Mental Health Column

Exercise Your Way to Good Mental Health

By Brad Ridenour CEO of Clark Community Mental Health Center and a Licensed Professional Counselor

Did you do a double-take when you read the article’s title? Exercise!?! (I hear some reader’s sound like former NFL coach Jim Mora when he reacted to a question from a reporter about playoffs. “Playoffs!?!... you kiddin’ me?”) For some, the mere mention of the word “exercise” induces a stress reaction; those who wonder how it is possible that exercise could be beneficial to mental health. Please read on.

The link between physical health functioning and behavioral health is well documented. A sobering fact is individuals with chronic mental health and substance use problems die 25 years younger than the average population. While it is true that some of this difference in life expectancy is due to the prevalence of suicide and drug overdoses, these causes of death account for only a fraction of the life-expectancy age discrepancy.

So, how is it poor behavioral health is taking so many lives prematurely? Consider these common examples that lead to early death: 1. Chronic anxiety often leads to high blood pressure a factor which contributes to heart disease. 2. Depression is often associated with low energy, reduced/slowed movement and increased appetite. This trifecta of symptoms often leads to being overweight/obese which contributes to Type II Diabetes.

Now, how is it that good physical health improves mental health functioning? Aerobic exercise, the kind of exercise that gets one’s heart rate up for a period of time, does two amazing things for your body.

Exercise causes the release of feel good chemicals that also help reduce pain. Some long-distance runners speak of a “runner’s high.” It is the flow of endorphins and endocannabinoids that bring the runner to this point. Exercise decreases the production of cortisol and other hormones involved in stress reactions. In combination, the increase of the “endos” and decrease of stress hormones helps to elevate overall mood.

YOU ARE VALUABLE. You deserve to give yourself the longest, happiest life possible; exercise is one of many self-help tools you can use to give yourself just that.

CC

For the love of learning

Local teachers collaborate on resource material development

Story by Melonie Roberts

If the year of COVID has taught us anything, it’s that people will adapt to meet any challenge. This is especially true for educators and parents tackling a variety of remote learning hurdles for their students who are homeschooling.

However, thanks to a group of teachers from the Mt. Vernon School District, there are a number of resource materials now available at the Barry-Lawrence Regional Library to help parents and educators bridge the learning gap that may come with remote learning.

The authors, who average 30 years of teaching experience, are: Schyrlet Cameron, a retired elementary and middle school teacher; Suzanne Myers, a school library media specialist; Carolyn Craig, an elementary and middle-school teacher; Janie Doss, who has worked in both private and public elementary and middle schools; and Sherryl Sautee, who has worked as a teacher for grades 1-12. Together, they have collaborated on compiling more than 50 educational resource books covering the topics of mathematics, the sciences, language arts, social studies, history, and government. The books are available for check out, or parents may make copies of the workbook pages. “I work with several parents who homeschool,” Cameron said. “I know the struggle many parents have finding the right teaching materials or ideas. These resource books are ideal for home school and virtual learning.” There are three types of resource books available. Each focuses on a subject in which students are introduced to a skill, shown how to use that skill and then are challenged with a performance task to demonstrate mastery of that skill.

Interactive notebooks allow students to cut out information on a topic and match it to a graphic on a page. Once completed, the notebook serves as a study guide for testing.

“Every subject is covered,” Cameron said. “When we first started writing these books, the first one was accepted by the publisher. That usually doesn’t happen. We continued writing and compiling research and tried to finish a book every two months, for a total of six to 120 books a year. This just took off.”

As teaching styles evolve, the co-authors continue to revise and update the resource materials to meet new educational benchmarks.

Schyrlet Cameron is one of five educators who have collaborated on more than 50 educational resource books that parents, students and teachers can check out from the library to use.

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“You have to make [education] interesting,” Cameron said. “You have to make it challenging. While they don’t cover every aspect of every topic, these books help teach the big rocks. Students will continue with the little rocks as they continue to learn.”

Through the publisher, Carson Dellosa/Mark Twain Media Publishing Group, resource books have been donated to several schools in southwest Missouri, including Joplin, Miller, and Hurley.

“We are looking for schools with limited resources,” Cameron said.

The project, which is next set to include a series on United States Presidents, is a labor of love for those involved in the creation of the books.

“Anything to keep kids loving school,” Cameron said. “Teachers can use the books however they like, adapting it to their lesson plans as they see fit.”

At 71, Cameron is winding down her participation in the project, turning her focus to personal interests, and continuing her fiction writing and traveling with her sister.

“I am hoping someone will come in and pick up the torch,” she said. “This is a full time job in its own right. This is such a great project, but it is time for me to focus on my own goals.”

Resource materials can be found at the Barry-Lawrence Regional Library and are designed to meet the middle and upper-grade school curriculum. n