Many of us make New Year’s resolutions year after year. Why do we wait for a New Year to make positive changes? And how many of us succeed? A recent poll found 45% of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, 46% of resolutions are kept for at least six months, and 5% keep their resolution the entire year. You can make today matter by implementing some self-improvement no matter what time of year it is! Procrastination is alive and well each year; it does not wait another year to come creeping back. So where do we start? We start TODAY. Choose one thing today that you want to improve upon. Today [...]

When Molly* first came to The Village’s Moorhead office, she had no idea how much it would come to mean to her. Now she describes it as a “place of miracles,” where she feels safe to share honestly, ask questions, be challenged, break down walls, learn, and grow. Molly wrote a letter thanking her counselor, Joni Medenwald, MSW, LICSW. Here’s Molly's story, in her own words: I first met Joni at the end of 2012. In August of that year, I started a new job. I was very excited about the new position, but I soon came to realize that I was in way over my head. I was getting super stressed and [...]

It’s important to have the right tools for the job. You can build your own kit of mental health tools to help you thrive in difficult times and not-so-difficult times, too. In honor of May being Mental Health Month, Mental Health America is sharing a toolkit to increase resiliency, improve our mental health in times of uncertainty, and support our friends and family who may be struggling. While 1 in 5 people will experience mental illness at some point during their life, everyone faces challenges that can affect their mental wellbeing. “It’s important to recognize your emotions and own your [...]

At some point in our lives we all experience loss. It may be the end of a relationship, being let go from a job, losing a home, or the death of a loved one. You may have experienced a lot of loss in the past few years – upheavals to our routine, cancelled events, milestones we've missed. It's natural to grieve all these things, and it can be hard to feel any positivity after loss. By looking for opportunity in adversity or ­finding ways to remember the good things about who or what we’ve lost, we can help ourselves to recover mentally and emotionally. Mental Health America offers these 7 tips [...]

While we are in many ways still bound to our primal instincts, we’ve evolved as human beings. In times of conflict, we can communicate our complex thoughts and emotions. I believe we owe it to our ancestors to address conflict by communicating. How to Address Conflict It starts with defining the problem. A common mistake is to identify a person as the conflict rather seeing the choices, behaviors, circumstances, or the interactions as the cause of conflict. It’s easy to blame others. Blame distracts from our behaviors and removes our responsibility to make changes. However, habitual deflection [...]

The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime. That is equivalent to 11,250 8-hour workdays. It’s safe to say that your job and workplace can have a considerable impact on your mental health and quality of life. If employees are experiencing a lot of stress at work, they're bound to be unhappy. In a 2021 Work Health Survey conducted by Mental Health America (MHA), they set out to provide an opportunity to better understand four different mental health challenges that employees face in the workplace. Mental Health Challenges Employees Face 1. Financial Insecurity With [...]

We all face trauma, adversity, and other stresses throughout our lives. When people think of trauma, they often think of things like abuse, terrorism, or catastrophic events (big ‘T’ trauma). Trauma can also be caused by events that may be less obvious but can still overwhelm your capacity to cope, like frequent arguing at home or losing your job (little ‘t’ trauma). Trauma of any kind can be hard on your mental health but working on becoming more resilient can help you feel more at ease. Mental Health America offers these tips for healing as part of its Tools 2 Thrive initiative: Process your [...]

In challenging times, you may ­find that you have little patience with other people or get upset over minor things. Anger and frustration are complicated emotions that often stem from other feelings, like disappointment, fear, and stress. Taking some extra steps to decrease your overall tension can prevent your feelings (and the reactions that they cause) from spiraling out of control. Try these 8 tips for coping, provided by Mental Health America: Pause before reacting When you feel yourself getting mad, take a moment to notice what you’re thinking, then take a few deep breaths or count to 10 [...]

September is Recovery Month! Recovery Month is the perfect time to recognize what recovering from substance use really means. Take a closer look at the effects of addiction and celebrate those who have started on the pathway to long-term sobriety. The Village’s First Step Recovery program provides a caring environment for adults struggling with substance use disorders. Slogan Contest This month, First Step is celebrating Recovery Month in a number of ways. One of those ways was a slogan contest. The First Step team set up a wall in their office where clients could write their ideas for a [...]

We often hear people say, “If you need help, just reach out.” But how can we possibly ask for help when we feel we’re at our worst? Reaching out is a skill we are expected to know, but is often not modeled for us. When you’re in a negative mental space, you might have thoughts of loneliness, insignificance or shame. You may think you’re not feeling “low” enough to ask for help. You might even prepare yourself to ask for help, but then later talk yourself out of it for fear of being judged. You need to know that you are not alone. The truth is that there are many people who love you and want to [...]