Participants in the first Well-being Spotlight Challenge of the year know that 1) self-care doesn’t have to cost a thing, and 2) if you don’t take care of yourself it’s harder to take care of responsibilities at work and at home.

Self-care is whatever you need to do to improve your well-being. Ask yourself, what’s one simple thing you can do to take better care of yourself?

Self-care can be:

1. Learning about all the help that’s already available to you.

Watch the March 15 Wednesday Well-being Webinar video. Find out how the WorkLife program can help with everyday tasks. Select General EAP Benefits from the list.

2. Taking care of your body.

Sign up for Wellbeats if you haven’t already. Then spend a few minutes learning about Stocking a healthy kitchen pantry . The video is just five minutes!

3. Supporting your mental health.

Download the Foundations app and pick any topic of interest. Koa offers more than 100 activities across 13 topics. Spend one minute or 30, it’s up to you.

4. Connecting with people across state government.

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) embrace diverse cultures, professional development, and community involvement. Seven ERGs are already making a difference. Minnesota Employees of Asian Descent (MEAD) launches soon.

5. Making a healthy meal with what you have in the kitchen now.

Sign up for Foodsmart if you haven’t yet and check out the CookItNow section.

6. Building healthy everyday eating habits.

Learn the “why” behind your eating habits and how to change what you want to change. Find out if Noom is right for you.

7. Making a plan to get out of debt or save for that much needed vacation.

Get Enrich and learn how to do both at the same time.

8. Making self-care a priority.

Log into LifeMatters (passcode stmn1) and search for the webinar Making Self-Care a Priority. It may give you ideas to started.

9. Setting up time with a WorkLife counselor to come up with your own self-care plan.

You get up to six sessions for the topic of self-care. Call 1-800-657-3719 or text Hello to 61295 to get started.

Challenge participants logged 630,631 minutes of self-care in 28 days. They upped their minutes per day by 41 minutes on average, from start to finish. Congratulations! Keep it up and encourage colleagues and family members to ask themselves "What is the one simple thing I can do to take care better care of myself."