Wellness week is a week-long celebration of all things wellness. We are hoping to make everyone in the Sacred Heart community aware of the importance of caring for themselves, especially as school and outside commitments become more intense. During this entire week, the Upper School will be hearing presentations from people about different aspects of well-being. For example, students will be hearing about coping with stress, developing a growth mindset, nutrition, meditation, and yoga.
Why is it important to have wellness week?
The Sacred Heart community is one hardworking group of people. The students at Sacred Heart have many demands placed on them; school, sports, extracurricular activities. As things become busier, it can be easy to neglect the importance of taking care of yourself. Sometimes it starts small, i.e. skipping a meal, staying up later, but these behaviors can easily become habits that increase stress levels. If we are overly stressed for too long, we can wind up feeling exhausted and unmotivated, and even get sick. My hope is that wellness week will be the start of a year-long effort to take good care of our minds and bodies!
What’s a small change that we can make every day to improve our health?
What a great question. I believe that if we can make change slowly, we are more likely to keep it up in the long run. I suggest committing to at least 10 minutes each day (we all have 10 minutes) where we are completely engaged in something that makes us smile. Ideally, we would spend more than 10 minutes! It could be something simple like doing exercise, calling a friend we haven’t spoken to in a while, writing down a list of everything we are thankful for, cooking a healthy meal, or watching a funny video. Especially on tougher days, it can really help to know that you will have time that you have dedicated to something that makes you happy. Over time, this adds up to a happier and more balanced you.
The King Street Chronicle thanks School Psychologist Dr. Melissa Otero for her contributions to “Humans of Sacred Heart.”
Photo by Juliette Guice, Managing Editor and Video Content Editor
– Compiled by Nadia Zuaiter, Social Media Content Editor and Co-Podcast Editor and Juliette Guice, Managing Editor and Video Content Editor