To bring awareness to the Days of Action at the University of Alberta, the Library invited Heather Ritz, Community Social Worker with Wellness Supports, to share her reflections and resources to explore for World Mental Health Day – October 10.
Tending to Self Care
I live in a rental house and quite miss having a garden, so this summer I got into container gardening. I had cucumbers, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, peppers, and herbs gracing my plate all summer. I wanted three cucumber plants to grow in one pot–I did some basic math at the start and technically the pot is just big enough, but I know I’m asking a lot from these generous plants by giving them a limited amount of soil and nutrients. So their fruit has come with much care. Adding manure to the soil, providing regular fertilizer, and diligently monitoring water levels have been required. Tending to these cucumbers has me thinking about self care and mental health in the university context – one that often demands a lot from its members, whether you are a student, faculty, or staff.
Dealing With External Demands
I love working in an environment where people are pushing boundaries and dedicating themselves to pursuits of passion. The challenging side of this is that taking time to care for mental health and wellbeing can feel at odds with external demands. I have regular conversations with people who see self care as an oxymoron (and to be clear, critical thought around changing structures that dehumanize and contribute to unwellness is important). For today, I’m thinking about sustaining ourselves – and each other – to do the hard things that we believe are ours to do. How do we accomplish our goals in a way where we also flourish as humans?
Self Care and Mental Health
Of course, caring for one’s mental health looks different for everyone, depending on the context and circumstances we encounter, including whether or not there is a diagnosed mental illness. I’ve had the joy of working on Happiness Reflected, a collaborative project that features creative works from U of A members. In a recent podcast episode, Vidya, a student, talks about her drawing that reflects her experience of caring for herself as someone who has a bipolar diagnosis. I encourage you to listen for yourself, but what stood out to me was that whether or not we have a mental illness diagnosis, we all deserve to experience flourishing mental health. We all have different ways of getting here. It can take time and require trying different approaches but when we take time to get to know ourselves, we learn what caring for our mental health looks like for us.
Let’s not stop at acknowledging that caring for mental health looks different, let’s intentionally make space and listen to understand the diversity of experiences and needs. Sydney, a student on my team, and I have been revisiting what meaningful self-care can look like. Inspired by Dr. Pooja Lakshmin’s book Real Self Care, Sydney is working on a project with a group of students to explore how articulating our goals and values makes a difference for self-care actions. I was invited to listen to what their goals and values are, which helped me develop a more nuanced understanding of their well-being. Listening to understand different priorities equips us to take supportive actions that are meaningful for other people’s mental health.
A theme that has emerged from Sydney’s self-care project is practicing self-compassion, not perfection. And though perfection may be a synonym for excellence, I interpret these two terms quite differently. Unlike perfection, excellence can be inclusive of our human limitations — this is self-compassion in action. When I invite self-compassion into how I am working towards my own goals, I am more likely to see myself as human first, doing the best I can to keep growing. And I know that to do the best I can, I need to nurture myself.
I believe caring for mental health is a community effort. For me, as a member and leader on our campus, this includes being willing to check in with how people are doing and working to foster environments that allow us to be human first and support people in pursuing their goals. This World Mental Health Day, what meaningful action is important to you in furthering positive mental health as a community?
Suggestions for further exploration:
- Read Sydney’s post about her exploration of self care
- Listen to the Happiness Reflected Podcast, found in Aviary or most podcast platforms.
- Investigate mental health self-care from the results of this library search
- Register for a free helping skills workshop
- Read Real Self Care by Dr. Pooja Lakshmin
This content is licensed under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 Creative Commons licence.
