Wellness Breaks

For many of us, the holidays are a time to spend with friends and family. Whether it’s a family gathering, family traditions, or vacationing with friends, the holiday break is a great opportunity for quality time with others. Work, school, and extracurricular responsibilities can get in the way sometimes, and we can forget what relationships mean to us. Relationships with our friends and family are ultimately what matter to us, and help bring meaning to our lives. If we’ve learned anything over the past couple of years of lockdowns, its that community matters to us, and the meaning it brings us is a necessity to live a fulfilling life. With COVID comes a lot of hot takes and controversial opinions, and for some of us this can create tensions in our relationships with friends and family. But life is hard for everyone, and these lockdowns have only increased the baseline of suffering that so often occurs in life. If a person holds an offensive opinion, or follows someone on Facebook or Instagram that offends you, don’t take it personally, and don’t let it get in the way of what’s important. Life is hard for everyone, and if someone believes something different from yourself cut them some slack – they’re only doing their best to make sense of these crazy times. Life is short, so don’t waste it trying to prove yourself right in a situation with no clear-cut answers. Go have whatever conversations may need to be had, and move forward together, acknowledging what’s most important in life.  

Never played a sport before? Grew up playing 5 sports simultaneously? Used to play a sports and want to get back into it? Hotel? Trivago. No matter what level you are, intramural sports at UW have what you want. Many of us know we should exercise more or get involved, but can never really find the motivation to go to the gym. Intramural sports presents a perfect solution to both of those problems. It will force you to get out and get active, build friendships with your teammates (if you choose a team sport), and get involved in the UWaterloo community. There are tons of sport options to choose from, ranging from volleyball to flag football to dodgeball. Each sport often has different skill levels, too, so if you’re just starting to try out a new sport, or have been playing your whole life, intramurals have an option for both of you. University is a short-lived experience, and getting involved is a great memory for all alumni. You can make teams with your friends, or join teams as an individual, so you don’t need to have a team made already in order to join. The cost is minimal, and you can join multiple sports too! So get out there and try it out!

Happy Jumping!

Sometimes, when I get asked what my unique talent is, I struggle to answer. I think that growing up, we were expected to have an amazing marketable talent that would indicate that we've spent thousands of hours working away at something. Well, I liked to play games, listen to music, and hang out with friends. I had fun playing basketball, playing the clarinet, but honestly, there was no immediate unique talent I could show.

I don’t know why, but I thought it would be cool to learn the alphabets backwards. It seemed daunting, to be honest, and I didn’t know how long it would take or how effective it would be. To my surprise, I learned it in an evening, and through practicing, I haven’t forgotten it yet!

Here is how you can learn the alphabets backwards! I haven’t been able to find the website where I learned it originally, so these steps are the best that I can remember, so I made this image:

Sometimes when I get asked what my unique talent is, I say I know the alphabets backwards. People look at me with that same sense of awe I used to look at people with when they told me they were a lifeguard or could sing. I realized later that it didn’t really matter what my talent was, and that presenting myself in a confident way was way more important!

Honestly, through learning the alphabets backwards, I learned more to accept myself for who I was and to present things with confidence rather than the talent itself. I think that learning a useless but interesting talent like this was once of the things that helped me grow as a person, and I hope that this either works for you, inspires you to learn your own small talent, or both!

oday we are talking about mindfulness-based activities that are known to promote relaxation and reduce stress. If you recall from previous wellness tips, the body cannot be in stress response (fight-flight-freeze) and relaxation response (rest, digest and repair) at the same time. In times of stress, it is really important to find hobbies and activities that help induce the relaxation response. Today we are exploring the power of colouring and meditative doodling. Because there are many aspects of doodling, we created a series of short videos that each address a different aspect of doodling. If you watch them all, you will have a beginner doodle class!

Check out our video series on Meditative Doodling:

Part 1: Getting Started

Part 2: The Basics

Part 3: String Doodles

Part 4: Full Page Doodles

Part 5: Other Tips

Additional resources on Meditative Doodling:

• Are Adult Coloring Books Actually Helpful? – Psychology Today
• 7 Reasons Adult Coloring Books Are Great for Your Mental, Emotional and Intellectual Health – Huffington Post
• Can Coloring Improve Your Mental Health? – Right as Rain (University of Washington Medicine)
• Just Color – Free colouring pages
• Art is Fun! – Free colouring pages
• The Thinking Benefits of Doodling – Harvard Medical
• Calm Down and get your Zen Tangle on! – Psychology Today
• Zen Tangle: Art Therapy – YouTube
• ABC of Zen Tangle – YouTube
• 15 Zen Tangle Patterns –YouTube
• Art of Where – business that will print your art on clothing, bedding, hats, and more

Given the popularity of Emotional Intelligence in today's world, we're diving deeper with our next video on EQ Part 2! We'll explore more about our emotions and the RULER method – based on an approach created by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.

Check out our video on Emotional Intelligence Part II:

Additional resources on Emotional Intelligence and the RULER method:

• RULER and Emotional Intelligence: An Overview – Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence (PDF)
• RULER – Anchor tools (website)
• RULER Anchor Tools: An Overview (PDF)
• RULER Blue Print (PDF)
• Mood Meter – Explanation
• Mood Meter App (website)

As humans, we are literally hard-wired to find the negative in any situation. This is because (back in 'the day') things that were negative were more likely to harm us than things that are perceived as positive. The brain’s natural negativity bias can lead to many mental health related challenges. Being able to find the positive, or an opportunity in a negative situation, is actually a LEARNED behavior. Learned optimism, as well as the emotion of gratitude, have been shown to be insolating in times of challenge.

