May serves as Mental Health Awareness Month and, to promote it, Mind Springs Health has unveiled its 7th annual Multiply Your Happy strength-building calendar.
“We came to a consensus and agreement that focusing on the positives of life, focusing on building resiliency and activities that can help people feel good about themselves in terms of mental wellness, would be a way to really promote mental health awareness,” Amy Gallagher, vice president of Whole Health LLC and a licensed psychologist, said of what originally promoted Multiply Your Happy in 2013.
Whole Health acts as a subsidiary company of Mind Springs Health.
Mind Springs, which has a strong presence in Glenwood Springs and Garfield County, serves as a provider of behavioral health services on Colorado’s Western Slope.
The Multiply Your Happy calendar spotlights 24 personal strengths ranging from forgiveness to humor. And, the 2019 edition has a strong emphasis on building resiliency in local communities.
The Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania, for decades, has studied the 24 character strengths. According to Gallagher, regardless of one’s culture, gender or socioeconomic status, the 24 various strengths apply across the globe.
“Whether it’s a First World country or a Third World country, whether you are living in poverty or more affluent, male or female, all of these strengths are seen across the board throughout the entire world,” Gallagher explained.
Types of strengths
According to the Multiply Your Happy calendar, the 24 strengths include: bravery, creativity, humor, love, curiosity, self-regulation, gratitude, perseverance, kindness, leadership, forgiveness, perspective, fairness, prudence, hope, honesty, love of learning, social intelligence, teamwork, humility, appreciation of beauty, judgment, spirituality and zest.
On the Multiply Your Happy calendar, unique application strategies accompany each strength, too.
“The research is demonstrating that, if you’re using your strengths during the day, if you’re working on developing strengths that may not be in your top strengths, you are going to build resiliency, increase your happiness and your life satisfaction,” Gallagher said.
Identifying your strengths
Gallagher explained that individuals may identify their own strengths as well as those of their family by taking a free, 15-minute survey at viacharacter.org.
Survey respondents then get a printout, in rank order, of the 24 character strengths as it relates to them.
“Our calendar then is a nice asset to that, because we are offering tips and tricks for each of those 24 strengths,” Gallagher said.
Although May is designated as Mental Health Awareness Month, Gallagher said she hoped that users would work on their strengths daily and subsequently promote mental health awareness year-round.
mabennett@postindependent.com