1. Save a Ton of Money

Imagine watching your savings grow as you ditch the smoking habit. The cost of cigarettes adds up quickly, and by quitting, you can redirect that money towards something more meaningful—whether it’s a dream vacation, a new hobby, or simply a healthier bank balance.

2. Live Longer

Quitting smoking can significantly increase your lifespan, giving you more years to create unforgettable memories with your loved ones. Enjoy more birthdays, holidays, and everyday moments with the people who matter most.

3. Feel Incredible

Boost your self-esteem and feel fantastic about yourself. Quitting smoking can improve your physical health, enhance your sense of well-being, and give you the confidence to take on new challenges.

Let’s Get Started on This Exciting Journey Together

If you’re unsure how to start, MINES is here to guide you every step of the way. One powerful tool we recommend is MindCotine, your quit-smoking companion available through our Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

MindCotine: Your Quit-Smoking Companion

• Access Quitting Help Anytime, Day or Night: The MindCotine app provides 24/7 access to resources like progress tracking, expert advice, and coping strategies. Quitting smoking is easier with support.
• Real Support from Real People: MindCotine offers personalized coaching to support your journey. From overcoming challenges to celebrating milestones, we are here for you every step of the way. Let’s create a plan together for a smoke-free life.
• Quit with the Power of Virtual Reality: Ready to quit and transform your life? MindCotine’s program uses virtual reality to make your journey fun and effective. Imagine stepping into a world where you can see your progress, practice stress relief techniques, and stay motivated—all without leaving your home.

Take advantage of World No-Tobacco Day and make the decision to quit smoking today. With the right tools and support, you can achieve a healthier, happier, and smoke-free life. Let’s embark on this journey together and make today count! Contact MINES today to learn more.

To Your Wellbeing,

The MINES Team

The post World No-Tobacco Day: 3 Reasons to Quit Today appeared first on MINES and Associates.

The post Mental Health Awareness Month: How Far We’ve Come and How Far We Have Left to Go appeared first on MINES and Associates.

While talking about managing stress is important – we recently published an article on how to manage your stress response (like fight or flight) on the MINES blog – what people don’t talk about as often is true stress awareness.

While stress management is about how to deal with (and reduce) stress when it’s already an issue, stress awareness is about how to be more aware of stress to prevent it from rising to begin with.

How can we become more aware of what’s going on with our stress levels? How can we practice emotional self-awareness so that we’re able to identify the warning signs that let us know when our stress levels are getting out of hand? How can we be more conscious of the triggers that tend to cause high stress for us, so that we can be proactive about stress levels before they get too high?

In today’s blog, we’ll discuss this idea of stress awareness – not just stress management – and give you some ideas on how you can be more self-aware in this area of your life.

How does self-awareness help with stress?

Being self-aware of your emotions is an important life skill that has many benefits, including helping you deal with stress.

Practicing the skill of self-awareness means slowing down and noticing your thoughts, feelings, and actions. It’s about paying attention to how certain triggers make you feel both in your mind and your body, and closely examining what these feelings could mean about your stress levels and mental health.

Practicing self-awareness is the first step to managing stress. If you don’t practice self-awareness, then you may not notice that you’re under stress until you’re overwhelmed by it. By then, it may be very difficult to bring stress levels back down. Early detection is key when it comes to managing stress – when you’re able to notice early signs of stress, you can take quick action to prevent yourself from becoming overwhelmed.

Some other benefits of self-awareness for stress include:

1. Stronger coping skills: Self-awareness can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses, which can help you develop effective coping skills to manage stress.
2. Better decision-making: Being self-aware makes you more likely to make decisions that are in line with your values and priorities. This can help you avoid situations that might cause stress to begin with.
3. Improved emotional regulation: Self-awareness can help you to identify your emotions, where they come from, and what you need to do to manage strong feelings.
4. Increased resilience: Self-awareness can make you better able to bounce back from stressful situations.
5. Improved relationships: Self-awareness can help you better understand your own needs and emotions, which can help you communicate more effectively with others. This can improve your relationships and reduce stress caused by misunderstandings. Having a strong social support network is also key in helping you manage stress and other life difficulties.

Ideally, practicing self-awareness can make it less likely for stress levels to become too high to begin with, which reduces the need to use stress management skills.

How can I be more aware of stress?

So how can you practice stress awareness – before you need to practice stress management?

