The road of life, as we know it, brings lots of beautiful landscapes, mixed in with scenery that we would rather not see nor experience.
Peace. Stress. Slow. Fast. Solo. Crowded. Quiet. Busy. Calm. Frenzy. Peace. Stress. Etc. On repeat.
With zigzags aplenty, we will need all the help we can get to preserve, maintain, improve, and recover our mental health. Kindness (love, actually) rules when we also care about the mental health of everyone around us, as positive (or negative) energy spreads its own kind of healing and zing, in all directions.
So when the usual diversions falter, or when leaning on real or professional or fake friends is not enough, we hope you know that you can turn to our Library’s resources.
Aside from our large collection of books, music, movies, and programs, we have a bunch of online resources that might come in handy for one’s mental health. Here is a compilation for this blog’s theme — May is Mental Health Month:
Universal Class offers online classes on The Art of Breathing, Emotional Healing 101, Healing Affirmations, and Social Anxiety 101.
Gale Courses offers such titles as Interpersonal Communication, Get Funny!, Introduction to Journaling, and Listen To Your Heart, and Success Will Follow. There are also courses that encourage you to try new hobbies and pursuits, as well as courses with professional inclinations on mental health.
To find these listings, use general search words like mental health, relaxation, mental, healing, counseling, positive, etc. For more focused search results, use specific search words for related issues like depression, stress, anxiety, etc.
In addition to the online courses, we have other resources that can also all be accessed via cell phones, tablets, laptops, and computers.
An easy and quick go-to is our digital collection. RbDigital offers digital magazines such as Mindful, Yoga Journal, Spirituality & Health, Reader’s Digest, and other magazines that focus on hobbies, travel, healthy eating, lifestyles, and other interests.
For mental health, travelling is a popular boost. Our online resource for this soul cure is A to Z World Travel. It’s a convenient robust online information treasure trove on numerous cities all over the world.
And if you haven’t heard yet, we just released new activity kits this Spring into our Library of Things collection. These kits can be borrowed and taken home by Livingston cardholders — Coloring Kits with stress-relieving designs for coloring the stress away; Yoga Kits as necessities for exercise and meditation; Birdwatching Kits to get outdoors and zoom in on feathered cuties; and Roku Kits so you can stay in and stroll into different worlds on the screen.
These resources can be borrowed and are all available to help improve states of mind!
So come on in and reach out to the Livingston Public Library. You may call the Adult Services Reference Desk at extension 263, and we’ll tell you more.
Now, settle into a pose… visualize a sweet thought… tune in to a soft, velvet voice…
And…
Breathe in… Breathe out…
— Janea Agbayani, Adult Services Library Specialist
For more information, visit: www.livingstonlibrary.org/resources-az/
For other topics, themes, and resources suggested for lifelong learning pursuits, visit our blog under the tag: Keep On Learning.