mental hygiene

To harness our best selves, “Temper your empathy, train your compassion, and avoid the news”

by

In the nov­el Lord of the Flies, a group of young boys are ship­wrecked on an island and even­tu­al­ly turn sav­age­ly against each oth­er. The book is a cau­tion­ary tale about humanity’s under­ly­ing cru­el­ty and the need for civ­i­liza­tion to tame our dark­er impulses—a mes­sage that res­onates with many peo­ple today.

But that’s not what hap­pened to a real-life group of ship­wrecked kids in 1965. [Read more…] about To har­ness our best selves, “Tem­per your empa­thy, train your com­pas­sion, and avoid the news”

Seven evidence-based reasons to start meditating yesterday

by

Yes, start­ing today is OK too.

I start­ed med­i­tat­ing soon after 9/11. I was liv­ing in Man­hat­tan, an already chaot­ic place, at an extreme­ly chaot­ic time. I real­ized I had no con­trol over my exter­nal envi­ron­ment. But the one place I did have a say over was my mind, through med­i­ta­tion. When I start­ed med­i­tat­ing, I did not real­ize it would also make me health­i­er, hap­pi­er, and more resilient.

Hav­ing wit­nessed the ben­e­fits, I devot­ed my PhD research at Stan­ford to study­ing the impact of med­i­ta­tion. I saw peo­ple from diverse back­grounds from col­lege stu­dents to com­bat vet­er­ans ben­e­fit. In the last 10 years, hun­dreds of stud­ies have been released.

Here are sev­en evi­dence-based rea­sons you might want to get on the band­wag­on as soon as you can: [Read more…] about Sev­en evi­dence-based rea­sons to start med­i­tat­ing yesterday

REACH2: Six tips to help regulate stress levels in our organizations

by

Recent­ly, an employ­ee at a major Ohio com­pa­ny lost his moth­er to coro­n­avirus. Under nor­mal cir­cum­stances, his col­leagues would have offered expres­sions of sup­port and sym­pa­thy in per­son. They would have attend­ed a funer­al or memo­r­i­al ser­vice. They would have made a meal for his fam­i­ly. But, since the state was under stay-at-home orders, none of that was possible.

At first, the team looked to their man­ag­er for guid­ance about what to do. But the man­ag­er hadn’t faced a sit­u­a­tion like this and didn’t real­ly know. So, he reflect­ed the ques­tion back to his team: “What do you think we can do to help?” [Read more…] about REACH2: Six tips to help reg­u­late stress lev­els in our organizations

Tuesday April 28th, online: Explore strategies and tools to boost mental wellbeing during (and after) Covid-19

by

Heads-up about a very time­ly vir­tu­al event next week.

When: Tues­day, April 28th, 9am — 6pm US Pacif­ic Time (San Fran­cis­co time zone)

Where: Online

What: Find Well­be­ing Dur­ing Covid19 — Dis­cov­er 200+ Free and Dis­count­ed Tools to help you find some relief and emerge even stronger

How: Learn More and Reg­is­ter HERE

Confirmed Speakers include:

[Read more…] about Tues­day April 28th, online: Explore strate­gies and tools to boost men­tal well­be­ing dur­ing (and after) Covid-19

Three mental hygiene habits to beat Covid-19 and set up a healthier New Normal

by

Image: REUTERS/Lee Smith

___

How many of us right now are expe­ri­enc­ing a heady cock­tail of con­fu­sion, anx­i­ety and even some sur­pris­ing moments of respite from our pre-COVID-19, always-on-the-go culture?

In a new sur­vey by the Kaiser Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion, 45% of Amer­i­cans felt that the coro­n­avirus cri­sis is harm­ing their men­tal health (19% felt it had a “major impact”).

Our tra­di­tion­al media and social media feeds are filled with urgent and often con­flict­ing imper­a­tives to change our rou­tines and be con­stant­ly vigilant.

The online onslaught of rapid­ly updat­ing media sto­ries report­ing worst-case sce­nar­ios can fuel fear and pan­ic. Uncrit­i­cal over­con­sump­tion of such mes­sages can erode one of our most pre­cious and essen­tial human resources for weath­er­ing the COVID-19 storm: our men­tal health. –> Keep read­ing my arti­cle 3 ways to pro­tect your men­tal health dur­ing – and after – COVID-19, co-authored with Emory Uni­ver­si­ty’s Dr. Karen Rom­melfanger, over at the World Eco­nom­ic Forum’s Glob­al Agen­da.

Related resources on stress, physical and mental health:

Move, Nourish, Connect, Be: Four daily habits to protect our mental well-being while sheltering in place

by

__

It’s a crazy time. Here in the Cal­i­for­nia, we are shel­ter­ing-in-place, leav­ing the house only for essen­tials like gro­ceries and med­ical care. And while we’re all (appro­pri­ate­ly) focused on car­ing for the phys­i­cal health of our­selves, our fam­i­lies, our com­mu­ni­ties, and soci­ety at large, our men­tal, emo­tion­al, and social health needs are quick­ly emerg­ing as pro­found­ly impor­tant, as well. [Read more…] about Move, Nour­ish, Con­nect, Be: Four dai­ly habits to pro­tect our men­tal well-being while shel­ter­ing in place