Healthy Workplace Month Blog

Wellness@Work is running a pilot program with Up and Running Guelph that we will be calling “Walks for Well-being” that will launch in October, during Healthy Workplace Month and run for 6 weeks. 

This Fall, join in a weekly yoga practice with the U of G Yoga and Meditation Collective. 

U of G Yoga and Meditation Collective's new FALL semester Yoga Practice continues with New Programming and the addition of the NEW Yin Yoga class on Monday at 8 PM and an In-Person Classical Yoga class on Thursday at Noon. Let’s clear our minds with the breath, strengthen our bodies with movement, and ease into some beautiful Fall semester yoga poses.   

With 1 in 5 students at U of G experiencing food insecurity, you can do your part to help end student food insecurity by visiting Wellness@Work on October 31st in the UC Courtyard between 10:30am and 3:30pm to donate a non-perishable item. All donations will go to the Guelph Student Food Bank to support our U of G students. 

The Wellness@Work Programming Committee is challenging you to a new Gratitude BINGO game for Healthy Workplace Month. 

Download the bingo card to participate in the Wellness@Work Gratitude BINGO challenge throughout the month of October.  Everyone who participates will be entered into a draw for a prize!   

All you need to do is print the bingo card and mark off squares as you complete them.

Benefits to Gratitude

The Ergonomics Program at the University of Guelph aims to assist faculty and staff to work safely.  Ergonomics applies scientific theory, principles and methods to explore the relationships between the worker job tasks and the workplace.  Ergonomics removes barriers to quality, productivity, and safe human performance by fitting products (equipment), tasks and environments to people.

It is no surprise that time spent in nature reduces stress and promotes wellness. Mathew White and his colleagues conducted a study with almost 20 000 participants and found that spending 2 hours a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Whether this is time spent alone or with family, the Arboretum has a variety of options to engage with nature.

This can include: 

As Jon Kabat-Zinn says, “The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” Little moments can change the tone of your whole day.

The University of Guelph 2021 United Way Campaign will help make our community a better place to live by contributing to 50 different agencies and 72 different programs in Guelph Wellington Dufferin.  The United Way invests in five Impact Areas - Connected Kids, Adequate Basic Needs, Supports for Seniors, Sense of Belonging and Positive Mental Health.  Please join us and show your local love. Last year - in the middle of a pandemic, no less - you amazed us all by raising more than $537,000 to support United Way-funded charities.

What is Gratitude?

To many of us gratitude can be saying “thank you” to someone to show appreciation for a gift we are given or when we have been helped. Gratitude is not just an action; it is also an emotion and when gratitude becomes intentional and habitual it can result in longer lasting positivity.

Gratitude can also look like: