On May 1st, Be Well at Work Employee Assistance invites you to prioritize your mental health. The day will include virtual workshops highlighting mental health education and well-being strategies, as well as in-person experiential activities aimed at caring for your mental health. Campus and community partners will join us throughout the day so that you can learn more about existing support in our community. We hope you will join us!

These workshops are brought to the Lab by the Employee Assistance Program: Employee Assistance provides no-cost confidential counseling and referral for LBNL.

Supporting Mental Health in the Workplace: For Supervisors & Managers
May 1st, 9 am -10 am - Online Event

Working in a management or leadership role comes with many responsibilities, not the least of which is supporting your employees. However, when mental health challenges are disclosed or suspected based on observed behavior, managers often aren’t sure how best to respond; or whether they should respond at all. Be Well at Work - Employee Assistance is uniquely positioned to help managers and supervisors navigate the intersection of mental health and the workplace. During this live webinar, we will share observations, common misconceptions, and useful strategies related to mental health in the workplace while also discussing how to support individuals and teams in order to provide support, maintain boundaries, and still focus on getting the work done. Bring your questions! Through a predominantly question and answer format, this session is an opportunity for managers and supervisors to get their questions answered, and also learn from each other. 

Register for Supporting Mental Health in the Workplace

Re(Starting) Your Journaling Practice
May 1, 10:30 am - 11:15 am - Hybrid Event

Journaling is a great opportunity to introspect, self-reflect, gain awareness into our emotional and thought patterns, and independently solve problems. Yet, many times, it is difficult to get started or restarted with a journaling practice- do I just start writing? How will I feel if I read it later? Do I have to write in a notebook or is typing in my phone the same thing? This workshop will help answer these questions, offering education about the benefits of journaling for our mental health, different types of journaling, and example prompts to get you started. The second half of the workshop will be devoted to starting your journaling practice, and in-person participants will receive a complimentary journal. This workshop welcomes those with any and all levels of journaling experience.  Attend in person and receive a free journal!

Register for Re(Starting) Your Journaling Practice

Walking Meditation: Using Nature to Boost Your Mood
May 1, 11:30 am - Noon - In-Person at the Staff Community Garden

Walking meditation is a type of mindfulness practice that uses nature and quiet movement to develop calm and enhance connectedness to one’s self and one’s surroundings. We chose to highlight this type of meditation as it offers a user-friendly approach to resetting the nervous system and can be practiced during everyday moments. You do not need any prior meditation experience.  

Register for Using Nature to Boost Your Mood

In the Absence of Fear, Love Settles In, Unifying Body, Mind, and Feelings with Breema.
May 1, 12:15 pm - 12:45 pm - In-Person at the Staff Community Garden

Fear, anxiety, and criticism, are forms of psychological and emotional tension that steal our energy, and depress our relationship with life. One antidote for this is simple. As soon as we see we are in a critical state, we can stop fighting with ourselves and come to a more inclusive dimension of experience by using our breath and weight to come to the body. Once body and mind are working together, our relationship with life changes: instead of trying to get rid of, or change a temporary state, we can see that while we are in a state, we are not that state and can therefore begin to relate to it differently, with more acceptance and less judgment. This saves a lot of our energy, and allows us to be more available to life.  Join us for this experiential class where we will learn to slow down and connect using simple Breema self care exercises and principles in moving meditation practice for unifying and balancing the energies of body, mind, and feelings. We hope to see you here. Please come comfortably dressed and prepared for light movement activity.

Register for Unifying Body, Mind, and Feelings with Breema

Maintaining Mental Wellness at Work
May 1, 1 pm -2 pm - Online via Zoom 

It’s no surprise that our work can impact our mental health, and our mental health can impact our work. At times, this relationship between work and our personal wellness can become strained. So, in those moments, what strategies can we use to continue caring for ourselves while also staying present and professional at work? In this workshop, we’ll discuss four strategies that can be helpful- setting boundaries, assertive communication, emotion regulation, and creating healthy rituals at work. This workshop is most appropriate for those newer to their mental health journey, or those who appreciate a refresher course.

Register for Maintaining Mental Wellness at Work

Mindful Meditation
May 1, 2 pm - 2:30 pm - Online via Zoom

Mindfulness meditation can have a profound impact on psychological and physical health, improving mood, decreasing stress, strengthening the immune system, and supporting sleep. Join us for this short mindful moment in which we will focus on our breath in order to increase our self-awareness, thereby offering us a moment of reprieve from our busy minds and schedules. 

Zoom Link for Mindful Meditation

Print the Mental Health Awareness Day Poster

for your Division