May is Mental Health Awareness Month
To highlight the importance of mental health, May has been a month of Mindful Mondays at LCPS, during which employees were asked to take a few minutes each week for self-care. However, asking a teacher to practice self-care who, over the last year, may have juggled remote teaching while caring for children of their own at home and multiple, unpredictable, tremendous changes layered on top of grief surrounding the pandemic can feel like a platitude.
It is important to acknowledge that for people who have not practiced healthy habits, it can feel daunting and difficult to know where to begin. Those who may just be getting started on their journey to self-care practices — or are newly returning to self-care after perhaps falling into a self-care hiatus — are encouraged to start with achievable, obtainable goals that are likely to lead to small successes knowing that over time, and with consistent practice, those small successes will become big wins. Here are some places to begin:
- Healthy movement: Our bodies have not evolved to be sedentary. Work healthy movement into your day in ways that fit your existing schedule and feel fun and achievable. Take a walking lunch break, check out LCPS Staff Yoga provided by Downtown Desert Yoga, or do some chair stretches. Over the summer, staff with children are encouraged to engage in play such as swimming, biking or dancing with their children rather than just observing.
- Check in on your sleep: Most adults require seven to nine hours of sleep for optimal wellbeing. Set a bedtime alarm about an hour before you hope to get some shuteye. During that hour before bed, keep lights low, turn off electronic devices and practice a routine that promotes relaxation in preparation for a good night’s sleep.
- Stay connected: Loneliness is correlated with illness, obesity and chronic disease. Humans evolved to be social, and isolation can literally make us sick. Taking time to reconnect with friends, meet your neighbors, or visit family are important forms of self-care.
- Relax: At times it seems the American culture has forgotten the value of a little downtime. We are not meant to go full steam all day every day. Rather we are hard-wired for periods of activity and periods of rest throughout the day. Consider mediation, reading a book or maybe gardening for relaxation.
- Finally, check in and seek professional help from a counselor, doctor or other trusted professional if you are experiencing emotional suffering that you just cannot shake. Emotional suffering, like illnesses such as the common cold, is transient and can be treated. Red-flag signs that it may be time to ask for help include agitation, a gradual or sudden urge to withdraw, a reduction in personal care, or an increase in risky behaviors like substance use.
When educational staff recognizes the importance of mental health and self-care, they not only improve their own happiness and reduce their own stress, they also teach students who are always watching. For more valuable information on mental health awareness, check out The Child Mind Institute’s Better Together initiative at http://bit.ly/childmindinstitutebettertogether. Free resources are also available from Give an Hour, at https://giveanhour.org/emotional-wellbeing-resources/.
Amy Himelright, LPCC is the Director of Behavioral Health and Academic Counseling at Las Cruces Public Schools. She can be reached at [email protected].
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