A Well-Being Fair was put on at the University of Northern BC Tuesday with a focus on the physical and mental well-being of students ahead of finals.
Activities included yoga, crafts, and pet-a-puppy, as students look to take a minute for themselves and de-stress.
One booth set up was by the Prince George branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association. Manager of Education and Projects Mary Lu Spagrud was available to speak on mental health and ways to take care your own mental health.
“It’s really important for people to just get out of your heads for a moment. There are lots of stresses depending on what year you’re in, do I have a summer job, am I going to graduate, all of those types of things,” Spagrud says, before moving on to saying sometimes the littlest things can help the most.
“We always talk about just taking a few moments and just disconnect for a minute. I know for myself there are a couple comedians that I often follow on Facebook for if I need a moment or a chuckle.”
Oftentimes students can let stress build up so it’s important, Spagrud says, for parents to try and help take some stress off. It can be something as simple as talking.
“We usually start discussions with ‘how was your day’, and then depending what we get back we start asking some very pointed questions so ‘anything you’re struggling with’ and ‘any going really well’,” explains Spagrud.
“We also want to focus on those things that have gone really well and get a balance of both.”
Spagrud stresses the importance of balancing mental health with physical and social health because it can sometimes be easy to overlook one or the other, and as Spagrud says, “You can’t have health without mental health”.