Mission

Involves being attentive to your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, whether positive or negative. You strive to manage your emotions and stress effectively. This dimension of wellness encompasses dealing with situations realistically, coping with change and loss, and responding to life events resiliently. Emotional wellness encourages balanced decision making, taking responsibility for your actions, and learning how both affect others. It promotes self-awareness, self-respect, and inspires the development of inner strength and ability to adapt.

Involves living a life that is respectful of your surroundings. It is the ability to recognize your personal and communal responsibility for the quality of the air, water, and land that surrounds us. It is important to realize that your daily habits directly impact your ecological footprint. In order to create positive environmental wellness, you must be aware and conscious of the efficient use and protection of our resources.

Additionally, it is your responsibility to create a balanced and inclusive environment where all people, regardless of identity or ability, can thrive and be their best selves.

Involves the process of learning how to successfully manage and budget your expenses. A balanced financial practice involves taking steps to live within your financial means and managing your resources by thinking short and long-term. Taking control of your financial wellness promotes knowledge, independence, responsibility, and awareness for planned and unplanned costs. By creating an understanding of your current and future financial situation, you will be better prepared to handle loans, taxes, debts, and retirement.

The process of attaining intellectual wellness requires you to expand your knowledge and engage in forward, independent thinking. This will involve pursuing creative, mentally stimulating activities. Activities should enhance individual skills and allow you to share your knowledge and experience with others. Intellectual wellness is rooted in discovering opportunities for growth, developing problem solving skills, and overcoming barriers and challenges. It can be advanced through academics, cultural and community involvement, and exploring personal interests. The desire to acquire information and improve skills in pursuit of lifelong learning contributes to your intellectual wellness.

Involves making responsible, positive, and sustainable choices to promote proper care of your body. Your body performs many functions for you in countless ways every day. Sometimes we expect our bodies to complete these tasks without providing the nourishment, support, and rest it needs. When you place more physical demands on your body than it can handle, you increase your likelihood of illness, fatigue, and injury. Being physically well means reducing these risks to optimize overall health and functioning, which can lead to positive psychological benefits.

Involves engaging in the pursuit of knowledge and the skills needed to make informed, balanced decisions about your sexual self. It involves getting regular check-ups, testing for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) if appropriate, and avoiding risky sexual behaviors. Sexual wellness involves the process of accepting your sexual identity, engaging in sexual relationships that are consistent with your values and development, and refraining from using sex to manipulate or influence others. You promote a culture of consent and are able to clearly communicate and express your sexual limits and honor others limits with openness and acceptance, including abstinence.

Involves developing, fostering, and maintaining balanced and supportive relationships based on trust, honesty, and respect. It is understanding how to balance the needs of a relationship and recognizing when a relationship is no longer enriching. You are able to budget and balance your time between commitments and leisure. You consciously choose to utilize effective communication skills to create mutual respect among community members. It is being an ally for others and allowing others to care for you. Social wellness embraces interconnectedness and a genuine appreciation for those around you to create a just and caring community.

Involves the exploration of your sense of meaning and existence in life to then fulfill your purpose. Faith, beliefs, values, morals, and ethics help to shape your personal spirituality. It is through the intentional practice of these attributes that you develop spiritual wellness. Nurturing and strengthening your spirit allows you to persevere in the face of difficulty and overcome obstacles. It creates a sense of peace and grace that can aid you in life’s journey, no matter what your beliefs are. Spiritual wellness provides a lifelong foundation in which we are able to embrace others, promote service, and build community.

Involves the process of building a relationship amongst various substances in your life and reflecting on the role that substances play in society. It involves learning about your own personal values and how you react and respond to situations involving substances. Sometimes this means reflecting on familial history of substance misuse or abuse and sometimes this involves seeking support from professionals. This can include substances such as alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, cannabis, and prescription medication. Substance well-being also includes being well informed on the risks and benefits of various substances and should not be confused for substance misuse or abuse.

In May 2021, we decided to remove Mental Wellness from our logo and replaced it with Emotional Wellness. This was done intentionally. Each area of wellness in our logo contributes to our mental wellness and if we only focus on the outcome (mental wellness) then we lose sight of important factors that contribute. We hope this intentional change will allow us to dive deeper into the topics that impact students on a daily basis and get at the core concerns.