31 Day Mental Health Challenge

Will be updated throughout the month with more "challenge" information, tips, and facts.

Mental Health America has created “31 Tips to Boost Your Mental Health”, this list provides a number of great options that teens can use to improve mental health.
There are many psychological benefits of music. Music can relax the mind, energize the body, and even help people better manage pain. Music can influence your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
NHHS Positivity Playlist-North Staff shared songs that help them to feel positive and upbeat!
A daily intention is what you want to focus your energy on that particular day. Setting a daily intention can help you stay focused on what is really important to you. By picking a theme or area that you want to focus on each day you can give every day a purpose. Here are "15 Daily Intentions to Set for a More Driven Life"
In guided meditation, our practice is shaped by another person’s voice. Because the mind has a tendency to wander where it will, many of us find it easier to focus and relax when our minds aren’t entirely left to their own devices. Three popular forms of guided meditation are mindfulness, stress reduction and relaxation.
Life is full of stressful situations we can’t control. What we can control, however, is our response to those situations. It might feel impossible, but this is where coping skills play an important role in our mental health. By improving our tools for coping with stress, we can take a step back from our immediate reaction and give ourselves space to find a better approach.
Learning "How to Live in the Present Moment" is key to reducing stress, here are some exercises and tools.
Self-care describes a conscious act one takes in order to promote their own physical, mental, and emotional health. There are many forms self-care may take. It could be ensuring you get enough sleep every night or stepping outside for a few minutes for some fresh air. Self-care is vital for building resilience toward those stressors in life that you can't eliminate. When you've taken steps to care for your mind and body, you'll be better equipped to live your best life.
Mentally strong people have healthy habits. They manage their emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in ways that set them up for success in life. Check out these things that mentally strong people don’t do so that you too can become more mentally strong.
"13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do"
20 Small Habits That Will Help You Become Mentally Strong
Nighttime sleep has a huge impact on our mind, body, & mental health. Sleep is food for the brain. During sleep, important body functions and brain activity occur. Naps, 10-30 min in length, are also a powerful tool in improving performance, energy & mood.
Benefits of Naps
Teens and Sleep
Compassion is the ability to show empathy, love, and concern to people who are in difficulty, and self-compassion is simply the ability to direct these same emotions within, and accept oneself, particularly in the face of failure. Many otherwise compassionate people have a harder time showing compassion for themselves, sometimes out of a fear of engaging in self-indulgence or self-pity, but an inability to accept areas of weakness may lead to difficulty achieving emotional well-being.
Self-compassion has three elements:
  1. Self-kindness, or refraining from harsh criticism of the self.
  2. Recognizing one's own humanity, or the fact that all people are imperfect and all people experience pain.
  3. Mindfulness, or maintaining a non-biased awareness of experiences, even those that are painful, rather than either ignoring or exaggerating their effect.
The simple sight of a clean and organized home, or digital life, can help them unwind and de-stress even after an overwhelming day. Here is an interesting article on "Clean Your Space for Better Mental Health"
Safe spaces can provide a break from judgment, unsolicited opinions, and having to explain yourself. It also allows people to feel supported and respected. This is especially important for minorities, members of the LGBTQIA community, and other marginalized groups.
Article on Creating a Safe Space
Practicing yoga is said to come with many benefits for both mental and physical health, though not all of these benefits have been backed by science. The article, “13 Benefits of Yoga That Are Supported by Science”, talks about the benefits of yoga.
The daily grind of life has a way of distracting us from the basic human need to take an emotional time out. But we need to make our mental health a priority. Doing a quick, daily mental health self-check can help us to fine tune our mind and plan for the day. Click here are 5 questions to ask yourself each morning.
Journaling can help you:
  • Manage anxiety
  • Reduce stress
  • Cope with depression
Journaling helps control your symptoms and improve your mood by:
  • Helping you prioritize problems, fears, and concerns
  • Tracking any symptoms day-to-day so that you can recognize triggers and learn ways to better control them
  • Providing an opportunity for positive self-talk and identifying negative thoughts and behaviors
Signs you need a break from social media:There are a few key signs that may indicate it is time for you to take a social media break, including:
  • It's not fun anymore.
  • You're comparing yourself to others.
  • You are ‘doomscrolling’.
  • It's the last thing you see at night.
  • It transitions from a nice-to-have activity to a need-to-have activity.
How to take a break from social media:
  • Turn off your notifications from platforms.
  • Prioritize self-care.
  • Allot time to use social media
  • Put your phone across the room at night so you can’t scroll before bed.
  • Use social media limiting apps.
Life is full of stressful situations we can’t control. What we can control, however, is our response to those situations. It might feel impossible, but this is where coping skills play an important role in our mental health. By improving our tools for coping with stress, we can take a step back from our immediate reaction and give ourselves space to find a better approach.
Being able to recognize and pinpoint when you are starting to feel stress is important in helping to minimize the impact. Here are 10 signs that a teen might be stressed.
As a teen, you are surrounded by many different relationships between family, friends, and the many other people in your life. Friendships help to enrich and improve your life. Making friends and developing those relationships can be hard. Take some time today to reach out to someone in your life and let them know how important they are to you. Below is an article from WebMD on “How Friendship Can Improve Your Mental Health: Psychological Benefits of Friendship”.
Asking for help is important when you are having a difficult time, but it can also be extremely hard to feel comfortable doing so. Here are some school and local resources you can use to ask for help.
'Me time' is important for our mental health. It is about being present with yourself; mind and body. Make a conscious effort to take time out & recharge your batteries. There is no right way to take 'me time', but as little as 5 min a day can make a big difference.
Studies have shown that reading as little as 6 minutes per day can improve your quality of sleep, reduce stress, and sharpen mental acuity.
If you engage in negative self-talk, affirmations can be used to combat these thoughts and replace them with positive thoughts that can help increase motivation, decrease stress, and help build relationships. Repeating positive affirmations frequently helps train your brain!
With spring in full bloom, now is a great time to spend more time outdoors. Challenge yourself to spend more time outdoors this weekend and all summer long! Spending time in green space or bringing nature into your everyday life can benefit both your mental and physical wellbeing. For example, doing things like growing food or flowers, exercising outdoors or being around animals can have lots of positive effects. It can:
  • improve your mood
  • reduce feelings of stress or anger
  • help you take time out and feel more relaxed
  • improve your physical health
  • improve your confidence and self-esteem
  • help you be more active
  • help you make new connections
  • provide peer support.
“5 Self-Care Practices for Every Area of Your Life”
  1. Physical Self-Care
  2. Social Self-Care
  3. Mental Self-Care
  4. Spiritual Self-Care
  5. Emotional Self-Care
Apps can be very helpful. You can use apps to help journal, takes notes, manage school work, create schedules, or to meditate. Search through the app store for apps that can help you relax and manage your time.
According to the article “What is Emotional Reactivity and How to End the Cycle”, “when we feel stressed, angry, or hurt, we tend to react impulsively. We are in a state of fight-or-flight and tend to react emotionally, that is, to overreact. That overreaction is emotional reactivity.
The tips, tricks, and information that has been shared with you all month are listed on the Student Assistance Counselor website and available for your reference along with a load of other resources. I encourage you to continue with the steps you have taken to improve your mental health.

Tips, Tricks & Crafts

Creating and playing with slime can be effective in calming oneself. See recipes here.
Here are recipes for 12 different DIY stress balls.
Calming/Meditation Jars are fun to make and a relaxing tool to use to reduce stress and anxiety. See recipe and tips here.

Apps and Resources