Albuquerque Public Schools
2025 November Wellness Newsletter
The social connection to spiritual well-being in the workplace. Join the 7th annual Snowflake Trek! APS EAP services through ComPsych and more wellness trends in the news.
Craving Community
I was reading a book that referenced the largest refugee camp in the world in Northern Kenya. The East Africans survived on next to nothing, yet the author noted the people would endure a week of reduced food rations to afford a phone and access to social media to connect with loved ones from whom they had been separated. They craved a connection to their family community in a way that surpassed anything hunger pangs for food could fill.
Our wellness is an intricate web where social, emotional, spiritual, physical, and intellectual well-being integrates with our basic, safety, and psychological needs. But if we - as humans - are willing to give up food for a morsel of contact with distanced loved ones, I wonder if we've paid enough homage to the importance of how community affects our well-being in our work and home lives.
Last week's Wellness Wire talked about how gratitude nourishes our souls and rewires our well-being. Community, and feeling that sense of belonging and love, fill a void that food, water, and shelter can not.
Humans have a basic biological need for belongingness, love, and community. It’s where we feel support, encouragement, and validation, and also where we can connect with peers who have like-minded goals, purposes, and passions. This is part of the spiritual well-being at work.
Whether we can put the right words to it or not, we innately miss community because it springs from our spiritual well-being. We'll hunger for connection yet wonder what we're starving for.
Our spiritual wellspring for energy management thrives on social connection. Tragically, in the US, we face a loneliness epidemic. We are digitally connected, yet we lack the thing we really crave: genuine human interaction.
The APS Thrive in 2025 year to reclaim health and harmony is culminating with this vital wellspring - spiritual.
🙌Our spiritual well-being is the power source that fuels our physical, emotional, and mental energy.
⚓ It is our anchor and a guiding light that reinforces 𝒘𝒉𝒐 we want to be, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 we want to reflect, and 𝒉𝒐𝒘 we want to show up in the world.
🔆Gratitude practices enhance prosocial behaviors, strengthen our pre-frontal cortex (brain power!), time spent with friends lowers stress, and amplifies community/connection.
🤝Spiritual well-being through social connection at work reduces employee burnout, increases job satisfaction, and promotes 'helping' behaviors and compassion.
💞 Spending time with friends, colleagues, and family cultivates a well of gratitude that never runs dry. It's a reciprocal relationship that refreshes our heart, mind, and soul.
🙌 Gratitude through community enables us to shift focus on the 'good', what's right in this world, rather than the bad.
When we don't have this connection, our mental and emotional well-being suffers. We face loneliness and isolation. We're not made to live that way, but when we do, many turn to lifestyle behaviors to fill the gaps that lead to weight gain, smoking, overuse of alcohol, and other addictions, and eventually to depression and chronic diseases that perpetuate a cycle of illness.
There is no doubt that we need community and relationships in our personal lives. We also need it in our professional lives. We spend most of our waking hours at work. If we are in an environment that doesn’t feed our psychological needs or that has low morale, miscommunication, and conflict, we suffer - mentally, emotionally, and physically. The good news is we can build community at work.
Connection and friendships at work provide essential social and emotional experiences, leading to less absenteeism, more presenteeism, and engagement.
What a 2022 Gallup article showed was that not only did having a supportive, psychologically safe work environment and community help people simply SHOW UP, they had better communication, were more innovative, had fewer on-the-job injuries, conflict resolution was handled more seamlessly, teams had better outcomes overall, and had more fun! People were more invested in their jobs emotionally because the work environment filled a craving for community that they needed.
Now, I know some people just want to clock in and out. Go to work and go home. They may have strong connections outside of the workplace - and that's great. However, some in our midst don't and struggle because of it. So what's wrong with fostering an environment that's nice to be in for 8-10 or more hours a day? Regardless of whether or not you're heavily invested in what you do for a living, having a workplace culture that is inclusive, encouraging, supportive, and just generally nice to be in is a good thing.
My encouragement to you this week is to ask these questions:
1. As a leader, are you fostering a community where everyone feels supported, encouraged, validated, and heard? More importantly, all of us are leaders in some way or another. We can all contribute to this cultural dynamic.
2. Communication and conflict divide communities. How is communication handled in your area? Is it clear, consistent, and concise?
3. As an employee, are there colleagues in your midst who feel isolated? Could we all 'reach across the aisle' so to speak and be more inclusive?
4. What areas do we (I) need to own, switch, let go, and embrace to help a divided group/community build connection and collaboration?
5. Can we ask people sincere questions and get to know one another?
This week, let us all consider how we can foster genuine community in our school or department. In order to do this, we may need to have sincere conversations, be willing to let go of past hurts or frustrations, accept some criticism with grace, come to agreements, and embrace compromise and change. This is a process so that we can create a work environment that's more than just a 'job'. It's a place where everyone feels friendship, belongingness, and love. A place where we can thrive.
