It's finally May! The best month of the year because for 31 days everyone is talking about our favorite subject: mental health awareness (not to be confused with wellness, fitness, or dieting–we’re talking mental and emotional health).
To celebrate mental health awareness month we are sharing some of our favorite easy, accessible strategies for mental well-being:
Understand the difference between stress + stressor: The stressor is the workplace conflict. The stressor is an unmanageable workload, caregiving, an unsolvable problem, racism and microaggressions that wears you down day after day. The stress itself is your body's reaction to that stressor. Influencing the stressor isn't always possible, we might not be able to make our boss a great leader or eliminate the conflict with a coworker, but there is something we can do to influence the physiological stress!
Complete the cycle: To influence the stress we have to complete the cycle–allow our bodies to cycle through the cascade of hormones and physiological responses activated when we’re in fight or flight. While there are lots of ways to do this, the ones that get the most attention are movement and mindfulness. Just a few minutes of movement and a few rounds of breathwork can start to down-regulate our nervous system and help us move out of fight or flight.
Get vulnerable: We get it, everyone is talking about vulnerability, but every time we speak publicly about our struggles and our wins around mental health there is, inevitably, at least one person that comes up to us and says, "I thought I was the only one that deals with this." And mental health often works that way. For so long we’ve kept it in the dark, locked behind closed doors, dealing with it alone. But naming something gives you power over it. You can start small by talking to friends or family, but keep in mind that you get to set the terms of that conversation because people will respond to you with their own internal dialogue, biases, and experiences. If you don’t want advice let your loved one know at the onset of the conversation that you want to share your experience and are working through it but you’re not looking for advice. If you do want advice ask for it specifically: do you want experience shares, recommendations, or anything else! If talking to loved ones feels scary a neutral third party like a therapist can be an incredible asset.
Grief, Grief Everywhere: “Grief Everywhere” is the title of an Atlantic article that popped up in our Apple News feed last month. We clicked on it immediately because we resonated with it so deeply. Grief has been everywhere. On a personal level we have lost loved ones, friends, and pets, as a society many of us feel like we have lost time and opportunity, as a community we have often felt disconnected and alone. Grief is, in fact, everywhere. The line that stood out to me most was this, “We must not mistake a return to ‘normal’ life as the end of someone’s pain.” As we move through the rest of this month we encourage you to check in with the way grief plays on your mental health and to be aware that those around us may look fine but truly be struggling. Check in with each other and as we often say, “if you need the help, get the help.” If you don’t know where to start you can find a list of resources here.
Mental well-being is an incredibly complicated, difficult, and unique-to-you conversation to get started. Taking care of your mental health can include setting boundaries, investing in self-care, engaging with your community, practicing vulnerability, and seeking professional help. It's your journey and you get to decide how you embark on it. Our hope is that you know you're not alone, that there are resources available to you if you need them, and there is no shame in seeking the help you need.
To get started on your stress management journey join our course here. If you’re ready to jump right into therapy check out our resources here.