February 2023 Newsletter
We hope your year is off to a great start and that you’ve had time to set some SMART resolutions that are achievable this year. If you haven’t yet, that’s OK, it is always a good time to get started! We also hope you were able to participate in some of the Wellness Wednesday activities in January – if you haven’t had a chance, one of our ongoing activities is the Be:Well Recipe Exchange Padlet. Share your favorite healthy recipe so others can try them too!
Newsletter content written by Be:Well members, Samantha Leonard & Chelsea Jacobson
Monthly Wellness Wednesday Walk on Feb 15
In the spirit of improving our social, physical, mental and emotional health, we will be hosting a Wellness Wednesday Walk every third Wednesday of the month. Meet Samantha Leonard in the ESD 112 lobby on Wednesday, February 15th at 3:45pm to take a stroll outside. We plan to walk, rain or shine, so please plan accordingly.
If you aren’t at the ESD 112 Vancouver campus, we welcome you to get a group together and take a walk at your location. And if you take any pics or have any stories, we’d love to know! Send to bewell@esd112.org.
Here is a photo of the group that walked with us in January!
Live:Well – Emotional Wellness
This month’s feature topic is emotional wellness. Emotional wellness is the ability to successfully handle life’s stresses and adapt to change and difficult times. This doesn’t always come easy, and it takes work and practice just like anything else. The National Institutes of Health has an Emotional Wellness Toolkit that provides six strategies for improving your emotional health. They include:
- How to build resilience
- How to reduce stress
- How to get quality sleep
- How to strengthen social connections
- How to cope with loss
- How to practice being mindful
Another thing that can impact your emotional health is the way you think. The Mayo Clinic published an article called “Positive Thinking: Stop Negative Self-Talk to Reduce Stress” which explains the benefits of positive thinking. These benefits include an increased lifespan, lower rates of depression, greater resilience to illness, and better cardiovascular health – to name a few – and all of which can increase your emotional wellness.
American Heart Month & National Wear Red Day on Feb 3
Did you know that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women, killing more women than all forms of cancer combined? Or that most cardiac and stroke events can be prevented through education and lifestyle changes? The American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women movement was launched in 2004 with the goal of raising awareness for cardiovascular disease in women. It is also a great reminder for everyone to be active and focus on keeping your heart healthy! We invite you to join us and wear red on Friday, February 3rd to support awareness of cardiovascular disease.
Take photos of your team wearing red and send them to bewell@esd112.org – we’d love to share them! And, if you’d like, feel free to include a description of who you are wearing red for.
The American Heart Association has many great resources on things you can do to prevent cardiovascular disease. The topics listed below are just some of the many you can find on their website:
- Good Nutrition Defense Against Heart Disease
- Exercise to Prevent Heart Disease
- Heart Doctor Explains Cholesterol
- Warning Signs & Symptoms of Heart Attack and Stroke
Kindness & Emotional Health
Imagine a world where kindness is the norm, people all around you are friendly, generous, and considerate of you and your needs. What would this do for your emotional health? Check out “The Science of Kindness Video” by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation to see how kindness can start a chain reaction of making the world a better place.
Random Acts of Kindness Day: Friday, February 17th
With Random Acts of Kindness Day occurring this month, the Be:Well team wants to provide ideas for how to be kind on that day – and every day – and we will be hosting “Kindness Week” from Monday 2/13 – Friday 2/17 with activities in the ESD 112 Vancouver campus breakroom.
In the breakroom, there will be paper hearts with positive affirmations written on them with extras for you to add your own affirmations. We’ll also have kindness-themed coloring pages (a great brain break activity!), kindness posters for your workspace with great ideas for spreading kindness, and a “Workplace Kindness Challenge” worksheet.
If you are not able to pop into the breakroom that week, you can access the same activity handouts and worksheets below:
- Random Acts of Kindness Day Poster
- Make Kindness the Norm Coloring Page
- Workplace Kindness Challenge
We look forward to spreading kindness with you this month!
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