ScarletWell Wellness Resources

The physical dimension of wellness involves the maintenance of a healthy body, good physical health habits, good nutrition and exercise, and obtaining needed health care.

Wellness Self-Care: Physical

A reminder of the keystone habits to support physical wellness. 

Download the Resource on Physical Wellness

Student Basic Needs

• Rutgers–New Brunswick students access essential resources on-campus and in the surrounding community to ensure basic needs are met related to food security, housing, transportation, childcare, mental health, and emergency aid.

Pause and Breathe

• Relaxation techniques: Breath control helps quell errant stress response
• National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health: Meditation In Depth
• The role for mindfulness in public health
• A short pause throughout the day can give you a new outlook. Download the Resource on Taking a Pause

Move

• Try walking just 10 minutes 3 times/day for 3 days out of each week.
• Moving more may help you control weight, lower your risk of heart disease, and lengthen your life.
• Walking and moving more can help improve your mood and reduce symptoms of depression.
• Learn more about the value of yoga.
• Resources for walking
  
  
  • Walking fact sheet (Program to Achieve Wellness, SAMHSA.gov)
  • Regular walking can help ease depression (Scientific American)
  • What's Your Move? - Infographic that lists the benefits of activity.
  • 5 Easy Ways to Add Movement to Your Day - Infographic that lists 5 easy ways to move throughout the day.
  • Tips for making movement a habit. Download the Resource on Movement

Violence Prevention and Victim Assistance

• If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, dating violence, or stalking, speak with a confidential advocate:
   - for Rutgers–New Brunswick students
   - for RBHS students

The intellectual dimension of wellness involves lifelong learning, applying what you learned, and sharing what you have learned.

Wellness Self-Care: Intellectual

Activities that use creative abilities and expand knowledge.

Download the Resource on Intellectual Wellness

Mental Activities

• Activities that provide emotional and intellectual enrichment
• Learn habits for cultivating good mental health
• Check out this list of 12 Ways to Keep Your Brain Young
• Challenge yourself by completing a Free Daily Crossword
• Read about the Five Ways Reading Can Improve Health and Well-Being

Intellectual Discussions

• Learn about ways to Disagree with Respect
• These Conversation Starters are specific to Chicago, but can be modified for your area

Build Knowledge

• This list of tips can help you Search the Internet Effectively
• This list of tips can help you Find Accurate Information on the Internet

Build Skills

Develop team, critical, creative, systematic and thinking skills for professional success.

• Check out the variety of free courses from Skillshare
• Check out more free courses from Coursera

Emotional wellness involves the ability and skills to express feelings, enjoy life, adjust to emotional challenges, cope with stress, and recover from traumatic life experiences. Emotional wellness centers on understanding and managing emotions, coping with stress, building resilience, and fostering positive mental health.

Wellness Self-Care: Emotional

Ability to express feelings, engage in enjoyable activities and adjust to daily stress

Download the Resource on Emotional Wellness

Skills for Achieving Emotional Wellness

Featuring a talk by Rutgers Psychologist Shireen Rizvi, PhD, this video from the Mental Health and Wellness Week Chancellor-Provost Lecture Series offers insights into becoming improving your overall emotional wellness.

Watch the Lecture

Mental Health Moments

The "Mental Health Moments" video series provides deep insights on a variety of topics related to mental health.

Take a Mental Health Moment

DBT Skills from Experts

A playlist of 5-minute or less videos on developing dialectal behavior therapy (DBT) skills on mindfulness, distress tolerance, and emotional regulation.

View the DBT Skills Playlist

Financial wellness involves the ability to have enough money to meet practical needs and a sense of control over and knowledge about personal finances.

Wellness Self-Care: Financial

A resource for building awareness of your current and future financial situation.

Download the Resource on Financial Wellness

Building Financial Wellness helps you recognize what triggers spending, how using credit leads to debt, and ways to cope with challenging feelings about money. You can learn to set attainable financial goals to increase sense of control over personal finances.  

Many free smartphone apps are funded through advertisements or require payment to access certain features, so check app reviews before downloading.  Be cautious when using or signing up for web-based apps, especially if they require you to register.  You can learn more about security when using apps from the website for the U. S. Federal Trade Commission.

Social wellness involves having relationships with friends, family, and the community, and having an interest in and concern for the needs of others.

Wellness Self-Care: Social

A resource on ways to create and sustain supportive relationships

Download the Resource on Social Wellness

Health Promotion and Peer Education

• Through Health Outreach, Promotion and Education (HOPE) Rutgers–New Brunswick students gain the tools to advocate for personal and community wellness through workshops, peer education programs, and wellness coaching.

Reach Out and Connect with Someone

• Learn why connecting with others is so important for physical and emotional wellness
• One 2 One 2 Care - A peer support program that involves training of faculty, healthcare professionals and learners so they can offer individual support to colleagues who are stressed or distressed.
• CIRCLE - The CIRCLE Peer Talk and CIRCLE Peer Text groups are discussion groups that allow peers to connect with fellow peers, to discuss what it means to be “well at work” as well as other issues that we might not ordinarily address during day-to-day work.
• CIRCLE Talk and Text Groups Webinar - This recorded webinar is an orientation for new participants and describes how this group peer support program for healthcare professionals works.
• Talk to a friend or supporter—social support relieves stress and can even keep you healthy.
• Hug a pet! Spending time with animals can be calming and make you feel less alone. Taking care of a pet can give you a sense of purpose.
• Spend time around other people in your community.
  • Brooks et al. (2018): The power of support from companion animals…
  • How social support contributes to psychological health
  • Find local groups focused on your interests. You can search for various types of groups on https://www.meetup.com
  • Get to know your neighborhood. Search by your address (you do have to submit your email address) at https://nextdoor.com/
  • Find a volunteer opportunity on the United Way website (click on “volunteer”)
  • Visit your local animal shelter or human society to help out and make some furry friends

Spiritual wellness involves having meaning and purpose and a sense of balance and peace.

