LAS

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Get outdoors to boost your mental health! Being outdoors can lift your mood and lower anxiety.

Years ago, as a budding mental health professional, I took a job at a residential treatment center for emotionally and behaviorally challenged youths. I lived and worked alongside teens at a rural camp, where we slept in cabins.

“If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it’s yours. If it doesn’t, it never was.” This quote, widely attributed to Richard Bach of “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” fame, conveys the meaning of a proverb that appears in many cultures and languages.

We live in a stressful world. Anxiety is a part of the human condition. Many people complain of feelings of anxiousness, ranging from occasional mild worrying to full-blown anxiety disorders such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Phobia, or a specific Phobia.

Change is an inevitable part of life. Transitions are all around us – births, deaths, graduations, anniversaries, moving to a new residence, marriage, divorce. Beginnings and endings are occurring constantly. Some are small and mundane: the ringing of the alarm clock to signal the start of a new day, or the finishing of a good book. Some are major and catastrophic: the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings, or the recent earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.