ASHLAND — There is a word making its way through conversations about mental health lately — one that feels less like a clinical term and more like a gentle invitation.
That word is glimmer.
You may have heard of triggers — those moments, sounds, smells, or situations that pull you back into painful memories.
Glimmers are the opposite. They are small, often overlooked moments that signal safety to our nervous system.
A spark of calm in the middle of an ordinary day. The smell of coffee on a slow morning. Warm sunlight falling across the living room floor. A hummingbird at the feeder. Your dog settling in beside you. An upbeat song that carries you somewhere fun and far away.
These are glimmers — and most of us walk right past them.
Dr. Deb Dana, a clinician who has spent years studying how our nervous systems respond to the world, introduced this concept as part of understanding how we find our footing after hard times.
The idea is that our bodies are always scanning the environment — not just for threat, but for safety, too. Glimmers are what safety feels like, in the smallest possible doses.
You do not have to create them. They are already woven into your day. They simply ask you to notice them.
This is not about pretending life is not hard. Many of us in Ashland County are carrying a heavy weight right now — caregiving, financial strain, grief, work stress, health worries.
Those things are real and often front and center in our minds. But our nervous systems also need moments of rest, and glimmers offer exactly that — a brief, gentle reprieve that does not ask anything of you except a little bit of attention.
Once a person begins to practice noticing glimmers, you’ll notice a shift. Not a dramatic shift, but a shift towards positivity. The warmth of a good cup of tea. The sound of rain on the roof.
A kind word from someone in the checkout line at the store. A genuine smile shared with a stranger. Your nervous system does not require grand gestures to begin to settle, these small moments matter.
Over the next week or two, you are invited to keep a loose mental list of the glimmers you come across. Not as an exercise in forced gratitude, but simply as practice.
Over time, noticing them will become a habit, and this habit will become — quietly, gently — somewhat of an antidote to the weight of everyday life.
We live in a world that moves fast and asks a great deal of us. You are allowed to slow down, just for a moment, and let something small and beautiful be enough.
That moment? That is a glimmer. And it belongs to you.
If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call Appleseed Community Mental Health Center’s 24/7 crisis hotline at 419-289-6111.
For questions related to mental health and/or substance use problems, call the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Ashland County at 419-281-3139.
For questions about community resources, call 211. The Board proudly funds a network of mental health and substance use services provided by Appleseed Community Mental Health Center, Catholic Charities of Ashland County, and the Ashland County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse.
For more mental wellness tips, we invite you to follow the “Keeping Ashland Healthy” podcast for free on iHeartRadio or wherever you listen to podcasts.