If you’ve read even a couple of my blog posts, you’ve realized that I’m a school psychologist by trade - working with people of all abilities, and supporting mental health and well-being in youth and adolescents has been my passion for a long time. As such, Mental Illness Awareness Week, or Mental Health Awareness Week, has always had a highlight on my calendar.

Fighting stigma associated with mental illness is so important - because we all know someone (or ARE the someone) who is affected by a mental health condition. Check out #CureStigma and the National Alliance on Mental Illness to learn more and find ways to help.

Whether you or someone you know is impacted, one way to take a step forward in mental health is practicing yoga and mindfulness. There is a wealth of scientific, peer-reviewed, research on the many ways yoga and meditation can improve symptoms of mental illness. You don’t have to even take a class in person (though trying one out should be on everyone’s bucket list) - you can find PLENTY of free yoga instruction via a quick search on YouTube, Pinterest, Google, or your favorite search engine. Don’t worry about having the “right” clothes, mat, or form - just try paying attention to your breath, and move your body into a few different shapes. Sometimes my favorite yoga practice is at home, just trying out things without knowing if it is a true pose, or has a name.

Once you’ve taken a few moments to promote your own well-being, send a smile (visit, call, email, text, schedule a meetup, whatever) to someone in your life. I was talking to a new-ish friend yesterday, and we touched on some heavy topics - one of them being that we never truly know what others may be dealing with, and purposefully or not, we can all make snap judgments about a person’s health (mental, financial, familial, physical, etc) by what we see. I think that is part of the stigma of mental illness - everyone wants to be perceived as being successful, and so we minimize the things that we feel detract from that perception. So my challenge to everyone (myself included) is for you to reach out to someone - whether you think they need extra positivity or not - and give them something to smile about.