Wellness — it’s essential to living a full and productive life. It’s about keeping healthy as well as getting healthy.

How are YOU doing in terms of wellness? How well are you doing in terms of helping young people get and stay healthy?

Wellness is more than an absence of disease. It involves complete general, mental and social well-being. And mental health is an essential component of overall health and well-being. The fact is our overall well-being is tied to the balance that exists between our emotional, physical, spiritual and mental health.

But there are steps that maintain well-being and help everyone achieve wellness. These involve a balanced diet, regular exercise, enough sleep, a sense of self-worth, development of coping skills that promote resiliency, emotional awareness, and connections to family, friends and the community. These are the same for young people as well as adults.

Pay attention today to your interactions with the children and youth — are you positive and respectful? Did you show interest in them as individuals? Did you greet them when they came into the after school space, and did you say goodbye at the end of the day? So much of the benefits of after school are dependent upon the adults and how they interact with the kids. So bring your best self to after school today, and remember to take care of yourself — you can’t water a garden from an empty well.

Find out more about Mental Health First Aid courses being offered for after school professionals in Connecticut on our Training Events page.