MENU
Skip to content

One Big
Connection

MENU
  • Site Search
  • Community Pulse
    • All Articles
    • Community Curation Articles
  • About OBC
    • Contributor Guide
    • Guidelines for Content
  • Polls & Surveys
  • Social Media
  • Facts & Figures
  • Action Teams
  • Local Resources
    • Browse Categories
    • Basic Needs
    • Housing & Transportation
    • Lifelong Learning
    • Natural World
    • Social Support
    • A-Z Resource Listings
    • Add Listing
  • Events
    • Add Your Event

See All Articles

Category: Lifelong Learning

Thank you for being a friend

WNHA

Thank you for being a friend

5HF Note: Friends groups are the life blood of many non-profits and services provided to our service area. These organizations provide integral support that goes beyond raising funds.  Our 5 Healthy Towns area is grateful to the support these groups provide, and for the connections and purpose they provide.  Below is the story of one of these groups – the Waterloo Natural Historical Association.  Check out our resources section to learn more about WNHA and other like-minded organizations. 

Since 1981, the Waterloo Natural History Association (WNHA) has been helping people enhance their experiences with nature. Whether you explore the dark, tangled recesses of the black-spruce bog, or enjoy listening to the chorusing of woodland frogs, the WNHA will help you discover the natural wonders of the Waterloo Recreation Area. 

The WNHA is a 501c3 charitable organization whose purpose is to provide both educational and recreational opportunities to people visiting the Waterloo Recreation Area. The Association is composed of concerned citizens who want to support environmental education and help promote the Waterloo Recreation Area as a valuable community resource.  Everyone is welcome to become a member.

As a support organization for the Waterloo Recreation Area, including the Eddy Discovery Center, the WNHA fills an important role in extending what the Department of Natural Resources can provide.  In addition to the educational events that are held regularly, such as the Annual Maple Syrup festival and educational programming, WNHA also funds projects to help improve visitors’ experiences and manages the gift shop.  Past projects have included updating and maintaining exhibits in the Discovery Center, establishing a natural play area, restoring signage in the park, constructing the observation deck, and funding boardwalks on trails. In order to achieve these goals, the WNHA depends on support from donations, memberships, and gift shop sales. 

The Eddy Discovery Center is the nature center for the Waterloo Recreation Area and is located at 17030 Bush Road, three miles west of downtown Chelsea.  A recreation passport for your vehicle is required for entry.  To learn more about the WNHA or to become a member, visit the website at www.wnha.org or Friends of Waterloo:WNHA on Facebook.

6 Tips for Thriving This Holiday Season

Lifestyle Medicine SJMAA

6 Tips for Thriving This Holiday Season

Along with laughter and good cheer, the holidays often bring busier schedules, an abundance of indulgent food and drink and increased financial stress, all of which can have a negative effect on our physical and mental health. The good news is looking at the holidays through the six pillars of Lifestyle Medicine gives us the opportunity to rethink those holiday traditions that don’t contribute to our whole-health and focus instead on prioritizing self-care so that we can truly thrive this holiday season.

Mange Stress Better

  • Stress can play a part in headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, depression and anxiety.
  • Chronic stress coupled with acute stressors that we may experience during the holidays leave the body overstimulated with high levels of basal cortisol which in turn increases inflammation and causes or worsens disease.
  • Tools such as regulated breathing, positive thinking, meditation, gratitude, and exercise can become daily ways to help manage stress and fight inflammation.

Eat Smarter

  • Food truly is medicine. Beyond the physical benefits that a healthy diet affords us, food also effects our mood.
  • It can be especially challenging to make healthy food choices during the holidays. Remind yourself to eat slowly and savor each bite, especially when it comes to calorie dense foods.
  • Be truly present when sharing a meal with those you care about by disconnecting from electronics.

