Bracalente Manufacturing Group

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Each month, you will find helpful resources on different mental health topics.
Click on a topic below to be taken directly to that article.

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January 2025

Making New Year’s Resolutions Intentions

At some point in our lives, most of us have committed to at least one New Year’s Resolution. Perhaps a resolve to eat healthier, quit smoking, forgive more, or spend less.  We were so committed on January 1^st, and some of us persevered to March or April in our efforts! When did our motivation dwindle and why did we give in to failure? It wasn’t us!

Our New Year’s Resolutions, by their very nature, set us up for failure. Resolutions are typically task-oriented, narrow in concept, and punitive. A relatively new concept is to develop Intentions rather than resolutions. Intentions focus more broadly and incorporate our values, priorities, and what we enjoy.

Resolutions do not promote lasting change because lasting change requires a bit more strategic planning. When we combine our values, what’s important or enjoyable to us, and add in consistent intention phrases, we will be successful in making lasting change. If you are ready to develop New Year’s Intentions for success, here are some tips to help you get started.

• Identify – Identify three things you would like to be different in the upcoming year. Keep it broad and general like having more time with family, less time cleaning up, increasing health & wellness, volunteering, or decreasing debt.
• Next – Consider your values. Do you value family, friends, spirituality, health and wellness, education, organization, advocacy, earning money, or living debt free? Consider your top five values and put them in order of priority.
• Think – Think about alignments within the two lists you created. If you identified wanting more time with family on your first list and identified family on your list of values, then those two align. Other alignments include decreasing debt and earning money. Volunteering aligns with many values!
• Enjoyment – Now reflect on what is enjoyable to you including activities and tasks but also consider seasons and weather. Perhaps you enjoy the outdoors, dancing in the rain, building a snowman, helping others, cooking, or repurposing items. Make a list and include things you might enjoy but haven’t tried yet!
• Notice – Notice how you might incorporate the things you enjoy with the alignments you identified. If you identified wanting to spend more time with family, and family is one of your values, how can you incorporate things you enjoy with family? You might invite family along on those outdoor activities you love. Keep it general and take care not to be restrictive. We are developing intentions rather than resolutions!
• Turn it into an Intention – Now that you have identified what you want different, what you value, and what you enjoy, it’s time to state your intention for the New Year with intention phrases! Here are a few examples; I intend to spend more time with family in the outdoors. This year, I’m focusing on reducing debt so I’m choosing to engage my creative side to repurpose items.

Click here for a printable version of this article.

10 Ideas for Setting Daily Intentions

How to Set Intentions

December 2024

Six Tips to Combat the “Winter Blues”

Ever catch the winter blues? The elusive contagion which seemingly affects the masses as soon as the days become shorter. We drive to work in the dark, and we drive home in the dark, and it just always seems…DARK! We continue to function by going to work, eating meals, and having some fun, but we do it all with less energy, less motivation, and less bright warm sunshine. We begin to wonder if the sun will ever rise again to light our days and warm our fingers and toes. We have the Winter Blues! There is no antibiotic or vaccine for the winter blues, but here are some tips to help you through the chilly dark winter months.

• Stay Active – Embrace the chilled air with a brisk walk. More calories are burned while taking a walk in cold weather as the body works to maintain its temp. The sun doesn’t feel as warm, but it is still shining bright and can enhance our mood as it helps us naturally increase our vitamin D.
• Eat Healthy – Comfort food is, well, comforting, but it can have a negative impact on mood by giving us spikes in sugar levels as well as interfere with a healthy brain-gut relationship. Grab a healthy snack and feel better.
• Stay Social – Bundle up and meet up! Get together with friends to elevate your mood. Staying home and isolating can increase the winter blues. Friends busy? Explore your community for new groups and activities.
• Use Lights to Mimic the Sun – Some find certain indoor lights helpful to reduce depressed mood during winter months. Speak with your healthcare provider to explore options.
• Have Fun – Do what brings you joy and laughter whether it is making a snowman, getting a massage, taking a trip, making a craft, or trying something new.
• Open Up About Your Feelings – Talking to someone about what you are going through can help your brain identify solutions! You may also find that friends, family, and coworkers are having the same winter struggles as you, and together you can share strategies.

Click here for a printable version of this article.

Resources for Winter Blues

November 2024

Have You Ever Tried to Quit Smoking?

