May is Mental Health Awareness Month. It’s a great reminder of how important your mental health is to your overall wellbeing and an opportunity to explore actions you can take to improve your mental outlook. It’s also a good time to revisit the many CSL benefits available to help you achieve greater peace of mind.
Tips for Coping With Stressful Situations
There’s no way to completely avoid anxiety-producing situations. But you can control your response to them. Here are a few tips for managing stress more productively, as well as some unproductive actions to avoid.
Do
- Concentrate on caring for yourself. This can help you build resilience, which can help you recover and move through challenges faster.
- Talk about the stressful situation with other people who are experiencing it. Compare reactions, so you can see you’re probably not alone in the way you’re feeling.
- Cultivate relationships and connection with others by talking about the situation with friends and relatives who care about you. It’s normal to need to tell your story over and over.
- Try to keep your schedule as routine as possible, especially when it comes to getting adequate nutrition, sleep and exercise. But also give yourself some leeway if you’re not feeling at the top of your game.
- Allow time for hobbies, relaxing activities (like meditation and mindfulness activities), physical fitness and being with friends, even if you’re not feeling totally up for it.
- Use whatever spiritual resources are part of your normal lifestyle.
- Focus on what you can control instead of dwelling on situations you have no power to change.
Don't
- Turn to alcohol, tobacco, caffeine and sweets. They may make you feel better momentarily, but they can cause more problems in the long run. Concentrate instead on maintaining a healthy diet.
- Make any major life decisions. Try to postpone these decisions until your life has normalized, if possible.
- Refuse help from friends, coworkers and others. If you can, offer help to others affected by the event.
Your CSL Mental Health Benefits
Many of the tools you need to maintain your mental health are available to you 24/7 through your CSL benefits. Even if you’re not experiencing mental strain at the moment, these resources can help you build your resilience, so you’ll be better prepared to deal with future life challenges.
Mental Health Benefit
Through Lyra, you, your spouse/domestic partner and all members of your household each have access to eight therapy or coaching sessions per year at no cost. All Lyra providers are in-network under the CSL medical plans. If you’re enrolled in a UMR or Meritain Health plan, you can continue treatment past the initial eight sessions. These sessions are subject to in-network mental health cost-sharing, as defined under your specific medical plan.
Headspace
Whether you’re looking for help with meditation, sleep, movement or focus, the Headspace app can support you in boosting your mental wellbeing. CSL covers the cost of Headspace’s meditation and mindfulness tools, so you can work on creating life-changing habits without incurring life-changing costs.
Personify Health
Your mental health can be influenced by a wide array of factors, including your physical activity, nutrition, sleep, financial health, personal relationships and philanthropic engagement. And Personify Health rewards you for participating in all these healthy behaviors. With Personify Health, you get personalized help to discover health goals that matter to you, and you can earn up to $400 per year as you track your goals.
Wellness Days
One of the ways CSL prioritizes your mental health is by providing Wellness Days — two days a year for full-time employees and one day a year for part-time employees. You can use these days to focus on your physical and emotional wellbeing when you need it most. Just be sure to use them by December 31!