World Mental Health Day is October 10

By Amanda Raines, 4-H Educator, Hardin County

October 10th is World Mental Health Day. According to the World Health Organization (2022), the purpose of World Mental Health Day is “to raise awareness of mental health issues around the world and to mobilize efforts in support of mental health.”  This year the WHO is working with global partners to launch a new campaign: Making Mental Health & Well-Being for All a Global Priority. The goals of this campaign and World Mental Health Day are to recognize the progress we’ve made as a global community surrounding the mental health issues, share the work being done, and reduce stigma and discrimination.

There are many ways that 4-Hers can observe and actively participate World Mental Health Day:

Learn More About Mental Health

There are many resources that you can use to learn about mental health: books, podcasts, websites, and even films.  Here are some action steps you can take:

  • Visit your local library and ask your librarian to help you find a book on mental health.
  • Check out PBS’s On Our Minds. This is a student-led, and they produced program about youth mental health challenges. There are stories for teens, by teens, to help reduce stigma and connect you to resources.
  • Schedule a visit with your school’s counselor to learn more about what they do and how they can help you and your peers.

Practice Self-Care

Self-care is actively taking steps to improve your physical, mental, and emotional health to gain better quality of life. Three steps to developing self-care strategies are:

  1. Find what works for you – What do you enjoy doing, how to do you relax?
  2. Plan ahead – Your self-care should be blocked into your schedule, just like practices and studying.
  3. Be consistent – Self-care strategies work best when they are used regularly.

There is no magic self-care routine or activity that works for everyone. You’ll need to figure out what works for you and how to fit it into your routine. This can take time, but don’t be discouraged! World Health Day is a good time to pause and reflect on your self-care routine and identify activities that you can try. Have you considered:

  • A new type of exercise
  • Tracking your fruit and vegetable intake
  • Writing short stories, daily reflections, or thank you notes

4-H has resources that can help you explore mental health and learn more about yourself too.

Your Thoughts Matter: Navigating Mental Health – This 4-H project book includes 10 activities to help you dive into learning more about mental health, stigma, and resilience.

4-H at Home: Learning the Power of Mindfulness – This set of three activities teaches youth about social and emotional learning and how to build positive mental health. Activities include making meditation bottles, building healthy friendships, and learning how to stress less.

4-H at Home: Emotional Wellness – This set of three activities helps teens understand emotions and how to express them, using goal setting as self-care, and the importance of resilience.

If you or someone you know needs to be connected to professional resources, Ohio State University’s Center for Public Health Practice has compiled Mental Health Resource Guides. Go to u.osu.edu/cphp/ohio-mental-health-resource-guides/, find the county you need, and select it to bring up local resources.

References

First Things First. (2019). Self-care: A college student’s guide. Ohio State University. https://u.osu.edu/uofye/2019/11/13/self-care-a-college-students-guide/

PBS News Hour. (n.d.). On our minds. https://studentreportinglabs.org/on-our-minds/

World Health Organization. (2022). World Mental Health Day 2022. https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-mental-health-day/2022

Connect the Dots for Mental Health

Ohio 4-H decided to focus on mental health during the month of January 2021. Mental health has always been important, but the need to focus on mental health was never more apparent than in 2020.

Throughout the month, members of the 4-H Healthy Living Design Team wrote about different dimensions of wellness. Even though our focus was on mental health, we touched on many other aspects of health– physical, emotional, social, intellectual, environmental, financial, and creative. We presented some background information, suggested strategies to address each area, and shared our own experiences.

If you look back over the month, I think you can see how all the different dimensions of wellness are related to each other. For example, one way to make mindfulness part of our day is to listen when someone is talking to us. In turn, this will lead to better social connections, which will enhance our social health. Social connection creates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being. In fact, research suggest that the quality of our social ties might be the single biggest predictor of our well-being. We can reach out to friends when we’re feeling stressed; in turn, we can check in with our family and friends to be the person that they turn to when they need support.

