Keeping a Journal During COVID-19 to Nurture Your Mental Health

Journaling provides many benefits, including relief from stress, anxiety, and depression. There’s no better time to nurture your mental health than during COVID-19. Here’s how keeping a journal can benefit your mental health, and a few suggestions to get you started.

Mental Health Benefits of Keeping a Journal

Journaling provides clarity. By writing down what’s happening in your life, you can create order from what feels like chaos.
Journaling allows you to relax. Many people find the act of writing or organizing photos and other records soothing.
Journaling helps you keep a record. This can be useful in tracking how you feel and what triggers those emotions.
Journaling can be therapeutic. Writing gives you an opportunity to practice positive self-talk and give yourself encouragement.
Journaling gives you perspective. It’s helpful to be able to look back on your record and know that you can make it through hard times.

How to Journal

Choose your medium. Journaling isn’t confined to the written word. You can use words, artwork, or photos, and your journal can be either physical or digital.
Make time. Ideally, take a few minutes every day to keep up your journal. You’re better able to reap the mental health benefits of journaling as you make it a habit.
Make it personal. As well as using your preferred medium, you can choose whether you want your journal to have a theme, and whether you want it to be public or private. It’s completely up to you.
Don’t worry. There’s no right or wrong way to keep a journal. The important thing is to use it in a way that works best for you.

Journaling is a great tool to help you get in touch with yourself and nurture your mental health. It’s also extremely flexible, so it can be completely personalized to meet your needs. As you create a habit of journaling, you’ll find that you look forward to it as a time to take care of yourself.

Here is your link to the Whitney Times

The Whitney Senior Center is open for many events. Check out the Whitney Times by clicking on the link to the right for the pdf or check out the offerings at:

https://schedulesplus.com/whitney/kiosk

All members please check in at the front desk and get an updated scan card and sign a waiver.

Link to Weekly Calendar on SchedulesPlus to See and Register for Events coming up.

If you want to watch the video ahead of time, click on here

TED TALK - Kelsey Leonard: Why lakes and rivers should have the same rights as humans

Water is essential to life. Yet in the eyes of the law, it remains largely unprotected -- leaving many communities without access to safe drinking water, says legal scholar Kelsey Leonard. In this powerful talk, she shows why granting lakes and rivers legal "personhood" -- giving them the same legal rights as humans -- is the first step to protecting our bodies of water and fundamentally ...

The theme for our TED Circles in October is: Everyone's Environment. We have selected four TED Talks that do not simply attempt to browbeat an audience into believing that climate change is real and that somehow this beautiful planet is going to perish with all of us in it within the next fifty years.

Instead we will engage the ideas of speakers who help us see what we are blessed with on this earth and how we can protect those wonders by changing our perspectives and by having conversations with people with whom we might agree or disagree.

Tuesday, October 13th
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Join at this LINK

Learn how to download books on Libby - Wednesday 11am to 12pm with Jade. Click on link to join meeting.

Join us on Zoom at this Link for our Cooking Demonstration

Join us on Zoom at this link Thursday at 9:30. Passcode if needed: 780230

Join us in-person or on Zoom at this Link

This week's topic is on Food Sensitivities - Join us in-person or on Zoom at this link

Register by calling 320-255-7265 or online at this LINK

Wood Carving Club

Please register at www.schedulesplus.com/whitney/kiosk or by calling the front desk if you plan to attend in person at 320-255-7245.

Zoom will also be set up in the room for those that want to join virtually.

Tuesdays
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
Join at this LINK

NOTE -- Meeting at 7pm on Monday Evening. Use the link above.

Overeaters Anonymous

Overeaters Anonymous is a community of people who support each other in order to recover from compulsive eating and food behaviors.

New Members are welcome!

Saturdays
9:00 AM to 10:00 AM
Join at this LINK

NEW LINKS FOR THE FITNESS CLASSES as of 9/30/20

If you are attending through Zoom, only SilverSneakers at this time will reimburse for these classes. If you have SilverSneakers please make sure to mark your attendance with the following links:

April, May, June, July, August , and September

Note: Silver & Fit will only reimburse for in-person attendance.

