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mental health

This tag is associated with 13 posts

It’s smokey outside and it impacts my physical and mental health

I woke up this morning to an air quality warning with levels at 10+ on the air quality health index. Sadly, with climate change, these warnings are becoming more frequent during the summer months where I live. You can’t plan for specific ones, but you do have to plan that they will happen. As an … Continue reading

Climate change’s impact on mental health of vulnerable populations

I know that climate change, particularly the lack of action on climate change, affects my mental health. Therefore, an article about the impact of climate change on the mental health of vulnerable populations caught my eye. The research, done by Fahrudin and colleagues (2024), conducted a review of published research between 2000 and 2023. I’m … Continue reading

Mental health and climate change

I was reviewing student work on climate change a few weeks ago and realized that it was taking a toll on my mental health. The activity in question, asks students to create, take, or find an image that conveys something about climate change. I’ve had this activity in my course for a number of semesters … Continue reading

My mental health is better when I bike, yours could be too

I notice a significant difference in my mental health when I bike to work compared to driving or taking transit. I’m more relaxed and more focused. Getting up for a workout when I work from home helps but it is not the same. When I bike, I get exercise, but it is different because I … Continue reading

Does nature help everyone’s mental health?

Well, we don’t actually know. There’s a problem in a lot of research. We study who we have access to and forget that might not be representative of the broader world. Don’t get me wrong, efforts are often made to ensure generalizability but too often we overlook the lack of diversity completely. For example, I … Continue reading

Cortisol and Anxiety

Somebody asked me about the relationship between hormones and anxiety so I did some research and found some really interesting information about cortisol and anxiety. Rather than focus on a particular study I’m going to just go through some of the more interesting connections. Cortisol is a long-term (more than 3 minutes) stress hormone that … Continue reading

Why we need parks

With the Alberta Government planning to get rid of a long list of provincial parks of various forms, I thought it was worth revisiting the benefits of parks. There are multiple types of parks that vary in the balance between conservation and human recreation. But if the presence of a tree on my street can … Continue reading

Do I walk because I’m healthy or am I healthy because I walk?

I remember when the office I was working in was moving. We were moving from an industrial area with ample free parking to the centre of downtown with no free parking. I was thrilled. The transit access was going to be much better and there were safer bike routes. But not everyone felt the same. … Continue reading

Let the music play: Music and anxiety

We are living in interesting times. With the threat of getting sick from Covid-19, which is enough to cause anxiety, we are also isolating and restricting our movements. I’ve noticed an upsurge on views on my post on exercise and mental health so I thought I would look into a related topic: music and anxiety. … Continue reading

Bonus post: Mental health and exercise

This is an extra post this week in recognition of Bell’s Let’s Talk Day in Canada. I’m pretty diligent with my exercise and have been for most of my life. There have been times though when I’ve been criticized for this commitment. I distinctly remember one of my office mates during my PhD questioning me … Continue reading

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