Group Wellness Activities

Group Wellness Activities
In support of students’ physical, emotional, mental, social and spiritual wellness, the following group wellness activities are available on a rotating basis to medical, physician assistant and graduate students. A schedule of current wellness activities can be found online on the Student Wellness calendar. To maintain a balance in each of these areas it is useful to consider finding time each day for sleeping, exercising, healthy eating, socializing, reflecting, focusing, playing and non goal-directed time-outs.

Student Wellness Advisory Board
Wellness activities are generated and led by students on the Student Wellness Advisory Board. Membership is open to interested students from the medical, physician assistant and graduate schools on our campus. The goals of this group are to:

Foster the genius and talents within each individual by enhancing the satisfaction found in student life
Maximize student well-being
Promote resilience and the ability to balance commitments to one’s self, others and the larger educational and professional context/environment
Enhance interdisciplinary collaboration
Promote diversity
Enable students to pursue areas of interest
Enhance intrapersonal awareness, self-management, and stress management
Enhance interpersonal awareness, communication and relationship management

For more information about getting involved with student wellness, students may contact Dave Conklin at davconkl@wfubmc.edu or 513-543-2543.

Get a Life Contest: Students, stay posted for another update describing this fun experience. The idea for the Get a Life Contest originated with a residency program director who wanted his residents to create more balance in their life while enjoying the many wonderful experiences available around Oregon. Basically, starting after the winter break, we’ll give you an opportunity to participate and enjoy some of the fabulous places and events in North Carolina, like taking a hike, visiting one of our beautiful lighthouses, throwing a tire or enjoying the symphony. Stay tuned as part of the fun is sharing your adventures with your colleagues while having an opportunity to win a cash prize for yourself or for you and some of your friends. We hope you’ll join us to do some sightseeing, exercising, taking in the arts, and socializing with friends.
Integrative Awareness Training: IAT is an elective 10 week experiential course that focuses on learning mind-body and mindfulness skills that promote self awareness, self-reflection and self care. This is achieved through brief didactic instruction, but primarily guided experiences and individual practice of various approaches including focused breathing, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery. Prior participants indicated that the course enabled them to reaffirm or change priorities, better manage stress and perform better in school.
Stress Management Sessions: These sessions are meant to teach skills to help understand, manage, and cope with the stresses associated with being a student and adult. Some topics covered are burnout, test anxiety, sleep difficulties, and panic.
Group Exercise Programs: These activites aim to promote the physical health and fitness of students through group exercise. These will be both organized by Student Wellness, but a forum will also be provided for students to organize their own activities such as pick-up basketball, running clubs, event training clubs, and more.
Zumba: A Latin-inspired dance fitness program which incorporates dance such as hip-hop, samba, salsa, meringue, mambo, martial arts, and belle dance into aerobic activity. The goal of Zumba is to utilize dancing to achieve weight loss and fitness.
Yoga for Stress Management: In this class students will learn how practices from the yoga tradition can be used to effectively transition the nervous system from sympathetic to parasympathetic activation. We will explore how careful attention to the breath in simple yoga postures can mobilize the spine, decrease muscle tension and create a calm and focused state of mind. Students will learn practices that they can do at home and at school to relieve stress and improve focus and attention.
Mindfulness Meditation: Mindfulness is an attentive awareness of reality particulary oneself. Mindfulness meditation facilitates the process of self-awareness. This entails the awareness of one’s bodily functions, feelings, thoughts, perceptions, and consciousness.
Cooking and Nutrition Classes: Healthy eating is a cornerstone of healthy living. Maintaining a healthy diet on a limited budget and with a demanding schedule is difficult. Classes will be offered to not only teach cooking techniques but also educate students about proper nutrition.
Personal Finance Assistance: Meager student budgets are not easily handled. Waiting for financial aid stipends, military stipends, and the occasional paycheck to can add stress to what to any situation. Student Wellness will hold seminars, collaborate with Financial Aid, and recruit guest advisors to help students manage their personal finances.
Healthy Relationships: Learning to manage relationships with ourselves and others is vital to success as a medical, PA and graduate leader. Drawing from the most recent and time tested research in social and emotional intelligence, as well as, resilience, communication skills, congruence, negotiation, and conflict management, this mini course will provide students with the tools they need to understand and manage crucial personal and professional relationships.
Couples Enrichment Retreat: This weekend retreat will provide couples in committed relationships an opportunity to enrich their relationships through didactic and experiential activities designed to enhance their compassionate understandings of one another, as well as, tools for managing conflict and misunderstandings.
To Be Determined: This list is not completely inclusive or exclusive. If there is something you would like to see organized by the SWC which promotes student wellness and healthy living please do not hesitate to contact us, this center is intended to benefit the students.