Or perhaps someone you know mentioned the challenges they experienced in their attempts to quit. It can be one of the hardest habits to break. Those who have tried ask, “How did I let this become a habit?” Tremendous guilt overwhelms them as they automatically reach for yet another cigarette to reduce their stress. “Why can’t I just quit?” They remind themselves of the many times they tried to quit and the health warnings they have heard about. An image comes to their mind of a relative or friend who experienced cancer or COPD from smoking. Their anxiety level increases as they inhale more nicotine to calm their thoughts. “I quit for two months, why did I start again?” They are convinced each bout of bronchitis or that annoying chronic cough are the inevitable indicators of a cancer diagnosis. “I’m such a failure!” They are not failures. Nicotine is just that addictive. Breaking the habit is hard and oh so frustrating, but there is hope!

Here are answers to the questions you or someone you know have about the habit of smoking and how to achieve successful quitting.

“How did I let this become a habit?”
A habit forms when we discover, or stumble across, something that fills one of our needs. Perhaps we want to feel happier or less uncomfortable. From the moment we are born, we are developing habits. We cry out due to hunger pangs or wet diapers and magically our discomforts are attended to with food and a diaper changing. Abracadabra, a habit is formed!

“Why can’t I just quit?”
The habits we develop effectively serve a purpose or fulfil a need. To stop a habit, we need to explore why it began in the first place or what purpose it serves. Let’s think about the first time we smoked. Perhaps in our adolescence, we took a puff from a friend’s vape. We wanted to fit in with the crowd and quickly realized it reduced our social anxiety. The purpose was to fit in because we wanted to belong. Perhaps we were at a club attempting to attract someone with our dance moves and realized a drink helped us worry less about our performance. Alcohol does not make us better dancers; it just makes us care a little less about what we look like to those watching! The purpose was to reduce our anxiety.

“I quit for two months, why did I start again?”
It helps to identify the purpose or the need the habit fulfilled: our wanting to fit in or reduce our anxiety. We also need to identify a new way to fulfil that need, a different resolution, or an alternative behavior. If we do not initiate a new or alternative behavior, we will go back to the habit after two months or two years or two decades. In our example, identify ways to improve your feelings of belonging or strategies to reduce your anxiety. Even when we commit to breaking a habit, we may become tempted to give up. Change is hard but not impossible. Those temptations, sometimes called cravings, only last 10-15 minutes. Develop a list of distracting activities or incompatible situations to resolve nicotine cravings without giving in to them.

“I’m such a failure!”
The words we say to ourselves can motivate us to make a positive change or our words can immobilize us and cause us to give up. It takes over six attempts to quit before someone successfully quits and most people moderate, smoke less, long before they stop smoking all together. When you hear yourself say “I can’t quit!,” try adding “but today I will cut back.”

If you are ready quit and would like professional help to do so, St. Luke’s can help. Learn more about the Smoking Cessation Program at St. Luke’s.

The Effects of Quitting Smoking

The Great American Smokeout

Click here for a printable version of this article.

October 2024

When Life Gets Hard

You may have heard that familiar saying, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” and thought to yourself, if it were only that simple! Rebounding through stressful life events, such as a personal injury or illness, loss of a loved one, or financial difficulties is hard. You might have the urge to deal with struggles in ways that are not healthy.

Finding the inner strength to cope through tough times takes resilience. Resilience is the ability to adapt to change positively, recover from difficulties, and persist in facing challenges. Resilience will not make your problems disappear, but it can help you better handle stress. You still feel anger, pain, and grief but are able to keep moving forward and find ways to enjoy life.

Resilience can protect you from mental and physical health conditions such as depression, anxiety, chronic diseases like cardiovascular conditions, and reduced immune system function.

Tips to Improve Your Resilience

• Get connected. Building strong, healthy relationships with loved ones and friends can give you needed support and help guide you in good and bad times.
• Make every day have meaning. Do something that gives you a sense of success and purpose every day.
• Learn from the past. Think of how you’ve coped with troubles in the past.
• Stay hopeful.
• Take care of yourself. Include physical activity, getting enough sleep, and making healthy diet choices.
• Don’t ignore your problems. Instead, figure out what you need to do, make a plan, and take action.

Things to Tell Yourself When Life Gets Hard

When Life Gets Hard Article

September 2024

How Stress Affects the Body

What is Chronic Stress?

Click here for tips to “Master Stress.”

Resources

August 2024

Communicating with the Tuned-Out Teen

Terrible Twos, Trying Threes, and Tuned-Out Teens?!

