Written by: Kaitlin DeBlasio
You might have heard that May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
So what is mental health? And how did this month of celebrating our mental health come to be? Mental health is our social, emotional, and psychological well-being which impacts our thought process, behavior, and how we view ourselves and others. Mental Health Awareness month has actually been celebrated in America since 1949. It was started by the Mental Health America organization in order to advocate for folks searching for resources to promote their mental health and to combat negative stigma around seeking services for mental health related concerns. The organization’s website includes a helpful toolkit for learning all about mental health and also provides plenty of useful resources for many mental health related needs.
You can check out their Mental Health Month Toolkit using this link: https://mhanational.org/mental-health-month
How can you celebrate Mental Health Awareness this month? By engaging in self-care! Self-care is any act in which you intentionally care for yourself. This includes the basics such as, nourishing and hydrating your body with foods and water, moving your body, and maintaining hygiene. It also includes purposeful acts of love, like practicing a favorite hobby, which help to boost your mood and self-esteem. Self-care is something you can do as a preventive strategy for promoting your mental health and something you can do in the moment to ease the stress on some of those harder days. Plus, engaging in and demonstrating the benefits of self-care encourages others to do the same which in turn helps spread awareness about the importance of caring for our mental health.
Some examples of self-care activities include…scheduling a physical or check-up with your doctor, going to therapy, taking a spa day, simply taking a break, watching a TV show or reading a book, practicing a mindfulness activity that engages your senses, moving your body, taking a hot shower, spending time outside, calling a friend to chat, and anything else that makes you feel good.
Small Tips For Practicing Self-Care
- Schedule in self-care time, we all get busy or even overwhelmed with our daily tasks, which makes self-care even more important so we don’t burn out. We need and deserve breaks, often. It’s helpful to schedule in some self-care breaks so you can ensure that you’re making time for yourself.
- Practice a quick and simple grounding exercise using your five senses. This allows you to become more present throughout your day and reconnect with yourself and your surroundings.
5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 exercise: Name 5 things you see around you, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, *take a deep breath* 2 things you can smell, and practice gratitude by naming 1 thing that you love. - Lastly, be as kind to yourself as you would be to your best friend.
Mental health reminder: Governor J.B. Pritzker passed a bill this year allowing students across all of Illinois to utilize up to five mental health days per year. This means any student struggling with anxiety, depression, or any other mental health related experience can take a mental health day from school if they need a break. Students will not be required to present a doctor’s note in order to utilize any of these five excused absences. They will also be allowed to make up any schoolwork that was missed on their day off. Students who choose to use a mental health day are encouraged to speak with a trusted adult or mental health professional
