Albuquerque Public Schools
July 2025 Employee Wellness Newsletter
APS now offers a NEW Employee Assistance Program (EAP), steady energy, how to access free health coaching, Life on Mindfulness with special youth meditations, and more wellness trends in the news!
APS Introduces New Employee Assistance Program
We are pleased to announce ComPsych GuidanceResources® as 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
- Download the GuidanceNow™ app for fast and easy access to all your ComPsych resources. Use the same APS WebID: APSEAP.
Wellness Wire - Steady Energy
Have you ever been in the presence of someone who emanated calm, peace, and love? They just seemed to exude steady energy, and when we're with them, we feel it. It's soothing to the soul.
In contrast, we have all encountered people who live their lives in chaos, tension, and negativity; when we're in their space, it's stressful. We walk away from those encounters with an 'ick', frustrated, hard-to-define feeling. We've all been the unfortunate recipients of that energy drain at some point.
Our energy - how we show up and project in this world - can either bring others peace and positivity or pull people down.
In the past, I've written about stresscalation and the impact it has on our emotional well-being. Stresscalation is a term initially coined in 1992. It’s used to describe how we can pass our stress on to others. It's a ripple effect, and ripples give a distorted reflection of the world around us. How we reflect our stress, anger, uncertainty, or even hurt has a direct impact on both our wellness and the well-being of the people we encounter.
We're halfway through our #Thrivein2025 quest to reclaim health and harmony by honing the four wellsprings of energy management. A key component to this is learning how to stabilize our energy despite daily or seasonal struggles.
What is 'energy' anyway? One definition describes it as "the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity." Another definition (from The Google;) "Energy is defined as the 'ability to do work, which is the ability to exert a force causing displacement of an object.”
Energy is the force that causes things to move.
Not just our physical bodies, but also our mental, emotional, and spiritual mindsets. Having the awareness to pause, reframe, and pivot appropriately in any given situation requires mental and emotional energy.
Since nothing happens until something moves, this is the genesis of why those who are stuck in lifestyle inertia have such a hard time getting out. It takes energy that some don't have to give.
When we're in the midst of busy, stress-filled lives - sprinting from one thing to the next, skipping meals, sacrificing sleep, dealing with grief and loss, or chronic health issues - it's hard to have the capacity for awareness, let alone the energy it takes to pull ourselves out of the hole we're in.
There's an interplay between physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Mental stress and emotional fatigue are physically exhausting. Spiritual disconnection from our purpose, serving others, and community drains our emotional reservoirs. Physical exhaustion from a lack of sleep or being just plain "hangry" from improper nutrition shortens our temperamental fuse.
The truth is that we need steady energy in all four areas to thrive. And it's not that hard to obtain or maintain because the principles of steady energy management are rooted in our spiritual well-being and foundational wellness practices.
Here are some pillars to build steady energy:
Spiritual Energy:
- Guard your heart and mind with morning and evening prayer or meditation. This sets our intention for the day, grounds our faith, and places our perspective on a higher source.
- Practice gratitude daily.
- Regularly connect with community, your value-based 'why', and recognize how everything you do —whether big or small, at work or in the community — can be done in service to others. Even if it's just a small act of kindness. This brings purpose and positive meaning into our lives, which intrinsically motivates us toward healthier habits
.
Physical Energy:
- Sleep! Strive for 7-8 hours of sleep. Which means you may need to turn off the TV/computer, and practice a bedtime routine that is digitally disconnected.
- Practice the 7-types of rest to reduce stress.
- Practice foundational nutrition by referring back to January's "Nutrition Reset" embedded in our wellness event calendar.
- Get moving! Take regular walks, movement, and stretching breaks. This relieves stress and refreshes mental and emotional energy. The February wellness wires focused on "Movement for a Thriving Heart," with specific activity information in the wellness event calendar.
Emotional Energy:
- Recognize stress triggers so you can navigate around or through them more proactively.
