Wellness Week: LIFE lessons with LIFE Board

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Shareen Chahal

Cards with encouraging messages were displayed around campus during Wellness Week. “We all wrote down some kind of encouraging phrases on notecards to put around school,” Sonya Apsey (11) said. “It was really nice to see our advisory bonding over something [we] normally wouldn’t get an opportunity to talk about, and I think Wellness Week gave [us] that opportunity.”

The Living With Intent, Focus and Enthusiasm (LIFE) Board hosted their annual Wellness Week from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2 with activities dedicated to reframing, nutrition, exercise, sleep, relaxation and more to promote mental and physical health.

LIFE Board representatives Reshma Kosaraju (11), Edis Mesic (11) and Gwen Yang (12) spoke at Monday’s school meeting to introduce Wellness Week and Monday’s theme of reframing. They encouraged students to approach problems in new ways and reframe their way of thinking to emphasize wellness and positivity. Assistant Division Head of Upper School Kelly Horan, who also leads the LIFE Board, shared resources regarding reframing in a Schoology post to the Upper School Students group, including two videos and an article. Horan made a daily Schoology post about each wellness theme throughout the week.

“Each day of the week, [the LIFE Board chose] a different theme with decided activities or events associated with that theme,” Reshma said.

Tuesday’s Wellness Week theme focused on sleep, and Horan shared two more videos and an article about the importance of sleep, as well as how members of the upper school community can take steps to improve their quality of sleep.

On Wednesday, students participated in the “single string activity,” during which they wrote uplifting messages on small cards and hung them on strings against the walls in various buildings on campus to increase advisory interaction. Message topics ranged from motivation for final exams to encouragement for college applications as the upper school nears winter break.

“We all wrote down some kind of encouraging phrases on notecards to put around school,” Sonya Apsey (11) said. “It was really nice to see our advisory bonding over something [we] normally wouldn’t get an opportunity to talk about, and I think Wellness Week gave [us] that opportunity.”

Thursday’s theme encompassed nutrition, exercise and health, and the LIFE Board hosted a snack bar in the auxiliary gym after school. Ethan Guan (10) also acted as a DJ for a dance party that took place in the auxiliary gym after school along with the snack bar. The LIFE Board provided more information about nutrition on flyers, and Horan shared an article about study breaks as well as a video about the connection between food and the brain on Schoology.

“I think it was great that we have [Wellness Week] to unite the community a bit and just to consider everybody’s unique perspectives and problems together as a school,” Alisa Grebin (12), who participated in the single string activity, said.

The LIFE Board concluded Wellness Week with a variety of activities outside Manzanita Hall during morning office hours on Friday, such as bracelet-making, origami and pop-its, to help students destress and relax. Horan also shared a Wellness Week reflection form on Schoology for students to fill out and offer feedback on the week’s events.