Written by: Rukshana Ilahi, Mental Wellness Consultant for Kent ISD

We all do activities daily to take care of our physical hygiene. We shower regularly, brush our teeth, wash our clothes, etc.  These activities are a part of your daily routine. Many of them you do without even thinking about it (not true when it comes to laundry for me!).  What if this were true for developing regular mental health hygiene routines?

I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz around the need for self-care recently.  In fact, I’ve heard some people say “if I hear the words self-care one more time….” The good news is that this response shows people are recognizing the amount of stress they are feeling and discovering healthy ways to respond.  The not so good news is that this can feel like the latest fad, one more thing to add to your to-do list and/or people over generalize what self-care really means.  Instead, I’d like for you to think about self-care as mental health hygiene. 

Mental Health Hygiene Assessment

What do you do daily or weekly to address your mental health? 

Let’s take a look at this Self-Care Wheel:

This wheel breaks down self-care into six main categories for life balance: Physical, Psychological, Emotional, Spiritual, Personal, and Professional. You are a complex being, so I find it helpful to break down your mental health into bite size chunks. This wheel can be used as a tool to assess and plan your self-care journey.

At first glance, the wheel may seem overwhelming, so focus on one aspect at a time. For example, if you notice that you are on your A-game with eating your fruits and veggies (Physical), but that you may not be maintaining friendships (Personal), then be sure to focus on the personal section of the wheel. Then take a moment to reflect on what this might mean for you.

Want to learn more about your self care needs?

This quiz will help you to discover your areas of strength and recognize areas that need further development. As you start on your journey to improve your mental health hygiene routines, remember no one is perfect and it takes time to develop new habits.  Start small and choose one new routine you would like to develop. Share your new challenge with someone you love for support on your journey. Then determine your next steps to reach this goal. 

Recently a team of educators and professionals in our community collaborated to create a series of short videos to promote educator resilience and emotional wellness. The first video in this series Emotional Wellness: Self-Help for Educators provides self-help strategies for educators to support their own emotional wellness. Check out the video to start brainstorming ways to improve your Mental Health Hygiene today!

#MentalWellnessMatters #WeLeadLearning #KentISDpd