Building self-awareness is a lifelong journey. For most of us, it’s a skill that grows with lots of practice over time. But it is a skill, not an inherent personality trait. That means that, just like with any other skill, everyone can foster self-awareness with practice and dedication.

Here are some tips you can use to help yourself and others become more aware of stress.

Identify your triggers

To be more aware of stress levels, it’s first important to understand what makes you feel this way. We call these things triggers or stressors. And they are different for each person.

For example, one person’s main stressors might be their job and their relationships. Another person might be stressed by finances, but find that their work and their marriage are things that bring peace to their life, not stress.

Reflect on your life and think about what areas of your life bring you the most stress. They may be unavoidable (for example, if your job is one of your main stressors), but it’s still helpful to understand when you’re most likely to be stressed so that you can take action to prepare.

Try to be as specific as possible when identifying your stressors. For example, it may not be work in general that causes you stress, but having to deal with a specific supervisor. You may not be generally stressed in your marriage, but feel stressed when your partner begins to talk to you about finances.

Keep a stress journal

Keeping a stress journal, where you write down stressful events and how they made you feel, can be a powerful tool in becoming more aware of your stress levels.

By recording your stress levels and triggers, you can start to identify patterns and gain insight into what might be causing your stress. Your stress journal can also serve as a space to reflect on how you responded to stress, as well as what coping strategies were effective for you.

Try to record your stress levels and triggers at least once a day, and be as specific as possible. What happened? How, exactly, did you feel? What did you do to try to manage the situation?

Figure out your “warning signs”

What are some of the signs that you’re under a lot of stress? Think in terms of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. When you’re able to identify what stress looks and feels like for you, you may be more likely to be able to catch it and stop it from rising too high.

For example, many people have thoughts like, “I can’t do this,” “What am I going to do?”, “I hate ____ (my job, my partner, my life)” when their stress levels are rising. They might have emotions like anger, frustration, hopelessness, and guilt. They might notice behaviors like snapping at loved ones or overeating.

Take note of what stress looks like for you in terms of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. These are your stress “warning signs.” When you notice these signs, it’s a red flag to stop and do something about your stress levels. This is an important first step in stress management.

Pay attention to physical cues

On top of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, there are probably also physical cues that let you know your stress levels are rising. The stress response is biological and comes along with many changes in your body that are supposed to help you deal with the immediate danger or stressor. Over time, these biological changes can start to cause other, more unpleasant effects in your body.

Pay attention to these physical cues of stress as well. For example, you might experience muscle tension or headaches. You might notice that your jaw is clenched or that your brow is furrowed. You might feel hungrier than usual, or you might lose your appetite completely.

Practice mindfulness

Although mindfulness meditation has its origins in Eastern spiritual practices, it’s now used as a secular health intervention for many conditions. One of the most well-known interventions that uses mindfulness is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, or MBSR.

MBSR teaches people how to use mindfulness to become more aware of, and therefore reduce, their stress levels. Try doing a body scan, an easy mindfulness exercise taken from MBSR.

To practice the body scan, lie down on your back in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Starting at the top of your head, scan down through your body, noticing any areas of tension or discomfort. As you focus on each body part, try to relax that area and let go of any tension. This exercise can help you become more aware of physical sensations in your body and manage stress.

If you’re having trouble coping with stress levels or would just like some extra support, MINES & Associates offers free and confidential counseling 24/7 to members of our Employee Assistance Program. Give us a call to learn more about your EAP benefits.

To Your Wellbeing,

The MINES Team

The post Stress Awareness Month: How to Actually Become More Aware of Stress in Yourself and Others appeared first on MINES and Associates.

Today, we’re spreading awareness about self-harm, including the causes, warning signs, and tips to help a young person you love.

What is self-harm (non-suicidal self-injury)?

Self-harm is when someone intentionally hurts themselves physically. The clinical name for self-harm is non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). Not every incident of someone hurting themselves falls under the umbrella of NSSI; some people hurt themselves because they are suicidal. Non-suicidal self-injury describes when someone hurts themselves

The most well-known method of non-suicidal self-injury is cutting, or when people make shallow cuts on their skin. But cutting is far from the only method; others harm themselves by:

• Biting skin
• Scratching themselves
• Hitting their head against a wall
• Punching themselves
• Pulling out hair
• Burning themselves with matches or cigarettes
• Poking objects through the skin

Young people – children, adolescents, and young adults – are at the highest risk of self-harm. Research shows that over 25% of teens aged 12 to 16 had thoughts of self-harm, with at least 15% acting on these thoughts. Unfortunately, studies have shown that self-harm rates among youth increase each year, with self-harm rates among girls increasing at an especially alarming rate.