Of course, physical activity helps keep our body healthy. But that’s not all it does. Engaging in physical activity is recommended as a way to manage stress, which addresses our mental health. And even better when we can take that activity outdoors. Then we can practice mindfulness when we take in the sights, sounds, and smells when we’re walking outdoors.

Self-care strategies keep us healthy in many ways: in addition to physical activity, getting enough sleep; eating healthful foods; and making time for fun, learning, and creative activities are things we can do. Some of these strategies may require us to establish better habits to make them a regular part of our lifestyle.

The coronavirus pandemic has been challenging for everyone. It’s easy to think of what we didn’t get to do. However, I think you can probably think of some good things that happened last year. Among my family and friends there were high school and college graduations, weddings, new babies, new homes, new jobs, and other milestones. They may have looked different, but life kept on going. It’s important to pause and recognize the good things that happen every day, no matter how small.  Another way to see the connections is in the COPE with COVID suggestions put forth by Dr. Bern Melnyk, Chief Wellness Officer at The Ohio State University and Dean of the College of Nursing. You can see how these suggestions incorporate aspects of physical, mental, emotional, and social health, as well as gratitude and mindfulness.

Today’s Take-Away: Look for ways to pledge your health to better living. The resources developed for Ohio 4-H Mental Health Month are posted on our webpage. But even though the month is over, we will continue to share information, ideas, and inspiration about healthy living topics throughout the year.

Yours in Health,

Signature

Theresa Ferrari, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development

Get Your Zs

Ahh – Saturday…The day many of us can face the day at a slower pace and lay in bed a little longer. I know I look forward to not getting out of bed quite as early that day! And, if my teenage children don’t have a sports, school, or 4-H activity that morning, they will sleep for as long as I let them.

The question is how long should I let them sleep? Is it really okay for teens (or adults for that matter) to sleep in past noon? I cannot remember when I last slept that late into the day, but I do remember how I felt. I did not end up feeling refreshed and ready to go. Instead, I recall feeling groggy and having a headache.

Research on the importance of sleep tell us exactly why sleeping in had an adverse effect on how I felt. The reality is our bodies prefer consistency and routine. And developing good sleep hygiene is important to our physical and mental health. Good sleep hygiene means we create an environment beneficial to sleep, and we practice daily routines that foster consistent sleep. The following information from the Sleep Foundation can help.

To create a good environment for sleeping, take a look around your bedroom.

  • Is your mattress and pillow of good quality and provide proper support?
  • Does your bedding keep you too cold or too warm?
  • Do you have too much light in the room from the windows or a nightlight?
  • What temperature is the room? Ideally a cool room is best.
  • Is it a quiet place with minimum noise? Can you reduce noise with the use of a fan or a white noise machine?

Think about your daily sleep routines. Are you following these recommended strategies?

  • Set a fixed time to wake up and stick to it, even on weekends.
  • Budget time for enough sleep. Recommended guidelines vary by age. Aim for the following based on your age:
    • 9-11 hours for school-age children
    • 8-10 hours for teens
    • 7-9 hours for adults
  • Only take naps when needed. If you take a nap, the best time of day is early afternoon, and the best nap length is 20 minutes.
  • If you need to alter to your sleep routine due to a change in school or work schedule, do it gradually. Adjust a little at a time to get your body used to the new schedule.

Tips for self-care and stress management all recommend getting enough sleep, so it’s about time we devoted a post to this topic. For more information on sleep hygiene and healthy sleep tips, visit What is Sleep Hygiene?

So, how do I prevent sleeping in on Saturdays? I’ve found that scheduling something on my calendar helps. Appointments for haircuts, meeting someone for a walk in the park, attending a fitness class at the gym, or attending one of my kids’ sports events all help to keep me and my teens from hitting snooze one more time.