The Terrible Twos! That’s what people call it when a toddler learns the word “No!,” defiantly shouting it against every request – whether it’s bath time, bedtime, or time to eat that evil piece of broccoli approaching their tiny, pursed lips…as their caregiver slumps against the wall exhausted and reminding themselves that this is a two-year-old’s version of setting boundaries.

Caregivers equipped with enough patience and stamina to survive those terrible twos are unexpectantly catapulted into The Trying Threes when “No!” becomes “Why?.” Why are there clouds? Why do I have to go to bed? Why can’t I pee outside like the dog? It takes approximately a decade to answer all those inquisitive little “whys,” and many feel unprepared for what comes next.

CRICKETS! The silence of a teen is deafening, but they just do not have anything to say. Teens are shuttled to school, to sports, to friends’ houses, and to home, and all the while they ride in silence, seemingly oblivious to questions. “How was your day, son?” “Ok.” “How was soccer practice?” “Ok.” “Did you see the alien ship land from Mars?” “Ok”. Not a peep from those chatter boxes who have not stopped talking since we first encouraged them to say “Mamamama” and “Dadadada.” The Tuned-out Teens. It is as if an invisible mute button was pressed.

Here are a few tips for communicating with the Tuned-out Teen:

• Stop talking and just listen without judgement and criticism.
• Be interested in the things they are interested in.
• Ask their advice on something they know more about (social media, latest slang, etc.)
• Avoid lecturing and monopolizing the conversation.
• Schedule your conversations with an enjoyable activity.
• Avoid reminding them what they need to do, every time you see them.
• Too big for time out? Ask them how they would handle a situation if it was their teen and then compromise on a resolution.
• Don’t take their silence personally. They are just finding their way to adulthood.
• Change your thoughts about the situation from “My teen used to love me, and now I am just an irritant to them.” to “This is just another phase; I’ll give them space.”

Click here for some helpful teen resources.

Click here for a printable version of this article.

 July 2024

Cooling Off a Heated Argument

Arguments are so frustrating, especially when we know we are right!

We try explaining it differently, and we try explaining it louder. We rally the troops who see things our way to prove rightness by numbers. We can’t all be wrong! As the argument continues, our frustration increases. We ask ourselves, “Why aren’t they getting this? It’s not rocket science!” As we dig in our heels and stand proudly defending our position, it’s hard to take a moment and consider if we are asking ourselves the right question. Rather than “Why aren’t they getting this?,” perhaps we should ask ourselves “What am I missing?” and ask the other person “Can you help me understand?”

There are taboo topics on which we may never see eye-to-eye, but we can avoid arguments on most other topics by trying several easy strategies.

1. Ask yourself, “What am I missing?”
2. Consider the other person’s perspective.
3. Consider your own perspective. Did this difference of opinion trigger something within?
4. Ask “Can you help me understand how you see this?”
5. Walk away and sleep on it.
6. Ask a friend their opinion after explaining both sides without bias.

Sometimes, we just can’t avoid arguments. If you find yourself heading towards a disagreement, here are several ways to manage them:

1. Choose to respond rather than react. Give yourself a moment to plan how to respond logically rather than react emotionally.
2. Accept arguments as a situation to understand and be understood. Arguments can be an opportunity for growth in our relationships with our supervisor, coworker, and
3. Be the calm in a disagreement. How we respond to someone who is frustrated can either escalate them to anger or reduce the intensity of their feelings to work towards
4. Move past the position. When a disagreement occurs, both sides often have a preferred outcome. We need to move past the position, the outcome we want, to move towards a resolution.
5. Keep past arguments in the past. In our attempts to win a disagreement, we may be tempted to bring up all the times the other person was wrong and we were right. This isn’t helpful, and we are not holding ourselves accountable for our part in this current.

Click here for a printable version of this article.

June 2024

Words Matter

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words shall never hurt me.”

Many of us have heard this children’s rhyme, and some of us may admit to repeating it! A quirky little phrase developed to help a child move past words spoken intentionally or unintentionally to wound. Let’s be honest, words can hurt!

Most often our words are hurtful when we are experiencing negative emotions. Learning to pause and manage our emotions before responding can make the difference between hurting someone and being heard.

If your initial reaction is anger, be sure you heard the intent of the message correctly.  Sometimes our overstressed brain can misinterpret what is being said.

Try Active Listening, a communication technique that promotes listening, understanding, and processing information. It involves repeating back what the other person has said, asking for clarity, and summarizing the conversation.

Consider perspective. Shift a hurtful conversation to one that is constructive.

In a time of divisiveness, be a bridge. Accept that we think differently, expect different things, and view the world differently. Differences create ideas and innovation.

