The road to wellness: Lesley Kelly's journey

Watrous, Sask. grain farmer Lesley Kelly knows resiliency in farming and life is underpinned by physical and mental wellness. The creator of High Heels and Canola Fields and co-founder of Do More Ag shares her experience.

Farming requires mental stamina and support

I never planned to be a mental health advocate. About 10 years ago, my husband Matt and I decided to return to my parents’ farm, which had lost substantial acres to flooding. I tried to be supportive of my parents, but I didn’t know the signs of distress, the language to use or where to access help.

Then, during my second pregnancy, I felt very anxious. The baby was fine but I struggled. I shut down and wasn’t talking about it, eating or showering. I wasn’t sleeping well and I began isolating myself. Matt helped me through postpartum depression, but he was also experiencing debilitating anxiety while farming.

One day, Matt had a panic attack. I thought, “Heart attack!” It was traumatizing and pivotal. We knew we had to do things differently for our family and the farm by incorporating mental wellness and understanding mental health within our marriage, extended family and farm.

Personal journey kickstarts conversations

In the summer of 2017, during a live video that we streamed on social media while sitting at our kitchen table, Matt and I talked about my postpartum experience and his anxiety. We wondered: Could our operating credit line or insurance be impacted if we were deemed higher risk? Could our landlords end land leases we had?

Will we lose friends? While we worried that speaking publicly could jeopardize our livelihood, we believed the cost of farming shouldn’t be our lives.

We wanted others to know they aren’t alone; there’s hope. That was the start of unveiling the idea that mental health conversations can happen in the kitchen, the field or the boardroom.

Building a strong farm culture

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