Wellness Self-Care: Spiritual Wellness

Learn more about activities that enrich a sense of purpose and meaning each day.

Download the Resource on Spiritual Wellness

Personal Values

• Identify your core values and use them when making a decision with this worksheet
• This practice for Affirming Your Values can be a support on a difficult day
• Clarify your key values and use them when setting personal goals and making action plans

Quiet Reflection

• This list of simple mindfulness techniques can help you get started
• If you are interested in meditating, check out these free guided meditations
• NYAPRS has shared a free library of recorded mindfulness sessions

Finding Purpose

• This self-discovery worksheet can help you explore your values, goals, and life purpose
• The practice of Ikigai can help you find your purpose and discover how your goals intersect

A Positive Attitude

• These prompts for journaling can help you sort through emotions, especially if you feel depressed
• End your day with positive Nighttime Affirmations

Occupational wellness involves participating in activities that provide meaning and purpose, including employment.

Wellness Self-Care: Occupational Wellness

Learn more about tips on how to plan activities that provide meaning and purpose.

Download the Resource on Occupational Wellness

Work Environment

• It’s easier to get your work done if you Organize Your Workspace
• This tip sheet offers recommendations for employers to encourage employee input
• This article lists ways organizations can support staff wellness
• This brief video interview with Tait Shanafelt, MD, Chief Wellness Officer, Stanford School of Medicine emphasizes the importance of supportive culture of wellness.
• Checklist to identify components of a wellness initiative at your organization.
• A 15-min survey to assess staff well-being at work, with instructions for use and scoring.
• This document lists questions an organization can use to measure and monitor staff well-being.
• Check You, Check Two - This simple infographic is a reminder to check in with yourself and your co-workers every day.
• How to Support a Colleague - This article has tips to support a healthcare colleague who experienced or witnessed a traumatic event.

Productivity

• For ideas on how to keep to a to-do list, check out this Stanford Skills Sheet
• Try out this easy and colorful Daily To-Do List Template
• This list of Strategies for Time Management can help you budget your time wisely

Job Satisfaction

• Take this quiz to rate your Happiness at Work
• There are ways to Make Work More Rewarding if you are dissatisfied with your job
• Using a Gratitude Journal to reflect on what’s going well can boost your mood and life satisfaction
• To help identify signs of burnout, track your mood with this Daily Mood Chart
• Using a Mood Diary tracks your emotions and what’s going on that may contribute to how you feel

Work-Life Balance

• This infographic on Work-Life Balance includes tips for employers and employees
• If you’re having a tough time at work, use this Values Affirmation Exercise to reflect on your experience
• If you are considering a change in your life, use this worksheet for Values-Based Decision Making
• This web resource helps professionals facilitate brief self-care sessions with their peers and colleagues. Includes a plan for each session, with details to guide the facilitator.
• Three Rules for Work-Life Balance - In this video, behavioral scientist Ashley Whillans shares practical steps for setting work-life boundaries.
• Self-Care Guide for Professionals - This guide outlines simple self-care practices that can help you feel more balanced. The practices include taking time to Pause and Unplug, Breathe, Mindful Movement, Nourishing your mind and body and strategies for creating a restful Sleep.

Occupational Goals

• Imagine a Positive Future to boost your optimism and clarify your goals
• Use this Goal-Setting Worksheet from MIT to refine your work goals
• MIT also offers Guidance for Setting Goals
• This Life Crafting Exercise is designed to help you clarify your life goals

Planning Your Time

• This Weekly Calendar Template can be helpful in planning or tracking your week’s activities
• Walking Meetings 101 - This fact sheet includes tips for incorporating moving meetings into your regular meeting schedule.
• 5 Tips for Dealing with Meeting Overload - In this video, Cindy Solomon shares her five tips for clearing up your schedule and getting your calendar to work for you, not against you.

Stress Management 

• This fact sheet provides employers examples of work stressors and what can be done to design healthier jobs
• This fact sheet provides employers with information about the costs of job stress and offers tips for creating a healthier workplace
• In this video, Dr. Eean Crawford at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa highlights the early signs of burnout, the toll on individuals and the workplace, potential causes, and employer solutions.
• In this video, Dr. John Howard, MD, MPH, JD, LLM, Director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health discusses the causes and impact of job stress, and employer solutions.
• This brief video interview with Christine Sinsky, MD, Vice President of Professional Satisfaction, American Medical Association emphasizes selecting unique strategies to address burnout that match the organization.
• This compendium includes measures for healthcare worker burnout, causes, and financial impacts.
• Mindfulness at Work - This article describes five tips for building mindfulness into your workday to reduce stress.
• Yoga at Your Desk - This 10-minute yoga video introduces moves you can do at your desk to feel flexible and grounded at work.
• Reduce Job Stress - This website has a list of articles and guides on job stress including this guide titled “An Introduction to Job Stress."
• Quick Guide to Beating Burnout - This interactive Quick Guide can help you explore 5 strategies to beat burnout.

Environmental wellness involves being and feeling physically safe, in safe and clean surroundings, and being able to access clean air, food, and water. Consider where you live, like your neighborhood, community or workplace, as well as your country and planet.

Wellness Self-Care: Environmental Wellness

Learn more about how to seek places and spaces that are safe, pleasant and either calming or stimulating as needed.

Download the Resource on Environmental Wellness Scarlet Arts Rx Walking Map