Mind Your Health
Have you ever heard the expression me-search? Me-search is research a person does to find answers for themselves or solve their own challenges.
When I was a freshman in college, I lost my father to mental illness. He took his own life. That moment began my 40 years of me-search on the topic. I was determined to do everything I could to keep that from happening to me or anyone else I loved or cared about.
It is that motivation that also drove me to start my business, WorkFlowGrow, to help people feel and function better in the workplace. Mental health is at the center of that.
So, what exactly is mental health? According to the US Department of Health and Human Services mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices.
Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. Over the course of our lives, we all experience a mental health crisis of some kind. When this happens our thinking, mood, and behavior are all impacted; as well as the lives of the people we encounter.
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. The goal is for people to realize it is okay to talk about mental health. We easily talk about all our other bodily ailments. We need to acknowledge it is okay to talk about and work on our brains when our minds are not feeling right.
Sleep and stress management are the first lines of attack. I have shared in previous posts lots of tips on getting better sleep and managing stress. If you would like to get caught up on those, you can find them here.
Click here for past videos on stress management and sleep improvement
Starting next week through the month of May I will focus on other behavioral strategies that I have used and helped others to use to get and stay mentally healthy. I am not a doctor or a therapist. I am someone who knows how important it is to take care of mental health and I have spent two-thirds of my life researching and practicing those behavioral strategies. I will share them with you.
If you are in a crisis and you need immediate help, call 911. There is also a new national mental health hotline you can reach by dialing 988. It offers 24/7 call, text, and chat access to trained crisis counselors who can help people experiencing suicidal, substance use, and/or mental health crisis, or any other kind of emotional distress.
Join me each week in May on a journey to mental health. I will share tips, stretches, and mindful breathing you can do to help you feel and function better at work and in life.
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