Health and Wellness Services is sponsoring a new co-curricular experience called “Got Health and Happiness”. This program is a 4-week journey to embracing your wellness. It’s a self-guided program designed to help enhance your overall health!
Who doesn’t love improving their lives to promote their health and well-being for free!?
Photo by Brooke Powell ’21
Here are some of my highlights from week two!
1. Being kind to others is helpful for your health
Yes, being kind to others lifts others’ spirits, but it also lifts our own. Acts of altruism help raise our own levels of happiness, but also act as a buffer for stress and depression. For my science lovers out there: acts of genuine kindness raise levels of oxytocin (the “love” or “bonding” hormone), which boosts positive emotions and relieves stress. I chose a specific day to be my day of kindness and I engaged in 4 acts of kindness. At the end of the day, I found that I felt generally better about myself when reflecting on these acts of kindness.
2. Explore your values
Yes, you can say you value intellect or self-awareness, but do you really know what these mean to you? I was really stressed out this week, struggling to find my confidence and I did this exercise to reflect on what values are most important to me. I picked three values that I felt were the most important in my life and then wrote about it. Reflecting on your values actually helps by tapping into a powerful source of motivation. This is really helpful for your personal development because you can recognize your own strengths and help you navigate through difficult situations because you believe you can do it!
3. Write yourself a letter to offer support
Again, I had a really tough week. I felt like I couldn’t figure out my feelings and I was just really feeling confused. One of the exercises this week was to write a letter to yourself to practice positive self-talk and problem solving. It is okay to have strong feelings! This is something I need to remind myself. Non-judgmental acceptance, empathy and compassion are important things to remember when going through a tough time. In this exercise, I had to write a letter as if I was speaking to a friend. Often I find that I am harsher on myself than I am on others, so this exercise reminded me that I am a person, too.
I noticed that after these first two weeks, things feel a little more manageable. I have to remember to look at all of my aspects of health, not just one dimension. Remembering these little lessons will help us grow even more.
Just a reminder, you do get credit for this! For more information follow us on Facebook and sign up today!