May is Mental Health Awareness month and it couldn’t come at a better time for me.
I love Spring! The slow transformation from a natural world that is asleep and dormant to one that is vibrantly alive is not only thrilling on an emotional level, but it tends to stir the intellectual sleepiness of my mind and prompt a closer observation of the world around me.
Spring came this year with many of the ritual changes that I follow every year with great joy and excitement. I celebrated the first tender shoots of plants and leaf buds with a little dance. The entrance to the local shopping center was gilded with a rainbow of hyacinths and yellow daffodils that made my heart sing. I observed the trees in my neighborhood come to life: first the yellow dogwood flowers, then ornamental magnolias displaying blossoms the size of my palm, the buds on the elm trees began to swell and open, followed by the appearance of maple leaves. As I write this, the oak leaves are just starting to yawn and stretch.
Winter on the other hand, didn't appear to be willing to leave well enough alone. The weather remained cold and dreary throughout much of April, with only a few days of teasing warmth. The juxtaposition between the visual evidence of spring and the remnants of winter caused me to mistake the white blossoms of the crab apple trees for a coating of snow because the heavy, dark sky was indicative of a snow storm.
For someone like me who prefers to apricate - bask in the warmth of the sun - during the spring and summer months, it doesn't take much work to find joy in the small things when there isn't a cloud in the sky and a sun-kissed breeze ripples through my hair. It's the days when the sky is heavy with clouds and the the frigid air takes the breath from my lungs that makes it hard to keep a cheerful spirit.
Building a resilience toolkit
We don’t have to wait for the sun to come out to start taking care of ourselves. A healthy mind, body, and emotions are not something that happen by accident. Even for those who are not impacted by mental dis-ease, caring for ourselves requires purposeful action and a robust “resilience toolkit” that can aid us through any lows.
Caring for ourselves requires purposeful action and a robust “resilience toolkit” that can aid us through any lows.
What do I mean by “resilience toolkit”? Let's think about it in terms of an emergency response. First responders show up prepared with a wide variety of tools available to cover just about any emergency situation, but it wouldn't help if we showed up in an ambulance full of fancy equipment with no knowledge of how and when to use each item. So we learn not only about the human body and the various ways we are susceptible to injury or illness. We learn how to treat each type of trauma or medical condition. We practice the skills we've learned over and over until we can apply these skills to a situation where the pressure is high and the stakes are often life or death.
Our resilience toolkit follows similar logic. We must be willing to understand ourselves and how stress and mental injury impacts us. Then we learn how to address these mental traumas and stressors and what tools are available to help us, then we can begin the process of learning to use them and selecting the right ones that work for our specific needs. Much of this learning comes through trial, error, and of course, a lot of practice.
Setting the stage
There are a plethora of tools available to us; too many to possibly discuss in one post. We will get into the tools in later posts, but first I am going to take us into the first responders medical bag. Besides being well trained and equipped, a first responder is also well organized. Each tool has a place in the bag, with similar items grouped together and with most used or critical items easily accessible. In order to set the stage for the more complex process of discussing the resilience tools that you can choose for your own toolkit, I have divided them into 3 basic categories.
Holistic Wellness
Mental wellness extends far beyond our mind. The Six Dimensions of Wellness, a framework introduced by the National Wellness Institute, is a holistic look at the components that make up total wellness. These components include physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, and occupational wellness.
Healthy Mindset
Healthy Habits
In future posts I will spend get into each category in more detail. These will form the basis for future discussions of the resilience tools that are available for you to choose from.
Think about how you respond to stress. What are some of the tools you already have in your toolkit and where do they fit into these categories?
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