Wellbeing

Wellbeing is an important part of our lives each day, especially now as we face a unique set of challenges. Learning how to take care of yourself is an important step, not only in the present, but for the rest of your life. How you address your wellbeing‒whether it be emotional, physical, social, workplace, or societal‒will improve your quality of life. The Oklahoma Museums Association, Oklahoma Arts Council and Oklahoma Humanities care about your wellbeing, so we created this webpage to connect you to wellness information. The links to the left offer useful tools and information that will hopefully assist you on your wellness journey!

If you have specific questions or would like to share any thoughts, please contact us at info@okmuseums.org.
Information about the Wellbeing Expert Voices Speaker Series can be found here

Video: Mental Health is Improved with Museums

Thank you to the Wellbeing Committee for compiling these resources for the cultural community.
Valorie Walters, Under Secretary, Department of Culture and Humanities, The Chickasaw Nation, Chair of the Wellbeing Committee
Dr. CJ Aducci, Executive Officer and Therapist, The Chickasaw Nation
Chandra Boyd, Deputy Director, Oklahoma Arts Council
Susan Buchanan, Director of Collections and Chief Registrar, Gilcrease Museum
Brenda Granger, Executive Director, Oklahoma Museums Association
Jake Krumwiede, Director, Cherokee Strip Regional Heritage Center 
Caroline Lowery, Executive Director, Oklahoma Humanities
Stacy O’Daniel, Administrative and Program Associate, Oklahoma Museums Association
Dan Provo, Director, Oklahoma History Center 
Gena Timberman, Attorney and Museum Consultant, Luksi Group 

Vaccines and Masks

    • The Science of Vaccine
      Science Museum Oklahoma and NewsChannel 9 collaborated on this project to help get the facts you need to make good decisions to keep you, your family and our community safe. 

    • Considerations for Wearing Masks
      This article is published by the CDC and provides general guidance and recommendations on wearing a mask or face covering. There is also a section on feasibility and adaptations for wearing a mask and it includes situations where mental health or disabilities are present.

    • It’s Easy to Judge, But Some People Really Can’t Wear a Mask
      This article addresses certain types of medical conditions, including mental health problems that can create additional stressors with wearing a mask. An informative article that helps bring insight into why people may not wear a mask for reasons that are not political.

    • Combatting the Effects of Mask Wearing
      This article addresses some of the difficulty breathing that some people experience while wearing a mask.  Additionally, the article provides some recommendations to improve breathing while wearing a mask. Improved breathing can lead to improved physical and mental health.

Returning to Work Safe

    • Back To Office Anxiety? How To Keep Your Fears In Check
      If you are feeling at all apprehensive about returning to the physical workplace, the following strategies will help you manage the ‘fear factor’ and set yourself up for as smooth – and stress free- a transition as possible.   

    • 5 Tips to Help You Adjust to Going Back to Work During a Pandemic
      While working from home may have provided a certain measure of safety while the nation came to grips with the pandemic, it wasn’t always an ideal situation. Many people grew tired of the disruption from regular life and looked forward to returning to the daily grind, although with reservations. After all, the virus is still out there and it is critical that as we return to our jobs we continue to practice good common sense.

Post-COVID-19 Stress Disorder and PTSD Related to COVID-19

    • PTSD from COVID-19? Here Are Four Signs.
      The physical stress of infection might end, but COVID-19 patients can carry emotional scars from the experience for months and years, often in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

COVID-19 Fatigue

    • 7 Steps to Reduce Pandemic Fatigue
      After months of dealing with the fallout from COVID-19, many people have pandemic fatigue. It’s a very real feeling of exhaustion stemming from the effects of the novel coronavirus on your life — from stay-at-home orders to the fear of getting ill to losing jobs.

Racial Trauma

    • Racial Trauma
      Racial trauma, or race-based traumatic stress (RBTS), refers to the mental and emotional injury caused by encounters with racial bias and ethnic discrimination, racism, and hate crimes

    • Racial Battle Fatigue
      Racial Battle Fatigue (RBF) was a term coined in 2008 by Critical Race Theorist William Smith.

 Anxiety, Stress and Burnout

    • Rekindle Your Staff’s Sense of Purpose
      Associations can leverage the mission-driven nature of their work to help employees find meaning at a time when many are struggling to rediscover their passion for their work.

    • Mental Health and the COVID19 Pandemic
      Article from the New England Journal of Medicine provides a very good introduction that could help “normalize” feelings and emotions and stressors many people may experience during the pandemic.

    • Combating Burnout in the Museum Sector
      In response to the overwhelming number of museum professionals who reported that one of the largest barriers to remaining in the museum field was burnout, American Alliance of Museums has created a new resource to help professionals and organizations better identify, prevent, and recover from burnout.

Work-Life Balance

    • Self-care for Museum Professionals with Seema Rao
      Self-care for Museum Professionals with Seema Rao, Deputy Director and Chief Experience Officer, Akron Art Museum, and author of “Objective Lessons: Self Care for Museum Workers” Museum work can be exhausting–especially in these challenging times. Are we doing enough to care for ourselves? What can we do to exercise self-care and support others in their restorative practices? In this talk, prepared initially for the 2020 California Association of Museums conference in Los Angeles, Seema Rao discusses how museum workers can practice self-care as well as foster a healthier, more productive, and more creative work environment.

