Blog

Negative Visualization

One of the key things noted about the happiest people is that they are grateful for their lives and the things in them. They are truly grateful for what they have been blessed with, whether it’s a good family, a warm home, adequate food, or good health. Many of us do, in fact, live lives that others would envy. Yet, there is an epidemic of feelings of unhappiness in our society. We’re told to be happy with our lives and be grateful, but that can be hard sometimes.

Gratitude

With the continuing pandemic and another online semester, it can be easy to complain about all the many disappointments we have with our lives. Many of us have moved out of Waterloo and back home with our family. Some may have had plans to travel, work, or volunteer that have been cancelled or postponed.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Winter Blues

With the grey skies, gloomy days, and cold weather creeping up on us it is very common to experience a shift in our mood. You may tend to find yourself more sluggish and down than usual. Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, is a form of depression that is developed with a seasonal change into the winter months. Due to the limited amount of sunlight, our bodies lack vitamin D resulting in a decrease of serotonin, the happy hormone and increase in melatonin, the sleep hormone.

What keeps you on the grind?

I often find myself walking through each day, doing what I need to do, performing the tasks I need to complete, without really thinking about why.

Why am I spending hours studying this again?

Oh yeah that’s right. I have a test next week.

And the grind continues. But I realized that my train of thought was incomplete. In fact, the train's engine hadn’t even started. There exists an infinite expanse of answers as to why I put in effort each day, but a test next week was not the one I was looking for.

Dealing with Isolation

Most people are ok with being cooped up at home for a week or two. Being the hardcore introvert that I am, I’d be fine with even a few months of not going outside. Just focusing on my hobbies and using social media would be enough for me, entertainment-wise.

But alas, an entire year has passed.

Even for me—the one who spent 3 full days barely speaking to a soul for the sake of completing a piece of digital art, and the one who enjoyed every minute of it—it’s getting lonely. ಠ_ಠ

During the pandemic, it is important to be mentally resilient. The things we previously took for granted have now become luxuries of the past, so it is easy for us to dive into pessimism. At the start of the lockdown, many were optimistic that this would all be over soon. Now, an ongoing sense of uncertainty and trying to adjust to the “new normal” is a common theme across our communities. 

Getting Better Sleep

There’s an old meme I remember hearing about from friends before I was coming into university. “Good grades, sleep, or a social life. In university, you can have two.” As a high school student, I laughed it off. I’m not laughing anymore. I might be too tired to. (They never told me you weren’t guaranteed any of the three options!)

I don't know about you, but the title of this post really speaks to my level of engagement this past week. This is also evidenced by the delay in getting this post out. As Wellness Coordinators, Renate and I are certainly not unfamiliar with such impacts as motivation, energy management, cognitive load, and emotional regulation. Interestingly enough, we're also intimately aware of that beautiful phenomenon that can often derail and dissuade any task, action, or activity we have intentions of completing. That's right, friends.

Hello incoming (and remaining) students! We hope that you are all continuing to keep as safe and healthy as can be these days. We know there was likely a massive upheaval to your lives as a result of this COVID-19 situation, and this Spring 2020 term is only adding to the burning uncertainty we all feel! Grad research or progress has been halted, UG curriculums have been rejigged, and our realities have been more isolated than usual. We know you've heard it many times from too many different broadcasters, but these are truely exceptional times we are living in!

Happy 5th week! It's hard to imagine that we've been living these new lives for over a month already. Is anyone else starting to get a little foggy on what life was like before all of this?

Today, I'm going to switch gears from my usual crazed ramblings to provide some updates about our ENGWellness Program! For those of you out of the loop, we've made some significant updates to the ENGWellness website (and the program in general) in an effort to better support our students and community as a whole.