However, it’s important to keep in mind that anyone can self-harm, including boys and older adults.

Why do people self-harm?

Self-harm is highly misunderstood; many people mistake self-harm as a form of suicidal behavior. However, self-harm, at least behaviors that fall within the umbrella of non-suicidal self-injury, is not an attempt to end one’s life.

People self-harm for various reasons. Some of the most common reasons include:

• To try to feel something when they feel emotionally numb
• To distract from emotional pain by causing physical pain
• To distract their mind from upsetting thoughts or memories
• To release powerful emotions like loneliness, despair, or anger
• To punish themselves for perceived faults, mistakes, or inadequacies
• To regain a sense of control over their life
• To try to cope with a difficult experience like bullying
• Because self-harm has been so normalized among their peers

Some people don’t know why, exactly, they self-harm. This is normal.

Even though self-harm itself isn’t a suicidal behavior, research shows that teens who have self-harmed are over 3 times more likely to attempt suicide in the future than those who have never self-harmed. Young people also often accidentally put themselves in life-threatening situations while self-harming (for example, by cutting themselves deeper than they intended). Self-harm is a sign that someone is in severe emotional distress, and needs to be taken seriously.

Warning signs of self-harm

One of the first steps to helping someone who self-harms is to notice the signs. When you educate yourself on the warning signs of self-harm, you’re more likely to realize when a loved one is engaging in it.

Self-harm doesn’t have a “look,” just like depression or anxiety don’t have looks. People of any gender or age can self-harm, but young people are at higher risk.

Here are some warning signs of self-harm in teens to look out for:

• Scars (cuts, scabs, bruises, or burns), often found in clusters or patterns
• Frequent unexplained wounds or cuts
• Making excuses for wounds or cuts
• Wearing long sleeves and pants, even when it’s hot out
• Traces of blood on clothes or towels
• Suddenly seeking to do their own laundry or take out their own trash
• Hiding razors
• Withdrawing from friends and family

If a young person you love is showing these signs, then it could be that they’re self-harming – and need your support.

How to help a young person who is self-harming move towards self-love

It can be unfathomable and intensely painful to learn that someone you love, especially a teen or a young adult, is hurting themselves intentionally. It’s devastating to realize that they don’t see themselves as you see them, and you wish you could do something to help them love themselves.

Recovery from self-harm can be a long journey. It becomes an addiction in many ways; it brings temporary relief from emotional pain, and even though the person knows that it’s not a long-term solution, it may be difficult to stop.

But just because they can’t quit right away doesn’t mean that you can’t do anything to support them. A trusted adult’s support is essential for young people as they learn to love themselves and treat themselves with care.

Here are some ways you can support the young person in your life who is self-harming.

• Approach them first. It can be hard for young people to bring up the conversation. If you suspect they are hurting themselves, don’t beat around the bush. Ask them directly: “I noticed cuts on your arms. Are you hurting yourself?”
• Don’t judge, even if you don’t understand. The last thing a young person needs to hear is, “Why would you do this to yourself?” Statements like this can come from a place of caring but also tend to make young people feel misunderstood and judged.
• Focus on their pain. Acknowledge how much they must be emotionally suffering to hurt themselves in this way. Validate their feelings. Even if something doesn’t feel like a big deal to you, it’s still a big deal to them.
• Make your home safe. If the teen lives with you and is using objects, like razors, to hurt themselves, work with them to limit access to these objects.
• Connect to resources. Talk to your pediatrician to get a referral to a mental health provider. You can also get in touch with your Employee Assistance Program for referrals or counseling.
• Provide unconditional love. Let the teen know that you don’t see them differently and that their self-harm behaviors don’t change your love for them. Make it clear that your concern for them comes from love, not from shame or disgust.

There is hope. With support from a trusted adult, young people can successfully stop self-harming and learn to love themselves.

Self-harm resources for teens and young adults

If you struggle with self-harm, here are some resources that can help.

• To Write Love On Her Arms is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting people who struggle with self-injury, depression, and suicide.
• A.F.E. Alternatives is a treatment program for self-harm that also provides a wealth of information and resources.
• The Trevor Project provides phone, text, and chat support for LGBTQ+ young people facing self-injury and other mental health challenges.
• The Adolescent Self-Injury Foundation provides resources for teens and their caregivers.
• The Crisis Text Line operates 24/7.

