Student Wellness Presentation

On August 27th I attended the Student Wellness Center Presentation to fulfill my Academic requirement. As a college student, I feel as though many aspects of my health and well-being are overlooked, especially when school, work, and extracurriculars take up a large part of my time. I wanted to attend this event in order to learn what ways I could improve myself and find balance within my life. 

The presentation began with an overview of the many services and programs the Student Wellness Center offers– which ranges from alcohol and drug prevention groups to nutritional coaching. One resource that I found particularly interesting was The Body Project, which aims to help students practice self-acceptance of their bodies and focuses on body-positivity. I was previously unaware of this service until the presentation, and as someone who relates to this topic, I was glad to find out that there was an on-campus organization that was helping students with these issues. 

The main focus of the presentation was on the nine dimensions of wellness and how these different dimensions are all interconnected. Some of these dimensions were rather surprising– for example, creative wellness was one of the dimensions. Creative wellness meant appreciating the world around you, expressing yourself, and synthesizing multiple perspectives surrounding a topic. The presenter also mentioned that usually when you put all your energy to only a few of these dimensions of wellness, the other forms of wellness are often lacking. For example, as college students we put a lot of energy into intellectual wellness; however, this often affects us in financial, emotional, or physical wellness. It showed just how difficult it was to truly succeed in all forms of wellness, and how closely interwoven these different dimensions are.

At the end of the presentation, we were asked to talk about our own wellness and where we feel we were lacking. We then created goals to improve upon our wellness in a specific dimension. I personally chose career wellness, and my goal was to get an internship at the Language Lab at COSI next semester. I left with a greater knowledge of what I should work to improve in my own life, as well as a list of resources that could help me improve.

Although it doesn’t seem completely obvious how a discussion of wellness could relate to international affairs, I believe that having a better understanding of a person’s needs allows us to better understand those around the world. All countries in the world have people who are lacking in health and wellness– in many different kinds of dimensions. Having the ability to understand these kinds of troubles and allows us to better help these people. Goal setting is also an important ability to have in all aspects of life. Internationally, it can help us create and enact certain global initiatives, or take part in such initiatives. Working on our own wellness allows us to be better individuals, and only then can we better the wellness of the world.