    • Right Direction
      Right Direction is a high-impact, turnkey initiative that raises awareness about depression and other mental health conditions, and encourages help-seeking when it’s needed. By providing free resources, tools, and expert guidance on workplace mental health, Right Direction helps organizations create a healthier and more engaged workforce. There are sections for employers and for individual workers. Right Direction is a joint initiative of the Center for Workplace Mental Health and Employers Health Coalition, Inc., which coalesced employer and mental health expertise to meet the needs of employers and leverages their existing (but often underutilized) mental health programs.

Grief and Loss

    • That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief
      David Kessler, the world’s foremost expert on grief, shares his thoughts on why it’s important to acknowledge the grief you may be feeling, how to manage it, and how he believes we will find meaning in it.

Family Wellness and Relationships

Parents and Caregivers of Children

Maintaining Positive Wellbeing

 

Diet and Exercise

    • Healthy Eating Habits and Cooking Techniques – For Everyone!
      Want to make healthy food choices? The Get Fresh! program is brought to you by the Chickasaw Nation and USDA. Get Fresh! promotes healthy eating habits and cooking techniques through cooking demonstrations, nutrition education and wellness information. The Chickasaw word for “cook” is “hoponni”.

 

Sleep Hygiene

    • Sleep Basics
      Lots of great sleep information including why is sleep important, how much do you need, how to sleep better and more, all from PsychologyToday.com.

 

Creative Expression

    • Focusing on Mental Health: How Art Therapy Can Help During the Pandemic
      From Fox 9 News in Minnesota, certified art therapist Lisa Lounsbury joined the Fox 9 Morning Buzz program with ideas for people to use art therapy at home. Story highlights the use of telehealth options to access services and techniques that an help to ease stress and anxiety, including art therapy. 

    • Exploring the Blank Canvas: A Practice
      This blank canvas exercise from Gratefulness.org combines gratitude and curiosity with mindful breaths and simple art supplies. The participant is guided through movement with prompts for reflection at the end.

    • Creative Expression – Creating Connection
      A fun article on creative expression from the website, Creating Connection where the perspective of creativity offers an access point for people who do not identify as artists. There are several tips for getting creative, focusing on the side of personal expression and engagement.

COVID-19 Resources

    • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
      Broad coverage of coping with stress during the COVID-19 outbreak with specific sections for parents, people at higher risk for illness, people coming out of quarantine, and responders.

    • myStrength app
      Family & Children’s Services has partnered with myStrength to provide you with a free, personal myStrength account. We are all overly stressed during COVID, so this is a fantastic resource we are providing for you to help you cope with isolation, fear, frustration, anxiety and depression. myStrength offers personalized digital tools to help manage the stress and uncertainty brought on by the current coronavirus threat. Get tips for parenting challenges and find support for your emotional health in the midst of COVID-19. Grounded in Science and Uniquely Engaging myStrength combines the broadest range of evidence-based models and offers a daily destination for improving and maintaining overall well-being and resilience. Highly interactive, individually-tailored applications empower myStrength users to address depression, anxiety, stress, substance use, chronic pain and sleep challenges, while also supporting the physical and spiritual aspects of whole-person health.

    • National Alliance on Mental Illness
      COVID-19 Information and Resource Guide with tips on handling stress and anxiety, links to other mental health articles and tools, and answers to some broad questions.

    • The New England Journal of Medicine
      Article, Mental Health and the COVID-19 Pandemic, providing a good summary of COVID-19 and the overall impact on mental health. A very good introductory article that could help “normalize” feelings and emotions and stressors for many people.

    • Mental Health America
      Mental Health and COVID-19 – Information and Resources webpage with articles and resources for anxiety, substance use, for parents, caregivers, etc.

Hotline Phone Numbers

The following hotline numbers are provided as resources to contact.  Individuals are trained and ready to answer your call, please use the following numbers.  They are here for you.

2-1-1 Oklahoma
Text 211OK to 898211 or call 211 from your phone. 2-1-1 is a free, 24-hour phone service that provides Oklahomans access to information about health and human services. Highly trained 2-1-1 call specialists offer compassionate engagement and can make in-depth assessments and referral plans based on eligibility requirements for each program. Among others, 2-1-1 can help with

9-8-8 National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
988 has been designated as the new three-digit dialing code that will route callers to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. When people call, text, or chat 988, they will be connected to trained counselors that are part of the existing Lifeline network. These trained counselors will listen, understand how their problems are affecting them, provide support, and connect them to resources if necessary.

National Crisis Text line
Text HOME  to 741741

Mental Health Association of Oklahoma
Free statewide mental health resources center and access to virtual support groups

Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services
Links to resources regarding mental health and substance use with ability to identify mental health resources available close to you.

Veterans Crisis Line
Help is available 24/7 for veterans and their families. Call 988, press 1 when answered or text 838255

The Trevor Project (LGBT help)
1-866-488-7386 Reach out to a counselor, find answers and information, and get the tools you need to help someone else.

Oklahoma Domestic Violence Safeline
1-800-522-7233

National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-7233

RAINN (Sexual Abuse/Assault Hotline)
1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

Oklahoma Child and Elder Abuse Report Line
1-800-522-3511

Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline
1-800-4ACHILD OR 1-800-422-4453