If you do not have SilverSneakers and are attending the virtual classes, we ask you to please consider making a donation of $3.50 per class which is reflective of the cost of classes for in-person. You can make a contribution by mailing a check or calling the front desk and putting on a credit or debit card at 320-255-7245.

If you are new to our WSC Fitness Classes and/or have not filled out your 2020 Fitness Waiver, please fill out at this LINK and submit. Here is the link to the SilverSneakers Waiver.

Reminder - Members are welcome to attend the in-person classes for the same classes and times listed below. Register on SchedulesPlus or call the WSC Front Desk.

LINKS TO THE CLASSES

Senior Yoga with Melissa
Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday. 10 am to 10:45 am
JOIN AT THIS LINK
Passcode: 045715
Meeting ID: 446 120 723

Gentle Pilates with Paula
Mondays and Fridays 1:30 pm to 2:30 pm
Note time changes to 1:30 starting September 4th
JOIN AT THIS LINK
Passcode: 492386
Meeting ID: 127 645 241

SAIL - Stay Active and Independent for Life
Tuesday, Fridays, Saturdays 11 am to 12:00 pm
JOIN AT THIS LINK
Passcode: 142936
Meeting ID: 190 783 740

Spring Forest QI- GONG with Jerry Wellik
Mondays and Wednesdays 12:00 pm to 12:55 pm
Register in Advance at this LINK
Passcode: 099960
Meeting ID: 872 9072 3684

Yoga with Sally
Tuesdays at 9:30 am - 10:30 am at this LINK
Passcode: 234663
Meeting ID: 931 0762 6666
Thursdays at 11:30 am to 12:30 pm at this LINK
Passcode: 747703
Meeting ID: 998 8163 7073

Front Desk/ Registering System/ Calendar

For future reference here are the steps to pre-register for a class and to check out calendar of other events as they get added:

Here is a word document with screen shots of what it will look like - Click Here
Here is a video to explain the process - Click Here

Pre-registration for any in-person classes is available at https://schedulesplus.com/whitney/kiosk/.

Need help with technology?
Ask our Computer Lab Volunteers

The computer lab volunteers have graciously offered to take questions and try to answer them for you. Send them an EMAIL.

Resources:

The Minnesota Warmline
Need to talk? Someone is there to listen.
Open Monday-Saturday, 5 PM to 10 PM

651.288.0400

Toll Free 877.404.3190
or text “Support” to 85511

The Minnesota Warmline provides a peer-to-peer approach to mental health recovery, support and wellness. Calls are answered by our team of professionally trained Certified Peer Specialists, who have first hand experience living with a mental health condition.
The Warmline provides a safe, anonymous and confidential environment to connect with people who are here to listen…here to help.

Helping Minnesota’s Older Adults during COVID-19
Refer to MDH for COVID-19 Information in Minnesota

To protect the public's health and slow the rate of transmission of COVID-19, please follow the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) for the state’s most up-to-date guidelines and information: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/index.html .

Call the Senior LinkAge Line Available at 1-800-333-2433
The Senior LinkAge Line will continue to be a resource for older adults and their families to call during this emergency situation. We can help people find resources and make connections with alternative services, if someone’s provider or support network has changed or temporarily stopped providing services. The Minnesota Board on Aging (MBA), Minnesota’s Area Agencies on Aging and the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) are working closely together to share information and ensure that all parts of the state have the resources they need to support older Minnesotans and caregivers.

Help for Older Adults
If you are on Elderly Waiver, Alternative Care or Essential Community Supports, contact your case manager/care coordinator to discuss your needs. If you are not on one of these programs call the Senior LinkAge Line for help finding resources in your community including:

Home-delivered meals
Grocery or prescription drug delivery
Help in your home
Transportation
Caregiver consultants and respite services

Donations Accepted

A few of you have asked, so we thought we would include. If you find value in the programs being offered and would like to make a donation during this time to help support the Whitney Senior Center, you can mail a check to: Whitney Senior Center, 1527 Northway Drive, St. Cloud, MN 56303. We miss seeing you! Thank you to the kindness of those sending cards and donations -- it is greatly appreciated by the WSC Staff!

Find our events and links on our Website.

You can also find these events on our Website Calendar.If you want to receive Calendar Reminders of Upcoming Events outside of this emailed newsletter you can subscribe to the icalendar.