The holiday season can be filled with fun traditions and time with family, but it also comes with its own set of challenges that can be hard on mental health. For many people, their mental health ends up declining during the holidays. In this blog, we have five of our best tips for maintaining your mental health during the holidays.
November is a time when mustaches take center stage, but it's not just about style – it's about striking up conversations and raising awareness for men's health. Movember, a global movement, is dedicated to bringing attention to pressing men’s health issues such as prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health challenges.
In the quest for healing from trauma, somatic therapy is a unique alternative that emphasizes the connection between mind and body. While this therapeutic approach may not be suitable for everyone, it offers benefits for individuals dealing with PTSD and other mental health conditions by focusing on physical sensations and body awareness.
October is Depression Awareness Month. In this blog, we speak with Cassandra Deford, director of clinical programs behavioral health, about depression and mental health conditions to learn more.
If you or someone you know is going through physical, recreational, occupational or speech therapy, you probably already know how challenging it can be. But did you know that joining a support group can make a world of difference?
In today's fast-paced world filled with constant stimuli, distractions and stressors, the practice of mindfulness meditation is a way to discover your true inner self. Mindfulness meditation offers a journey toward inner clarity and balance, one that embraces the power of the present moment and deepens self-awareness. We unravel the transformative effects of mindfulness meditation on enhancing emotional well-being and how to foster a deeper sense of presence in your day-to-day routine.
Building resilience and developing effective coping strategies are essential skills for navigating life's challenges with grace and strength. In this blog, we define what it actually means to be resilient, explore how building resilience can empower you to face adversity head-on and provide tips on how to put these skills into practice.
Sadness is a common but unpleasant emotion – it’s one of the six basic emotions alongside fear, happiness, anger, surprise and disgust. Sadness is also inherently viewed as negative, but as science has indicated, it’s not always a bad thing. Take music, for example – the brain is actually capable of receiving pleasure from sounds and lyrics that focus on sadness.
If you find that you struggle with controlling your emotions or can’t quite find the best coping strategy when you get overwhelmed, here are some tools to try out to help keep your head above water during those tough times.
Did you know that managing stress and anxiety is a big factor when it comes to keeping the body in good health? When we live stressful lives or are constantly feeling the effects of anxiety, we may start to neglect our health without realizing it. People with optimistic outlooks on life have been shown to have a lower risk of heart attack and stroke, so tending to your mental health could be just as beneficial as watching your cholesterol levels!
Detoxification is the first step toward addiction recovery. In a clinical setting, the goal is to minimize the negative impact of withdrawal symptoms while making the experience as safe and comfortable as possible. While some people choose to detox on their own, the most effective form of detox is one that is medically assisted and supported by trained specialists. We spoke with Brian Couey, Psy.D, executive director at INTEGRIS Health Arcadia Trails Center for Addiction Recovery, to learn more about alcohol and drug detox.
In some cases, fatigue can be an indicator of an underlying medical problem, but most of the time, fatigue can be correlated with habits we either need to break or adopt. Too much exercise or physical exertion can lead to fatigue, as can boredom, poor sleep, emotional stress and poor eating habits. We share different foods to eat and avoid to help fight fatigue.
The same stress you deal with when completing daily tasks can also affect your body in ways you never realized. We’ll highlight some common areas that stress can directly or indirectly impact, as well as how stress can affect your immune system.
We all love our fur babies for their companionship and cuteness, but did you know that they may be beneficial for your health as well? Studies show that keeping a pet can work wonders on keeping your stress levels under control and can have a positive impact on your physical health as well.
Whether you view rest as a political movement, scarce commodity, or something you rarely think about, one thing is probably true: you could use a little more of it and more than one type of it. Rest and sleep are two entirely different things. Sleep is one form of rest (physical) but there are six more!
In the fast paced world we’re living in, it can be difficult to create a work-life balance in your life. We address our top 7 tips to improve your work-life balance and keep yourself from burning out.
Cherries contain melatonin, plus nice amounts of magnesium and vitamins A and C. Tart cherries also contain a little bit of tryptophan, an amino acid that helps in the production of serotonin and melatonin.
The infrastructure of the mental health system across our state makes it nearly impossible to find quick and reliable responses to these questions. Yet, these are just a few examples of questions that plague many of us and finding the answer to these questions can mean life or death for many.
Self-sabotage can manifest in various ways, such as procrastination, negative self-talk, self-destructive habits and avoiding responsibilities. It is a self-defeating cycle that can prevent individuals from reaching their full potential and achieving their goals. The cycle of self-sabotage can be mentally and physically exhausting, but there are ways to break yourself out of this cycle and live a healthy, fulfilled life.
Postpartum anxiety describes anxiety – intense, excessive and persistent worry – that mothers or new parents experience in the first 12 months after the birth of their child. Many parents worry about their newborn, whether it’s health or development.
