In the second in-person University Assembly meeting of the semester, President Martha Pollack joined to discuss on University finances, wages, mental health and new swimming pool facilities.
It’s a simple message, but an old and important one. And as we begin our middle-of-the-week weekend — a phenomenon really only relevant to our current moment in time — we celebrate the theme of “wellness.” What better way is there to work on our own wellness but by trying something new? At Cornell, we often find ourselves stuck in the same ruts: promising to catch up on work, having the same worries, falling into the same habits and finishing the weekend in the same place we started. With the pressures of classes, jobs and extracurriculars, it can be difficult to try new things.This is especially true now. Because of the pandemic, it feels harder than ever to meet new people, make new connections, or do things outside your comfort zone — or, at the very least, outside of what we’re used to.
With this year being one of the few academic years without a spring break in Cornell’s history, the news has elicited mixed emotions from students of all classes.
The more passionate about health & wellness you are, the more familiar you might be with the delicate balancing act of chasing self-improvement and finding pure self-acceptance. I love eating in a way that makes me feel good from a holistic perspective and I know that minimizing grains, dairy and processed sugar helps with that. I also love chocolate. I love these cookies. They’re as “indulgent” and delicious as any.
“I’m not accepting what I can’t change, I’m changing what I can’t accept,” activist and entrepreneur Sonya Renee Taylor said Sept. 20, at a Body Positive Cornell event, a University initiative striving to help Cornellians lead a healthy lifestyle that doesn’t focus on weight. “Our society tells us that we should be able to lose weight and keep it off, and always promises this or that diet as the solution,” Jennie Bernstein, Body Positive outreach coordinator at Cornell Health, told The Sun. The resulting detrimental effects including stigmatization of heavier weights and harmful behavior like “weight cycling,” the practice of losing and gaining weight repeatedly. Instead, Bernstein believes that taking the emphasis off weight and instead focusing on “improving health and lifestyle behaviors” is a better attitude towards our bodies and life in general, as weight doesn’t have a direct connection to health conditions.
The Student Assembly Health and Wellness Committee successfully expanded its Wind-Down Zones initiatives during orientation weekend, helping students enjoy the night safely and welcoming first-years and transfer students to Cornell.
Housing, community and well-being were among the key areas that Leading Cornell, a leadership program for Cornell employees, identified as the most pressing areas of concern for those employed by the University at Wednesday’s Employee Assembly.
From improving cooking skills to learning how to knit, about 200 Cornell staff in the Johnson Graduate School of Management participated in a series of wellness workshops over the break to practice self-care.
The design organization Design Collect has been selected to help implement a new wellness trail in Seneca County to improve the quality of life and safety for employees.