Sleep More Soundly

  • Getting a good night’s sleep is one of the most important things we can do for our overall health and well-being. Sleep deprivation leaves the brain exhausted, and chronic sleep deprivation is strongly correlated with behavioral health issues, such as depression, anxiety and substance use.
  • Setting ourselves up for a restorative night of sleep takes preparation, so let’s strive to set and stick to a sleep routine that allows for 7-8 hours of sleep per night in a cool, dark place and try to disconnect from screens two hours before bedtime.

Connect with Others

  • Social connections and relationships affect our physical, mental and emotional health, and research shows that the single most important predictor of human happiness and long life is having strong social connections.
  • There is evidence that health related measures like blood pressure and heart rate improve even with short, positive social interactions. So, let’s try something as simple as chatting with the person in line next to us while doing our holiday shopping, or smiling as we pass each other in the hallway- these positive micro interactions scattered throughout our day can have a big impact.
  • While technology can improve social connectedness in some cases, research finds that those who use social media the most are at a higher risk for depression, so let’s be mindful of how we use technology to support social connections in our life.

Move More

  • Consistent regular exercise benefits us both mentally and physically.
  • Moving our bodies, especially in nature, can do wonders for our whole health. In fact, studies show that being active for as little as 10 minutes per day can positively impact our mood.
  • So even as the days get shorter and colder, make it a priority to move naturally throughout the day doing things you love; walk with friends, ride a bike, dance, or play with the children and pets in your life.

Avoid Risky Substances

  • We know that reducing the intake of items like alcohol, vaping and smoking improve our physical health, but they can also have an impact on our mental health and

happiness. When we are not using substances, we are more able to be present in the moment and notice the positive things around us.

  • Let’s aim to be aware of when we might be using these substances to alter our reality and focus instead on working to identify positive strategies to cope with life’s daily stressors.

Aging Made Easier

Martha York

Aging Made Easier

Are you in or near retirement age and navigating new waters?  Are you living with a chronic health condition like diabetes, chronic pain, or cancer, or caring for someone else trying to manage this along with the rest of life’s challenges?  Do you find yourself worrying about things like falling or getting injured due to changes in your body and how you are able to get around?

Any of these situations can be stressful, especially during this COVID-19 era. Region 2 Area Agency on Aging offers several easy-to-join, free, online workshops that help people just like you connect to others and learn ways to better manage your health and lifestyle concerns from the comfort of your own home. There are no age requirements for our Evidence-Based Programs, and anyone in Michigan can take our virtual workshops free of charge

Aging Mastery is a 10-session webinar series that aims to help baby boomers and older adults take key steps to improve their well-being, add stability to their lives, and strengthen their ties to communities. Expert speakers present on topics including exercise, fall prevention, sleep, financial fitness, advance care planning, healthy eating, medication management, healthy relationships, and community engagement. Sessions meet twice a week for 3 hours on Zoom.

Diabetes PATH is an interactive workshop that helps individuals with pre-diabetes or Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes improve how they manage their situation to cope and feel better. Topics include: monitoring and balancing blood sugar, creating meal plans, decreasing stress, dealing with difficult emotions, and preventing complications. Sessions meet 2.5 hours once a week for 6 weeks on-line using Zoom. Participants will need a webcam and a microphone to participate.

Chronic Pain PATH is an interactive workshop that helps individuals with chronic pain improve how they manage their situation to cope and feel better. Topics include: pacing and planning for optimal energy, dealing with difficult emotions, managing pain and fatigue, getting better sleep, eating healthy, staying active, and positive thinking. Sessions meet 2.5 hours once a week for 6 weeks on-line using Zoom. Participants will need a webcam and a microphone to participate.

Cancer PATH is for individuals with any kind of cancer. Whether newly diagnosed, in active treatment, or living beyond active treatment, this program helps survivors improve how they manage their situation to cope and feel better. Topics include: dealing with difficult emotions, managing pain and fatigue, getting better sleep, eating healthy, staying active, and living with uncertainty or fear of recurrence. Sessions meet 2.5 hours once a week for 6 weeks on-line using Zoom. Participants will need a webcam and a microphone to participate.

