This May, focus on self-care for Mental Health Month

May is National Mental Health Month. One important piece of mental health is self-care. This quote speaks to the importance of self-care:

“When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel.” ~ Eleanor Brown

In today’s world it is easy to get wrapped up in working, life demands, and expectations from family, which makes it increasingly more important to take a moment and focus on you. Just as when on an airplane they ask you to put your oxygen mask on first then help those around you, the same goes for day to day life.

Often, when we’re busy, we put ourselves on the backburner, running here and there, taking care of this task or that. We forget that to be our best selves we need time to simply be. In this technology driven time, there are many mindfulness apps to help guide you to allow yourself down time, to relax. Mindfulness has many benefits including increased sense of calm, higher energy and enthusiasm for living (energy for all those societal expectations), increase confidence in yourself, a decrease in stress, anxiety, or depression, and an increase in compassion for yourself and others. Most mindfulness activities take as little as five minutes to complete.

My personal favorite mindfulness resource is at the Free Mindfulness Project. This site has numerous activities ranging from three minutes to 45 minutes. Some have you focus on breathing, others help you see how you truly are, and others have you look at how the world is.

This May, take some time for you to be your best self- mindfulness has great benefits and takes little time.

Lexie Hoffmann is a Provisional Clinical Social Worker (PCSW) in the Campbell County Medical Group Kid Clinic. The Kid Clinic is a school-based pediatric clinic offering medical care for Campbell County students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade and their siblings ages two weeks and up; and counseling services for children 4 years to 21 years. It is located at 800 Butler Spaeth Rd., across from St. Matthew’s Catholic Church. The Kid Clinic is open Monday-Friday from 8 am-5 pm. For more information, call 307-688-8700 or visit www.cchwyo.org/services/pediatrics/kid-clinic/. The Kid Clinic is a collaborative effort between Campbell County Health and Campbell County School District.