05/19/2025
May is Mental Health Month!
WEEK 2: NURTURE YOUR MENTAL WELL-BEING from the Minnesota Dept. of Health's Mental Health Awareness Month Toolkit https://shorturl.at/ErzRq
"Self-connection, or self-care, is about finding practices that help you thrive, and it can include a range of things. It takes purposeful effort, but it can help you maintain or improve your daily mental wellbeing. It can be helpful to think of it as taking time to connect with yourself and care for yourself as you would others. Prioritizing time to connect to yourself doesn’t have to be time consuming or expensive, and it is important for you to find out what works best for you."
"Below are a few different ways to nurture your mental wellbeing, from the Mental Health Coalition:
▪ PHYSICAL: Notice and address the stress that shows up in your body. Notice what physical activities reduce or alleviate physical pain, tension and mental stress for you. Some common activities are massages, hugging loved ones with their consent, fitness, dance, aromatherapy, rest, and boundary setting.
▪ EMOTIONAL: Involves tending to your own internal emotional world – especially your mood and feelings. Ways to tend to your emotional self can include connecting with others, naming and acknowledging your emotions, psychotherapy, journaling or creative writing, art, and setting boundaries for your emotional wellbeing.
▪ COGNITIVE: Engages in activities that are intellectually rewarding and/or stimulating. This can include reading, writing, listening to books or podcasts, watching films, psychotherapy.
▪ SPIRITUAL: This can take many different forms and does not have to be tied to formal religion. It means getting in touch with the less tangible aspects of yourself and the world around you. This can include meditation, breathwork, prayer, connecting with a spiritual or religious community, mantras."
"Identify a few ways you’d like to prioritize your own wellbeing. Set aside the time you need to do it, give yourself permission to embrace it if it is hard for you to prioritize yourself, and work
towards adding these moments regularly into your life. Know that what taking care of yourself may look like can change over time, and it is okay to adapt to what activities you engage in to fit
your needs."
Credit to Minnesota Department of Health: https://shorturl.at/ErzRqWEEK
We're grateful for this helpful toolkit from the State of Minnesota's Department of Health and for the critical work of state and federal agencies devoted to mental health care, information, and access.
