Wellness is not just about physical health; it’s also about having a healthy mind and relationships. Madison Public Library can help you stay informed through our free resources and help you reach your wellness goals through our workshops by the community, for the community.
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Wellness At Home: Make Your Own Gratitude Journal
The practice of daily gratitude is perfect for the cold, winter months. While you're reflecting on the previous year or gearing up for the new one, take a little time out to make your own gratitude journal! Artist Angela Johnson created this helpful kit so that you can design your journal using watercolor techniques and common materials found around the house. Each kit also includes 30 journal prompts to guide your gratitude practice. Download the instructions by clicking the images below and get started today!
This kit is intended for older adults as part of the Live Well @ Your Library Senior Initiative.
Kit Components
Wellness Books
A few highlights of new and newer wellness books available at your library.
After living with a terrible undiagnosed illness for more than a year and a half, Tab was willing to try anything to stop the pain. Inspired by the documentary What the Health, she tried a thirty-day vegan challenge--and never looked back. Wanting to inspire others to make changes that might improve their own lives, she started sharing her favorite plant-based recipes in her signature warm voice with thousands, and now millions, of online fans. Tab's recipes are flexible, creative, and filled with encouragement, so you trust yourself to cook food the way it makes you happy.
Mindfulness Meditation for Pain Relief is a soothing and beautifully illustrated book with accompanying guided meditations and teachings offered digitally. It opens with an overview of seven fundamental attitudes we can develop to cultivate mindfulness in relationship to chronic pain and its incessant challenges, and follows with concepts and practices including: mindful breathing, working with intense sensations, befriending thoughts and emotions, finding refuge in awareness, and bringing mindfulness into every life
In this book, rising star entrepreneur Onyinye Udokporo shares her story of growing up dyslexic in a society where neurodivergence was always presented as a white male issue. Onyinye discusses her experience of being diagnosed at 11 years old, starting a business the following year, gaining a scholarship to a prestigious boarding school and going on to complete two degrees by the age of 22, while also being honest about the difficulties she faced throughout including with bullying and anxiety. She shares the tips she picked up over the years for thriving with dyslexia and the strategies she used to overcome her difficulties in reading and writing well, staying organised and speaking with confidence.
Every Body is a collection of anonymous stories, essays, and interviews touching on a wide array of topics, including first times, open relationships, body acceptance, accidental pregnancies, sex toys, pleasure, fear and trauma, sexual discovery, and more. Framed by dozens of artists' illustrations, deeply personal interviews, and expert essays that address stigmas and clichés, this book is an informative, welcoming, and inclusive user's guide to your body, no matter its shape, size, or preferences.
Check out even more great wellness reads!
Community Wellness Survey
Community responses from a wellness survey conducted in summer 2021 as part of the Live Well @ Your Library series, in collaboration with Be Well Madison and Midwest Mujeres.
Highlights:
- 84% respondents said they would use wellness services if they were offered in their neighborhood
- In response to the question "What do you feel gets in your way of accessing wellness services three stood out: cost/financial (25.7%), cultural stigma (15.8%) lack of trust in providers (12/9%)
