This week’s theme is social well-being which involves building and maintaining meaningful relationships, communicating effectively, caring for others and the community, and feeling connected to a positive social network.
You are invited to choose one challenge to try out this week.
Gratitude Challenge: Express your appreciation or gratitude to someone in your life by writing a note or letter. Studies have shown that expressing gratitude with specificity (i.e. sharing the impact a mentor had in your life by helping you clarify goals and purpose vs. just saying thank you), helps people feel positive emotions, enjoy and be present in their experiences, improve health, meet adversity with resilience, and strengthen existing relationships.
Strengthen Your Social Life Challenge: Take a few moments to reflect on your social life. Who are the people who energize, encourage and support you? Which activities feed you, and which do you find draining? Who would you like to get to know better or spend more time with? Choose one activity to improve your social life this week. It could be anything from reconnecting with and old friend, setting a boundary with someone who is affecting you negatively, exploring a new club or interest, etc. Strengthening social connections has a significant impact on mental health and well-being.
Foster Your Faith in Humanity Challenge: Having a positive view of humankind plays a vital role in mental health and well-being, but we can easily lose trust when we hear news of, witness or experience violence, racism, corruption and the other atrocities human beings are capable of. This activity involves purposefully paying attention to the positive aspects of humanity, not to ignore the bad, but to develop a broader and more balanced perspective and foster hope. This might be noticing small kindnesses from strangers, reading about people who have dedicated their lives to meaningful causes, or seeking out good news, such as on http://www.upworthy.com/. Believing that people are generally trustworthy, fundamentally good, and are doing the best they can, are all correlated with greater happiness
Community Challenge
Resilient Mindset Model: Reconnect to Yourself and Others with Donna Volpitta, EdD ‘94: There are two opportunities to engage on Tuesday 2/20 in community with other Challenge participants (and even those who aren’t signed up!)
5pm Library 201 (geared toward employees)
Parenting these days seems more difficult than ever. Juggling schedules, negotiating priorities
and integrating technology leaves many parents frazzled and confused. This interactive
presentation will share very simple tools to help kids make more mindful, informed decisions.
The best part? The model can be applied to any challenge and any relationship.
7pm Library 150 (general audience)
Do you want to expand your capacity to be in and stay in relationship with others? Are you
looking to increase your awareness of self and connection to others? Come deepen your
understanding of the most powerful tool you already own: your brain! The Resilient Mindset
Model provides a framework for understanding how your brain works, enabling you to make better, more mindful choices to increase presence with yourself, others, your work, and your life.