All Health Breaks Loose

November 1

Short on time?

As always, if you are rushed, please drop down below the hash marks (###) to #2C and read the rest later.  

What is this?

As the bookend to your TGIF (or POETS Day for our St. Andrews Possums), All Health Breaks Loose (AHBL) is your award-winning, healthful Monday news blast from the university’s Office of Health Promotion located on the wonderfully updated ground floor of the McLeod Tyler Wellness Center at 240 Gooch Drive. Reach out and ask us for help and support.

_______

Mental Wellness Statement:

Please don’t forget our free online cognitive-behavioral therapy for our faculty, staff, and students aka SilverCloud, and the national crisis help line at 800.273.8255 can provide support as well (to all the Veterans out there, please remember that Option 1 is just for you). If you are unable or unwilling to communicate orally, you can text the word HOME to 741741.

Y para mis zarigüeyas que hablan español…

Lifeline ofrece 24/7, gratuito servicios en español, no es necesario hablar ingles si usted necesita ayuda. Cuando usted llama al número 888.628.9454, su llamada se dirige al centro de ayuda de nuestra red disponible más cercano. Tenemos actualmente 170 centros en la red y usted hablará probablemente con uno situado en su zona. Cada centro funciona en forma independiente y tiene su propio personal calificado. Cuando el centro contesta su llamada, usted estará hablando con una persona que le escuchará, le hará preguntas y hará todo lo que esté a su alcance para ayudarle.

WTF:

Ways to Flourish is a podcast series from the Virtual Wellness Center folx here at William & Mary. Intended to fill the time it takes to move from your car to work, or your residence hall to class, they serve as an amuse bouche once a week. You can find all past and current episodes here!

 ###

 Good afternoon, Possums! Here are your Five to Feel Alive for Election Week (to see all the healthy offerings for this week and beyond, click here to access the Wellness Events Listings!) I am offering a 45-minute workshop next Wednesday at 5 PM in Studio B entitled Coping with College as Your Current Career. I’ve attached a “save the date” card, but you’ll need to register. More info soon.

1.    Fall back without fail.

Because sleep cycles are 90 minutes and the time change is only 60 minutes, a difference in bedtime or wake-up time ANY TIME can be disruptive for you. If you don’t plan, you could wake up groggy for several days – well into the next work/school week.

·         Avoid coffee and alcohol as you approach this Sunday, especially in the evenings.

·         Try to maintain your meals and routine up until dinner on Saturday.

·         On Sunday, keep your hourly routine according to the new times to help set your circadian rhythms. Fuel and train well, so that you are tired and ready for bed Sunday night – and for the nights to follow. 

 2.    Learn your ABC’s (of Wellness)

The W&M ABCs (based on Martin Seligman’s PERMA – which I can’t recall) come with a generous side order of wellness, aka Flourishing.

 a.    Achievement – learn to find small successes even in times when you feel things are far from 100% successful. It’s perfectly human to make mistakes, so to err is human perfection awesome.

b.    Boldness – dare to be vulnerable, to create brave spaces as well as safe ones, and to lead with a value other than fear.

c.    Cruciality – choose activities and relationships that have meaning and purpose for you. Remember too: you have a very specific meaning and purpose – the universe is better, because YOU are here in it.

d.    Deliberately positive relationships – surround yourself with positive people and divorce yourself from those negative people around you.

e.    Engagement – reduce or eliminate distractions; find activities, relationships (including with your sweetheart), courses, and a career that keep you in the “Here & Now”…so much so that you feel that time is suspended.

f.     Flourishing in 8D – the website says it so well (with additional links).

  3.    Your current mask may be scarier than Jason’s (or any other Halloween mask)!
Just in case you need a mask reminder, or perhaps somebody in your suite or cubicle jungle might, please see the CDC webpage on masks by clicking here.

 Remember too: with the rain and wet weather we experience here in the fall, a wet mask is not necessarily a safe one. Your mask should be clean, dry, and fir comfortably over your mouth and nose. 

 4.    Speaking of masks, that is some great pumpkin, Charlie Brown.
Pumpkins are far more than a porch decoration or a leitmotiv in a Charles Schultz cartoon where children trick-or-treat to the mellow sounds of smooth jazz. These gourds can be a wonderful addition to your sweet or savory menu.

 Though the canned pumpkin on your shelf is most likely Dickinson Squash (yes, and that white chocolate bar is probably not from chocolate at all), it is loaded with beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A), vitamins C and E, fiber, folate, and iron. These are all useful in combatting colds, flu, and SARS-CoV-2; if you eat enough pumpkin in a short period, you will look wonderfully orange for that holiday trip to Loompaland in December.

 In my grown-up “Lunchable” box, I will mix equal parts of canned pumpkin with either applesauce or mashed banana for a pumpkin pudding. You can also roast peeled and sliced sugar pumpkin (look for a nice 3 pounder) with some julienned onions, salt, pepper, cayenne, and brown sugar for a savory side. In my house, I make pumpkin chili, pumpkin soup (paired with a salad for a winter meal), and even pumpkin mac and cheese (thanks to friend and colleague, Dr. Warrenetta Mann). My grandmother would blend some canned pumpkin into our vanilla milk shakes with a dash of pumpkin pie spice on top.

 So now that we are past the month of carving up a pumpkin like a plastic surgeon to Joan Rivers’ face (oy, what a simile!), please savor the flavor, texture, color, and nutrition of this wonderful vegetable.      

 5.    It’s never too late to start a budget.
The internet is loaded with money-saving advice, and it is up to you to find something that works for just you, especially if you have never started or if you are not happy with how things are going.

 If you haven’t found a website or other resource yet, here is one that came recommended by two students and a staff member. Please realize that many websites contain affiliate links, so be aware of that before you click on the links within that article.  

### 
Until next week, Possums!

May we all live in Peace…and may Peace live in all of us.

Eric

###
Eric Marlowe Garrison, MAEd ‘94, MSc (London), CSC-S, ACS
Assistant Director: Health Promotion at William & Mary

Diplomate: London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Fellow: Royal Society for Public Health
Chair: Certification Steering Committee of AASECT
Outgoing Chair: Virginia Campus Task Force to Prevent Sexual Assault

 
Pronouns: he/him/his
 
T: 757.221.7369
E: Eric.Garrison@wm.edu
 
Office: McLeod Tyler 160
 
Mail:
Post Office Box 8795
Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
 
My office is a SafeZone for individuals, regardless of their ability, age, belief system, citizenship, color, ethnicity, gender (by expectation, expression, identity, and role), hair texture, race, sex, sexual orientation, size, or socio-economic status.