Matter of Balance is an interactive workshop where people who have concerns about falling learn to view falls and fear of falling as controllable. They set goals for increasing their activity levels and make changes to reduce their risk of falls. Participants learn and practice exercises to help with their balance. Sessions meet twice a week for 2 hours each via Zoom. Participants will need a webcam and a microphone to participate.

To attend you can use either your smart phone or a computer. We even offer the technical support to help get you started and have loaner tablets available if needed if you live in Jackson, Lenawee, or Hillsdale counties.

Here’s what attendees have to say about the programs:

“The program helped me understand what being an active participant in life means. I hope to make exercise part of my lifestyle….Thanks for making these sometimes hard discussions easier to navigate.”

“Facilitators were well prepared to bring valuable knowledge on how to thrive living with serious illness. They provided a safe place for sharing difficult topics…”

“I truly enjoyed sitting back with others and discussing our issues with them and realizing I am not alone on certain thoughts and emotions. I hope my participation helped others to take the future head on and live life to the fullest! Get out there and do it! You and your family will be better for it!”

Find our program offerings listed at www.r2aaa.net, or CALL the Region 2 Area Agency on Aging to learn more about, and register for, our on-line workshops for: 517-592-1974 or email livingwellprograms@rwaaa.net.

Faith Leaders Role as Shepherds through a Mental Health Crisis

Lori Novak Kintz, 5 Healthy Towns Foundation

Faith Leaders Role as Shepherds through a Mental Health Crisis

One Big Thing and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI/Washtenaw County) played an instrumental role over the course of 2021 in reaching out to our region’s faith and lay leaders to understand the needs of our community members on mental health. One important topic was the loss and grief that individuals experience because of COVID and the isolation caused by COVID.

A conference to address these topics, titled Emerging from the Pandemic: Faith Leaders Role as Shepherds through a Mental Health Crisis, was held and recorded on November 9, 2021. The conference is an overview of some of the important mental health resources in our region and also some success stories of what congregations can do to meet the needs of their members and their communities. Thank you to NAMI and volunteers Andrea May, Pastor Harold Wimberly, Rev. Sheree Gidcomb Clark, Melisa Tasker from Washtenaw County Community Mental Health, Dr. Martha Kershaw, and Abby Norris from St. Joseph Mercy Chelsea, for their words of inspiration and hope.

You can watch the conference by clicking the link above. Please help us spread the word about this important work.

Senior Centers Reduce Social Isolation

Mackenzie Pfeiffer

Senior Centers Reduce Social Isolation

“I’m new to town.” “I recently lost my spouse.” “My kids have their own lives and are busy.” “I’m newly
retired.” These are all very common life changes that can easily lead to social isolation; however, senior
centers are working hard to provide social settings and support to help older adults stay connected.
While numerous studies have shown that the effects of social isolation can have negative impacts,
having a good support system, meaningful activities, and purpose can help older adults increase physical
and mental wellness.

Chelsea Senior Center serves older adults in surrounding communities and counties. Programs address multiple dimensions of wellness such as emotional, physical, social, and intellectual. Exercise and movement classes like yoga, line dancing, Zumba Gold, Movin’ and Groovin’ and Enhance Fitness increase core strength and balance. Members enjoy challenging games such as Mah Jongg, Bridge, Hand and Foot, Euchre, Pinochle, and other tile and card
games. They can express their artistic sides through completing stained glass projects, joining wood
carving, learning to paint, or quilting. There are also special classes that teach about fall prevention,
driving safety, elder abuse, and memory loss.  The Chelsea Senior Center works with Washtenaw County and the Area Agency on Aging 1B to provide nutritious meals both onsite and delivered through the Senior Nutrition Program. Community members who are 60 and better are invited to take part in this program. It is a great way to eat right and enjoy great conversations.

