesn't have to be long periods of time, like if you get up and go to the gym. That's fantastic. We really encourage that. But if you are at a point in the season that you cannot do that, just five to 10 little minute blips here and there. If you can get out of that tractor every hour, it will really help you so much.
Speaker 1Get the blood moving. Get the heart pumping. Clear your mind.
Eat Real Food
Speaker 2So number five is to eat real food. And what do we mean by real food If it is from the earth?
Speaker 1if God gives it to you, it's gotta be good.
Speaker 2Yeah you to get all that processed stuff out of your lunchbox, off your table, out of your fridge, out of the cabinets. If it's in a box or bag, it's probably not I shouldn't even say probably not it is not healthy.
Speaker 1Gas station food Ooh, yeah, it is not healthy.
Speaker 2Gas station food, ooh yeah. And if it happens here and there, that's one thing. You know you're traveling that type of thing. But when it becomes a daily habit of stopping there and that becoming your food source, even just eating out, in general it's really hard to find a place that's going to give you a healthy meal anywhere, because you don't know what they're putting in it. It's going to be best to eat some real food at home. I know in our family we we struggle with kind of the. We grew up eating sandwiches and lunch meat and well, we want, we want bread.
Speaker 1It's our delivery source. We can just grab it.
Speaker 2Bread or tortilla or something of that source. We want an easy delivery source that were like you said and it just is not what is best for our bodies.
Speaker 1Well, we live in a world of convenience and we always want to go, go, go. So the processed food, such as lunch meat sandwiches, really aren't that great because it's so processed. Try to get a burger with no bun or chicken breast or you know, just real food.
Speaker 2Don't forget the vegetables and berries. Those are all really great forms of fruit. Often farmers will run on caffeine and carbs, and that blood sugar up and down all of the time is is what leads a lot of us to lots of different metabolic syndromes, so diabetes, heart disease. So it's going to be really important to make sure that your carbohydrate intake is from real food, real fruit, real vegetables.
Speaker 1Carbohydrates are bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, corn tortillas, tortillas, chips, bread pasta, rice Potatoes.
Speaker 2Corn Tortillas, tortillas Chips.
Speaker 1All of those things, all the convenient foods, so try to avoid them as much as possible.
Speaker 2So the goal would be to get 30 to 50 grams of protein per meal if you're eating three meals a day.
Speaker 1Eggs, beef, pork chicken.
Speaker 2All the stuff that we, as farmers, raise.
Speaker 1All the farmer stuff.
Speaker 2Right. So if a farmer is growing it and harvesting it, it's okay to put into your body.
Speaker 1Number six breathe on purpose.
Speaker 2So this will probably be something that most people are not aware of, but in this day and age, we don't breathe. Well, you can really start improving your life by slowing your breathing down and taking larger, deep breaths. One way that you can do it is something called box breathing. So you're going to take a deep breath in for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, and then hold it for four seconds, and then you're going to repeat that three to five times.
Speaker 1So I'm sitting here doing that. So it makes you breathe with your diaphragm, which is how you're supposed to breathe, not belly breathing. So you're moving your chest, getting good air in that gets good oxygen.
Speaker 2This is something you're supposed to breathe, not belly breathing, so you're moving your chest, getting good air in that gets good oxygen. This is something you can do anywhere and if you have time and you can close your eyes and if you're having a really stressful period, close your eyes and just focus on your breath, and it actually is the first step in meditation and calming yourself. So really start focusing on your breath. I would try it a couple times a day. If you're having a really stressful event, I would definitely do it then Deep calming breaths and box breathing. Step number seven would be to focus on your purpose. Number seven would be to focus on your purpose. Like most of us are so busy with our to-do list, we forget about why we're here and what we really feel like we are here to do.
Speaker 1Praying helps with that. Being grateful is part of that for me.
Speaker 2Absolutely Practicing gratitude is huge in mental health and awareness, focusing on the farm and its legacy, through that stepping back and realizing that you are the asset that is most important on your farm. You do maintenance on your equipment. You take such time and effort growing your crop or your livestock. We don't stop to focus on ourselves. That's why all these seven steps are so important and do them every day. But if it feels like that's a little overwhelming today, start with one. Just start with one easy little step that you can do today.
Speaker 1Right, you don't have to do them all. That would be amazing, and we're not saying that we do them all every day, but those are just good little things A walk, morning, sunlight, good food, a personal connection.
Speaker 2Gratitude, gratitude, prayer, breathing, and if you did all of them, they probably wouldn't take but less than half an hour.
Speaker 1Oh yeah, I mean you could be sitting at a stop sign and just take a huge breath and be like thank you Lord, thank you for this day. That alone, right there to me anyway, is powerful, works for me a lot.
Speaker 2Well, thanks for spending time with us today on the Farmer's Greatest.
Episode Closing and Call to Action
Speaker 1Asset podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to follow us wherever you're listening and hit the subscribe button. It really does help us out.
Speaker 2You can also find us on all the socials under at Farmer's Greatest Asset. Give us a like. Share this episode with five friends.
Speaker 1If there's something you'd love for us to talk about on the podcast, reach out anytime at farmers greatest asset at gmailcom. We'd love to hear from you until next time. It's a good day to have a great day.
Speaker 2Bye.