If you (or someone else) are having a mental health emergency, dial 988.

MINES & Associates EAP is available to employees as well as their household members. All family members can receive 24/7 confidential counseling support for issues like depression, stress, and more. In addition, we provide 4 parental coaching sessions per year to teach you how to better support your teen or young adult who may be self-harming.

Take advantage of this free resource and get in touch with us today.

To Your Wellbeing,

The MINES Team

The post Self-Harm Awareness Month: Here’s How We Can Protect Our Youth appeared first on MINES and Associates.

March is National Nutrition Month, so we are going to talk about your brain. Trust me, it will make total sense. Over the last few years, I have been involved in and facilitated many conversations about mental health. It’s gratifying to be part of a movement where people are beginning to be comfortable speaking up about their own struggles and others are eager to learn how to recognize and support someone working through challenges.

As people gain awareness and build a mental health toolkit, it gets filled with practices to reduce and manage stress. Mindfulness, breathing, journaling, and therapy, all have a positive impact on mental health. Creativity and physical activity are both magical for our minds. Recognizing and regulating emotions is a valuable life skill and once developed will enhance mental wellbeing. Laughter and high-quality social interactions are easy ways to get a dopamine hit—and who doesn’t like that!?

Noticeably absent from the discussion, however, is the topic of food. I find this fascinating, as we like to talk about food all the time—what we should eat, what we shouldn’t eat, what we are going to eat, what we just ate, etc. Rarely are we talking about it in the context of mental health.

And yet, we have some kind of feeling about nearly every food (and beverage) choice we do or don’t make. Those feelings generate beliefs, which ultimately drive our actions. And throughout the entire cycle, there are multiple impacts on our mental health.

So let’s talk about it.

Food is:

• a friend who soothes and comforts you
• entertainment when you are bored
• a delicious distraction when you don’t want to deal with a situation in front of you
• an element that helps you relive fond experiences
• something that brings joy as you connect with culture or celebration
• a reward for doing something hard
• something you can’t live without

Food also:

• is an enemy who prevents you from being your best self
• can be an obstacle to reaching your goals
• alters decision-making capabilities
• brings on feelings of guilt and shame
• is an anxiety-inducing element of social engagements
• leads to punishing thoughts and behaviors
• is something you can’t stop thinking about

We each have a unique relationship with food, and it’s usually rather complex. Exploring, acknowledging, and adjusting yours will likely lead to enhanced mental health. What to eat, when to eat, how much to eat, and how we feel about what we eat—all are important pieces of the dietary puzzle. Most of us have never been taught the basics, which makes the complicated pieces impossible to sort out.

So let’s go basic.  Eat real food.

If, in theory, you could go outside and find, it’s real food that a human body recognizes and understands how to process. These foods grow in the ground and hang off bushes and trees. You can find real food swimming in water and roaming in a pasture. Real food can take a little bit of effort to get into edible form, but it’s fairly simple to determine how it came to be what you are about to ingest.

What does real food have to do with your mental health?  Everything.

Whole foods (WF) offer the raw materials your body uses to create cells, organ tissue, muscles, bones, hormones, neurotransmitters, protective layers, micro-organisms—-and everything else an optimally functioning human needs. The alternative, what I call “food-like substances” (FLS), offer little to no quality resources and instead supply your body with a variety of components it doesn’t need and cause it harm. If overall consumption of FLS is greater than consumption of WF the result could lean toward a less than optimally functioning human, maybe even one with various health conditions.

For many years I have been pitching PFF is Your BFF® (Protein Fat Fiber is your Best Friend Forever), as well as guiding individuals toward an understanding of how to fuel a human body. It’s impossible in the scope of this article to outline all the details, so here are a few highlights.

