Are you feeling motivated to invest 5 minutes a day in your own mental health? If so, please join fellow colleagues by participating in a 30 Day Mindfulness Challenge beginning either May 14 or 20.

This online training can be done anytime, anywhere and on any device. The Challenge teaches ‘mindfulness-in-action’ so you don’t need to stop what you’re doing to become calmer, present and more focused, all of which lead to a happier, healthier work environment.

Registration
Click here to register for the Challenge using your preferred email address. During the registration process, you’ll also be asked to input your mobile number and your ‘buddy’s’ email address (everyone in the Challenge gets to take it with a buddy of their choice, including friends or loved ones from outside of RRC).

Prizes
Complete all 30 days of the Challenge by June 25 and be entered to win some fabulous prizes, including one of two Float Calm experiences. Just scan or mail your certificate of completion to Breanna Sawatzky to be entered. If you’ve already started a challenge, jump back in and finish!

Did you miss Geoff Soloway’s RED Forum presentation on the Challenge? No worries, you can watch his recorded webinars.

If you need technical support registering, please email register@mindwellu.com. Your RRC contacts for this are Jacqueline Wood and Breanna Sawatzky.

Image courtesy of the Centre for Innovation in Campus Mental Health

Exam period is a particularly stressful time. Consider these tips so you can take a positive approach to doing well and demonstrating your learning.

1. Exercise. Take some time from your exam preparation to move and be active. Some experts recommend concentrating on your material for approximately 50 minutes, then taking a ten minute break to walk and give your attention a rest.
2. Relax. Maybe you relax my meditating, deep breathing, petting your dog, drawing or getting lost in a good song. Take time each day to this kind of true relaxation.
3. Eat well. Feed your brain with high quality foods that give you energy to do your best. Notice foods that make you feel drowsy or sluggish and avoid those.
4. Recognize your achievements. Remind yourself of your successes over the term, including things you’ve learned and skills you’ve developed. Keeping this positive mindset will help you remain focused.
5. Sleep. It’s tempting to stay up all night, cramming, but sleep allows your memories to consolidate and better prepares you for your exam. Sometimes, you may even dream about the material, which is pretty neat.
6. Reward yourself. If you stick to your study schedule and get some good work done, reward yourself with something that will boost your mood and motivation. Choose your rewards wisely to ensure they don’t derail your schedule and budget!
7. Plan time away. Schedule your breaks to you can enjoy them guilt free, knowing that they are part of your plan. Work hard and rest. Work hard again and rest again. Repeat as needed, keeping that positive cycle going.

These strategies will help you stay on-track and perform your best on upcoming exams. Good luck!

The end of term can be a very stressful period, with students experiencing added pressure to complete projects and perform well on exams. Taking a break to relax can help students cope with this stress so we’re welcoming the St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program to campus. Students will be encouraged to sit with, feel, touch and pet a trained dog, enjoying the relaxing effect this can have on their mind, body, and emotions.

According to St. John Ambulance, the nation-wide program boasts 3,354 volunteer teams who assisted more than 120,000 clients throughout 2015. Therapy dog teams visit hospitals, retirement residences, care facilities, schools and universities.

Therapy dogs have been on campus in the past, and many students have genuinely enjoyed the visits.

Please join us at the following times/locations:

Tuesday, April 23 in the Cave Lounge at NDC, 11:30am-1:00pm

Thursday, April 25 in the Atrium of Roblin Centre, 11:30am-1:00pm

For more information, please contact Breanna Sawatzky at 204-632-2061 or blsawatzky@rrc.ca

On April 16 we hosted the first of two dialogues to help the Mental Health Commission of Canada develop a National Post-Secondary Mental Health Standard.

Students and Employees shared their thoughts about what works well to support student mental health and what institutions can do better. All of our ideas will be forwarded to the technical committee who writes the Standard.

The standard will act as a voluntary process guideline to help Canada’s academic institutions promote and support students’ psychological health and safety, and support students’ success.

Do you want to have your say? A second dialogue will be held Thursday the 18^th from 2-4pm in room A137 of the Notre Dame Campus. Contact Breanna for more information and to register.

On Tuesday, March 26 RRC welcomed Waneek Horn Miller – Mohawk woman, activist, and Olympian – to speak about turning trauma into motivation and reclaiming well-being.

