November: Whole Self and Whole Community Wellness

Whole Self and Whole Community Wellness Month focuses on the importance of our emotional, mental, physical, and social health, as individuals and as communities. We are still dealing with the pandemic and the consequences of Covid, and settling into "new normal" life.

What are ways you can help yourself?
How do you restore your community and strengthen community bonds?
What reminders do you need to care for your health?
What practices/activities can your community engage in to improve the health of its members?

Recommended Resources

Mental Health in the School Community

Clinical Therapists Barbie Lewis-Johnson and Corinne Heiliger shared tips and strategies with the staff and students of OMHS.

Apps for a Calmer You
Meditation and Guided Imagery

• Calm: Sleep and Meditation
  
• Headspace: Meditation
  

Journaling

• Day One Journal
  

Gratitude

• 365 Gratitude Journal
  

Breathing

• iBreathe
  

Empowering Affirmations 
I Am: Daily Affirmations

Tapping
The Tapping Solution

First Nations Perspective on Health and Wellness
"This visual depiction of the Perspective on Health and Wellness is a tool for the FNHA and First Nations Communities. It aims to create shared understanding of an holistic vision of wellness. This image is just a snapshot of a fluid concept of wellness: it can be adapted and customized freely and is not confined to remain the same.

The original image was created from researching other models; from feedback and ideas gathered from BC First Nations over the past few years and from traditional teachings and approaches shared by First Nations healers and elders at gatherings convened by the FNHA and its predecessor - the First Nations Health Society."

Learn more about this concept of wellness from the First Nations

Book Recommendations

See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur
Untamed by Glennon Doyle

Healthline's Top 15 Mental Health Books of 2021

• Best for people battling trauma: The Body Keeps the Score
• Best for science lovers: Change Your Brain, Change Your Life
• Best for anxiety: Hope and Help for Your Nerves: End Anxiety Now
• Best for recovery from addiction: Recovery: Freedom from Our Addictions
• Best for women survivors of relationship abuse: Healing the Trauma of Abuse: A Women’s Workbook
• Best for understanding a therapist’s perspective: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
• Best for overcoming codependency: Codependent No More
• Best for battling burnout: Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
• Best for healing from emotional pain: Emotional First Aid
• Best for understanding family trauma: It Didn’t Start with You: How Inherited Family Trauma Shapes Who We Are and How to End the Cycle
• Best for self-awareness: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
• Best for navigating relationships: Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find—and Keep—Love
• Best for highly sensitive people: The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
  
• Best for practicing self-love: Loving Bravely
  
• Best for finding order in life: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  

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OMO Scorpion Speaker Series

Friday, 11/5 - State's Attorney Rich Gibson and Police Lieutenant Ehart explain the Howard County LEAD Program and its purpose of restoring citizens and the community. The goal of the LEAD program is to improve public health and public safety by reducing future harm and criminal behavior caused by individuals engaged in crimes related to unmet behavioral health needs. Learn more about the LEAD Program

Friday, 11/12 - Corrine Heilinger, LCPC, and Barbie Lewis-Johnson, LCSW-C, will share insights from their practices working with stressed-out teens and will demonstrate ways to stay grounded and calm when life gets messy.

Learn more about the Speaker Series