July Newsletter

July Newsletter

Summer break is meant to be a relaxing time, spent with friends and family in the warm weather to have a chance to take a break from your everyday routine and ultimately just take some time for yourself.  But for some, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Many people will have heard the term “winter blues” also known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D) Commonly associated with cooler and darker seasons but can also find its way into the warmer seasons. When you think about summer, you usually think about the freedom and lack of responsibility, going to the beach, hanging out with friends, getting to sleep in as a teenager.   For the parents of these teens not so much, if you’re working a current job or even staying at home, when summer starts you get double if not triple the workload. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, stressed and burnt out and make it hard for you to enjoy the warmer weather.

 Signs you might be burnt out as a parent

• Emotionally overwhelmed feeling irritated, anxious, and having a difficult time regulating your emotions compared to usual?
• Feeling somewhat detached from your child or loss of enjoyment or pleasure from parenting?
• Difficulty completing "basic tasks" such as laundry, cooking meals and dishes?
• Finding it hard to balance both your work and home life?
• Feeling like you have no time to relax and take care of yourself?

How to cope?

Don’t be afraid to ask for extra help to anyone you have available too, try to take at least 20 minutes a day to do something nice for yourself that you enjoy, reading your favorite book, creating a journal entry talking about what you did good today and what you can improve, give a friend, or family member a call, try to give yourself new hobbies that you can include your kids in, art, reading, cooking etc. Prioritize getting enough sleep rather than getting everything done. Making sure to take breaks no matter how small they are.

 Summer Anxiety & Depression with social media as a teen

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) Can affect many teens with unhealthy/unrealistic views of social media, social media now is much different then what their parents had before them so they may not understand the effects of social media in their teens/children. Within five minutes of scrolling on Instagram, TikTok, etc. you consume hundreds of posts, of celebrities, random people, people you may know personally all posting their best moments, at the beach, at events, with big groups of friends and it may cause these teens to feel like they’re missing out on something that’s not even real. People post their best moments, best memories and that’s not always how their life is but from an outside looking in perspective all these teens see are people with a “perfect” life. Social media can also affect their body image, seeing heavily edited, modified body’s online can be especially hard in the summertime making them feel insecure that they don’t look like these strangers and feeling like they have to live up to these standards, making it hard to wear appropriate clothing to the weather because of anxiety, not being able to wear a swimsuit in public due to not having good body image.

What can I do?

• Reduce your social media intake to a minimum, only following your friends, family, and people you look up to, you can also change what pops up on your feed in settings in most social media apps to only show things that benefit you and hide things that don’t

• When you’re out with friends/family try to live in the moment sometimes instead of taking photos to post on your social media try a digital camera to save the memory instead of getting that anxious feeling about how many likes you’ll receive.

• Every day write words of affirmation to yourself, it doesn’t have to be on paper but think about all the things you're grateful to have in your life.

• Try taking at least 15 minutes of your day doing something you enjoy, going for a walk, listening to music, reading, watching your favorite show, spending time with loved ones, etc.

• Try to use social media in a positive way, send posts/quotes to your friends/family that will make them laugh, smile and feel appreciated.

• Try to remember that not everything on the internet is true.

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How is self care going to improve your mental health this summer?

No matter your age, self care should always be a need, not a want. Selfcare can mean many different things depending on the person, but overall, it means doing things that don’t just benefit others but more importantly putting your physical and mental health first. This summer take the time  to try to incorporate self-care in your day-to-day life. Self care can improve your stress levels, make you feel less burnt out, increase your dopamine and improve your health and wellbeing.    

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Self Care Awareness

July 24^th is Self Care Awareness Day

What is Self Care

Self-care is taking care of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual aspects of your life to promote health and wellness.  Many people think self-care is selfish but caring for your yourself is an important part of your overall well-being.

The main goal of self-care is to prevent or control disease and preserve overall well-being through consistently taking care of all aspects of your health.

There are different types of self-care, and they are all equally important and together you could have optimal health and well-being.  

When taking care of your physical and mental health you will improve your quality of life and prevent or manage chronic conditions.  You will succeed in managing stress, lowering risk of illness, and increase your energy.        

Why Is Self-Care Important?

There are short and long-term benefits that lead to improved well-being and improved health benefits.

Short-term benefits - Putting your health and needs first and allowing yourself some rest can significantly reduce your stress levels.  You will feel better about yourself as a person, the more you take care of yourself, and you will also have more self-worth.   As you spend more time with others you will feel loved and have a sense of belonging which is good for your overall mental health.

Long-term benefits - Conditions such as depression, diabetes and heart disease can be more effectively managed with physical and mental self-care strategies.  Regular exercise, healthy eating and stress management techniques will reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes as well as possible obesity.  Self-care can reduce chronic stress and can help lower the risk of developing health conditions, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, gastrointestinal disorders and more. 

We are better able to engage in healthy relationships due to an increase in self-esteem and self-worth when taking better care of our personal needs.  Self-care can improve your job satisfaction and teamwork as well as reducing burnout. 

Self-care will improve your quality of life which will help you to better manage health conditions, reduce stress, create a greater sense of belonging, improving your overall well-being and quality of life.

 

Practicing Self-Care

Building your self-care plan will depend on your personal health and lifestyle choices. You will want to create a plan that will promote better health and well-being.   Your self-care plan will depend on your health and lifestyle.  You want your plan to work toward better health and well-being.  You will want to take into consideration your overall health and stressors.  You should begin to plan activities and eliminate stressors in your life and focus on improving your health.

Make a list of things that cause you stress and try to avoid those things.  If you cannot avoid some of your stressors try to find some coping techniques that work for you to limit how much these stressors effect you.  You can implement a healthy, well-balanced diet with exercise and family time to be well on your way to a healthier, happier life, mentally, emotionally and physically.

 

There is also a Self-Defense Workshop

 

Presented by Concepts in Mental Health and

 Resilience 

You Can Register Below