Holistic Health

New group advocates promotes healthy lifestyle

Tired, stressed-out, and worn-down students now have access to the basic skills of surviving college. The Counseling Center is offering a new group called Holistic Health.

The group is aimed at teaching students the skills to effectively manage their time and energy, the group’s goal is to ensure the best, most rewarding college experience as well as to advocate a holistic healthy lifestyle.

The six basic skills discussed at Holistic Health include time management, stress management, sleeping habits, relaxation, tools for coping, and self-care, as well as general health and wellness basics. Each topic is discussed separately and the topics cycle continuously each week throughout the semester, so students can attend whatever discussion would be most beneficial.

The group meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon in the Bobcat Dining Room of the Dining Hall.

“Holistic Health is a group, but it’s not set up in a typical group fashion. We don’t sit around and talk about our problems,” said Counseling Services Counselor Andrea Gaston. “I see this really being something we have to offer, somewhere students can come to try new things.”

The topics that students generally struggle most with tend to be stress and time management, sleeping habits, and relaxation, and Gaston offers practical advice for handling these issues.

“For general advice, basically take care of yourself. Are you eating, exercising, and sleeping? Then address what’s left,” Gaston said.

To deal with stress, for example, Gaston suggests simply taking a break–not a break from one assignment to another, but a break to another activity entirely. Take a walk, take a nap, or visit a friend. Maintaining social connections is an important part of stress management.

Counseling Center Director Mary Jane Phillips recommends exercise as the best way to help manage stress. She says, people are designed to have physical reactions to stress. Such physical reactions, fight-or-flight response, release stress chemicals in the body. But because the kinds of stressors that we face today don’t usually require that fight-or-flight response, those stress chemicals can accumulate in the body and cause problems.

“We know, for example, that stress chemicals can interfere with concentration, memory formation, and immune responses, among other things. What exercise does is use up some of those excess chemicals so we aren’t as likely to have problems like that,” Phillips said.

To use time more effectively, Gaston suggests simply taking an inventory of how much time is spent doing what. Get a planner, start with the big stuff like classes, meals, exercise, and sleep, then add the extras where there is time.

“I know I spend too much time wasting time, so keeping better track of where my day goes could be extremely helpful,” said junior art major Katie Graham.

Suggestions for better sleeping habits include setting up a routine before going to bed, going to sleep and waking up at the same times, and establishing a schedule.

For relaxation, Gaston suggests techniques like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation or guided meditation.

“I could see how something as simple as a deep breathing exercise could really help me relax on a day like a Monday,” said freshman marketing major Chloe Frew.

A truly healthy lifestyle balances all the topics discussed at Holistic Health, and developing good self-care habits now will be most rewarding later in life.

Posted by Caitlin Renn on Feb 17 2011. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.