Throughout the week of October 20th to 24th, a variety of wellness activities were provided during the lunch period for students. The main purpose was to educate students on the importance of wellness. Each day focused on a different aspect of wellness. They had a new activity for students to participate in each day and even win some prizes.
“The activities that we hold at lunch can really encourage wellness because oftentimes it asks the students to pause and participate in an activity that maybe they wouldn’t have necessarily participated on their own,” said Support Counselor Jennifer Yu.
Many Different Parts
The activities include wellness games such as gratitude grams and wellness jeopardy. Students took time out of their lunch to learn about general information surrounding the idea of wellness. These activities helped promote awareness in many different ways. For example, wellness can help with relaxation and stress reduction.
“A lot of my family members struggle with depression and other mental health issues. And I feel like it’s a significant problem in the modern-day world. And we should focus more on it in order to completely stop it,” said Felix Otts (‘28).
Each activity focuses on a different sub-section of wellness. These aspects include environmental, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, and social wellness. The activities provided an opportunity for students to dive deeper into these topics.
“It’s not just a week, you know. Yes, we hold the wellness week in a week of October, but I really want students to think of wellness every day. How can we introduce wellness to our day-to-day?” said Yu.
Trying Something New
These lunchtime activities were meant to be an introduction to wellness for students. Many students were able to learn new relaxing techniques and methods. The goal is to allow students to take what they learned about wellness and apply it to their daily lives.
“[A way to promote wellness more is that] we can maybe discuss what you’re going through and maybe give solutions for individual people rather than broader people,” said Nathan Leiter (‘28).
Students are also encouraged to take as small or as large of a step to improve their wellness. Activities such as pausing to take a breath, letting yourself relax, and even doing some yoga are manageable techniques. These can be incorporated into the daily life of students.
“[Incorporation of wellness techniques] could be as simple as pausing and taking a deep breath. It could look like going to sign up and do some yoga. It could look like going to go visit the Wellness Center,” said Yu.
