Protect Your Mental Health
A Friend to Come Alongside.
May is mental health awareness month. With depression and anxiety skyrocketing like never before, there's great value in coming together to strengthen, protect, and encourage one another. After all, the world is full of chaos, and we are all trying to navigate forward through that chaos. But it sure helps to have a friend come alongside. As you read these words, may you feel the hand of a friend reaching out to grab your hand to walk this stretch of the journey with you.
Protecting Your Mental Health
We need to change how we talk & think about mental health.
First of all, it is not bad or wrong to feel like your life is wildly chaotic and unmanageable at times. We're over here enduring some crazy circumstances, and we're still standing. So high-five to all of us!
And emotional states like anxiety and depression are our body's responses to painful experiences. Depression, despair, fear, anxiety, and anger—are all normal responses to life, and would you believe they can be helpful. They are valuable as our messengers and warning signals to tell us what is happening in our lives, not just scary illnesses.
We need to shift our focus and change how we talk and think about mental health. It's essential to focus on the story and the personal experience of each one, not just the symptoms.
Protecting Your Mental Health
React or respond?
When the signals rise inside us, we can do two things; react or respond. When we react to the signals or messenger (despair, anger, depression, anxiety), we put ourselves in the "pilot" zone, as neuroscientist Caroline Leaf calls it. In this state of mind, we cannot view things objectively. However, she says there is also a "co-pilot" inside each of us. The "co-pilot," or our wise mind, can see from a more objective view. This "co-pilot" state is necessary as it causes us to respond, and prepare ourselves for the "neurocycle process."
Mental Health Tool
“Nothing in life is to be
feared, it's only to be understood.”
Once we hand the control over to our mind's co-pilot, our wise mind, then we can proceed to the five-step process:
•Gather awareness of what you feel emotionally and physically as you work on a toxic cycle in your life.
•Reflect on why you feel the way you do—be as specific as possible.
•Write this down—this is a way to help organize your thinking and gain clarity.
•Recheck what you have written.
•Take action.
These 5 steps were developed as a response to a need for a simple yet sustainable and
effective way to manage chronic and acute mental health issues. Neuroscientists also observed in clinical trials that true, personal transformation requires mind management to rewire neural pathways and create new habits. As we manage our thinking in this healthy way, the entire state of our brain and cellular structure shifts and establishes a new and healthy levels of balance in our mind, brain and body!
Mental Health Awareness
Stop in for some self-care.
Enjoying our favorite coffee drink not only wakes us up, but can immediately boost our short term memory to prepare us intellectually for our day. Psst, we know the perfect place grab one too.😉
Mental Health Awareness
A spa day & an attitude of gratitude is a powerful combo.
Built-up stress can manifest in our bodies as tensed-up muscles in the neck and shoulder areas. Scheduling a spa day to enjoy a massage can release that tension, allowing your muscles and the mind to relax. While receiving your massage, you can gain added benefits by meditating on the things you are grateful for in your life. Both of these techniques are excellent for overall mental health.
Steele's Loft Spa