Welcome back to a new semester …and a new year!  Did you make any New Year’s resolutions for yourself, or decide that there are changes that you would like to make in your life? For many of you, this could be a healthier lifestyle, being a better student, or improving your relationships. Believe it or not, all of these can come under the umbrella of wellness, so let’s look at this concept of wellness a little closer.  One definition says that wellness is an active process of becoming aware of and making choices towards a healthy and fulfilling life. According to the World Health Organization, “wellness is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”. We can look at this in the following context: the four pillars of wellness.  The four pillars of wellness serve as the foundation of a healthy lifestyle and include movement/exercise, whole foods diet/healthy nutrition, stress management and sleep, and connection to community and life purpose. In looking at each of these individually, how do we then translate these into achievable goals in our everyday life? Adding exercise can be as simple as walking around campus as well as using the Recreation Center.  Healthy nutrition can mean not skipping breakfast and adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet. Managing stress can include mindfulness activities such as meditation, calm breathing, prayer, and engaging in relaxing activities. Connection to community and life purpose means spending more time with others and less time with your phone and other technology. Humans are social creatures and healthy relationships are so important to our overall health and well-being!   What are some of the characteristics of a healthy relationship? Whether you are in a romantic/sexual relationship, a friendship, or even with your family, it is important to ensure that there is trust, honesty, open communication, and respect, just to name a few healthy characteristics.

To help get you started on your wellness journey, the Wellness Center for Health and Counseling will be hosting a program on Thursday, February 7 at 6 PM in James Commons.  The program is entitled Healthy Relationships and Health Information and will feature organizations from throughout the community with resources regarding physical, emotional, and spiritual health.  We will also have a speaker, Tiffany Brec, from Vera House which is our local sexual assault/domestic violence agency, who will be talking about healthy relationships and effective health relationship communication.  There will be as opportunities to win great prizes…just in time for Valentine’s Day! So stop in while you are in the Campus Center for dinner to listen to an informative and fun presentation entitled “Awesomely Awkward” and visit our vendors to win great prizes!!