Feeling Cared For

I played sports for the majority of my life, and subsequently, I've been injured multiple times. Hence, I've had many examples of feeling cared for during these times.But, I think you can care for people on a day to day basic with simple gestures as well.

Perhaps the first "cared for" moment that comes to mind was in my final year of university. In my last game of university football I'd ever end up playing, I had the misfortune of tearing my ACL in my right knee for the second time in my career. It was pretty devastating for me, major surgery, another 6 month recovery and worse yet, I knew my career was over. I think my family understood the toll it took on me. As I prepared for the surgery a couple months down the road, my father began suggesting he might come out and help me through the days following the surgery. I didn't think he was serious, as I'd been through the process before, but little did I know the lengths he would go to make me feel cared for!
I lived in a house with 7, yes SEVEN, other football players throughout my college career. Suffice to say, it was a mess! My father came and stayed with our house for a few days following my surgery and treated me and my housemates like kings. He cleaned the house, cooked meals, and helped me through this difficult time. It was just like my dad to do this, never thinking about himself, always helping others and making sure myself (and all my housemates) were comfortable and well fed.
I just remember being so thankful and not even being able to put it into words. He didn't have to do this, I lived a four hour flight away (which wasn't cheap), he didn't have a proper bed to sleep in (we had a couch), but he didn't care, he wanted to be there for me and help me through this difficult time.

This was definitely a situation where I felt cared for, but I think being injured or sick is a situation that perpetuates care. I think a different angle or care builds on our discussion of self care around the things we do every day to care for ourselves. I think there's something to be said for the things we do for others every day to care for them. This can happen at work where people can care through hearing opinions and taking the extra time to help explain something. This can happen in your personal life where simple gestures like buying flowers or candy when your friend is down, or doing a chore at home because you know your partner hates it or simply giving someone a smile or hug because you know they need it. These are the unprompted gestures that make me feel cared for every day by the people around me and the gestures I try and do every day to make others feel cared for.

While I believe they are two different things, I don't think one is any greater than the other, but I think understanding the distinction is important and something we need to realize in our day to day lives.

Bunny Yoga

Hey all,
For those of you interested, looking at you Rhonda, SFU just released a video from our Bunny Yoga session a couple weeks back. You might have to scroll down a bit but see here: https://www.facebook.com/SFURecreation/
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fsimonfraseruniversity%2Fvideos%2F10154427659465020%2F&show_text=0&width=560


I'll try and get the raw video and post that as well.

Nick

Self Care Superheroes

Big thanks to Randy for mentioning the Self Care Superhero aspect of my blog. I saw a couple ears perk up when I mentioned the concept, so I thought I'd take the time to talk about the workshop in a bit more detail. Yolo right?
As I mentioned before, I got the idea of selfcare superheroes while attending a version of the workshop in Winnipeg at the CACUSS Conference 2016. The workshop was administered by a couple folks from York University from the Student Success Centre. I was originally drawn to the workshop because of it's emphasis on student self care as I found my student staff stressing out, particularly around midterm and exam time. I wanted to provide them with some mechanisms to cope with stress and do it in a fun way. So I started thinking about providing this workshop for my students, found the nearest plasticine retail store (plasticine is super cheap by the way!) and started planning!
Each semester, we start with a staff training day which had typically started with some icebreaker games so our new staff could meet the veteran staff and vice versa. Well I took this opportunity to insert the Selfcare Superhero workshop into this space where we could go over what selfcare meant, while also giving students the opportunity to mill around the room and meet and greet each other. The entire workshop lasts about 75 minutes.
The workshop begins with a short introduction about the concept of selfcare and wellbeing. I used the selfcare concepts pulled from the New Economics Foundation, who was commissioned by the UK government's Foresight project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing. They developed a set of evidence based actions to improve personal wellbeing.

Here's an except from the powerpoint:
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The concept of wellbeing comprises two main elements: feeling good and functioning well. Feelings of happiness, contentment, enjoyment, curiosity and engagement are characteristic of someone who has a positive experience of their life. Equally important for wellbeing is our functioning in the world. Experiencing positive relationships, having some control over one’s life and having a sense of purpose are all important attributes of wellbeing. NEF has developed a set of five evidence-based actions to improve personal wellbeing
Take Notice
Keep Learning
Be Active
Connect
Give

By taking part in these activities we are better able to reflect on the beauty around us, develop our brain and body in different ways, and develop a stronger community that cares for all of it’s members!

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After making the students comfortable with the concept of selfcare, you really get into the nitty gritty of the workshop. Participants are given a sheet asking them to map out the following three things: which one of the 5 areas you need to focus more on, what the superpower correlating to your need would be and lastly what your superhero name would be.

After taking some time to deliberate and discuss, the students then used plasticine to construct a physical concept of their superhero. This was a great way for students to express their creative side and have fine.

So for example, I chose to create "Rickey the Rut" who strove to break free from getting caught up in the day to day activities and learn some new!

Ricky sits on my desk as a gentle reminder to learn something new every week to keep expanding my horizons.

The next part is called the "Art Gallery Walk". After everyone has created their superhero, encourage students to go around and introduce themselves and explain their superhero to their peers. I felt this gave the participants a great sense of camaraderie knowing students go through a lot of the same stuff every semester and that they are there to help support each other through it. As the students are chatting away, I went around and catalogued every student's superhero. 