1. Steady blood sugar. It’s the key to your health and happiness—and maybe the health and happiness of people around you. When blood sugar drops, you might get irritated, frustrated, or find it difficult to concentrate. None of which is great for mental wellbeing. There’s a good chance you’ll reach for some version of sugar—and then beat yourself up for eating that sugar. And then eat more sugar to feel better about feeling bad for eating sugar. You know how this goes!
2. Protein, or more specifically the amino acids we get from consuming foods that have protein, are used to create hormones and neurotransmitters. These are the chemical messengers responsible for operating your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
3. Fat is your friend! Despite what we’ve been fed for decades, fat is not the devil. In fact, it is a key contributor to health and happiness. I don’t know about you, but back in the day when I was afraid to eat fat, I was hungry and irritated all the time. Turns out that wasn’t just my experience as we now have plenty of research to indicate that low-fat diets can increase the likelihood of depression, irritability, and anger. Dietary fats directly affect brain processes via transmission of signals and when you recognize that 70% of brain matter is made up of fat, it’s no wonder that low intake can cause dysregulation. Of course, the type of dietary fats matter. Eat real food, with a variety of sources of fat to nourish your noggin with essential fatty acids. Avoid the ultra-processed ones that often include some type of brain and body-damaging trans fat.
4. Fiber is, among other things, food for your gut bacteria. Referred to as the “second brain” the microbiome in the gut consists of communication pathways with every system in the body. There are direct links to gut imbalances and mental health and mood disorders. Fiber comes from plants, so eat plenty of them and a wide variety to offer your gut critters options for their feasting.
5. Have you ever heard of BDNF? Brain-derived neurotrophic factor is a chemical produced in the brain that supports overall cognitive function and mental wellbeing. It’s so powerful, that many consider it a natural anti-depressant and low levels may contribute to the onset of depression and anxiety. The raw materials for BDNF production need to be introduced to the body—via food. They include a variety of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and polyphenol compounds found in real foods. In addition, insulin resistance, often the result of a habit of highly processed food consumption, prohibits the brain from producing BDNF. Another reason to minimize FLS choices!

The message seems pretty clear—eat real food. Yes, the puzzle can be complicated, but I believe if you take time to learn the basics and gain an appreciation for the powerful impact various types of fuel have on mental health, the harder stuff will be easier to digest. Food can either heal you or hurt you. It’s determining the appropriate balance of choices, and having a positive attitude about ALL the choices that leads to a healthy attitude, not only about your food, but life in general.

To Your Wellbeing,

The MINES Team

The post Feed Your Mind: Exploring the Vital Link Between Nutrition and Mental Health appeared first on MINES and Associates.

In the world of mental health, it’s important to take this month not only to recognize the important contributions that Black Americans have made to the field of psychology and mental well-being but also to hold space for serious conversations about the systemic racism and dehumanization that Black people have faced in mental health systems and beyond.

As mental health professionals, we’re responsible for working toward building a mentally healthier world. Addressing the injustice and suffering that have been inflicted upon Black Americans is an essential part of supporting global mental health. This is perhaps especially true for those of us who work in workplace mental health, where economic, employment, and health factors converge.

Today, we’ll be talking about Black mental health, including taking a deep dive into statistics, giving tips for employers, and providing further resources.

Facts about Black Mental Health

First, let’s take a look at some facts and statistics about mental health issues within our Black communities.

Rates of mental illness in Black populations

Some surveys have found that Black people in the U.S. have an equal or lower rate of reported mental illness than their white counterparts.

But experts say that these numbers are incorrect, and are explained in part by undercounting due to a rightful mistrust of the medical system that many Black people feel. Throughout history, Black Americans have been far more likely to be exploited by the medical system – so they may understandably be less likely to report mental health symptoms.

Other measures of Black mental health have found starkly different results; for example, in one survey, Black adults were almost twice as likely as white adults to report extreme emotional distress, like feeling that “everything is a struggle” or experiencing feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. Black youth are twice as likely as their white counterparts to die by suicide.

It’s clear that we need to take Black mental health seriously.

Help-seeking behavior

Despite experiencing symptoms of mental illness at around the same rate as whites, Black Americans are far less likely to receive support. Over 50% of Black people with a serious mental illness, and over 90% of those with substance use disorder, did not receive the treatment they required.

This disparity is largely due to the barriers to treatment, which we’ll describe below. Many Black people understandably have a mistrust of the U.S. medical system after having been exploited by the U.S. government. In addition, there are sometimes factors of stigma against mental health problems that exist within the Black community that can prevent someone from seeking support.

Black people are also much more likely to visit the emergency room for mental health-related issues – but are less likely than whites to be admitted to the hospital for continuing treatment after their visit.

Barriers to treatment: Racism within the mental health system

Deep systemic racism exists within every American institution, including the mental healthcare system. This creates many barriers to adequate mental health treatment for Black people in this country and explains why Black people receive mental health support at lower rates.