Waneek captivated the audience with stories of her strong mother, embracing her identity, introduction to sport, and resilience in the face of obstacles. She shared lessons learned on her path to becoming captain of the Canadian Olympic water polo team and finding her sense of inner strength.

Her talk was fantastic and is a “must watch” for all students, staff and faculty members interested in resilience, well-being, and truth and reconciliation.

Thanks to the folks at eTV, the recording of her presentation can be found here.

Read more about Waneek here.

You’re invited to attend a lunch and talk featuring Waneek Horn-Miller – Mohawk woman, activist, and Olympian. She’ll be speaking about turning trauma into motivation and reclaiming well-being. All students, staff and faculty are invited to attend.

Date: March 26

Time: Noon – 1:30pm

Location: South Gym

Come early for a free pizza lunch. If you have accessibility needs, please contact Breanna.

ASL interpretation will be provided. If you can’t make it in person, catch the livestream at rrc.ca/streaming.

Throughout her life, Waneek Horn-Miller has always stood up for what was right—as a mother, an activist, an athlete, and an entrepreneur. This has entailed hard choices, pain, and sacrifice. But this commitment has also made her one of Canada’s most inspiring figures.

Horn-Miller’s public life began in 1990 at the age of 14. During the Oka Crisis, she protested the planned development of condos and a golf course on traditional Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) lands and burial grounds near Montreal. After nearly 80 days of stand-off with the RCMP and armed forces, she was stabbed in the chest by a Canadian soldier wielding a bayonet.

This near-death experience marked a turning point in her life. Instead of succumbing to very real traumas, including PTSD, she found the strength to pursue, and achieve, incredible things. “I come from people who have gone through horrific things in history,” she says. “War, death, famine, genocide. How many times did my ancestors want to give up, lay down, and die? But they didn’t. They fought to continue. You have to keep going forward.”

One of Horn-Miller’s greatest achievements has been in athletics. “Sport in the Native world is more than just something to be physically active,” she says. “It’s a suicide preventer. It’s a self-esteem creator. It’s a leadership developer.” She was the first woman to be named Carleton University’s Athlete of the Year, which she won four years in a row. After winning gold with her water polo team at the Pan Am Games in 1999, she became the first Mohawk woman from this country to ever compete in the Olympic games, co-captaining Team Canada in Sydney in 2000. That same year, she appeared on the cover of TIME magazine.

As one of Canada’s few Aboriginal Olympians, Waneek has used her passion and experiences in sport to influence Aboriginal and non-aboriginal leadership towards making Sport and Wellness a community building priority.

RRC’s Healthy Minds Healthy College Initiative, along with the Students’ Association and School of Indigenous Education are so pleased to welcome Waneek.

If you could take a pill that would decrease your stress and anxiety while improving your focus and performance, with no side effects, would you take it? Mindfulness can deliver these results.

Mindfulness has moved from the realm of the obscure to now what is seemingly obvious, becoming the go-to mental fitness approach for enhancing individuals, teams, leaders and organizations.

Learn what mindfulness is, the science behind it, and the practical application in your daily professional and personal life. You’ll also be given an orientation and opportunity to register for the Mindfulness Challenge, an evidence-based online training in mindfulness.

Lunch will be provided and the session will be delivered as a webinar.

This event is accessed by registration only. Seating maximum is 26.  To register, please click here.

Presenter: Geoffrey Soloway, PhD

Kindly advise to Taryn Presley at tpresley@rrc.ca or (204) 632-2484 if you if you have any barriers to accessibility or any dietary restrictions for the lunch no later than Monday, March 4, 2019.

Stay tuned – a 2nd mindfulness webinar and lunch will be taking place on March 12 – watch for this in Staff News!

Brought to you by the Healthy Minds Healthy College initiative and ENGAGE Employee Development

On January 30th, RRC joined others across the country in observing Bell Let’s Talk Day – a campaign dedicated to moving mental health forward in Canada. The strategy is built on four pillars: anti-stigma, improving access to care, supporting world-class research, and leading by example in workplace mental health.

At nine different campus locations, staff and student volunteers served free refreshments, distributed printed mental health resources and invited folks to contribute to a giant art canvas. On the canvas, people shared words of encouragement or supportive images to encourage someone who may be struggling with mental health difficulties.

