May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and here at The Women’s Center, we consistently highlight the importance of maintaining mental wellness for staff as well as clients. With the many uncertainties of today’s environment, we want to take a moment to encourage everyone to be attentive to your own mental health.
Practicing mindfulness is one way to take stock of how you feel and help identify areas of focus. By definition, mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.
This is a helpful tool in staying grounded in stressful situations and making thoughtful decisions. Mindfulness is often used synonymously with meditation, and although meditation is one way to practice mindfulness, there are many different, simple ways to practice mindfulness.
Some examples include:
- Actively paying attention to the present
- Focus on your breathing
- Mindful journaling
One of our favorite suggestions is to use journaling as a tool to practice mindfulness. Mindful journaling is meditative writing, an independent activity that encourages you to freely express what you are experiencing in the moment through writing.
It takes practice to get into the habit of taking time to write, and it can be difficult to identify where to start your personal reflection. Below are some journaling prompts that can help you center yourself and take a moment to focus on YOU!
- The words you’d like to live by are…
- What’s your greatest strength and why?
- Make a list of the people in your life who genuinely support you, and who you can genuinely trust.
- Write about some of your biggest victories and successes:
- Make a list of everything you’d like to say “no” to.
If you would like to learn more about The Women’s Center and our services, call our 24-Hour Hotline at 262.542.3828 to be immediately connected with an advocate.