Chelsea Community Senior Services (C2S2) provides services beyond the walls of the Chelsea Senior
Center. Older adults are connected to local services, vendors, and volunteers to help meet needs as they
age. Examples include Technology Support, Medicare/Medicaid Assistance Program, AARP tax
preparation assistance, and referrals to vetted handymen, house cleaners, yard work and snow removal
providers, and a variety of other services.

In 2018, the Chelsea Senior Center received a grant through the Vital Seniors Initiative to explore ways
to meet rural transportation needs. Through creativity and trial and error, we worked with the Western
Washtenaw Area Value Express (W.A.V.E.) to purchase a bus and fund door-to-door services for older
adults. In 2020, we purchased a minivan to help meet needs that are beyond what W.A.V.E. can provide.
Access to transportation is a key piece to maintaining independence and reducing isolation in older
adults.

This past August, the Chelsea Senior Center kicked off its Connections Café, a Memory Café, to provide
an opportunity for individuals living with memory loss or brain changes and their care partners to
attend. At these events, the partners will connect with others in fun and meaningful ways and get to
relax and enjoy the moment together.

An often-overlooked way to reduce isolation is through volunteering. Volunteers help keep senior
centers running smoothly and most volunteers find that they get as much back in return. Several of our
volunteers report feeling “needed” and “having a purpose” and “keeps them from sitting at home all
day”. These feelings are important to reducing isolation in that having a schedule and a reason to leave
the house reduces the opportunity to remain homebound.

Many older adults experienced extreme isolation during the early days of COVID. During the lockdown
period, senior centers had the responsibility of thinking outside the box in order to meet needs during
this challenge. The Chelsea Senior Center enlisted staff and volunteers to make thousands of calls that
provided a lifeline to the most vulnerable.

We heard many of our volunteers ask “When can we come
back?” and tell us that the isolation was “worse than death”. Chelsea Senior Center is proud of our
efforts to provide outdoor games and exercise classes when all indoor gatherings were prohibited. We
set up canopies and purchased lawn chairs to be able to host brown back lunches so individuals could
gather safely outdoors. Several classes were created and/or moved to a Zoom format so people could
participate and see others. We strove to meet the needs of our community so older adults could not just
survive a pandemic, but could thrive.

Hydration Tips for Athletes and Everyone

Matt Pegouskie, 5 Healthy Towns Foundation

Hydration Tips for Athletes and Everyone

4 Ways Teens Can Use Mindfulness

Jeanette Brooks, Certified Yoga & Meditation Instructor, Coordinator of Mindful Dexter

4 Ways Teens Can Use Mindfulness

It’s no secret that adolescence can feel both wildly exhilarating and crushingly overwhelming. Ask any teen in Dexter, Chelsea, Grass Lake, Stockbridge, or Manchester about the struggles their peer group experiences most, and you’ll likely hear accounts of stress, anxiety, depression, and emotional strain.

Mindfulness meditation can be a powerful tool for navigating these intense challenges. And while the word “meditation” might make you think of things like burning incense or chanting, the truth is none of those things define mindfulness. Mindfulness is actually a mental skill that’s rooted in neuroscience, and anyone can learn it. Best of all, there’s a growing body of evidence showing that it supports greater happiness and health—at any age.

What is it? In its simplest sense, mindfulness means paying compassionate attention to the present moment, without judging it. This skill gives our brains a muchneeded break from competing demands, and it can interrupt unhelpful thought patterns. Think of it as mental hygiene—a way to hack into the mental habits that teens (and the rest of us!) often struggle with, things like: chronic worry, regrets about the past, ruminations about the future, and the dizzying cycle of self-critical thoughts.

How do I do it? Mindfulness meditation is a little like skateboarding or playing an instrument—it might feel totally unnatural or even difficult at first. And since our culture tends to reinforce multi-tasking, extreme productivity, and quick shifts in focus, it’ll take a little practice to learn how to focus patiently and compassionately on one thing at a time.

