STORY TOOLS

• E-mail story
• iPod friendly
• Printer friendly

Tell us about it

• What would you add to this story? Tell us what we missed.
• Do you have photos from this event? Documents we need to see? Share with us.
• Upload photos & videos
• More ways to get your stuff online and in the paper.

More Features

• High and mighty: Tree houses give kids of all ages powerful perspective on life below
• Clicking with lineage: Daughters of the American Revolution
• Good cause, Great effect: The Joy of Giving gears up

Share and Enjoy [?]

I pondered what to write for my first column of 2008 and decided on some positive steps you can do to keep yourself mentally healthy.

Look around you; everyone is in a hurry! We live in a stressful society. I hear many retired people say, “I am so busy I can’t get everything done!” We have so many gadgets to keep us busy and occupied. We have become accustomed to stress, we are not even aware of how much stress we are experiencing. It is happening so insidiously.

Take a few minutes right now to check for yourself how much stress you are feeling. Just close your eyes and pay attention to your breathing.

How much stress are you dealing with? Are you having physical problems? Are you having family problems?

Perhaps you may be experiencing a lack of sleep. Perhaps finance is creating stress for you. Pay attention to your body. Health includes body, mind and spirit.

Many of us live in our heads and we do not pay attention to our bodies. Let your body guide you as to how you are feeling. As you learn to become more aware of your emotions in your body, you will find you will be treating your body with more respect such as through proper eating habits, sleep and exercise.

It is important to recognize your symptoms of stress. Take a look at your lifestyle to see what, if any can be changed to alleviate any stress.

Ron Sterling, M.D., a general and geriatric psychiatrist in Seattle identified five areas to promote mental wellness. I would like to share them with you. They are: self-appreciation, resilience, affiliation, negotiation, and mental and physical exercise.

He pointed out the importance for a person to have the ability to appreciate oneself. He noted this is different from self-esteem. He stated, “The word ‘appreciate’ means to recognize the quality, value, and significance or magnitude of a person or thing and it implies a generally high regard for people mixed with the ability for critical assessment, comparison and judgment.”

Thus, self-appreciation is more than recognizing and liking personal qualities; it also includes acknowledging a person’s current stressors and vulnerabilities.

As you can see, the earlier we can recognize these emotional stressors, the better our physical health will be. We have a tendency to deny them and hope they will go away. We don’t talk about them while they brew inside us. Meanwhile we worry and stress over them.

The second area he mentioned was resilience. Resilience is a person’s ability to recover quickly, to bounce back from a set-back. Sterling says, “The qualities that allow for resilience are optimism, a sense of perspective (seeing the big picture), believing that there is a positive meaning to life, and the ability to laugh at some of the tricks that life plays on us.” I am sure many of you have noticed that as you have bounced back, you have become stronger.

The third area mentioned is affiliation. This is our ability to get close to people, to negotiate relationships and to form supportive relationships. Sterling brings out affiliation is more than just being social. It is “the ability to feel the closeness”. Everyone needs friends and supportive relationships during a time of emotional stress.

Negotiation is the fourth area. This means we have the ability to see from our own experiences that perhaps we do not have all of the answers and thus, we can allow ourselves to alter our beliefs by learning from others.

Mental and physical exercise is the last area of Dr. Sterling’s focus. In his work, Dr. Sterling brings out that, “Research has consistently shown that physical exercise protects against depression.” This again brings into focus the mind-body connection.

We can become mentally alert by reading, engaging in activities in our community and developing a curiosity in what is happening in our world.

Have fun, be easy on yourself and laugh at yourself! Laugh and be happy with other people! Laughter is the best of all medicines! It is hard to be stressed when you laugh.

- - -

Carolyn Katchmar is a member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, a certified addictions professional in Florida and a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors. Katchmar can be reached at ckharper@comcast.net.