This week on the Monday Mash we have another set of fantastic Wellness-related links to share with you.

• For those who love internet-radio here’s a couple of links for you.  CBC Music is a fantastic resource for Canadian music of all kinds – where you can listen live to CBC radio, find your favourite Canadian artist, or stream music from one of their online channels.
• If you’re into infotainment then Radiolab is what you need – such as this recent podcast about Stress (courtesy of my good friend Steve Page).
• If obscure art, literature, and popular culture is your thing, Maria Popova curates a fantastic blog called Brain Pickings.  If you’re not sure where to start, here is her list of 7 Must-Read books on the Art and Science of Happiness.
• Fort Whyte Centre has their 14^th Annual EcoAdventure Race on Sunday, April 21^st.   I’ve never participated, but it sure looks like an adventure, for the adventurous.

If you have a link or a photo that you’d like to share send an email to mkrywy@rrc.ca and we’ll include it in a future “Mash” edition.

This week marks the debut of the Monday Mash – a weekly list of Wellness-related links that caught our eye.

• Happy 40^th birthday to the Winnipeg Folk Festival! The lineup has been announced and tickets are on sale. The Festival is now five days long – running from July 10^th to the 14^th
• Here’s the ulitmate culinary companion – a recipe for Folk Festival Cookies that I found in the WFP archives. Five star rating.
• If migrating birds is your thing check out some of the bird watching events (and more) at Nature Manitoba as well as their birding resource page.
• Youth and Adult Soccer seasons are also set to begin. If you find yourself on the sidelines here’s some coaching resources that might help you out. Coaching Soccer 101 and the Manitoba Soccer Association.
• Ashley Blackman shared this post from Science Daily about the dangers of Second-Hand Smoke and linkages to Heart Disease.
• Melanie Bowen, a blogger for the Mesothelioma Cancer Blog Alliance has several interesting posts on the benefits of nutrition and exercise to help those who are battling cancer.

If you have a link or a photo that you’d like to share send an email to mkrywy@rrc.ca and we’ll include it in a future “Mash” edition.

Note: This post originally appeared on the Know Your Numbers blog)

The Staff Survey is used to help support the People Plan and a variety of other stakeholders from across the College – including the Wellness Committee (see the FAQs about the Staff Survey post for more info).

Before wading into the data, I should disclose that I have been a member of the Wellness Committee since December 2008 and recently became a co-chair over the past year.  So while I’m presenting the data-driven side of the story, many of the insights are drawn from having applied these findings as part of the Committee’s activities.

The Road Map

The staff survey was first used to gather wellness-related feedback back in February 2009, and it has been used many times since to explore and understand a variety of topics including:

• Understanding how staff define “Wellness” and “being healthy”,
• Identifying and prioritizing the strategies that the Wellness Committee should pursue,
• Gauging the types of wellness activities that people currently participate in and those which they’d like to do more of,
• Conducting market research on the effectiveness of Wellness events and activities – such as the Chili Cup and the Wellness blog,
• Developing some baseline measures to gauge people’s personal sense of wellness and the social/environmental conditions that could potentially improve it.

Part 1 is going to tackle the first two items on the list.

What constitutes wellness?

As a starting point, the Wellness Committee wanted to get a better understanding of how staff define “being healthy” to see whether there was a dominant definition to help guide the committee’s activities. Not surprisingly, the definitions of “being healthy” covered a broad spectrum of ideas – including physical health, recreation and athletics; mental and emotional health and stress relief; and spiritual well-being.

Read More →

Here are a two ways to Get a Mental Health Break

1. Exercise Regularly:  In Exercise and Mental Health, the Mental Health Foundation (UK) lists some benefits of exercise:

• Less tension, stress and mental fatigue
• A natural energy boost
• Improved sleep
• A sense of achievement
• Focus in life and motivation
• Less anger or frustration
• A healthy appetite
• Better social life
• Having fun

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) agrees.

2. The CMHA says in Balancing Your Life, “Take a five-minute vacation – Each day, set aside five minutes for a mental health break.  Close your office door or go into another room, and day-dream about a place, person or idea, or think about nothing at all! You will feel like you have been on a mini-vacation.”

Using a podcast such as “Mindfulness – 10 Minute Practice Exercise” can help with “getting away”. When you come back to your work; you may find you have better clarity and perspective.

I have a confession to make: I LOVE chips! Potato chips, corn chips, you name it – if they’re coated in colourful saltiness and have that satisfying crunch, I’m all in. In fact, for full disclosure here on the Wellness blog, I love chips a little too much! I try to resist their temptation, but when I do give in, it’s quite the episode. Let me admit, dear fans of health and wellness, that it’s actually quite Cookie-Monster-esque: crumbs flying everywhere, eyes bulging, and a few “om nom nom nom” sounds to boot! Yes, as much as I long to be the vision of health, I do have my vices.

If you recall the old Lay’s potato chips ads, Karim Abdul-Jabbar challenged us with the slogan, “Betcha can’t eat just one.”

Sadly, this is not a challenge I would even consider entertaining. I know full well I can not and will not try to eat just one chip . . in fact, sometimes I feel I can’t even eat just one bag!

