Stress is our body’s natural response to challenging situations. While a certain level of stress can be motivating, chronic stress can lead to a host of mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and burnout. Understanding how stress affects us is the first step in managing it effectively.

Social connection plays a pivotal role in lifestyle medicine for psychiatry. By recognizing and harnessing the power of relationships, mental health professionals can enhance their treatment approaches, leading to better outcomes for patients. Whether through community engagement, therapeutic interventions, or technology, fostering social connections is essential in nurturing mental well-being.

Today as I watched my kids at the beach playing with mollusks, I experienced a moment of mindfulness. Mindfulness is “open, active attention to the present” and is a great tool for managing everything from daily stress to more serious mental health concerns like depression, anxiety, and OCD.