Friendly February
Action for Happiness provides monthly self-care calendars designed to inspire daily actions that promote happiness, self-care, and emotional well-being.
Each calendar focuses on a different theme, offering simple and practical ideas to help improve mental health and foster positive habits throughout the month. You can download the monthly calendar HERE to print out and keep by your desk to remind yourself or your colleagues to look after your mental wellbeing.
Action for Happiness also offers a free 10 Days of Happiness program. This online coaching program provides daily actions and practical tips to boost personal well-being. It is suitable for anyone looking to enhance their happiness or build positive habits at home or work.

Acknowledgment and Access
These resources are shared with the permission of Action for Happiness. To explore the latest self-care calendars and learn more about their programs, visit the Action for Happiness website or sign up for their monthly updates.
Take this opportunity to explore these valuable tools for enhancing well-being and promoting a positive mindset!
Introduction to Self-care and Stress Management at the VIC:
Stress is part of our everyday life, and it is not by definition anything good or bad. It is rather a neutral reaction to an internal or external stimulus that requires us to do something in response, or in short: it is what gets and keeps us going. It is only when we feel that we are less in control of our situation, that we do not have the capability or resources to cope and deal with our tasks and challenges, that stress becomes an issue of concern and we should address it and seek support to maintain or recover our resilience, energy, or positive attitudes.

VMS Relaxation Sessions
Would you like to develop your skills to deal with the stress in your life?
Everybody has stress to deal with. Stress can provide energy to be creative and getting things done. It can, however, feel overwhelming and negatively influence physical and psychosocial health in many ways, and more so if prolonged. One productive way to counteract negative stress response is to master relaxation techniques. As with anything, the more we practice, the better we become at it.
The VIC Medical Service is launching 20-minute recorded relaxation exercises for all VIC staff.
Access the recorded 'self-care and relaxation' sessions through the link below.
Deep Breathing as a Relaxation Technique
***********************************************************************************************************************************************************
Self-care and stress management should therefore be key tools in our day-to-day professional and personal lives, no matter if we currently feel fine or if anything is concerning us about our mental, social, or physical wellbeing. This handout provides 12 evidence-backed strategies to improve your daily mental wellbeing:

12 Strategies to support daily mental wellbeing
Below you can find a number of links and materials from inside and outside the UN System, which can be helpful resources to take good and better care of your health and wellbeing.
Please don't hesitate to reach out to your agency's stress counsellor for a fully confidential consultation on how to optimize your personal and professional self-care! Their contact details can be found under your agency's tile on the right side of this page. You are also invited to browse the other topics of the Mental Health Library and to return to the website regularly, as we are constantly updating the page with new materials and recommendations. Also please take a regular look at the events page to see if there are sessions offered relevant to your current needs.
Check out the VIC Medical Service Podcasts on Stress Management and other self-care topics
Mindful.org - healthy mind, healthy life: This website offers instructions for relaxation techniques easily done by yourself, as well as informative articles on different self-care topics
Tipps from the UN Secretariat's Staff Counsellor's Office on how to deal with stress during the Covid 19 pandemic. For more tips on dealing with Covid-related challenges, also visit our resources in the Mental Health Library.

"Doing what matters in times of stress" - publication by the WHO in 20 different languages. Website also offers audio guides and recordings of relaxation exercises you can do on your own to catch a break and refresh mentally.
Improve your wellbeing systematically by making a self-care and stress-management plan! IOM has developed a very useful workbook that guides you through the process of better self-care with interesting questions to ask yourself about your needs and options. If you are in the process of doing this workbook and you have any questions or you want to discuss the result, get in touch with your agency's staff counsellor (contact on the right side of the page).
Learn more about how to take good care of your individual wellbeing, how to make a self-care plan and how to integrate self-care exercises and actions into your daily routines. Video courtesy of the IOM Staff Welfare Office, available in English, French, and Spanish.
Learn more about how to be well as a team, how to be there for one another and to enhance the office climate for the benefit of all concerned. Video courtesy of the IOM Staff Welfare Office, available in English, French, and Spanish.

Learn more about to be more resilient when managing stressful times in your life, both at work or in your private life. Video courtesy of the IOM Staff Welfare Office, available in English, French, and Spanish.
***************************************************************************
DISCLAIMER
All links are being provided as a convenience and for informational purposes only; they do not automatically constitute an endorsement or an approval by the VIC Medical Service of any of the products, services or opinions of the corporation or organization or individual. The VIC Medical Service bears no responsibility for the accuracy, legality or content of the external site or for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.