#peerfacilitators

[umnpfacscarolyn-blog]

PFacs Planning Thoughts

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned about wellbeing?

Recently I’ve learned a lot a lot a lot.. a lot... a lot about well-being and how there are so many factors to it. The two biggest things I’ve been working on are doing things that make me really happy and at peace with myself and focusing on being proactive with things that I know stress me out. For example; I allowed myself to go home with my boyfriend this weekend, something I would never normally do because I’d be too worried about all the things that I’m not working on or putting off. I found, however, that I had such a great weekend and I was so happy that I’m in a way better state of mind to allow myself to work on everything in a way better mood and frame of mind. Letting myself focus on me and my happiness is a positive feedback practice because it influences other areas of my life positively. For being proactive about myself, I’ve been forcing myself to get non-homework tasks done between classes and it’s been fantastic for my sense of productivity, which also helps lower my stress levels.

How can you share that learning?

To share these wonderful new things I’ve learned, I’ve been helping my roommates and classmates to realize that 1.) they deserve to take care of themselves, like, we work. very. hard. and 2.) they are allowed to take small breaks or shift their focus for a bit because it can help them a ton. I try to give my friends examples to help them see how beneficial it is to really focus on themselves for a little bit.

[umnpfacscarolyn-blog]

October Event Reflection

The October event went really well; we were expecting it to fall apart to a degree because we felt really unprepared for it in terms of the supplies we had but the RD, CDC and Noelle really came through for us. We weren’t expecting many students to show up since we were unaware of how much advertising had happened but we were pleasantly surprised when residents not only showered up, but came early! They said that they found out through their CA’s so we’re assuming that the CA’s emailed hem and they may have also seen the poster in the lobby. The residents seemed really excited for their Bailey Hall t-shirts and they also enjoyed the cupcakes, snacks and movie.

The cupcakes and t-shirts were definitely the hit of the night since they went so well, but the actual incentivizing of the t-shirts was a bit mismatched because we didn’t have enough resources and groups/involvement planning for the event. It was encouraging, however, to hear residents discussing different groups that they were in and inviting each other to events.

If I were to give advice to future PFacs it would definitely be to plan for every possible thing that could happen in case there are no supplies or all the supplies just because it is very reassuring to have a backup plan. I would also say to plan t have multiple things/activities occurring because it can be hard to tell what people are really going to enjoy so if there are multiple activities then it is likely that residents will find something they enjoy.

My building partner, Karin, is absolutely awesome because we complement each other other so well and had a pretty good handle of things in terms of facilitating the actual event. I would say the only constructive criticism I could give her would to focus on staying calm during the event because she did seem a little nervous or anxious during it.