When we feel the benefits of community, we inevitably sit in a place of gratitude, and this feeds our spiritual wellspring.
It's in this space of gratitude that we can rewire our well-being, perpetuating the connection between ourselves and others.
This is the most important takeaway as we head into Thanksgiving. The holidays can be abundant with family and friends or devastatingly lonely. Let's keep a lookout for those in our midst struggling without community. If needed and appropriate, help guide them to APS mental health resources. Maybe invite the person into your community:) In fact, we can work on creating that space of belonging, grace, forgiveness, acceptance, and support for everyone right here at APS!
Thank you, and have a wonderful Thanksgiving filled with family, friends, peace, and love.
- Wellness Wire: Rewire Wellbeing With Gratude
- Wellness Wire: The Spiritual Wellspring
It's That Time Of Year (Again!) Join the 7th Annual Snowflake Trek!
Since the holidays are all about tradition, the annual Snowflake Trek is no exception!
It feels like it was just yesterday that we were trekking through some winter wonderland together in our annual endeavor to stay motivated during the busiest - and most food-centric - time of year! You are invited to stay active, healthy, and have a little fun along the way in the Holiday Hop Across America activity challenge.
This fun holiday-themed challenge takes us to festive places throughout the USA with interesting historical stops throughout the journey. Your goal is to move 8,500 steps per day, or the activities converted equivalent.
- There are prizes in a variety of categories.
- There will be social interaction prizes on the chat/dashboard with fun holiday-themed questions and picture sharing.
- Remember, with every BeWell Challenge, you must register as a new user/create a new account. This is indicated on the login page.
- Once you register, please remember to JOIN the challenge.
- Sync your activity tracker or phone device to the BeWell app.
- This is open to all APS employees.
Guidance For Mental Health & Work/Life Well-being Through ComPsych
ComPsych GuidanceResources® is the new provider of the APS Employee Assistance Program (EAP). ComPsych provides free, confidential, in-person and virtual counseling services, well-being coaching, and other valuable resources to help you and your family members handle life’s challenges, big or small. Assistance is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Discover the expanded resources available to you and your family members through ComPsych.
To access ComPsych GuidanceResource® services:
- Call the toll-free number at (800) 497-9088. You'll be connected with a highly trained professional who can guide you to the appropriate services.
- Register with GuidanceResources® online at www.guidanceresources.com and enter the APS company WebID: APSEAP
- Choose the role group that most closely aligns with your position at APS. For family members, choose the APS employee role group. Your designation (ie, spouse, child) will be captured later.
- Download the GuidanceNow™ app for fast and easy access to all your ComPsych resources. Use the same APS WebID: APSEAP.
Mindfulness Meditation Practices Connect You to Your Spiritual Well-being!
The APS Life on Mindfulness program, with Michelle Duval, offers a free, flexible platform for all APS Employees, the youth, and students in their lives. Nothing bolsters resilience, self-regulation, self-efficacy, and well-being like mindfulness!
The cool thing about this program is that we can practice it anytime, anywhere.
Have you checked out the new platform? It's mobile phone optimized, so you don't even need to worry about downloading another pesky app!
NEW LIVE SCHEDULE Monday - Friday
- 11:45-11:55 am: 10 min. meditation
- 11:55 - 12 pm: 5-minute stretch break
- 12-12:20 pm: 20 min. meditation
Feel free to join or leave at any time. According to the above schedule, Michelle begins the sessions at 11:45 a.m. and keeps things continuously flowing until 12:20 p.m.
Note: The same schedule and Zoom link apply Monday through Friday. The link is also conveniently located in the APS Employee Wellness event calendar.
To Log in:
- If you have not enrolled in the Life on Mindfulness program, enroll here.
- If you are enrolled, click this link: https://themindfulcenter.com/login and go to the top right, orange "member login" button.
- Enter the email that you registered with.
- Enter the new password: LOMPREMIUM
The site is 'mobile-ready,' meaning you can view and listen to meditations via your phone anytime, anywhere. Each week, new meditations become available, along with recordings of past meditations and featured workshops.
NEW! Youth on Mindfulness Page on the Life on Mindfulness Platform
Bring mindfulness to your students and add another Goal 4 skillset to your classroom! The Mindful Center has added a Youth on Mindfulness page. This is free for APS employees, and educators can use any meditations for classroom use. These meditations are suitable for students aged 10-18.
To get to the Youth page:
- Click on your Life on Mindfulness External link opens a new window. account.
- Go to the "Member login" top right orange button and log in.
- Click the top left menu "Life on Mindfulness".
- Scroll down to the "Meditate Now" button and click.
- Scroll through the audio options. All 18 audio meditations are age-appropriate.
Wellness Trends In The News
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