After the walk,  I asked the students to reflect on what they saw around the room and engage them in a conversation about how they see themselves using this selfcare superpower over the next week, month, year, etc. This gave way to great discussion and some very relational dialogue between students.

As the discussion wrapped up, and we moved along with our day, I encouraged students to keep their Superhero as a reminder of the commitment they made to themselves. And, just in case they forgot, I sent them back the picture of their superhero 6 weeks later with a friendly reminder to keep their self care superpower in mind!

All in all it was a great success, and I'll probably do it once a year-ish as my staff turnover from year to year I think the students appreciated some self-reflection time, and I really enjoyed giving them some tools to help deal with the stress of exams.

If anyone else would like to see some more of the materials, I'm happy to share!

Health and Self Care

It was clear in our class discussions that Health isn't an easy thing to determine. I find it difficult to agree with the sentiment that someone with a terminal illness is "healthy", however, that doesn't mean they can't live a good healthy life. Confused? Me too. Health to me is a consideration of your physical health and how well that functions. Being healthy on the other hand, is choosing a lifestyle with activities that strengthen your health or how you feel (there's that vitality word).

My perception of self care is the action of being healthy. As mentioned above, whatever engages you in activities which keep your body and mind healthy. I hadn't heard of the "Self Care" concept until this summer when I attended the CACUSS Conference 2016 in Winnipeg. I attended a workshop which outlined the five steps to Self Care (Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Learn and Give) but made it fun for students by creating a Plasticine superhero which help them connect with one of these five ways they thought they needed to attend to the most. I thought it was a great exercise and took it to my students and they enjoyed it too! It was based on a UK study, see more information below.
Self Care, from my perspective, is building activities into your lifestyle that you enjoy that are stress relieving and healthy for your body. Enjoying these every day make them attainable and easier to stick to. Self Care will look different to different people but in the end, the goal should be the same, maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle.

http://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work/taking-care-of-yourself/five-ways-to-wellbeing

Postcard

I think what motivates me health wise is just the all around benefits I see in my day to day life. I really look forward to my workout everyday. Whether I’m going for a run or lifting weights, it gives me time to think, decompress and re-focus on what I need to do. Sometimes I visit the smelly gym and I wonder why I do it but there’s something about the place that keeps me coming back. Getting that workout in before I head into work every morning is pivotal to my day’s success. I don’t know what it is, but when I don’t do something active I just don’t feel the same.

I work with post secondary students on an everyday basis. The students often struggle with managing their time and they feel stressed while being pulled in multiple directions and not taking the time to focus on themselves. I strongly encourage them to take some time for themselves and set some fitness and personal related goals. Especially when it comes to fitness, I want to ensure they are eating and sleeping properly as well as exercising regularly. I’ve been doing this for a few terms now, and students often report feeling much better on a day to day basis. I was very happy with their progress!

I’m also very interested in the link between mental illness and the impact that exercise can have on depression and anxiety. I’ve read a couple articles that correlate the link between exercise and a decrease in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 scores. At my place of work, we run a program for students who are prescribed exercise by a Health & Counseling doctor. We set them up with our personal trainers for free personal training to help them deal with their mental illness. We have had spectacular results.

Nick - An Introduction

So our first assignment is to brag about ourselves, I mean, introduce ourselves in a creative way. Well, I guess blogging can be considered creative for me, since I've done very little of it in my lifetime. If you know me, I'm very easy going and that's probably how I'll write this blog post... that is until serious Stephen gets mad at me and tells me differently (just kidding).

I'm born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba, surrounded by an amazing, supportive family of which I'm the youngest of five children. At 18, I moved out to Kingston, Ontario to study football, I mean Religious Studies (and play football) at Queen's University. From there I worked at Queen's in the Athletics & Recreation department doing Marketing & Sponsorship and since moved out to BC to continue in the university setting at Simon Fraser University. I began my time at SFU as the Marketing & Events Coordinator for the Athletics Department but am currently the Fitness Coordinator for the Recreation Department. Interesting transition no?

I enrolled in the HEAL program because I am very interested in promoting health and active living to the students, staff, faculty and community that I see every day. There's a lot of junk out there when it comes to being active or exercising so we do our best to make our area a welcoming and rewarding place, keying on customer service and answering any fitness related questions our members have with our fully certified staff. HEAL peaked my interest because I felt I would be surrounded by intellectuals that were keen to encourage the same type of active living and learn new ways to break down some of those barriers to participation.

As you'll see in my upcoming "postcard" assignment, I'm also quite interested in the link between physical activity and helping people with mental illnesses. I've research the positive link between exercise and the decrease in stress, anxiety and depression. I don't believe exercise is the cure all, but I think it can be a valuable asset.

I think my understanding of health and the mind/body relationship has grown as I've "grown" as well. I think I've just come to understand the holistic mindset a lot better since I've graduated university. I think that connection between your mind and body is only strengthened by being active.

I think I'd like to contribute to the group my expertise in the fitness and post-secondary industry. In addition, I'd like to get a better understanding of the K-12 education system, these are, after all, the students that I end up seeing day to day, so I think an understanding of their curriculum is very important. I think I can gain a lot of real world experience from our members of the cohort and just share and discuss ideas to generate programs I can take back with me to my place of employment and my life.

I've blathered on enough, but for those in my cohort reading this, I'm very excited to work with all of you and I can't wait to see where this goes!