Mental Health Tips to Practice Well Being Every Day

Taking care of your health isn’t just about having annual checkups, exercising and eating healthy, it’s also about managing your mental well-being, too. Especially during today’s global pandemic, when mental health challenges are more prevalent than ever. Before COVID-19, one in five Americans experienced a mental health condition. Now, mental health challenges impact the majority of Americans, with an increase in stress and anxiety expected as winter approaches. Fortunately, even while quarantining in the colder months, there are many ways your employees can use technology to help support their mental health.

Here are some ways to help promote mental well-being by using technology:

Stop scrolling and start connecting

Mental health experts have found aimless scrolling of social media can increase stress and anxiety. Of course, that doesn’t mean all screen time is a bad thing. Thoughtful use of technology can enhance our lives and help people connect in a time when it’s hard to do otherwise. Instead of scrolling, engage with the things that interest you, by:

• Learning something new – Find an app or online community to help you grow and learn how to do something you’ve always wanted to do but never had the time, from photography to playing the ukulele to writing a novel.
• Meeting friends over new platforms – Many employees these days are facing Zoom fatigue, so the thought of hopping on the platform to talk to friends and family isn’t as appealing as it once was. But there are other ways to engage using our screens. The platform Kast lets you stream movies, play them on demand and watch them with friends.
• Feeding self-discovery – Add uplifting content from mental health and well-being experts to your social media feeds. From daily guided meditations and affirmations to self-care tips and calming imagery, there’s plenty of positivity, wisdom and support right in your social media feeds to help improve your mental well-being

Help yourself to some self-help apps

Managing anxiety and stress can be done right from your devices with these self-help apps:

• Sanvello: A powerful online tool that offers clinical techniques to help dial down the symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression—anywhere, anytime. This is available to all Harvard Pilgrim members at no cost.
• Happify: A mood-boosting app that helps you overcome negative thoughts, stress and life’s challenges.
• Ten Percent Happier: Guided meditations from the world’s top mindfulness experts. Harvard Pilgrim members can get discounts for this app.
• Unwinding Anxiety: A step-by-step program developed by mental health professionals to reduce anxiety in about 10 minutes a day, available to Harvard Pilgrim Members at a discount.
• MyLife: Short mindfulness activities to help manage stress, get more sleep or find your calm—all for under $5 a month.

See a therapist right from your couch

Primary care physicians aren’t the only ones seeing patients via telemedicine during the pandemic, therapists are too. Not only do virtual therapy sessions make it convenient to chat with a counselor from your living room, they give you access to therapists beyond your town or neighborhood. For Harvard Pilgrim members, learn more about your benefits and the virtual therapists that your plan may include.