For example, there is a severe lack of representation of Black mental health providers. According to the Association of Black Psychologists, only 4% of psychologists and 2% of psychiatrists identify as Black. This leads to bias, mistrust, exploitation, and misunderstandings within mental health systems for Black clients.

Black individuals are also much more likely to be misdiagnosed with more severe mental health conditions like schizophrenia, even when they’re showing clear signs of depression. They’re also underdiagnosed and are not offered evidence-based treatment even when displaying symptoms that are identical to their white counterparts. This has been going on for decades and continues to happen today.

The United States also has a long history of punishing and incarcerating all people with mental illness, but especially those who are Black. This is especially true for Black individuals who live with substance use disorder. It creates an understandable barrier to treatment when you can’t trust that systems will help you rather than punish you for your suffering.

The impacts of racism on mental health

Systemic racism doesn’t only prevent mental health treatment access; it also impacts mental health itself. Racism, both interpersonal and institutional, is traumatic. Trauma is the natural emotional reaction humans have to something that is beyond our ability to cope and can cause symptoms like hypervigilance and somatic symptoms (headaches, etc.). Our society inflicts the trauma of racism onto Black Americans daily, which can understandably affect their mental health.

A 2021 study found that dealing with structural racism led to structural changes in Black women’s brains. The study’s authors suggested that these brain changes could lead to a heightened vulnerability to health conditions including dementia.

Institutional racism has also led to disproportionate rates of poverty for Black Americans. Research shows that Black people living below the poverty line are far more likely to experience mental illness.

Why this matters for employers, and what we can do

If your employees’ mental health matters to you, then your Black employees’ mental health needs to matter to you, too. As an employer or manager, it’s essential to understand that Black employees face unique risk factors and barriers that can contribute to mental health problems in different ways. Their experiences are valid and need to be listened to and honored.

Here are some things you can do to support and protect your Black employees’ mental health:

• Listen. When a Black employee tells you about racism or microaggressions they’re facing within the workplace, listen with an open mind. Don’t be defensive, and believe them when they tell you about what’s happening.
• Be transparent about pay. This can help expose any payment disparities that may exist within your company and help correct racial inequality. These disparities can negatively affect Black mental health.
• Address your implicit biases. Everyone has biases, and non-Black people have historically shown biases against the Black community. Addressing that these implicit biases can exist in you is the first step to changing them and being a better manager.
• Ask for feedback. Be open to and encouraging of feedback from Black employees. Ask them to call you out when you’ve made a mistake, and take ownership.
• Ensure access to culturally competent counseling. Ensure that the workplace mental health or EAP that you choose has diverse and culturally competent counselors available.
• Provide accommodations. For employees of all races who face mental health symptoms, provide accommodations like time off or an adjusted schedule.
• Create Employee Resource Groups or mentorship programs. These programs can help connect Black employees with others who share their identity and create safe spaces within your organization.
• Commit to being an anti-racist organization. Don’t make empty statements. Commit to your DEI efforts, and understand that unlearning racism and creating equity is a lifelong process. Working for an anti-racist organization can decrease the mental toll on Black employees.

Further resources for Black mental health

Here are further resources to learn more about Black mental health and access treatment.

• The Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective, a national institution dedicated to the healing, wellness, and liberation of Black communities.
• National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)’s Sharing Hope, a program to increase mental health awareness within Black communities.
• Mental Health America’s resource to learn about Black pioneers in the field of mental health.
• The Black Mental Health Alliance, an organization that provides training and referral opportunities to advocate for culturally effective mental health care for the Black community.
• The Boris Lawrence Henderson Foundation, a Black mental health advocacy group that connects people to culturally competent therapists and offers a scholarship fund for Black people who want to work in mental health.
• The Loveland Foundation, a fund that helps Black women and girls access therapy and other healing opportunities.
• Therapy for Black Men, which works to break the stigma of mental health care for Black men and provides access to multiculturally competent therapists.

Happy Black History Month!

To Your Wellbeing,

The MINES Team

The post How Black History Month and Mental Health Are Connected, and Why It Matters appeared first on MINES and Associates.

This year, let’s all strive to take small steps to get closer and closer toward complete mental wellness. Here are 12 effective and easy-to-implement steps from MINES & Associates, a leading international psychology firm, and your Employee Assistance Program.