If you’re a teen (or even if you’re not a teen but are curious about trying some mindfulness techniques), experiment with these five ways of leveraging the power of mindfulness:

1 Make friends with the breath.

Your breath is one of the best and simplest tools for building mindfulness. Whether you’re facing a tough test at school, a conflict with a friend, or just sitting on your couch at home, here’s a calming, grounding practice that only takes about a minute: close your eyes, breathe normally, and find the place in your body where you notice your breath the most—maybe it’s your nose, your throat, your chest, or your belly. (There’s no wrong answer here, so wherever your breath feels the most prominent, that’s the “right” place!) Observe that spot for five or six cycles of inhaling and exhaling. Notice how the sensations change, and observe any differences between one breath and the next. Don’t worry about deepening or controlling your breathing or doing anything fancy. Two words: breathe and observe. If your mind wanders to something else (and it will!) that’s okay—let the thoughts come and go and just keep gently coming back to the sensations of breathing.

2 Climb out of the river.

When you’re feeling especially caught up in an intense emotion or thought pattern, try this: instead of fighting against the rushing river of thoughts or getting swept away by the current, close your eyes and imagine yourself climbing up onto the bank of that rushing river. In your mind’s eye, watch the flow of thoughts as they float past. See if you can curiously, compassionately, label each thought: is it a judging by Jeanette Brooks Certified Yoga & Meditation Instructor Coordinator of Mindful Dexter 17 thought? A planning thought? An anxious thought? A regret? Resist the urge to judge any of the thoughts that float by—the key is to just observe without evaluating.

3 Drop in.

In some of the workshops we’ve done at the Chelsea and Dexter Wellness Centers, we teach a practice called “dropping in” because it’s an easy way to drop into the present moment, using your physical senses as a kind of compass. You can do it in as little as 30 seconds, depending on which of your five senses you choose to focus on. Start by resting your vision on one thing, large or small. Notice its color, its shape, and any shadows it creates. Be curious, and resist the urge to judge what you see as pleasant or unpleasant—just give your mind time and space to observe.

When you’re ready, shift your attention to something your fingertips are touching: maybe a pen or pencil, or the fabric of your clothes on your lap. Notice sensations of temperature and texture. Next, move your awareness to what you hear: the noises around you, or sounds from outside of the room you’re in, or even the sound of your own breath. Listen curiously and try to observe without judging. Next, shift to your sense of smell. Again, try to avoid evaluating your experience as pleasant or unpleasant. And if there’s no smell that registers, that’s okay—just observe the fact that the smell is neutral. Finally, move your awareness to your sense of taste: maybe you notice an aftertaste of something you ate recently, or maybe just a neutral taste in your mouth. When you’re finished, take one deep breath to end the practice.

4 Connect.

Even the most well-intentioned among us sometimes struggle to develop mindfulness skills on our own. Practicing with others can be a great support.

Mindful Dexter: This is a FREE opportunity to practice mindfulness meditation in a multi-age setting, and youth are welcome! Sessions are 60 minutes and include guided meditation, a short period of silent meditation, and informal idea-sharing on a mindfulness topic. Learn more at the Mindful Dexter Facebook page.

Categories

  • Avoid Unhealthy Substances
  • Connect with Others
  • Eat Better
  • Health Education/Medical Support
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Move More
(734) 433-4599 | info@onebigconnection.org

©2022 5 Healthy Towns Foundation. Website Design and Development by Wavelength.

Contributor Login

One Big Connection

  • Facts & Figures
  • Action Teams
  • Local Resources
    • Browse Categories
    • Basic Needs
    • Housing & Transportation
    • Lifelong Learning
    • Natural World
    • Social Support
    • A-Z Resource Listings
    • Add Listing
  • Events
    • Add Your Event
  • Site Search
  • Community Pulse
    • All Articles
    • Community Curation Articles
  • About OBC
    • Contributor Guide
    • Guidelines for Content
  • Polls & Surveys
  • Social Media
  • Login