Wishing you pleasant dreams and peaceful sleep,

Laryssa Hook, Extension Educator, 4-H Youth Development, Delaware County

Take a Virtual Museum Tour

Today’s post for “Social Sunday” on the Ohio 4-H Facebook page encourages you to tour a museum virtually with friends and gives several suggestions of museums to visit. I thought this topic fit well with Friday’s post about planning an imaginary road trip. In the case of a virtual tour, you can take the trip, it’s just virtual. Whether you tour with friends or by yourself, it’s a great way to have fun and learn at the same time.

Virtual tours can consist of a collection of videos, still images, 3D walk-throughs, and written descriptions that help you feel as though you’re visiting the museum. Although it will not be everything in the museum’s collection, you will still get to see some amazing things.

The Google Arts & Culture site is a gold mine of virtual museum tours. This online platform will connect you with over 2,000 museums from 80 countries. Art, culture, history, and science will be at your fingertips. I think you will be amazed at the diversity of offerings. You can sort them alphabetically and also view a map that shows geographic locations. I found at least 15 that I had already visited., but you could visit a different one every day for a year and still have more to see!

Some of these museums are close to us in Ohio – the Toledo Art Museum, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont. Others are worlds away – from Australia to Uzbekistan and everywhere in between. I found several that I know I will go back to visit virtually – including the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, Kentucky, and the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. So many others piqued my curiosity – whether it was the topic or the location: the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, Netherlands; the Art Museum of Estonia; and the Azerbaijan Carpet Museum, just to name a few. I’m looking forward to more exploration, and like the imaginary road trip, maybe someday I will get to visit more of these museums in person.

Virtual museum tours are a way to exercise your creative wellness, one of many wellness dimensions. Creative wellness has been called the missing link in boosting well-being. Research shows that engagement with artistic activities, either as an observer or a creator, can enhance a person’s mood and thus they play a role in reducing stress. Taking time to appreciate others’ creative efforts help us to appreciate the world around us, connect with others, and may inspire our own creative spirit. Expressing your emotions and views through the arts can be a great way to practice self-care and to cultivate social connections.

Today’s Take-Away: Visit the Google Arts & Culture website, find a least one museum that interests you, and invite a friend or family member to take a virtual tour with you.

Visit the Ohio 4-H Mental Health Month page for more resources, and come back here for more information and ideas.

Yours in Health,

Signature

Theresa Ferrari, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development

Self-Care Saturday: Take Some Time for You

Do you ever feel like there are phrases that were created by people out in the world who just want to sell you things? That is what I think has happened to the phrase “self-care.” Companies have taken this phrase to create a reason why we need stuff, particularly their stuff, but it does not have to be that way. Let us take a moment to look at what self-care means and how we can achieve self-care time at home.

Self-care is vitally important to how we care for ourselves and includes our physical, mental, and emotional health. It is about taking time to check in with ourselves and making sure that all our needs are met. It also means engaging in activities that promote overall well-being and reducing stress. This last part is key because self-care looks different for everyone, and what I enjoy may not be enjoyable for others.

If you have not seen today’s Ohio 4-H Mental Health Month tip on the Ohio 4-H Facebook page, it is about creating an at-home spa day. I am one of those people who enjoys a good bubble bath, and this is a great way for me to practice self-care. Here are some things I will be grabbing from my cabinet: epsom salts, bubble bath soap, and essential oils, which I will enjoy while reading a good book. I will prioritize taking time to be alone, reflecting on this busy week and month (if I feel like it), and just enjoying my down time. Use items you already have at home, or purchase things you enjoy to create your own at-home spa day.

Not the bubble bath type? That is great too. Think about the activity that brings you joy and relaxation and make time for that instead. I hope your takeaway today is: find an activity that reenergizes you and reduces those feelings of stress. Maybe it is riding a bike, calling a friend to chat, reading a book, or just taking a nap. Whatever you need for your self-care should be the priority during your designated “Self-Care Time.”

