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Members & Employees
Care for Your Health
Wellness Health Screenings
at the AMO Plans Medical Clinic
Call Ext.7305
or
Stop by the clinic for your
Sailing Members:
As with all AMO Plans Health & Wellness Initiatives, any health information obtained is private and not shared with any required merchant mariner physical exam process. This information is strictly for your betterment and may be shared with your physician at your discretion
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May 2018
Mental Health
Awareness Month
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Psychological Well-being
We all want to be
HAPPY! The World Health Organization
defines mental health as a "state of well-being in which every individual realizes his or her own potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her
community."
Your state of well-being is beneficial for your overall health and can even mean that you live longer.
Positive Mental Health
People who score higher on well-being measures live longer and have a 50% lower chance of a heart attack or stroke.
They make better decisions and have higher work performance, take fewer risks and have a lower risk of accidents or injuries. Mental health can affect daily life, relationships, and even physical health.
Mental Health
also includes a person's ability to enjoy life - to attain a balance between life activities and efforts and to achieve psychological resilience. So, paying attention to your well-being can really make a difference and mean that you can learn to keep yourself
Fit, Health
y and
Happy.
Enhancing your Well-being
In a study of more than 3,000 people in the US, only 20% were found to have high psychological well-being or to be 'flourishing.' The good news is that there is a large and growing body of evidence about what makes people happy and what enhances their well-being, and that we can control many of these things. We now know that there are several critical factors which characterize people with high well-being; people who 'flourish' in their lives. These include:
Positive Emotions, Engagement, Positive Relationships,
and a sense of
Meaning, Purpose,
and
Accomplishment.
Positive Emotions
When we feel good we have the energy to do all kinds of things, but when we are busy and especially when we are feeling stressed or low, we forget to do the things that make us happy. We lose motivation to do things and very quickly we find that we are not doing the things we enjoy. Evidence suggests that actively and intentionally making time to engage in things we like to do can have a real and positive impact on our well-being. It doesn't matter what you choose but make time for activities that you enjoy.
Meaning and Purpose
Ancient philosophers and modern scientists agree that there are three kinds of life to aspire to:
The Pleasurable Life
In which you enjoy day to day pleasures.
The Good Life
In which we are aware of our individual strengths and skills and use them to the best of our ability to accomplish our goals and achieve our aims.
The Meaningful Life
In which we use our skills, our strengths, and our resources in belonging to and serving something that is bigger and more important than ourselves. While positive emotions, good relationships and doing well in our work or hobbies are all key elements of our psychological well-being, we also need to find meaning and purpose in life. Meaning or purpose may be different for each of us and lies in the things that we give greatest value to in our lives. There is considerable evidence that a higher level of spirituality goes hand in hand with greater well-being, less mental illness, less substance abuse and more stable marriages as well as better performance at work.
Accomplishment
A sense of accomplishment can contribute a great deal to our overall
HAPPINESS
.
However, we often overlook the things that we achieve. Once we reach our goals, we can soon discount them as unimportant. Paying attention to our achievements, and new goals we can work towards, can have a very positive impact on our well-being.
Physical Health
Three key areas we can focus on to become fitter and maintain a healthy body are exercising regularly, eating healthy and ensuring we get enough rest.
Finding Support
Remember; throughout the course of our lives we all feel a range of positive and negative emotions. One of the ways we manage our problems and our emotional response on a day-to-day basis is to talk to our friends and family or the people we work with. We don't even really think about it. That kind of normal everyday sharing helps us to gain perspective and process events and experiences and if there is a problem to be solved it might help us to come up with a solution.
Sum it Up
It can be hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle in the hustle and bustle world that we live in. If you are in school, commuting to work and/or taking care of your family, time can seem to evaporate. Taking good care of your body and mind can make a difference in how healthy you are in general and how well you cope with change. Exercising, relaxing, and getting enough rest will help you do better and enjoy life more. Taking good care of yourself may require a little extra time and effort, but it's
WORTH IT!
AMO Sailing Members
Steps to Positive Mental Health
There are several factors that impact seafarers' mental health; such as job stress, family pressures, limited shore leave and more. Being away at sea can also make it difficult to access support. Click on the self-help guide below that details some skills, exercises and coping strategies
In the Month of May
Learn more about Positive Mental
Well-being - some people call it happiness - is about more than avoiding mental health problems. It means feeling good and functioning well. It can be helpful to maintain an awareness of your overall well-being. It can help you to identify the things that have an impact on how well you're doing and give you more power in improving your life.
Have a great May!
American Maritime Officers Plans
(Sources:
Journal of Health and Social Behavior;
Seafarers' Health Information Program;
Mental Health America;Medical News Today;"Positive Psychology Progress:
Empirical Validation of Interventions")
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