Recognize triggers and mentally press your internal pause button. Pay attention to physical reactions and sensations that are building in you, such as increased body heat or feeling a “knot” in the stomach.

• Mentally say “pause.” Imagine you are reaching for the remote control.
• Take deep breaths. Extra oxygen to your brain assists with planning your words.
• Listen to others. You may feel an obligation to say something. Instead, listen to your thoughts and observe them as they come and go.
• Mentally press “play.” This allows you to begin acting slowly and thoughtfully.

Benefits of pausing include:

• Improving the quality of your response
• Thinking more objectively about the situation
• Reducing misunderstandings and arguments
• Responding in a kind and respectful way

Before speaking, consider this: Would you want or tolerate someone speaking to you, your partner, child, co-worker, or friend in this way or with these words?

Click here for a printable version of this article.

May 2024

Don’t Let Alcohol Chill Your Summer Fun

Summer’s coming! And with it – longer days, backyard BBQs, pool parties, golf, and baseball. Many of us are excited to be outside, hang out with friends, or watch sports. These activities are relaxing, stress-reducing, and fun.  These activities also often involve alcohol. 

Enjoying a beer, a cocktail, a hard seltzer, or a glass of wine isn’t a bad thing, is it?  Although alcohol effects our natural brain chemicals, for most of us, drinking in moderation does not typically have harmful consequences. 

However, if we are drinking in the hot summer sun or are not being mindful of how much we are drinking, alcohol can have a significant harmful impact, such as: 

• Lowered inhibitions
• Inability to make rational decisions
• Increased anxiety, stress, and worried thinking
• Depressed mood
• Disrupted sleep 

5 Tips for Safe Drinking
To avoid crossing the line from having fun into negative consequences, follow these five tips: 

1. Know how much alcohol you are actually drinking. 
2. If you cannot stop at one drink, don’t start.  
3. Drink a glass of water or iced tea in between each drink to stay hydrated.
4. Avoid drinking if you are already feeling depressed or anxious. 
5. Don’t drink alcohol if you are going to be driving – there is no rationalization or justification. 

Think you might have a problem with alcohol? 

• Calling out from work due to a hangover? 
• Moody before, during, and/or after drinking?
• Distancing yourself from family and friends? 
• Lying about how much you are drinking? 
• Not able to stop at one drink? 

Click here for some resources that may be helpful.

Summer fun can quickly come to an end when alcohol is involved. If you do have a drink, know your limit. There are also plenty of activities and ways to make memories this summer that do not involve alcohol.  

Click here for a printable version of this article.

April 2024

Reducing Stress for a Healthier Heart

Stress is a normal response to events in our lives. Even events that we perceive as good and happy can be stressful. For example – getting married, buying a house, coaching a little league team going to the playoffs, etc.

Everyone responds to stress differently, so it’s important to be aware of the impact of chronic stress on heart health. When we are stressed, our body releases adrenaline and cortisol, and we go into Fight-or- Flight mode. When the stressor is chronic or there are multiple stressors, we stay in fight-or-flight mode.

Physical symptoms of chronic stress include:

• Smoking
• Overeating
• Choosing unhealthy “comfort” foods
• Interrupted sleep
• Chronic inflammation

Stress can raise your heart rate, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels. Chronic stress results in increased risk of heart attack, stroke, and clogged arteries. The good news is that there are simple, daily ways to reduce your stress level and improve your heart health!

1. Practice mindfulness and gratitude. Being present in the moment can reduce your body’s stress response. One study showed an 87% risk reduction of hospitalization for coronary heart disease related to practice mindfulness.

• Practice Grounding Techniques
• What went well today? What made me laugh?

2. Get active. Make time for an activity you enjoy such as a hobby or exercising.

• Go to the gym, jump rope, go fishing, meet up with friends to watch sports
• Participate in your child’s sports (assistant coach)

3. Get rest. Sleep has a restorative purpose.

• Create a consistent sleep schedule.
• Keep your bedroom cool and dark.
• Disconnect from electronics at least 30 minutes before bed.
• Limit alcohol use which can interfere with restful sleep.

4. Manage anxious, worried thinking.

• Find a motivating phrase that you can recite.
• Reframe your thoughts.

Click here for a printable version of this article.

It can sometimes be difficult to reduce your stress level even after implementing the above strategies. If you need more support, your EAP can help. Contact Mutual of Omaha to access your free, confidential benefit. 

800-316-2796
www.mutualofomaha.com/eap

In the event of a crisis, you can call the 988 lifeline at any time.