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Spotlight on research: Can farming improve your mental health and well-being?
Care farming, which uses farming activities as therapy, provides therapeutic benefits by promoting responsibility towards animals and the land and often integrates mental health treatment within social, stigma-free settings. A 2017 review by Gorman and Cacciatore found that care farming can benefit those experiencing psychological distress, suggesting it as a potential non-medicated support for individuals dealing with traumatic grief.
Spotlight on Research: Shifting the Resilience Narrative
Information on research on resilience in a post-secondary context.
Understanding and Managing Change
Change is an inevitable part of life, and how we handle change can significantly impact our well-being and success. While there are people who seem to sail through significant upheaval unscathed, most of us find it more challenging to adapt to change.
Recipe of the Month: Yogurt Cherry Parfait
The peak season for cherries usually runs from late June through early August. July is often considered the height of cherry season, particularly for sweet varieties like Bing and Rainier cherries. In season, cherries cost approximately $5/kg (that is a lot of cherries!)
This month, start your breakfast with a cherry yogurt parfait. Although technically you could simply add cherries to your yogurt, the recipe below creates a delicious cherry syrup that has both depth and
Improving Your Well-being Through Writing
Researchers have been exploring the power of expressive writing as a tool to support well-being and recovery since the mid 1980’s (Pennebaker & Evans, 2014). Expressive writing (writing that focuses more on thoughts and feelings than on events) has been shown to reduce anxiety, increase emotional regulation, manage depression, help individuals process trauma and negative experiences, improve student grades, lower stress, boost the immune system and lower blood pressure (Sutton, 2018).
Spotlight on Research: 2SLGBTQ+ Campus Climate: Students’ Experiences on & Perceptions of Campus
In 2022, Woodford et al. released a series of reports on the experiences and perceptions of 2SLGBTQ+ students on university campuses in Ontario. Findings indicate that while 17% percent of overall students reported being verbally threatened, bullied, or intimidated and 14% overall reported being sexually harassed or assaulted, these rates were considerably higher for students belonging to 2SLGBTQ+ community, with trans and nonbinary students being at the highest risk.
As we Approach June 28th
The hate-motivated, transphobic attack that happened last June 28th on-campus, has become another point that marks a before and after. Of course, the events of June 28th have affected everyone across campus.
Spotlight on Research: Can Smartphone use Improve Academic Performance?
A joint research project between Aalto University School of Business, in Finland and
Center for the Studies of Information Resources, in China explored the impact of smartphone use on a number of indicators: academic performance, sleep, nomophobia (fear of being unavailable to mobile phones), and behaviour.
Are you Addicted to Your Smart Phone?
There are close to 5 billion smartphone users worldwide (Statista, 2024). The average person spends 4 hours a day on their phone (Statista, 2023), and almost half of all smartphone users describe themselves as having a smartphone addiction (Ratan et al., 2022). Unsurprisingly, almost all university students have a smartphone (Huey & Giguere, 2023). In people aged 25 and under, 25% of them meet the criteria for problematic smartphone usage (Sohn et al., 2019).