BAGUIO CITY – In line with the National Women’s Month celebration, the Department of Agriculture–Cordillera (DA-CAR) conducted another round of Stress Management and Mental Health Awareness activity at the Baguio Animal Breeding and Research Center (BABRC) in Dontogan, Baguio City today, March 20, 2024.
Field Operations Division (FOD) personnel immersed themselves in nature as they released all of their worries and stress away while also learning how to manage their stress and mental health, led by psychiatric nurse and mental health advocate Ricky Ducas.
He specifically emphasized the importance of being grounded at all times to avoid overthinking, anxiety, and conflict with others. He cited the five-by-five rule: do not think of a thing that will not happen within 5 years, 5 months, or 5 days for more than 5 minutes.
“We must activate our 5 senses (touch, sight, taste, smell, and hearing) to be at present. Avoid overthinking the future, and accept the past. There’s a process. Do not forget the past, but you have to accept it and face the future,” he stressed, adding that thinking about the past creates depression while overthinking the future creates anxiety.
Ducas also advised to do a lot more physical activities as this is also one way of grounding emotions. He also underscored the need to destigmatize mental health to prevent mental health concerns from happening, as mental health affects every living human. Accordingly, mental health is not synonymous with being crazy or insane. He also advised the participants to seek help and avoid self-medication.
Ducas also taught about breathing exercises, finger exercises, and tapping techniques that can be practiced at any time to maintain grounding and alleviate stress, as stress can impact a person’s physical well-being. “When you are stressed, the blood vessels constrict. The passageway of blood is reduced; thus, blood supply, nutrients, and oxygenation are also reduced. The tapping exercise will increase blood supply because of the pain as it creates a blood supply to the area. If stress is not released, the physical body will project it,” he said.
Meanwhile, FOD Asst. Chief Beverly Pekas pointed out the importance of properly managing stress and caring for the mental health of each personnel to better serve the farmers in the region.
To conclude, participants engaged in a brief relaxation exercise, accompanied by Ducas’ uplifting words encouraging them to further explore forest bathing, which offers a natural antidepressant, “We are already living in a challenging world. We are living in a glass generation. But let us still encourage children to appreciate nature and utilize it, so we can go back to a generation of resilience, o matatag na henerasyon,” Ducas stated. By Cy-j E. Waytan