Tips to improve your mental well-being from your Employee Assistance Program

Here are 12 tips for 2024 to improve emotional and mental wellness – one for every month of the year. Make a commitment to choosing one to practice each month.

Tip #1: Reduce stress

Stress in short bursts is okay – but chronic stress – stress that sticks around over a long time – has countless health consequences and is a major barrier to mental wellness. Reducing your stress levels is one of the best things you can do for your overall health this year. What needs to change in your life for there to be less stress in your life? What boundaries may need to be set?

Tip #2: Practice relaxation

One of the best ways to reduce stress is to practice intentionally relaxing. You don’t need to be on a tropical beach with a drink in hand to relax. Relaxation is about activating a physiological response in your nervous system that counteracts the stress response. Strategies like deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation have been shown to promote your body’s relaxation response.

Tip #3: Stay active

If you have a fitness resolution this year, there’s good news – physical activity can also get you closer to emotional and mental wellness! Research shows that aerobic exercise is profoundly effective for combating depression and anxiety, and can help you reduce your stress levels as well. Every time you sweat it out, you’re getting closer to mental well-being.

Tip #4: Connect with others

You can boost your mental wellness simply by spending time with your closest loved ones. Research shows that social connection has many benefits for well-being, but the reverse is also true – loneliness can have significant negative effects. If you feel lonely, make it a goal this year to connect more. Join local groups, try a friendship “dating” app, or even find a support group.

Tip #5: Be generous

Positive psychology researchers have found that doing random acts of kindness can improve mental wellness and fill you with pleasant feelings. It doesn’t have to be a huge act of kindness, like donating a large amount of money – even simple things will do, like holding the door open for someone or visiting a grieving neighbor.

Tip #6: Schedule doing nothing

We make so many goals for ourselves that we forget it’s important to do nothing, too! Leisure time is critical to mental well-being. We all need time to simply recharge, free of the pressure to do anything at all. Consider scheduling blocks of “nothing time” into your calendar, and resist the temptation to use the time to do something productive.

Tip #7: Prioritize sleep

Sleep is essential to wellness in every way. Sleep helps your brain process and learn, and allows your body to rest. Research shows that sleep deprivation is linked to many mental health problems including depression and anxiety. Most healthy adults should strive to get 7 to 9 hours of restful sleep every night.

Tip #8: Find meaning through values

Having a purpose in life is an important component of mental wellness. But how do you live a meaningful life if it feels like your job – where you spend most of your time – doesn’t give you purpose? Try finding ways to connect your everyday tasks, like your job, to your deeper values. For example, perhaps you value family – and your job gives you the means to support your family. This can help you feel like your life is more purposeful.

Tip #9: Reflect on what you’re grateful for

You’ve probably heard the advice to “be more grateful.” This advice isn’t about toxic positivity – it’s not about forcing yourself to feel grateful for everything. It’s about intentionally shifting your focus on the positive things in your life. Try starting a gratitude journal, where you write down everything that makes you smile. Find a “gratitude buddy,” and share with each other the best parts of your days.

Tip #10: Spend time in nature

This year, try to commit to spending as much time in green spaces as possible. This can be tricky during the winter months if you live in Northern latitudes, but being surrounded by nature can have benefits for mental health and can also reduce stress. It’s okay if you don’t have access to large swaths of wilderness – even sitting on a bench in a city park can have benefits.

Tip #11: Belly laugh

Laughter can help you feel immediately better when you’re distressed. Research shows that humor and laughter have numerous benefits to wellness, including physical and mental health benefits. What makes you laugh so hard that your belly aches? Is it spending time with a particular loved one, or watching your favorite stand-up comedian? Whatever it is, prioritize laughing this year – intentionally schedule it into your to-do list.

Tip #12: Talk to a counselor

Lastly, we tend to think of mental health counseling and therapy as something we access when we’re already feeling unwell. But counseling could be the missing piece to your overall mental well-being. You don’t need to wait until you’re in a mental health crisis to start therapy – many people see therapists to deepen self-awareness, learn stress management skills, and improve their self-esteem.

If you are subscribed to MINES & Associates’ Employee Assistance Program (EAP), then counseling is a free 24/7 service that you have at your disposal.

We hope you choose to use your EAP this year – we’re looking forward to working with you on your wellness goals.

To Your Wellbeing,

The MINES Team

The post How Can I Improve My Mental Well-Being? 12 Tips for 2024 appeared first on MINES and Associates.