Want to learn more about self-care and/or activities to try? Check out these resources from Extension programs across the nation:

Wishing you the best,

Aubry Fowler, Fairfield County 4-H Educator

Dealing with Feelings

Surprise, frustration, excitement, disappointment, calmness, fear: Feelings, or emotions, are a normal part of our everyday lives. Everyone experiences them. We should resist labeling our emotions as “good” or “bad”—it’s how we react and respond to the emotion that’s important.

Identifying your emotions, understanding how they influence your behavior, and being able to manage them are considered a foundation of social emotional learning. When thoughts and emotions work together, it’s easier to make more effective decisions, solve problems, and achieve goals.

 Emotion regulation, also called self-regulation, is a term generally used to describe a person’s ability to effectively manage their thoughts and feelings, with the goal of taking actions that are necessary for success in school, relationships, and the workplace. Whether you realize it or not, you are using emotion regulation strategies many times throughout each day.

For example, self-regulation includes being able to

  • resist highly emotional reactions to things others say and do,
  • calm yourself down when you get upset,
  • adjust when something doesn’t go the way you expect it to and you need to change plans, and
  • handle frustration without an outburst. It is a set of skills that that develops over time.

Think about babies – what do they do when they are upset? They cry. This is their way to get attention, to communicate that they are tired, hungry, or frustrated. They haven’t developed many other ways to handle their emotions yet. As they get older, when they are able to talk, they can use words to express how they feel. At first, adults have to help children learn how to do this. Over time, they learn more strategies and to take charge of using them.

Now fast forward in time: How do you react to situations at home, school, and/or work that you find frustrating or overwhelming? Do you ever find yourself in a situation where your emotions get the better of you and you say or do something that doesn’t get the desired result?

When thoughts and emotions work together, it supports you in making more effective decisions, solving problems, and achieving goals. However, in teenagers, the parts of the brain that process emotions are more developed than the parts of the brain responsible for good decision-making and future planning. This means that for a while the two parts of the brain are “out of balance.” Those first reactions may come from the “emotional brain” before the “thinking brain” kicks in and regulates your response. Has someone ever said to you, “What were you thinking?” when they don’t understand your reaction to a situation?  If you can’t explain what you were thinking, it may be that you weren’t thinking as much as you were feeling and reacting to those feelings.

While you’re waiting for your brain to sync up, it doesn’t mean that you have to give up – you can learn to manage your emotions more effectively. The first step is tuning in to your feelings. Notice your body’s reactions and take a pause before you respond to a situation. You may notice that your heart pounds, your face may turn red, you clench your teeth, your hands might sweat, your breathing may become faster or slower, or your facial expression could change.

Emotion regulation strategies can help you manage your body’s response and how you follow through on your feelings. Here are some strategies you can you to deal with your feelings in a healthy way.

Examples of Healthy Emotion Regulation Strategies

  • Talking with friends
  • Exercising
  • Writing in a journal
  • Meditation
  • Getting adequate sleep
  • Paying attention to negative thoughts that occur before or after strong emotions
  • Noticing when you need a break – and taking it
  • Seeking professional help

If you’ve been reading these posts, you may be noticing some common threads in these strategies. Mindfulness and self-care strategies figure prominently in these suggestions.

The strategies we choose to deal with our feelings are not always healthy ones. They may make you feel better in the short term, but they may work against you in the long run. They can have a negative impact on your physical and mental health. Their effect on your relationships with others, a component of your social health, may be undesirable as well.

Examples of Unhealthy Emotion Regulation Strategies

  • Avoiding or withdrawing from difficult situations
  • Physical or verbal aggression
  • Overusing social media, to the neglect of other responsibilities
  • Abusing alcohol or other substances
  • Self-injury

Today’s Take-Away: Emotions are a normal part of our everyday lives. Emotion regulation is not aimed at eliminating emotions from our lives, but rather understanding them and controlling their influence when this influence is undesired. You can download the Dealing with Feelings activity sheet to help you think through a situation, how you respond, and what you could do instead.