STTC

We know that each year 1 in 5 Canadians will experience a mental health problem. While over the course of our entire lifespan, nearly half of us will. Unfortunately, despite this prevalence, judgmental and prejudiced attitudes about mental illness abound, causing many to struggle in silence, feeling shame, embarrassment, or guilt that compounds their distress.

Winkler Campus

We envision a community where mental health problems are accepted as a part of the human experience; where people can speak openly about these, receiving appropriate health care and community support.

Notre Dame Campus

In addition to the Bell Let’s Talk Day activities, the RRCSA participated in the Students Let’s Act campaign – a national advocacy effort, lobbying the Federal Government to devote more resources to post-secondary student mental health supports.

Steinbach Campus

Portage la Prairie Campus

On February 14th RRC hosted an Anxiety Forum featuring local Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Jason Ediger. Thanks to the eTV crew, we have a recording available here.  Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services provided ASL interpretation, which is also featured in the recording.

Dr. Ediger spoke about Anxiety in a college context and helped us understand worry, panic attacks, performance anxiety, social fears, and more. He provided helpful tips and introduced coping techniques that so many can benefit from.

Additional thanks to the Manitoba Psychological Society and Dr. Ediger for offering this public education at RRC.

If you think the services of a Psychologist could help you reach your goals, you’ll be pleased to know that these services are covered under RRC’s Student and Employee Benefit plans. You can use an online directory to find a Psychologist near you.

Further information and resources about anxiety can be found at the Anxiety Disorders Association of Manitoba.

February is Psychology Month; a time when Psychologists engage the public, educating us on how psychology works to help people live healthy and happy lives. (Canadian Psychology Association)

To celebrate Psychology Month, the Manitoba Psychological Society has organized a variety of educational seminars for the public on a wide variety of psychology-related topics. RRC is fortunate to be hosting two such events. We’ve called them “Anxiety Forums.”

Each forum will include a talk by a prominent Psychologist as well as audience Q & A. Free pizza lunch is provided during both forums!

What is Anxiety?

According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of Manitoba (ADAM), everyone experiences anxiety from time to time. It’s completely normal and can even be helpful. For example, if you’re anxious about an upcoming test, your anxiety can motivate you to study well. However, anxiety can sometimes become severe and negatively affect your life. If your anxiety has reached this point, you may have an anxiety disorder.

Here at RRC we see many students who are experiencing problems with anxiety. These problems affect academic success and overall well-being.

Anxiety Forum Details

During the two forums, the speakers will share helpful coping strategies related to managing anxiety in a College setting. Although the primary target audience is students, staff and faculty will no doubt benefit from the material presented and discussion to follow.

Registration is not required. All are welcome.

EDC: Tuesday, February 12th, noon-1pm in the Great West Life Lecture Theatre with Dr. Elizabeth Hebert

NDC: Thursday, February 14th, noon-1pm in the Black Lecture Theatre with Dr. Jason Ediger

The NDC forum will also be recorded and streamed by eTV for the benefit of regional campuses.

Follow the link below to view the Anxiety Forum live streaming presentation: rrc.ca/etv/streaming/

Click on the ‘Live Stream’ image to play. No username or password is required. The stream will go live shortly before the presentation begins.

During the live presentation, you are encouraged to ask questions or add comments. To do so, please click on the “word bubble” icon found on the bottom right of the player. Please include your name, email address (if you require a follow-up response), and a subject heading.

Note: You can also use the “word bubble” to report any technical issues.

More About the Presenters

Dr. Jason Ediger, C. Psych.

Dr. Ediger has a special interest in blending cognitive behaviour therapy with mindfulness based approaches to change and coping. His practice focuses on anxiety, mood difficulties, chronic pain and health concerns in adults and adolescents. He has extensive experience with disability claims and return to work issues. Read his full bio here.

Dr. Elizabeth Hebert

Dr. Elizabeth Hebert is a psychologist in the Department of Clinical Health Psychology and an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba. She received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. Her research focuses on anxiety and worry and the factors that drive them, including difficulty tolerating uncertainty in daily life. Dr. Hebert is the psychologist for the Shared Care Program in Winnipeg. Her clinical work focuses on primary care settings, and includes evidence-based psychological treatments for anxiety, mood, and ADHD; psychodiagnostic and cognitive assessments; and interdisciplinary consultation.