The Faculty of Mathematics’ health and well-being committees are building on the success of their September events with new ways to get involved in October.
September saw the launch of the Living Wellness Campaign, which had some 200 participants attend the planned physical wellness activities. Faculty members, staff and students took part in yoga, Zumba, wall climbing and an eat-well workshop.
Robert Bruce, the faculty’s community engagement coordinator, said he was pleasantly surprised by the level of participation in the various events and activities.
“Of course we’re happy to see so many people getting involved in our events,” he said. “It can sometimes be a little awkward or uncomfortable to try new things, so I want to extend a huge thanks to everyone who came out and especially to all the members of the health and well-being committees for all their work.”
The Living Wellness Campaign is grounded in the idea that everyone should be taking some time to prioritize wellness. The campaign’s nine components take up a different aspect of wellness each month. Whereas September was primarily focused on physical well-being, October’s events have a focus on emotional wellness.
One such recent event focused on emotional wellness was in collaboration with the university-wide initiative MATES, and saw specially trained therapy dogs visit campus. Other October events in conjunction with Campus Wellness include workshops on building resiliency and self-care when caring for others.
“Wellness is in many ways a journey,” said Bruce. “For many people, a wellness journey is a new concept, and unfortunately, many of us have been actively encouraged to ignore our own health and well-being, either through expectations or pressures in school or work. But wellness is just so tremendously valuable to our lives in so many ways. Our goals in the health and well-being committees is to facilitate a process to make it easier for people to start on their wellness journey.”
Learn more about the nine dimensions of wellness informing the Living Wellness Campaign on the math wellness website. Faculty members, staff and students are also encouraged to make suggestions about specific programming they would like to see in the campaign through the Have your Say online forum.