See the Ohio 4-H Mental Health Month resources and come back here for more information and ideas.

Yours in Health,

Signature

Theresa Ferrari, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development

Adapted from:

Murray, D. W., & Rosanbalm, K. (2017). Promoting Self-Regulation in Adolescents and Young Adults: A Practice Brief. (OPRE Report #2015-82). Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Rolston, A., & Lloyd-Richardson, E., (n.d.). What is emotion regulation and how do we do it? Cornell Research Program on Self-Injury and Recovery. http://www.selfinjury.bctr.cornell.edu/perch/resources/what-is-emotion-regulationsinfo-brief.pdf

Laughter and Self-Care: Laughter is the Best Medicine

 Laughter is like a windshield wiper. It doesn’t stop the rain, but it allows us to keep going.

I don’t know about you, but we’re only two weeks into 2021, and it’s already been a bit overwhelming. When we feel stressed, it’s time to indulge in some self-care strategies. Today I’m going to explore how laughter can help us combine fun and self-care.

Although we often use the words “laughter” and “humor” interchangeably, they have different definitions. Humor refers to the stimulus, such as a joke; laughter is the response. It’s a physical response: there are distinct sounds and certain facial expressions that accompany laughter. I’ll bet you can hear the difference between a giggle and guffaw, chuckle and chortle, shriek and snicker, roar and howl. And have you ever laughed so hard you cried or got out of breath? (I have!) Sometimes your entire body gets involved: think of the expression ROFL used in text messages – rolling on the floor laughing.

Speaking of sayings, have you heard the saying, “Laughter is the best medicine”? It turns out, there is some truth to this saying. Laughter makes us feel better. It can elevate our mood, perhaps because it decreases stress hormones. The act of laughing can release tension in your body, and it has been used to help people manage pain.

If you think that cognitive neuroscience and laughter don’t go together, then you need to watch this TED Talk. Cognitive neuroscientist Sophie Scott shares some surprising facts about laughter, and yes, it’s pretty funny too.

Among some of the interesting information that Dr. Scott shared:

  • Animals laugh too.
  • Laughter is social. You’re 30 times more likely to laugh if you’re with somebody else than if you’re alone.
  • Your brain can distinguish whether laughter is “involuntary” or “posed.” So, you could say that laughter is all in your head.

Why does laughter work? Laughter in general may help us to feel good, and shared laughter can strengthen our relationships. It shows we’re on the same wavelength. Laughing together makes us feel closer and gives us something to share with friends. Humor can add to the shared experiences that are the foundation of relationships (“Remember that time when….”). Thus, laughter can help us build social connections, which contribute to our overall health.

In public speaking, using humor is one of the recommendations, in short, because humor works. Humor is useful in public speaking because it helps you connect with your audience. It can keep the audience’s attention and make your presentation more memorable. The use of humor should be appropriate and in good taste – If you question whether it’s appropriate, then it probably isn’t. Use the grandmother test: Is is a joke you’d feel comfortable telling your grandmother? It’s okay to poke fun at yourself (called self-deprecating humor). As noted in the business newsletter Inc., “laughing at your imperfections allows you to recognize them, accept them, and then move along,” and thus it can work to your advantage in building relationships. But you should not use humor to mock someone or laugh at someone’s expense. And unless you are a stand-up comedian, it is better to go with the less-is-more approach and use just a few well-placed jokes.

Here are some suggestions for injecting more laughter into your life.

  • Watch a comedy show or an old TV sitcom or read a funny book.
  • Play with a pet, they do some pretty funny things.
  • Spend time with people who make you laugh.
  • Play a game like charades, Pictionary, or Apples to Apples.
  • Write song parodies (change the words to popular songs).
  • Tack up jokes, funny sayings, or memes in your desk area.
  • Look up some jokes on the internet. Write each one on a slip of paper and put them all in a jar. When you need a mood boost, pull out a slip and read the joke.

