Daily events during Valentine’s Day week promote wellness

Julie Sisler

WKU’s WellU celebrated Valentine’s Day with Love Well Week, a week long event filled with workshops and activities for students.

Daniella Izaguirre, program coordinator for WellU, said the week’s activities are designed to help students gain a better understanding for their own psychological and social wellness.

“The goal is to teach students about the services and programs offered across campus that can aid in their wellness and teach them about psychological wellness,” Izaguirre said.

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Anastasia McAdams, one of the event’s planners, said many aspects are covered by the week’s activities.

“Each Love Well event was thoughtfully developed to encourage a healthy relationship between mind, body and spirit,” McAdams said.

Both McAdams and Izaguirre said Love Well Week speaks to the importance of self-love and self-care. They said the activities focus on how to care for one’s self and those around them. Izaguirre said she hopes that students learned to spend some time focusing on and treating themselves.

“We hope students will learn not only the importance of loving others, but loving themselves,” McAdams said. “Self-love is important for one’s mental health, a topic that doesn’t get talked about enough.”

Each day featured a special activity, oftentimes partnering up with other organizations and resources on campus.

Monday’s event was a social media giveaway. In order to enter, students were asked to write and post motivational quotes on WellU’s Instagram.

Tuesday, WellU partnered with the Counseling and Testing Center for Positivity Day. The Counseling Center offered information, while students participated in activities. Students wrote positive messages to themselves or others, passing along the positivity. WellU handed out carnations to students.

Wednesday’s event was called “Wholesome Wednesday.” The event surrounded healthy eating, featuring advice from a dietician. Students were given free food while the dietician discussed foods that are good for the heart.

On Thursday, Valentine’s Day, Love Well Week hosted partner yoga in the Preston Center. The event featured two yoga instructors teaching partner poses to students. Students could also enter into multiple giveaways.

Friday’s event was Healthy Relationships with Health Education and Promotion. The event covered various subjects, ranging from platonic to romantic relationships. Students were given information on healthy relationship behaviors and how to handle relationships.

Each day, students were given the opportunity to delve into a different part of what it means to love themselves and others.

Though the week’s events only occur the week of Valentine’s Day, Izaguirre said she hopes the activities will remind students to show a little love beyond the holiday.  

“The inspiration came from Valentine’s day,” Izaguirre said. “Wanting to create more programs that can encourage students to give themselves and others a little more love.” 

Features reporter Julie Sisler can be reached at 270-745-6291 and [email protected]. Follow Julie on social media at @julie_sisler.

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