‘Wellness is the epitome of life’

‘Wellness is the epitome of life’ Story by Lilly Parsley Photos by Brennan Campbell Illustrations by Jordan Hale With the close of September and Suicide Prevention Month, there has been an emphasis on mental health and wellness around campus. Be Well Brutha, a wellness group founded by three WKU students in February, recently collaborated with The WKU Counseling Center in hosting a drum circle to promote mental health.  According to their Instagram, Robbie Dye, Micheal Diugu and Garrett Steed created Be Well Brutha to promote a journey of mental health centered around mind, body and spirit. Robbie Dye, a junior majoring in visual studies with a minor in Spanish from Muskegon, Michigan, said he had the motivation to create a wellness community long before he started college.  Building a community  Dye said he struggled in high school to find a space of genuine authenticity and acceptance, something he said many young men struggle with during those formative years.  “That was demotivating for me, and kind of made me separate myself from a lot of groups and feel a little ostracized and lonely for a lot of my time,” Dye said.  Dye said he always wanted a community that represented the healthy male connection he was seeking. He said he realized he needed to take the initiative in creating that space.  “Like, if I need this community of young men, men of color, men of different groups and backgrounds, I need to go create this for myself,” Dye said.  Dye said his mother, Dr. Lacretia Dye, works in the Department of Counseling and Student Affairs and has been the catalyst in forming the group’s practices. He said he met the cofounders of Be Well Brutha, Micheal Diugu and Garrett Steed, in one of his mother’s classes on campus. “I observed that they (Diugu and Steed) thought differently as well, and I thought they would be a good fit to create a space like this,” Dye said. “We could get more people kind of being more vulnerable, thinking outside of societal norms, addressing the needs of a lot of men.” Robbie Dye, co-founder of Be Well Brutha, is a junior visual studies major with a minor in Spanish from Muskegon, Michigan. “We saw there wasn’t anything for men to help with mental health, and we want to help our community,” Dye said. Garrett Steed, a graduate student in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program from Louisville, said he was a track and field athlete during his undergraduate studies and saw many of the mental health struggles faced by other collegiate athletes. Steed said the differences in experiences and perspectives between the three of them are what has helped them shape the mission for Be Well Brutha. “We really like to focus on physical, mental and spiritual wellness, and so I think it is very important to have so many different backgrounds and so many different ways of looking at the world,” Steed said. “One of the main things we talk about in our groups is just perspective.” Garret Steed, a co-founder of Be Well Brutha, is a graduate student in the clinical mental health counseling program from Louisville, Kentucky at the top of the hill by the Kissing Bridge on Oct. 9, 2026. Steed said anyone can join Be Well Brutha by sending them a direct message on their Instagram account, emailing them at [email protected] or coming to a Be Well Brutha hosted event.  Dye said everyone is welcome to join Be Well Brutha and they have an emphasis on the wellness of men of color.  “We see it as a need, and we have a direct solution to those groups specifically, that being our experience,” Dye said. “It’s a need in a very predominantly white space of Kentucky, here in the South and America.” Micheal Diugu, another graduate student in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program from Nashville, said he has always been passionate about wellness and has enjoyed creating a space where people can find alignment within themselves.  Diugu said Be Well Brutha advocates for practicing emotional vulnerability. “A lot of times, you’ll deal with a lot of men that it’s hard for them to talk about how they actually feel, or they’ve been shunned to actually talk about what is going on in their own lives,” Diugu said. “That leads to conversations where we don’t necessarily get anywhere. It’s like filler space.” Diugu said Be Well Brutha is unique in its ability to make everyone feel open and equal. He said no one is above another, and that can be an important aspect of connection in college.  “In college you feel like you got to do this, you got to do that. But I feel like the group also provides a space for you to just be in the present,” Diugu said. “Focus on walking through life instead of trying to run through it.” Steed said Be Well Brutha has given him an opportunity to be consistently vulnerable during college.  “You can reach out and just discuss what you’re going through. It’s not always that you necessarily need a response,” Steed said. “It’s more, sometimes, you just need someone to listen.” Co-founder of Be Well Brutha, Michael Diugu, is a graduate student from Nashville, Tennessee, in the clinical mental health counseling program at the top of the hill by the Kissing Bridge on Oct. 9, 2026. Connecting mind, body and spirit Dye said the group’s alternative practices really set Be Well Brutha apart from other organizations and missions. He said they want to practice “ancestral intelligence instead of artificial intelligence” to bridge wellness and culture.  “It’s the idea of paying attention to different practices that these ancient groups had as practices of wellness,” Dye said.  Dye said they often use methods of somatic release, such as sound healing. He said they will use a variety of Tibetan bowls with different sound frequencies as a means of achieving a state of relaxation, and plan to start hosting sound baths with these practices.  “It’s a great form of expression, a great form of releasing through something that’s also enjoyable, being music,” Dye said.  Steed said physical manifestations of wellness are also very important to the group. He said breathwork is one practice he personally emphasizes.  “Whenever you enter any environment, you automatically start feeling the energy and the way that everybody is showing up. You’re feeling everything they brought in with them,” Steed said. “So, one of our most important things is opening up with some type of breathwork.” Steed said his favorite breathwork activity is box breathing, where you inhale, hold, exhale and hold your breath for a set number of seconds. He said breathwork is an important practice for grounding yourself, and he often practices this with running.  Steed said Dye’s mother also hosts yoga every weekend for free at varying locations. He said this provides a method for connecting the mind, body and spirit. (From left to right) Michael Diugu, Robbie Dye and Garrett Steed sit at the top of the hill near the Kissing Bridge on Oct. 9, 2026. Diugu, Dye and Steed founded Be Well Brutha in February 2026 as a space for men that provides wellness, growth and a place for vulnerability and mental health. “I think that’s a hard thing for people to understand living in such an analytical and science-based reality. Everything is really connected to everything,” Steed said. “We kind of look at ‘Oh, the mind’s over the body,’ but the body can also control the mind.” Dye said he is going to start classes for qigong. He said it is an Eastern practice that is similar to yoga and Chinese martial arts.  “All these practices are just for you to have a better relationship with yourself and your body,” Dye said. Diugu said these activities, especially when integrated with nature, are important in finding one’s own wellness practices.  “Practice going on hikes, trails, or really finding ways to root yourself and ground yourself,” Diugu said. “That goes with learning different ways to meditate, or using different practices to find yourself in other different cultures.” Diugu said Be Well Brutha meets weekly, and that the best growth comes from the consistency of showing up and being connected. “If people really want that next step of trying to find themselves and to really be well, you have to search beyond yourself,” Diugu said. “And with the group, you have a multitude of people that are also committed on this same journey, and we’re all taking that journey together.” Steed said the group’s recent drum circle collaboration with The WKU Counseling Center allowed them to connect with more people on campus.  “While we were playing, we’d have people just walk up, or people watching, or people recording and be like, ‘Wow, that’s so cool,’” Steed said. “A lot of things just start with exposure.” Steed said Be Well Brutha will continue to do drum circles during the semester, and the best thing to do is find what activities and events fit one’s personal life and experiences. “Wellness doesn’t look like one thing. You know, you could have it mental, physical, spiritual, emotional,” Steed. “There’s so many avenues, and we never want to close off what type of wellness we are, because there’s something for everyone.” Finding yourself  Dye said one thing that affects mental health is social media. He said he has limited his social media usage, as it has affected his ability to have a deep relationship with himself.  “It is just so pulling, and it can be so addicting that it can often be at a detriment,” Dye said. “It has this glamorized image that is also a super huge factor to the dissonance between yourself and who you think you are.” Dye said that the fabrication of life and image on social media makes it harder for young people to have a sense of identity. “To actually have to show up to our group and look behind the curtain of yourself,” Dye said. “You face things in regards to yourself, because you’ve been avoiding it through social media this whole time.” Steed said his father told him that one of the most important things to do in college is discover himself. He said he often revisits that advice. (From left to right) Michael Diugu, Robbie Dye and Garrett Steed co-founded Be Well Brutha in February 2026. Be Well Brutha holds free drum circles once a month to help anyone on campus feel connected. The drum circle is a way to get people outside and connected in nature. Connection to nature is closely connected to mental health and wellness. “You just keep coming across discovering who you are, what you want to be, what you want to give to the world, and I think that is the most important to me,” Steed said. “That’s the most important thing that somebody can learn in college.” Steed said he has observed how “party life” is heavily pushed upon college students, especially athletes. He said having a strong sense of identity is important when facing this pressure.  “There’s people who are addicted to, you know, partying all the time or drugs or alcohol,” Steed said. “It’s like, until you get clear, you can’t understand what you really want. Our group promotes being clear rather than cloudy.” Dye said a quote from Michelle Obama reminds him of his dedication to his practices in college: “Every single day, you’re practicing the kind of person you want to be.” Dye said every decision affects the trajectory of one’s life. He said the self-destructive stereotypes of college are harmful, especially for young men. “Sometimes, you’re intentionally making these mistakes for the sake of a narrative of a social norm that you don’t even know where it came from,” Dye said.  Dye said college is a time when students are building habits that will affect their lives.  “Especially as young men, I think oftentimes we can just get caught up in what everybody else is doing,” Dye said. “The need to impress, and the need to, you know, have a stoicism and all these things, it’s just fleeting.” Steed said finding a “why” is an important first step on the mental health journey. Steed said the individual expression is important to Be Well Brutha. The text on his shirt expresses the collective’s beliefs about how proper expression is a necessary tool in personal development and wellness. “Especially with something like wellness, just why are you doing it,” Steed said. “And I think that is something for somebody to really sit with because your “why” is sometimes a lot harder to get than you think.” Dye said everyone’s “why” will be different. He said the “why” on his wellness journey actually started with the TV show, “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”  “Obviously it’s fantasy, but I felt like it had all these aspects of something that was real and achievable for myself in regards to having a spiritual relationship with something of some sort,” Dye said.  Dye said he started watching the show in 2020 and, though it started superficially, he resonated with the journey of Aang, the main character.  “Sometimes, you have to get into it with something that’s fun, and then you eventually get to face these real-life things,” Dye said. “That’s how it happened for me, at least.” Diugu said it is often hard to understand one’s own self and motives. He said Be Well Brutha is focused on helping people along that journey of discovery. “When people come with that question of wanting to join, we’ll never ostracize or make them feel like they should be someone that they’re not,” Diugu said. “We all move at the same pace, and then it’s up to them.” Creating a space for everyone  Dye said the three men are focusing on developing and “finding more identity” for Be Well Brutha. He said this may include broadening the community with a female-oriented version of the group, called “Be Well Sis”.  Steed said he hopes for Be Well Brutha to expand in and around Bowling Green.  “We want everybody in Bowling Green to know about us,” Steed said. “You have this access to be able to expand your wellness.” The co-founders of Be Well Brutha lay in the grass near Cherry Hall on Oct. 9, 2026. Be Well Brutha emphasizes mental health and wellness in their mission to connect with other young men. The group said they welcome anyone who wants to join. Steed said in a society where mental health issues are more prevalent, it’s more important than ever to “be well”. He said they are fostering genuine connection within Be Well Brutha.  “We’re looking for more embodiment and more authenticity within our own group,” Steed said. “We want our group to represent what wellness looks like, which is not a monolithic thing.” Diugu said he wants Be Well Brutha to be known as a safe space for everyone to start their wellness journey. “I really want it to be to where, when you think of wellness, you think of Be Well Brutha,” Diugu said. “It’s the epitome of what wellness is.” Diugu said all three men want authenticity at the forefront of expanding Be Well Brutha.  “I think that’s kind of the only thing that we ask of you, is just be yourself. There’s nothing else we want more,” Diugu said. “Just to be authentic and show up as you are.” Be Well Brutha essentials Steed said the three men have taken inspiration from many sources when developing the practices and ideas behind Be Well Brutha. He said the “Be Well Brutha Essentials” give insight into what encourages the group and the journey to wellness: “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz “How to Love Better” by Yung Pueblo “Avatar: The Last Airbender” Soulful Music (Cleo Sol, J. Cole) Strava Meditative Journaling Shi Heng Yi wisdom