Hi again, and welcome to part two of the Mental Wealth presentation. In this segment, we’ll be discussing how to promote mental health in yourself and your students.
I want to remind you that all of the slides, resources, and handouts are available on a landing page on my website. You can access these by scanning the QR code with your phone. After entering your name and email, you’ll have access to the slides and the wheel exercises we’ll be using today, which are excellent tools for both personal use and to share with your children and students. I’ve also included many other resources and links on that landing page, so be sure to check it out.
This segment focuses on mental health, especially in light of the challenges we’ve faced during the pandemic. Many of us have experienced declines in our mental health and have struggled with work-life balance, as work and home life have blended more than ever. Now, as we return to the workplace or school, it’s important to adjust and prioritize our mental well-being. Make sure you carve out time in your day for self-care, take healthy breaks, access support when needed, and set healthy boundaries with work and technology. Communicating with loved ones and colleagues about your time boundaries and personal responsibilities is also essential.
As our stressors increase, so does our need for self-care and support. That’s the key to maintaining mental health. I’ve created a Self-Care Wheel as a downloadable exercise on my website, and I encourage you to print it out and complete it. You can share it with others, including your kids, family, partner, or students. This is an exercise from my book, which includes 16 similar self-assessment tools.
Each spoke on the Self-Care Wheel represents a different aspect of self-care. These include physical self-care like nutrition, exercise, hydration, and sleep, as well as psychological self-care like self-forgiveness, self-affirmation, and self-compassion. There are also lifestyle elements such as taking time for solitude and reflection, and cultivating work-life balance. You’ll place a dot on each spoke toward the outside if you’re doing well in that area, or toward the center if it’s an area that needs improvement. Once you’ve completed all the spokes, you’ll identify the “dents” in your wheel—areas of self-care that may be lacking.
When I use this tool with clients or in my speaking engagements—whether in corporate settings, universities, or professional organizations—people often gain important insights about their self-care habits. We don’t typically measure our self-care, but it’s crucial to promote mental well-being and a sense of self-worth. Learning to take care of ourselves as a loving parent or compassionate advocate is essential. Ask yourself: would I feed my children what I ate yesterday? If the answer is no, it’s time to reevaluate how you treat yourself.
Please complete this exercise and identify your three biggest self-care gaps. Create an action plan for improvement, as this will transform your personal and professional life, promote work-life balance, and refill your energy.
A question I often ask my clients is: “If you were a cell phone, what would your battery be at right now?” Our energy fluctuates throughout the day, especially as parents or educators. It’s important to take time for hobbies, exercise, meditation, or mindfulness to refill your cup. We cannot give from an empty cup, so emotional intelligence is key, and caring for yourself is essential—not selfish.
Mindfulness is one of the most important self-care practices. Rooted in Zen Buddhism, mindfulness is a philosophy, not a religion. It involves maintaining moment-to-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surroundings, which keeps us rooted in the present moment and facilitates peace. Many of us ruminate on the past or worry about the future, but connecting with our breath brings us into the present and helps us calm our minds and bodies.
There are many ways to practice mindfulness, whether through meditation, yoga, connecting with nature, or even using apps like Calm or Headspace. These practices help us respond rather than react, improving everything from relationships and job performance to physical and mental health. Research has shown that mindfulness can counter many negative effects of the pandemic, such as stress and burnout. When we practice mindfulness, we spend, eat, and live more mindfully, making healthier choices.
Yoga is another mindfulness practice that I love. As a certified yoga practitioner, I teach yoga to my clients and my kids. Yoga is for everyone, and it doesn’t require you to be in top physical shape. Practices like restorative yoga or yin yoga can be deeply relaxing and help with trauma recovery. Other mindfulness techniques include body scans, where you notice tension in your body and breathe into those areas.
Detachment is another mindfulness strategy I value. It’s not about being disconnected or uncaring, but rather about separating yourself from negative emotions—whether they’re your own or from others. Emotions are natural responses to our experiences, and while we should honor them, we can also observe and manage them. This allows us to respond consciously rather than react emotionally. We can also detach from the emotions of others, which can be especially helpful in relationships or caregiving roles.
We also need to detach from certain expectations, especially in the context of the pandemic. Attaching our happiness to outcomes can lead to disappointment, so we need to stay present, recalibrate our expectations, and accept that things may not return to “normal” as quickly as we hope.
In the next section, we’ll focus on financial health, but for now, I encourage you to continue practicing mindfulness and detachment. By taking care of ourselves and teaching these practices to our children and students, we set the foundation for emotional and mental well-being.
Thank you for joining me today.