Reading about laughter and looking up jokes on the internet has certainly put me in a better mood. I had so much fun looking up jokes that I almost forgot I was writing this post! Here are a few that made me chuckle:

  • What gets more wet the more it dries? A towel.
  • Why can’t your nose be 12 inches long? Because then it would be a foot.
  • Why couldn’t the pony sing a lullaby? Because she was a little horse.
  • Why did the math book look so sad? Because it had so many problems.

Today’s Take-Away: Find some ways to add laughter into your life and spread it to those around you. See our previous post on Mad-Libs that you can use at one of your 4-H Club meetings. Then maybe you can try making up one of your own.

Yours in Health,

Signature

Theresa Ferrari, Extension Specialist, 4-H Youth Development

Cultivating Social Connections

In an attempt to stop the spread of the coronavirus, 2020 saw in-person activities limited or canceled. Our homes became the base of operation – for school, work, and socializing. We’ve been challenged to keep up our social connections going in a virtual world. How can we go about cultivating social connections when circumstances dictate that we must keep our physical distance?

Humans are wired to connect to others. Connection is a feeling of being close with others and having a sense of belonging. Remember the eight dimensions of wellness and how they are connected: Social connection creates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional, and physical well-being. In fact, research suggest that the quality of our social ties might be the single biggest predictor of our well-being. Research shows that people who feel connected have lower levels of anxiety and depression, have greater empathy, and can have a 50% increased chance of living longer.

It’s the Quality, Not the Quantity, of Your Friendships. Whether you have a lot of friends or few friends, you can feel high social connection, or you may have feelings of loneliness or isolation. What matters is the internal feeling of connection you have, regardless of the number of friends.

More good news – if you do not feel you have enough social connection in your life, you can nurture it!

 How can you cultivate social connections? Here are some ideas:

  • Take Care of Yourself. Stress is linked to high self-focus and lower sense of connection. If you are happy from within, you are more likely to feel connected and to reach out to others. Find some self-care and stress reduction techniques that work for you. Write, draw, listen to music, do something creative, or talk to a friend. Make sure you’re getting enough sleep and take a break from social media. The American Academy of Pediatrics offers some tips for teens for creating a personal stress management plan.
  • Help Others. Do acts of service and kindness for others. Research shows volunteering can help create a sense of connection and purpose. It takes creativity to come up with ideas for covid-friendly community service activities. In Delaware County, some clubs wrote letters to senior centers, and had seniors write them back and became pen pals as a result. What ideas can you think of?
  • Let Others Help You. When we need help, we need to remember that it’s okay to ask for it. We often don’t want to bother others with our troubles. However, research shows people are willing to help, but they don’t know we need help if we don’t ask. And it will help create a sense of belonging for those we ask!

Today’s Take-Away: Social connections matter for your health and there are things you can do to cultivate them. You can download the Social Connections Tip Sheet here.

More resources can be found on the Ohio 4-H Mental Health Month page. Come back here for more information and ideas.

Yours in Health,

Signature

Theresa Ferrari, Extension Specialist

Laryssa Hook, 4-H Educator, Delaware County

Adapted from: Seppala, E. (2017, June 28). Connectedness & health: The science of social connection. Stanford University. http://ccare.stanford.edu/uncategorized/connectedness-health-the-science-of-social-connection-infographic

Learning Is Fun and Healthy

By Justin Bower, Logan County 4-H Educator

I’ve always had an interest in music. I was in choir and band and loved to dance too. As a 4-H camp counselor you usually found me in the rec hall at 4-H Camp Ohio teaching line dances as early as 6:45am. Now let me be clear, I was decent at music, but by no means am I great at any one of these things.

My singing voice tends to be too nasally, I cannot play complicated pieces on instruments, and my dancing range is stuck in line dancing. However, in high school I still wanted to learn something new. I had learned piano, and several brass instruments but I wanted to be able to play while camping and dragging our upright piano around did not seem like the most practical thing.

