Posted 10:24 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023
Wellness Week, Oct. 9-13, focuses on holistic wellness and campus resources to support it
Wellness means more than just physical or mental health.
“Working on wellbeing is all about balance,” says UW-La Crosse Wellness Coordinator Issy Beach. “Wellness is all-encompassing and taking time for it is often 24/7, 365.”
The many pieces of wellness — such as physical, mental, financial, social, environmental, emotional, academic and spiritual — fit together and build upon one another to improve one’s overall wellbeing, says Beach.
UWL will celebrate Wellness Week, Oct. 9-13, leading up to Extended Wellness Weekend, Oct. 13-15. The week-long initiative aims to increase awareness of the dimensions of holistic wellness and how paying attention to any of them can increase our overall wellbeing, explains Crystal Champion, UWL director of Counseling & Testing.
Through in-person programs and a social media campaign, students will learn about a variety of resources on campus to promote wellness beyond the Counseling & Testing Center, adds Champion.
Wellness Week brings together campus people, offices, and groups that are already doing the work to support wellbeing at UWL, explains Beach. Students will also be reminded of the online resource YOU@UWL, a personalized well-being platform with campus-based and online resources to promote academic and career success.
“I think the most important way students can participate in the week is by taking what they learn about YOU@UWL and on-campus resources to decide what an effective Wellness Weekend, or their plan for wellness moving forward, looks like for them,” says Beach. “Because there are so many dimensions of wellbeing, the practice of ‘being well’ looks different for different people and requires a different balance of practices, habits and interventions."
Each day of Wellness Week will have an area of focus with daily action steps provided on social media:
- Monday: Mindfulness and balance
- Tuesday: Academics and grades
- Wednesday: Sleep, stress and anxiety
- Thursday: Financial and basic needs
- Friday: Fitness and nutrition
Wellness Week is also an opportunity to promote student voices when it comes to wellness, note organizers. Student organizations are encouraged to address wellbeing with their members.
“We would also like students to participate on social media and add their own ideas and favorite campus resources,” says Champion.
How do you ‘make time’ for wellness?
Prioritizing wellness doesn’t have to mean finding extra time for it, which can be challenging during busy college years, explains Champion. Instead, it is about making a choice to take better care of ourselves through our usual daily activities, she says. For instance, students can increase something, change something or decrease something they are doing. Examples include:
- Take the stairs more often
- Shift thoughts toward gratitude during a difficult day
- Reduce a habit that is no longer serving you
- Use YOU@UWL to improve your overall wellbeing
As part of Wellness Week, students are reminded to use YOU@UWL, a personalized well-being platform with campus-based and online resources to promote academic and career success, purpose and connection, and physical and mental wellbeing. YOU@UWL serves as a digital “front-door” for wellness, connecting students to the right resources at the right time.
In addition to YOU@UWL, students now have access to mental health crisis, support, and treatment resources that expand on the mental health services provided at UWL's Counseling & Testing Center. These resources are in place through the spring 2025 semester.
A Minds Matter initiative
Minds Matter, co-chaired by UWL Provost Betsy Morgan and Champion, is an initiative focused on a public health approach to promoting mental health with a focus on enhancing student success through increased attention to a healthy campus environment. Wellness Week is the signature program of the Minds Matter initiative for this year. This year Minds Matter is focusing on increased awareness of wellness resources among students.