What’s the difference? Mental wellness is more than just the absence of illness. Just because you don’t struggle with a mental health condition like depression or OCD doesn’t mean that you’re mentally well. Just like physical wellness, mental wellness comes on a spectrum from very ill to optimum health.

To be truly well, it’s important to integrate both physical and mental health. You might think of these two spheres of health as separate entities, but they’re a lot more related than you might think. Physical health deeply affects mental health, and vice versa.

In today’s blog, we’ll talk about the importance of integrating physical and mental health and how your employee assistance program may be able to help.

How is physical and mental health connected?

Physical and mental health have a bidirectional relationship, which means that each affects the other. Mental health problems can make physical health problems worse and vice versa, which can get you locked in a vicious cycle if you live with both.

For example, people with depression and other mental illnesses are much more likely to live with chronic health conditions like chronic pain and cardiovascular disease. This link is bi-fold: living with depression can increase stress, which heightens your risk of developing a chronic physical health condition. But living with things like chronic pain can also worsen depression because of its impact on quality of life.

This connection between physical and mental health can at least partly be explained by the intricate network of neurotransmitters, hormones, and other biochemical substances in your body (especially in your brain and nervous system). For example, neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, which are typically associated with mood regulation, also play a role in different physiological processes like gastrointestinal function and your immune system.

But these important neurotransmitters don’t only exist in the brain – many, including serotonin, have been found to primarily be created in the gut and intestines. This has led researchers to study what they call the “brain-gut axis” – how your digestive health affects your mental health.

We can also look at behaviors that are associated with certain mental illnesses. For example, people who live with mental health conditions like schizophrenia are more likely to be smokers. It may also be more difficult for people who live with mental illness to maintain healthy lifestyle habits like getting enough restful sleep, exercising, and staying connected to friends and family. All of these habits have been found to have a significant impact on both mental and physical health.

Every year, we learn more and more about the exact mechanisms that link mental and physical health. But we already have a large body of evidence showing that the two are deeply intertwined. To reach mental wellness, you need to look at your physical health, and vice versa.

How can I improve my physical and mental health?

Luckily, there are habits that you can implement – and stay away from – that will improve both your physical and mental health. This will take you further along on the spectrum of complete wellness.

Physical activity

Getting regular physical exercise is one of the best things you can do for both your physical and mental health.

As you move, your body releases endorphins – neurotransmitters that lift your mood, promote feelings of happiness, and reduce stress. On the physical front, exercise enhances cardiovascular health, strengthens muscles, and improves flexibility, which contributes to overall fitness. On top of that, the mental focus required during exercise serves as a form of mindfulness, which can help calm the mind and alleviate anxiety.

Best of all, studies show that it doesn’t take much – although the CDC recommends getting 2.5 hours of moderate exercise a week, one study found that people who got even half that amount were still less likely to be depressed.

Manage your stress

Chronic stress is one of the worst things for both your physical and mental health. Although short bursts of stress can help you focus and give you more energy, your body isn’t designed to be under an activated stress response for long periods. Extended stress can put you at higher risk of a wide range of physical and mental ailments, including depression, anxiety, high blood pressure, digestive problems, and more.

Find ways to intentionally relax your body and mind. One way you can do this is through progressive muscle relaxation, an evidence-based method. Mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques can also help. Relaxation doesn’t have to mean taking a spa day – it’s just about finding ways to deactivate your body’s responses and live in a more peaceful state.

Social connection

Your friends and family make you emotionally happy – but did you know that they also improve your physical health, too? Research shows that being socially connected improves your longevity, and also makes you 50% more likely to survive serious illness. Less lonely people are also less likely to develop health conditions like depression, heart disease, dementia, and more.

Social connection is determined not only by the number of people around you but by the quality of those relationships. Look around at your closest relationships and consider: do you feel loved, valued, and cared for in these relationships? Do you have a place where you feel you belong? Do the social exchanges feel meaningful to you?

If not, make it a top priority this year to improve and strengthen your relationships. If you’re feeling lonely and unsure of where to start working on this area of your life, talking to a mental health counselor can help.

MINES’ employee assistance program (EAP) provides a wide range of services to help you improve both your physical and mental health. On top of 24/7 counseling services, we provide smoking cessation support, stress management counseling, peer-to-peer support, and more.

Happy New Year from all of us at MINES!

To your wellbeing (both physical and mental),

The MINES Team

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