I settled on trying to learn guitar. My mother had a travel acoustic guitar that no one had touched for a few years. So I decided to start looking up lessons on YouTube, printing off chord charts, and taking the time to practice and learn. Now I am in no way a skilled guitar player now but I can get myself through leading worship or camp songs by using chords (and just so you know, Alice the Camel is a great song to play on guitar).

With us having to stay at home more than we are used to, you might find yourself bored or in a rut. Take the time to learn something new!

Here is a list I created of some useful skills you can learn on YouTube:

  • Using hotkeys/keyboard shortcuts
  • Changing a tire
  • Mastering folding
  • Speed-reading
  • Craftsman skills
  • Learn Spanish

Here is a list of some not as useful but fun skills on YouTube:

  • Rubix Cube
  • Ukulele
  • Drawing
  • Juggling
  • Unicycling

Taking time to learn skills you want is great for your mental health and well-being. Doing things you enjoy and challenging your brain makes you feel good and encourages you to be more positive.

When you decide what you want to learn feel free to use YouTube, Google, and books to teach yourself the skill. Know that it takes time and practice. The key to learning a skill is identifying what you are weakest at and continually practicing that. For example, I struggled playing a F chord, but after intentional practice and playing songs with the chord in it I was able to do it.

Here’s my challenge for you:

Take time this weekend to practice a skill that you are trying to learn.

guitar and guitar case with 4-H sticker

This is my guitar and guitar case. I decided for 2021 that I was going to start putting some of my favorite stickers on my guitar case. Notice which sticker I put on first.

 

Justins Sig

Justin Bower

Logan County 4-H Educator

Give Yourself a New Year’s Resolution Break

Self-Care Saturday New Year's Resolution Break

Give Yourself a New Year’s Resolution Break

Should you make a New Year’s resolution for 2021? It’s a time-honored tradition – making a New Year’s resolution. With the turn of a calendar page, the start of a new year presents a clean slate. Research conducted at the University of Pennsylvania found that tying goals to specific dates, or what they called the fresh start effect, can help people to be more effective at setting and achieving goals related to changing their behaviors. Like the 4-H motto, many of us want to “make the best better.” However, after the challenges of 2020, 2021 may be the time to give yourself a New Year’s resolution break.

I’m not suggesting that you shouldn’t think about the coming year and what you might want to accomplish. By giving yourself a break, I mean being kind to yourself about what’s possible, especially given the current circumstances. Although setting goals can be a motivator, making too much change in a time of chronic stress can be have the opposite effect – it can actually increase our stress level and sidetrack us from taking action. Then when we don’t achieve our goal, we get discouraged and give up.

If you do decide to create a New Year’s resolution this year, here are some tips:

  •  Set small, specific goals. Setting small, specific goals will help you experience more immediate success, especially if your goal is one with delayed rewards.
  •  Accentuate the positive. Researchers in Sweden found that those who what they called approach-oriented goals were significantly more successful than those with avoidance-oriented goals. In other words, focus on what you want to do, not on what you don’t want to do (e.g., eat 3 servings of vegetables a day vs. don’t eat junk food).
  • Make a plan. Having a goal is great, but how will you achieve it? A resolution without a plan for achieving it will likely not succeed. Come up with some concrete things you can do and when you will do them.
  • Write it down. Writing helps you remember your goal and the steps in your plan. Tape your goal in a place where you will see it to remind yourself.
  • Get support. Identify a support person and give them periodic updates on your progress. The Swedish researchers found that group that received some support was more successful at keeping their resolutions.

Not surprisingly, health is at the top of the list for New Year’s resolutions. Throughout the month of January, we’ll share more information and ideas for keeping healthy in 2021.

Use this page to think about a New Year’s resolution.

Yours in Health,

Signature

#4hhealthyliving #4thH #Ohio4Hmhm #MentalHealthMatters #4HGrowsHere