- Our thoughts affect our emotions, reactions, and decisions. When you find yourself in a negative spiral, or making assumptions without asking clarifying questions, reframe your thoughts!
- Practice the "purposeful pause."
Mental Energy: (More on these in future Wellness Wires!)
- Identify 'weapons of mass distraction" and workplace obstacles.
- Take regular breaks from digital devices: the computer, TV, and Internet
- When physical energy is low, it has a direct impact on our "rational brain" pre-frontal cortex and mental energy. The emotional amygdala hijacks our good senses
. The more drained we become, the less our pre-frontal cortex (rational brain) can function, and our 'default' always-on, emotionally driven amygdala takes over. This causes us to do or say things that stir conflict, and we often regret later.
It may seem like you've read this before (because you have), and because these are foundational practices for maintaining steady energy management. While they seem simple, clearly, something isn't connecting. If you stop and look around, our society is seriously lacking in 'good' energy. Anger abounds, interpersonal conflict is rampant, and 65% of people with preventable chronic illnesses and chronic pain also have depression and anxiety as an unwanted companion.
Too many people are hurt and suffering. Stuck where they don't belong. Inert, languishing, feeling incapable of making changes, and lashing out because of it.
We can only change what we can control. We have significant control over practicing the items mentioned above. Many of you may be integrating these habits. But sometimes, life circumstances yank us away from our anchor routines. It may be hard to pick up that habit again.
My encouragement to you this week is to start simple! Pick ONE thing to do consistently. Commit to it. Ask a friend or relative to do it with you or seek the support of a wellness professional. A little perspective and accountability go a long way toward success!
It's essential to recognize that this isn't about perfection, but rather about awareness, so that we can redirect and align our behavior to meet our emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual needs. We are human; we have hard days and heartbreaking circumstances. We will all fail and fall short sometimes.
If you're struggling to find peace and don't know where to begin, APS offers free health coaching and a new Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to help guide you.
Let's strive to be the person who is the lighthouse in the storm. A safe harbor that invites others into our peace rather than our conflict.
Three Great Programs That Include One Personalized Benefit - Health Coaching!
If the summer season motivates you to make wellness changes, but you're unsure how to get started, health coaching is the perfect avenue to redirect, reflect, and reset! Try one of these APS programs that offer personalized health coaching and enroll today!
1. Health Coaching: Through APS wellness vendor, The Solutions Group. Get help shifting lifestyle habits, managing a chronic illness, losing weight to improve your health, or to feel better. *This is open to all employees.
2. Livongo is an integrated program for diabetes, high blood pressure, pre-diabetes, and weight loss. Livongo offers wrap-around, integrated mental health services and health coaching. *This program is open to all eligible employees and dependents covered under APS Benefits.
Getting started is easy!
- Text “GO APS” to 85240 to learn more and join
- Join by visiting https://www.livongo.com/aps.
- Call 800-945-4355 and use the registration code: APS
3. Hinge Health: Get the relief you need to feel and function better with this virtual physical therapy program by Hinge Health. Hinge Health gives you the tools you need to conquer joint and muscle pain, including back, neck, knee, and shoulder pain, recover from injuries, prepare for surgery, and stay healthy and pain-free. Hinge Health also offers a one-of-a-kind, industry-leading women's pelvic floor program.
Click here and learn more to register. Begin your journey today with a team of physical therapists and health coaches! *Hinge Health is available at no cost to employees covered under the APS Benefits plans and eligible dependents.
Breathing Room - Downloading in 3-2-1...
Summer is here and, while it may be a bit hot in New Mexico, we chill our mindset with meditation. The cool thing about mindfulness is that we can practice it anytime, anywhere, and in whatever season we find ourselves in. The APS Life on Mindfulness program is free, flexible and available to all APS employees as well as the youth in their lives!
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 mediations are suitable for students 10-18 years old.
To get to the Youth page:
- Click on your Life on Mindfulness 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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