“I’m the counselor that heads up Relief Society meetings in my singles ward.  And we just put together a meeting earlier this week about Mental Health Awareness, titled :”Chocolate is not the only answer”.  It was a huge success! We had good advertising (which helped), but we had a great turnout.  We put together four stations. 1) mental health education, 2) healthy eating, 3) setting goals, and 4) a service project. The purpose was to teach sisters healthy ways to get out of depression and not just go straight to chocolate or stay in bed, but to be proactive and happy.  I loved what was talked about in each stations.  The Mental Health Education station had two sisters in the ward that work professionally in mental hospitals.  They each talked on what kind of mental illnesses are out there.  And there are a lot, they brought tons of books to share and to lend out.  The second station, I asked our bishop’s wife to come and talk about learning how to make appropriate goals and work towards them.  The third station was a healthy eating workshop, also headed up by a sister in the ward who had worked with restaurants around the valley finding certain foods that would decrease depression.  And the fourth was a service project, tying fleece blankets for the Ronald McDonald House.  It was a wonderful evening.

I’m all about thinking outside the box and really following the spirit to fill the needs of the sisters in my ward.  I encourage all to focus on the needs of the sisters in your ward.  You will never know what impact you will have if you do.”