Giving yourself grace means making the choice to interact with the world – and yourself – with goodwill and kindness. We share some practical, everyday ways to give yourself some grace.
If you’ve become a victim of toxic productivity, you probably know it by now. Letting it strengthen its hold and claim you as a casualty is not a forgone conclusion – you can learn to stop hustling and rest.
We are not suggesting that your thoughts need to be positive all the time, nor is that a healthy goal to set. This is about managing negative thoughts when they become disruptive, intrusive or otherwise get out of hand. We aren’t necessarily interested in flipping them from gloom and doom to sunshine and roses, but we are interested in aiming for a more neutral or realistic perspective.
Coping with change – even change you really want or know is a good thing – is hard. Change you don’t want – losing a job, going through a divorce or experiencing the effects of a serious illness, for example – can be even harder to deal with. The good news is that in either case, the mechanics of change (and our reactions to those mechanics) follow the same pattern, so we’ve put together handy dandy guide to understanding and weathering changes large and small.
You know the drill. There’s something on your mind and you can’t quite shake it. Maybe it’s the middle of the night and you’re thinking about your grocery list or mentally planning a work project. Maybe it feels like you’re watching a video clip on a loop that you can’t turn off, imagining something going horribly wrong. Are you worried? Anxious? Both? The difference between worry and anxiety can be challenging to parse, but once you can tell them apart, they’re easier to deal with.
The word depressant may be the last thing you’d think of when describing a glass of wine you’re having with dinner or a pint of beer you’re drinking with friends. That’s mainly because people associate alcohol with social settings and its ability to make you feel good. The truth is, alcohol is actually a central nervous system (CNS) depressant. We will explain why alcohol falls under this category and how it can impact your physical and mental health.
Major depressive disorder affects 17 percent of people in America. Because so many adults, children and pregnant women will experience depression during their lifetime, it’s important to have screenings available for earlier diagnosis. This blog will highlight some of the more common screenings that can help you stay on top of your mental health.
For many people, the alarm clock signals the start of a stressful morning – you’re tired, cranky and don’t want to get up. Instead of staying glued to your phone for 30 minutes scrolling through Facebook, here is a morning routine guide you can follow to boost your productivity and provide stress relief each day.
Technology has improved our lives in many ways. But like anything in life, too much can sometimes lead to harm. Have you ever thought about trying a digital detox to give your mind and body a rest? It can be just as beneficial as eating your daily vegetables.
While supplementing your sleep here and there with a small amount of melatonin is unlikely to result in any negative consequences, just how much is too much when it comes to heavier doses? This blog will explore melatonin’s safety and outline symptoms to be aware of.
The world is full of anxiety-producing situations and scenarios like paying monthly bills on time, meeting deadlines at work or experiencing a fulfilling social life. We share tips to help deal with anxiety in the moment. As a bonus, many of these techniques also can help improve overall mental health.
Happiness, like so many other things, must be cultivated and actively pursued. Here are eleven ways to up your happy factor. Try a couple and see how you feel.
There are lots of benefits to spending time outdoors. It’s great for your mood, boosts empathy, lowers stress, improves attention span and can reduce the risk for psychiatric disorders. But can it help you work through trauma?
Swimming is an amazing cardio workout, it’s known for its calming, meditative effects and it’s a remarkably efficient way to burn calories. Since water supports about 90 percent of your body weight when you’re swimming, it’s often possible to continue to exercise while recovering from an ankle sprain or other injury. Did you know, though, that there are lots of other ways to exercise in water?
While you may not think twice about walking and talking at the same time, the brain is hard at work calculating every move to help regulate thoughts, feelings and emotions. At the core of every emotion are brain chemicals that affect your happiness. We analyze these happy chemicals, provide you with tips on how to stimulate them and offer dietary suggestions to help maximize their production.
Play, a natural part of childhood, is just as important for adults as it is for kids. But you know as well as we do, in the hurly-burly swirl of everyday life it can be all too easy to become so focused on getting things done that we forget to lighten up, loosen up and play.
Physical activity, whether mellow or intense, is a proven mood booster. It can help us maintain a healthy weight, keep our blood pressure in check, reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease, reduce stress and strengthen muscles and bones. Regular exercise is possibly quite a boost for cognitive function, now and in the future.
Resilience is the ability to recover quickly from difficulties – the capacity to successfully adapt to a challenging life experience. The American Psychological Association suggests that resilient people use mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility to adjust to external and internal demands.
With more and more people suffering from mental illness, learning practices to take care of our mental health and wellness is more important than ever. We outline several practices that can help you develop a healthier mind.
When your mind gets absorbed in a good book, experts say it only takes six minutes for your body to begin to relax. In fact, when reading was tested against many traditional forms of relaxation, it reduced stress by 68 percent and was the highest ranked method among those tested.
