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Mental Health Awareness Month Resources

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! While mental health is important to address year-round, Mental Health Awareness Month provides a dedicated time for people, organizations, and communities to join their voices to broadcast the message that mental health matters. BCCS will be sharing resources throughout the month with staff and families on ways to prioritize your mental health this spring.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month! While mental health is important to address year-round, Mental Health Awareness Month provides a dedicated time for people, organizations, and communities to join their voices to broadcast the message that mental health matters. BCCS will be sharing resources throughout the month with staff and families on ways to prioritize your mental health this spring.


 

Here are topics and resources to explore this week: Connecting with Yourself

 

  • Self-connection, or self-care, is about finding practices that help you thrive, and it can include a range of things. It takes purposeful effort, but it can help you maintain or improve your daily mental well-being. It can be helpful to think of it as taking time to connect with yourself and care for yourself as you would others. 

    • Prioritizing time to connect to yourself doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive, and it is important for you to find out what works best for you. Below are a few different ways to engage in self-care from to the Mental Health Coalition:

      • Physical: Notice and address the stress that shows up in your body. Notice what physical activities reduce or alleviate physical pain, tension and mental stress for you. Some common activities are massages, hugging loved ones with their consent, fitness, dance, aromatherapy, rest, and boundary setting.

      • Emotional: Involves tending to your own internal emotional world – especially your mood and feelings. Ways to tend to your emotional self can include connecting with others, naming and acknowledging your emotions, psychotherapy, journaling or creative writing, art, and setting boundaries for your emotional well-being.

      • Cognitive: Engages in activities that are intellectually rewarding and/or stimulating. This can include reading, writing, listening to books or podcasts, watching films, psychotherapy. 

      • Spiritual: This can take many different forms and does not have to be tied to formal religion. It means getting in touch with the less tangible aspects of yourself and the world around you. This can include meditation, breathwork, prayer, connecting with a spiritual or religious community, mantras.

    • Asking for help and support is a sign of strength. If you have concerns about your mental health or symptoms you are experiencing, talking openly about it and asking for help and support are signs of strength. Opening up can be hard and uncomfortable, especially when you’re unsure of how people will respond or if it will be met with silence. But here’s a little secret. You might be surprised by how many people will support you and respond with a listening ear and kindness.

 

Resources:



This information is brought to you by the Minnesota Department of Health and MakeItOK.org. Click here to access more resources.