Safeguard the children; they are our sole chance for redemption.

Many are concerned about the lack of compassion and peace in our world. Some are striving to promote harmony in a community fractured by hostility, violence, and despair. Others fail to see that the answers are already within our reach. In my view, children are the most impacted by our circumstances. They represent our future, but without protection, that future may not exist. Each child is unique and invaluable, offering something to the world that no one else can provide. We need to understand that each of us is a piece in what I refer to as the puzzle of life. A puzzle cannot be completed until all its pieces are assembled. If we consider ourselves as these pieces, it means that we all play a role in creating the final picture, which symbolizes unity. We are currently in an era marked by a lack of unity and peace, a world filled with bitterness, rage, and a shortage of empathy, one would hope for peace to flourish.

Despite reaching the year 2025, many individuals are still coping with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, both during and after its peak. As Americans work towards recovery and rebuilding their lives, they are faced with additional economic changes that will similarly impact them in the long term. These changes consist of the dismantling of the Department of Education, reductions in federal funding, and a significant surge in the cost of living. By dismantling these programs, they are reducing financial support for initiatives that support, educate, and protect our most vulnerable and underrepresented students, resulting in heightened fear and anxiety for many families, as well as significant unrest in communities. The Department of Education is crucial in enforcing federal regulations that prohibit discrimination and ensuring that all students have access to an education that allows them to reach their highest potential.

Children who do not eat three meals a day and look forward to going to school to do so are no longer able to do so. Children from broken homes who want to go to school are unable to do so because they are forced to stay in an abusive environment and take lessons online. School children are terrified for their safety after a fellow student chooses to carry a firearm to school and shoot it up. Some kids are buying guns and carrying them to school and other places because they don't feel safe traveling without one. Due to a troubling rise in gun-related violence, innocent children are losing their lives to random gunfire. Concern has been expressed by experts, parents, and service providers, yet I'm curious about their intended actions. In my view, community leaders and government officials must enhance their strategies, as they repeatedly assure us of their support and protection, but their actions so far have not reflected that commitment.

Many of our young people have fallen prey to the misdeeds of others, dealing with struggles around mental health, self-esteem, food shortages, and various other unimaginable problems that have intensified in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Child advocates Frank A. Maffei and Cathleen Palm discovered that child abuse results in more fatalities than the COVID-19 virus. Their analysis of pediatric data related to COVID-19 indicates that the pandemic has had a profoundly negative impact on children. "When a child passes away, the potential that child's life held is now gone, and society suffers as a result," state Maffei and Palm. The frequency of adolescent suicide attempts resulting in emergency room visits has risen, and feelings of isolation and alienation are exacerbating the issues that children and teenagers face. Even though many organizations are working to provide access to their programs for our children, it remains insufficient.

Together, we must safeguard the children, as many are unable to fully experience and enjoy life. Their innocent spirits, along with other at-risk groups, are facing a struggle. The initial action is to raise greater awareness about these concerns.

Examining Your Emotional Health

Happy Wellness Wednesday! Do you feel emotionally well this Wednesday? Shouldn't we all think about this question? We're all guilty of not checking in with ourselves as often as we should, it's easier said than done. Like checking our phones or brushing our teeth, it should come naturally to us.

So what are emotions? How can we examine them? According to Oxford, an emotion is a spontaneous, instinctive mental state brought on by one's surroundings, mood, or social interactions. A tangle of feelings followed by physical and psychological changes that impact our thoughts and actions is a common definition. Since emotions are the psycho-physiological methods in which we respond to an action, our impulses might inform us of what is happening as a means of addressing the issue by involving brain activity (Van Dyck et al., 2014).

According to Calvo et al. (2015), there are numerous physical manifestations of emotions that have a significant role in our social interactions, social outcomes, and the way we express our emotions to others. In my thesis, "Dancing, Mindfulness, and Our Emotions: Embracing the Mind, Body, and Sole," I delve into greater detail on emotions and wellness by identifying how mindfulness and the creative arts may help us identify, understand, and release our repressed emotions. In order to illustrate the relationships between emotions, renowned psychologist Robert Pluchik created the Wheel of Emotions in 1980. The diagram is shown below:

Robert Plutchik created the wheel of emotion, a tool that is crucial for improving self-awareness, communication, emotional intelligence, and the understanding and management of emotions. Better emotional regulation and interpersonal interactions result from its assistance in helping people recognize, express, and control their emotions. According to D'Ascenzo (2009), "since persons bodily resonate with emotions" (Collins, 2004, pg.6), positive emotions can restore reactions to circumstances by reflecting our self-consciousness.

