As a Personal Fitness teacher and Forum leader, Kevin Starkey understands the importance of prioritizing not only physical, but mental health. He knows that everyone, high school students and beyond, can benefit from tuning into mindfulness.
“Take care of your mental health,” Starkey said. “Life’s difficult, and you’ve got to be able to take care of yourself before you can help take care of others.”
Starkey’s wisdom this Wednesday integrates perfectly with the discussions that have been circulating through forums over the past few weeks. Forum leaders have been introducing TRAILS, an online learning program which works to educate high schoolers on social emotional awareness.
“If we create this base where people recognize mental health and understand it,” Starkey said. “If you do it early on you’re more likely to do it in the future.”
Starkey carries this practice of social emotional awareness into his own life, merging it with his regular physical activity.
“Sometimes all I do is go to the gym and go for a walk on the treadmill,” Starkey said. “Just something to get those brain waves moving and get your heart rate up, that allows you to kind of get some mental health practice, not exactly thinking about it.”
