As many of you know, May is Mental Health Awareness month so Cypress Resilience Project is in full swing! We are posting resources on our social media platforms, training people in Mental Health First Aid certification and deepening our own work on understanding trauma, grief and their connections to mental health challenges.
But Mental Health Awareness can’t be relegated to one month if we want to make a difference in the lives of those who are suffering. Every day we have an opportunity to change and grow.
Every day . . . can be a time when we fight the stigma many feel with reaching out for help.
Every day . . . can be a time when we reach out to others and check-in to let them know we care and we value them.
Every day . . . should be a time when we challenge our own biases and the misinformation we have inherited that may limit our own abilities to be consistently compassionate.
Every day . . . is an opportunity for us to have hope and to believe that healing and recovery are possible with support and connection.
Every day . . . is a chance to celebrate inherent individual and community resilience and to support it by acknowledging and working to fight systemic inequities that continue to challenge that resilience and seek to destroy it.
Every day . . . is a day to welcome difference and approach our relationships with acceptance and kindness.
Every day . . . is a chance to be kind and understanding of ourselves; knowing that this year has been so hard and we are all doing the best we can.
There is a lot of work to be done. We know that the past year (plus) has increased levels of anxiety, depression, thoughts of suicide, and overdose. And no one person will be able to fix these complex issues alone. It will take all of us coming together and making a promise to do better . . . day by day.
So this May, please join me in a commitment to increase our Mental Health Awareness every day. Because something this important needs more of our attention that just one month!
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