My practice mostly involves children, thus I frequently stress the importance of educating them to recognize and control their emotions and to cultivate a healthy and strong subconscious mind. Which techniques can we use to help children learn to identify and control their emotions? A child's mental growth will benefit from learning how to express their emotions. Children who are aware of and in control of their emotions will feel capable of handling whatever challenge life presents. A child who can express "I'm mad at you," or "that hurts my feelings," is better equipped to handle disagreements politely rather than physically. Regretfully, emotional expression is often portrayed by society as a sign of weakness when, in reality, it is a sign of extraordinary power. As an adult or person in a position of authority, think about explaining a circumstance that made you feel a particular way. This is an excellent method of teaching children about emotions and how they are normal.

We should encourage children to share what triggers a certain emotion. Despite this, children's books, animation movies, and television shows emphasize it or even implore children to connect the word to the emotion's face (for instance, a red, frowning face would indicate an angry face). It is questioned whether kids comprehend the true meaning of emotion or what caused them to feel it, let alone recognize it. Families and classrooms need to support this strategy more often.

We are all aware of how important mental health is throughout childhood, adolescence, and adulthood; emotional well-being is essential for managing life's challenges and maintaining positive relationships.

Be well!

Mental Health in the United States

We tend to take minor things for granted in life. We didn't know how important something was until it was gone, and how much better we could have managed it if it had been with us. One of these things is mental health. The stigma around mental health persists because some individuals are still afraid to talk about it. Some folks generally don't give a damn about their mental health. Mental illness is still the "elephant in the room" in homes, at work, and school. We're aware of the problem but prefer to remain silent about it.

I've often wondered why people are so scared to speak up about something that we can all connect to and about which we should all be deeply worried. Nowadays, one of the most common problems we see our ordinary Americans face is dealing with mental health difficulties. You don't have to be diagnosed with a mental health issue to recognize that managing it is difficult for you. Stress, frustration, worry, and another mental agony can alter how we live, behave, think, and feel about other people, places, and things. Some people put off taking care of their mental health since it's a subject that calls for them to sit down and be mindful of their feelings and thoughts. We have to realize that trying to escape these feelings or ideas by using other people, locations, or objects only makes the situation worse.

Anxiety disorders, panic attacks, OCD, sadness, bipolar disorder, mood disruption disorders, phobias, eating disorders, personality disorders, PTSD, schizophrenia, and other mental health diseases are just a few examples. Numerous things can lead to mental health issues. Factors to take into account include genetics and family history, life experiences, unresolved negative emotions (stress, guilt, shame, etc.), exposure to pregnancy, medical issues, loneliness, difficulty with abandonment, childhood trauma, and history of abuse. How is the most crucial question. How do you handle these issues? What initiatives or services can we create and offer to the broader public to solve these problems? How do we raise consciousness?

When does mental health get a lot of attention?

Mental health is sometimes utilized as a "get out of jail free" card." Many tragic cases in which people claim mental illness as a justification for their awful inhumane behavior are seen and heard. News of mass shootings in schools, supermarkets, movie theaters, and other public areas where children and adults congregate are examples. We frequently witness footage of a "shooter" who has had a mental health crisis or has been diagnosed with a disease. In my opinion, where is the history of our communities or, more significantly, parents advocating for services that can help manage the mental health issue of concern if this is the case, which it is? The question is what you've done to guarantee that the problem is correctly handled, and what efforts you've taken to avoid a scenario like this from escalating. After that, what happens? There's more to dealing with a mental health issue than popping pills. We need to delve deeper and come up with approaches that are healthful, self-paced, and provide long-term benefits. On the other hand, there are some people who are having difficulty managing their mental health difficulties and are looking for services that will help them.

Let's take a closer look at mental health in the US. Mental health was always common before the coronavirus epidemic, and the incidence of mental illnesses has been steadily increasing. The mental health of adults and children is deteriorating, according to an online American mental health database. In comparison to the 9.1% reported the previous year, 9.7% of our youth in the United States are depressed. Adults are having more suicidal thoughts than ever before. Between 2016-2017 and 2017-2018, the number of people in the United States who had serious suicidal thoughts increased by 0.15 percent, or 460,000 people, compared to the previous year's numbers.

There is still a scarcity of mental health treatment for both children and adults. During the 2017-2018 school year, 60 percent of children with severe depression received no mental health treatment. Over 38% of people do not obtain the mental health care they require, even in the states with the best availability. Only 27.3 percent of children with severe depression received treatment on a regular basis. 23.6 percent of adults with mental disorders reported unmet treatment needs in 2017-2018. This figure has stayed constant since 2011. The number of people with mental illnesses who are uninsured has grown for the first time since the Affordable Care Act's passage (ACA). In the United States, there are 5.1 million adults who are uninsured. This ratio varies significantly by state: in New Jersey (ranked #1), 2.5 percent of those with AMI are uninsured, compared to 23 percent in Wyoming (ranked #51).

Lastly, despite the fact that there are many programs that promote mental health and wellness, we ought to push for more. Initiatives for mental health and wellness should be incorporated into the curriculum. Hospitals, community centers, and any other organization that works with people should offer mental health services.

Be well this Wednesday!