Check out our video on Negativity Bias:

Additional resources on negativity bias and learned optimism:  

• Inner Mammal Institute – Loretta Breuning (lots of information on the neuroscience and evolutionary design of emotions and neurotransmitters. Some great resources on the site).
• Learned Optimism: Is Martin Sleigman’s Glass Half Full? – Martin Sleigman is a professor and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Director of Penn’s Positive Psychology Center.
• Learned Optimism by Martin Seligman – Video
• Overcoming the Negativity Bias – Rick Hanson, PhD. (psychologist)
• Being Resilient During the Coronavirus – Rick Hanson, PhD (psychologist)
• How Gratitude Changes You and Your Brain – Greater Good Magizine – UC Berkley
• In Praise of Gratitude – Harvard Health

How are you feeling today? How have you been feeling lately? What exactly is a 'feel' anyways? This wellness tip is all about self-regulation and working with our emotions. These skills actually extend to every aspect of our lives (even without COVID-19). They are especially important skills to foster during these uncertain times. 

Check out our video on Emotional Intelligence:

 Additional resources on emotions and emotional intelligence: 

• What is Emotional Intelligence? – Video
• Why Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Matters -Video
• 4 Ways to Stop an Anxiety Spiral – Oprah Winfrey Network
• Mood Meter (Emotional Intelligence)
• Mood Meter App (Yale University)

Today we discuss another heavily supported stress reduction technique known as progressive muscle relaxation. We'll summarize some basics regarding the stress response and show you some helpful practices to help reach a state of relaxation (or, at the very least, a less stressed state!). 

Check out our video on Progressive Muscle Relaxation:

Additional resources on progressive muscle relaxation and stress reduction: 

• A 6 minute Mindful Progressive Muscle Relaxation – video
• Guided Progressive Muscle Relaxation - video
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation – uWaterloo Counselling
• How to Progressive Muscle Relaxation – Video
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation for Insomnia – Article

Join Renate as she teaches us a commonly used method to help reduce feelings of stress and anxiety! Throughout the emotional roller coaster that is this pandemic, it's very important to ensure that we're maintaining a balance and keeping a handle on our stress response (as much as reasonably possible. 

Check out our video on Taking the Time to Breathe:

Additional resources regarding breathing techniques and stress reduction:

• How to Reduce Stress Like a Navy Seal – has a breathing graphic you can follow
• Box/square breathing – box breathing visual guide
• Box Breathing video – breathe in time with the circle

Additional resources to support your mental health and wellness during COVID-19:

• Empower-Me Student Care has 24/7 support via e-counselling
• How to Reduce Stress Like a Navy Seal – Box Breathing
• Mindshift App – for reducing anxiety and stress
• Coronavirus Sanity Guide (FREE) – from Ten Percent Happier
• 7 science-based strategies to cope with coronavirus anxiety (The Conversation)
• A Pause for your Wellness Kristin Kiely – curated list of resources such a virtual tours of national parks
• Psycom.net has collected their top 25 meditation resources.
• Self-compassion meditations and exercises

Below are some additional resources:

• Empower-Me Student care has 24/7 support via e-counselling 
• Mindshift - great app for coping with anxiety - 
• Good2Talk (confidential help line for post-secondary students) 1-866-925-5454
• Here24/7 (Waterloo Regions Mental Health and Crisis Services Team) 1-844-437-3247
• Counselling has several online resources. The "Calming the Panic" workshop might be of particular interest 
• Bounceback Ontario has free workshops for depression and anxiety
• Tips on how to help a friend 
• More Feet on the Ground 
• The Big List of Self-Care and Distraction Activities 

  There are several articles on how to navigate COVID-19 that might be helpful:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has posted Manage Anxiety & Stress related to the coronavirus pandemic.
• Five Mental Health Tips Amid COVID-19 Concerns from the Canadian Mental Health Association
• How to prevent loneliness in a time of social distancing by Scientific American

There's no doubt that the continuously dull days of winter can reak havoc with our emotions and sense of well-being. Lack of sunlight can put the most optomistic person in a crummy mood. The change in day light compounded by the stress of a heavy work load (and don't forget personal obligations!) is enough for anyone to feel overwhelmed.

Changes in our circadian rhythm brought on by the reduction in daylight can trigger Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in some individuals. Symptoms of SAD are similar to that of depression (fatique, low mood, lack of motivation), except that their onset is dependent on the reduction in daylight experienced during the fall and winter months. The good news is that SAD can be treated!

Research in the area of self-compassion has shown that compassion plays an important role in healing, recovery process, dealing with change and managing difficult circumstances. Self-compassion is when “treat ourselves with the same loving kindness we would give to a good friend”.

Kristin Neff pioneered the work in self-compassion and has information and self-compassion guided visualization on her website. You might also enjoy this recent article, "Research Reveals a Surprising Solution for Anxiety How compassion can help you relieve stress", on self-compassion.