Prioritizing Your Mental Health

While 1 in 5 people will experience a mental illness during their lifetime, everyone faces life challenges that can impact their mental and emotional well-being. The good news is there are practical tools that everyone can use to improve mental health and increase resiliency - and there are ways that everyone can be supportive of friends, family, and co-workers who are struggling with mental health challenges during this time of pandemic uncertainty.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and A Healthy Lynnfield is highlighting what individuals can do to prioritize their mental well-being, build resiliency in the face of nationwide trauma, and support those who are struggling.

One tool anyone can use is a mental health is screen at www.mhascreening.org. It’s a quick, free, and private way for people to assess their mental health and recognize signs of concern and options for help. This fall A Healthy Lynnfield hopes to partner with Mindwise Innovations, a division of Riverside Community Services, to bring expanded on-line screening for other mental health and substance use disorders to Lynnfield residents.

When it comes to your feelings, it can be easy to get caught up in your emotions as you’re feeling them. Most people don’t pause or reflect about what emotions they are dealing with, but taking the time to really identify what you’re feeling can help you to better cope with challenging situations. In fact, an important early social emotional skill to teach young children is how to identify and name their feelings. Feelings are much less scary and easier to talk about when they can be named. This winter, Healthy Lynnfield supported professional development for health and physical education teachers who learned age appropriate, experiential activities from Project Adventure such as constructing a “Feelings Map” and “Emotion Charades” to teach this very skill to students of different ages. Children’s books such The Way I Feel, by Jana Cain, can be a valuable part of home schooling during this time.

So, it’s okay to give yourself permission to feel. Life can throw us curveballs – like our current situation of being isolated, not being able to work or go to school, or even losing a loved one. These can be expressed as feelings of loss or grief. By looking for opportunity in adversity or finding ways to remember the good things about whom or what we’ve lost, we can help ourselves emotionally recover.

For each of us, the tools we use to keep us mentally healthy will be unique. We encourage everyone to try one new positive emotional support this month and to share ideas on our Facebook and Instagram account @ahealthylynnfield. We will be sharing ideas throughout the month!

For more information, visit www.Ahealthylynnfield.org or www.mhanational.org/may.