MarComm staff to observe Wellness Wednesday

Today marks the first day of what Chancellor Haefner designated Wellness Wednesdays, in which he asked the entire DU community to protect these afternoons each week during December to “intentionally commit to care for our mental wellbeing.”

In addition to “no meeting” afternoons, he also suggested opportunities to set aside time during the day to step away and participate in stress-relieving activities, such as walking, yoga, meditation, etc.

In addition to having a block of focused meeting-free work time, in their own words, here are some of the ways MarComm staff plan to spend their first Wellness Wednesday—

“I plan to enjoy a few meeting-free hours, where I can focus on the mountain of flagged emails and action items that have been building up. If I can squeeze in a walk around the block, even better.”

“Walk my dogs.”

“Practice mindfulness and a quick workout.”

“Long session of heated yoga.”

“…catch up on the news. Maybe try to research some chess strategy.”

“By riding on my new Peloton bike around lunchtime and taking my dog for a walk.”

And lastly, my favorite response, which captures the essence of the Chancellor’s ­­­thoughts on how the community can build stress relief into our processes says, “I’m not sure exactly what I will be doing yet, but I know it won’t be sitting and it won’t involve Zoom. Time to unplug, get up and move!”

Beginning today, I plan to schedule a recurring meeting on my personal calendar every Wednesday at noon to do anything that doesn’t involve a computer.