A farmer’s push for rural mental health: ‘It’s okay to cry’

Hawke’s Bay farmer Matt Holden has become an activist in spreading awareness about mental health in rural communities and wants to use his experience to help others.

His recent event, ‘Mates for Mates’, brought together around 300 people to normalize conversations about mental health in the rural sector and raise awareness of the work being done by Rural Support Trusts (RST). have gathered.

Holden is working closely with RST and aims to take his initiative, born out of the 25-day Press Up Challenge in 2020, across the country, holding events at each of RST’s 14 locations.

He also plans to hold a sunrise-to-sunset cricket tournament in the summer of 2025 to get farmers off their farms and make them realize they are not alone.

But behind this calm and collected man is a man who has faced his own struggles with his own mental health, battling depression and anxiety.

In 2018, Holden realized something was wrong. He was stuck in a cycle of not feeling himself and feeling like he wasn’t very good.

“I’m a pretty high-energy person, so when I couldn’t get out of bed, I thought, ‘This isn’t me.'”

With the support of his wife Emma, ​​he was able to begin his health journey with the help of an Australian nutritionist.

“It makes me sad to think that I used to think that way, too,” he said.

A big part of Holden’s road to recovery was taking a closer look at his life, and restructuring his business allowed him to relieve some of the pressures that were affecting his health.

“A friend of mine told me 20 years ago that you work to live, you don’t live to work. I think it’s all about work-life balance,” he said. Told.

Another key factor for Holden was a change in mindset.

“I set my sights too high,” he says. It’s important to have small but achievable goals.

“What you can’t do today, you can do tomorrow.”

He said there was no better time than now to normalize the conversation around mental health, as the toll on farmers from Cyclone Gabriel had been “soul-destroying”.

“It’s okay to cry. It’s not a crime,” he said.

He wants farmers to know that support is out there. Often he can receive assistance with just one phone call or conversation with a peer.

Where to get help:

Michaela Gower joins Hawke’s Bay today Founded in 2023 and based in our Hastings newsroom. She covers news from Danneburke and Hawke’s Bay and she loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.