Read More →

Winter is almost…probably…possibly… over. Retrospectively, one of the things that kept me going through the many months of winter has been my love of sitting around a winter bonfire.  So here is my ode to the fantastic combination of fire and ice, forever entwined in my list of the top five things to love about winter bonfires.

5. Outdoor Cuisine – Coming in at number five is the culinary delight of cooking on an outdoor fire. I know for many people, this would be much higher on the list. In fact, it probably merits a post of its own – best bonfire recipes ever!!!  However, I’m usually a bit lame when it comes to outdoor cooking, opting for unwellness foods like hotdogs and marshmallows (alas, I’m not perfect).  As an aside, I actually think that the way someone cooks marshmallows says a lot about their personality.  I am a slow roasting, brown around the outside, non-charcoal kind of person.  I believe this reflects a certain meticulous maturity when it comes to cooking this gourmet desert. However, when I was younger, I was a lot more like my son is now – a “stick it in the flame and watch it burn like a torch” kind of person.

4. Functionality – Fire can have many uses, first on the list being heat and light.  Let’s face it, winter is cold.  Sometimes very very very cold. Standing around a fire with some sort of windbreak can make even the most frigid nights quite warm.

Read More →

The much younger version of myself would have scoffed to think I would one day become a proponent of “the workout”. The way I saw it, working out was exactly what the terminology indicated – work! Why on earth, I argued, would any self-respecting lady put on those ugly sweatpants and tie up her well-coifed hairdo just to spend an hour of torture in the gym? The gym – ugh, a place synonymous with panting, gasping, sweating and turning red and blotchy. And for what? Those hundred calories burned on the exercise bike (the only machine I thought my clumsiness could handle) was only a fraction of what I’d consume later with my family-size bag of Doritos in front of the TV.

Read More →

“there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he’s had the pleasure to have known“
                                                                Lennon-McCartney

Turn on your audio before you click play to hear Allison Crowe’s cover of In My Life, and see if you are one of the many heads that have given me pleasure over the years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JejuYwigu14

I don’t listen to the Beatles that much anymore, but I stumbled upon Penny Lane in my iTunes library while going through photos of some of my RRC connections over the years. What could be more appropriate? And what could be more freaky than hearing Penny Lane again in SuperStore the very next day? 20 years without hearing a song and then it pops up twice in 24 hours? Clearly a sign. So I went back to my pictures and started counting. 100 faces I could put a name to, never mind all the mugs with no handles! I was amazed. Read More →

The LGBTT* Initiative at Red River College is now accepting nominations to fill the eight positions on its established LGBTT* Initiative Steering Committee for the period of July 2013 to June 2015.

The LGBTT* Initiative at Red River College fosters the development of a safe environment on our campuses so everyone has the chance to work, learn and access services in an inclusive and welcoming manner. The LGBTT* Initiative provides educational opportunities and resources to build communication, understanding and respect for diversity throughout the College. This is an initiative for all Red River College students, staff and faculty.

The purpose of the Steering Committee is to provide input and guidance on activities for the LGBTT* Initiative. Members will participate by sharing information regarding emerging needs and issues across the College campuses, and considering strategic enhancements that could further the LGBTT* Initiative educational impact at Red River College.

A diverse representation at the Steering Committee guarantees the access to a varied of views according to different campuses, professional areas, roles at the College, etc.

Responsibilities:

• Attend regularly scheduled in-person meetings (generally every 2 months).
• Give feedback on policy, direction, and strategic planning of the LGBTT* Initiative.
• Strategize effective ways to increase the LGBTT* Initiative visibility, organizational outreach and educational impact within Red River College.
• Liaise the LGBTT* Initiative with external organizations and community representatives.

Requirements:

• Steering Committee members must be Red River College faculty members, administrative staff, students and/or graduates.
• Steering Committee members must be LGBTT* Allies (screening of a DVD recording of an Ally Training is available).
• Willingness to support and advocate for LGBTT* individuals, and for the LGBTT* Initiative within Red River College and in the community at large.

If you are interested in nominating an individual or yourself for the committee, please provide:

• One page statement of interest from the nominee, including description of role and involvement at Red River College and in the community.
• Nominations must be submitted by Friday, April 5 at 3:00 pm to nsobel@rrc.ca.

For more information or any questions, please contact Nora Sobel, Diversity Initiatives Coordinator at nsobel@rrc.ca or 204.632.2404.

The next Ally Trainings at Red River College are confirmed for Friday, May 10 (The Roblin Centre) and Monday, May 13 (Notre Dame Campus).

If you are staff or faculty and you are interested and available to attend one of these sessions, please visit https://hub.rrc.ca/facultydevelopment/default.aspx and register for the session you will attend.

If you are a student and you would like to register for one of the sessions, please e-mail to nsobel@rrc.ca, indicating which day you are interested on attending.

Deadline for registration is April 30.

The trainings are organized by the College LGBTT* Initiative that provides educational opportunities and resources to build communication, understanding and respect for diversity throughout the College.

The LGBTT* Initiative appreciates the ongoing support of the Ally Project provided by Rainbow Resource Centre.