This week on the Monday Mash we share some great links on music, memory, and the martial arts.

• Aikido turns conflict on its head. I’ve been fascinated by Aikido for years but have never followed my fascination into a class. The last session exercise classes here at RRC didn’t offer the Ki-Aikido classes that were offered previously and I was kicking myself for not taking the classes sooner. And since I hadn’t learned any form of Aikido yet I didn’t know how to redirect my kick and flow around it.
• If you really pay attention. This is a completely lovely story about paying attention. If you read it you can be warmed by a memory-story about learning to listen with the heart.
• SoundCloud. The SoundCloud website is an online audio distribution platform that allows collaboration, promotion and distribution of audio recordings by users. [wikipedia]. You have to sign up so that means another darn password to remember. But it’s free (or you can choose to go the paid subscription route) and you can find treasures to listen to! Or upload your own sounds, music and stories. There seem to be new audio files of all kinds uploaded every day. If you are a listener you will never run out of wonder. If you are a sound maker you will have an enormous audience.
• Virtual Choir. I had no idea I was a fan of choral music until I heard and saw Eric Whitacre’s virtual choir version of Lux Aurumque. The virtual choir concept and what Eric Whitacre has done with it is stunning and fascinating all by itself. He describes how it all started and how the process developed in this TED.com talk. You can find performances of choir music he has composed and conducted, some with virtual choirs on YouTube.  I started with Lux Aurumque and continued exploring from there. Transcending is the word that floats into my brain when I think of this music.

If you have a link or a photo that you’d like to share send an email to mkrywy@rrc.ca and we’ll try to include it in a future “Mash” edition.

This year’s seeding began on April 5^th, 2013.   The lessons began in the 1940s in Lowe Farm, MB.  My Dad, Jack, learned the simple gardening lifestyle from his mom.  Jack carried this lifestyle to The Pas, where gardening was a part of our family’s spring to fall ritual.

Gather at this blog to get a glimpse into simply gardening.  The methods, tools, practices and tips are humble and very unpretentious and sometimes just plain amusing.  You’ll never look at a milk carton the same way again or throw out a pair of worn or torn panty-hose.

I’d love to hear your stories for simply gardening.  A wish would be to provide each other with things such as:  simple practice tips, a take-away (or rather give-away), a vegetarian recipe and a fun enhancement:  photo, song, ‘how to,’ upscaling or recycling tip or Wpg gardening connection.

Today’s Learning Moment on Starting Tomato Seeds

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We’ve added a touch of green to this edition of the Monday Mash. Here are another set of fantastic Wellness-related links to help inspire you this week.

• Have you ever wondered how a movement gets started, like Find The Cure, Earth Hour, Free The Children or others? I have always found it interesting how “a seed” – one person’s actions – can create a movement and ultimately change how we do things. Enjoy “Lessons from Dancing Guy” – a short but telling video about leadership and how one person’s courage can spark a movement.
• Tired of all those negative news-stories? If you’re like me, I am looking for positive, heart-warming stories… something to help inspire and start my day with a smile:). Check out Happy News a site dedicated to only happy news stories from around the globe.
• Earth Day is April 22. A great way to practice wellness is to spend a day outside; take a hike, listen to the geese trumpeting over-head, or watch for signs of spring. Check out Fort Whyte Centre’s Earth Day celebration on Sunday April 21 and spend some time in the great outdoors.
• Have you heard of Fresh Option Organics? They are an organic grocery delivery service right here in Winnipeg. You can get fresh, local, and organic wholesome foods delivered right to your door.

If you have a link or a photo that you’d like to share send an email to mkrywy@rrc.ca and we’ll include it in a future “Mash” edition.

This week on the Monday Mash we have another set of fantastic Wellness-related links to share with you.

• For those who love internet-radio here’s a couple of links for you.  CBC Music is a fantastic resource for Canadian music of all kinds – where you can listen live to CBC radio, find your favourite Canadian artist, or stream music from one of their online channels.
• If you’re into infotainment then Radiolab is what you need – such as this recent podcast about Stress (courtesy of my good friend Steve Page).
• If obscure art, literature, and popular culture is your thing, Maria Popova curates a fantastic blog called Brain Pickings.  If you’re not sure where to start, here is her list of 7 Must-Read books on the Art and Science of Happiness.
• Fort Whyte Centre has their 14^th Annual EcoAdventure Race on Sunday, April 21^st.   I’ve never participated, but it sure looks like an adventure, for the adventurous.

If you have a link or a photo that you’d like to share send an email to mkrywy@rrc.ca and we’ll include it in a future “Mash” edition.

This week marks the debut of the Monday Mash – a weekly list of Wellness-related links that caught our eye.

• Happy 40^th birthday to the Winnipeg Folk Festival! The lineup has been announced and tickets are on sale. The Festival is now five days long – running from July 10^th to the 14^th
• Here’s the ulitmate culinary companion – a recipe for Folk Festival Cookies that I found in the WFP archives. Five star rating.
• If migrating birds is your thing check out some of the bird watching events (and more) at Nature Manitoba as well as their birding resource page.
• Youth and Adult Soccer seasons are also set to begin. If you find yourself on the sidelines here’s some coaching resources that might help you out. Coaching Soccer 101 and the Manitoba Soccer Association.
• Ashley Blackman shared this post from Science Daily about the dangers of Second-Hand Smoke and linkages to Heart Disease.
• Melanie Bowen, a blogger for the Mesothelioma Cancer Blog Alliance has several interesting posts on the benefits of nutrition and exercise to help those who are battling cancer.

If you have a link or a photo that you’d like to share send an email to mkrywy@rrc.ca and we’ll include it in a future “Mash” edition.

Note: This post originally appeared on the Know Your Numbers blog)

The Staff Survey is used to help support the People Plan and a variety of other stakeholders from across the College – including the Wellness Committee (see the FAQs about the Staff Survey post for more info).

Before wading into the data, I should disclose that I have been a member of the Wellness Committee since December 2008 and recently became a co-chair over the past year.  So while I’m presenting the data-driven side of the story, many of the insights are drawn from having applied these findings as part of the Committee’s activities.

The Road Map

The staff survey was first used to gather wellness-related feedback back in February 2009, and it has been used many times since to explore and understand a variety of topics including:

• Understanding how staff define “Wellness” and “being healthy”,
• Identifying and prioritizing the strategies that the Wellness Committee should pursue,
• Gauging the types of wellness activities that people currently participate in and those which they’d like to do more of,
• Conducting market research on the effectiveness of Wellness events and activities – such as the Chili Cup and the Wellness blog,
• Developing some baseline measures to gauge people’s personal sense of wellness and the social/environmental conditions that could potentially improve it.

Part 1 is going to tackle the first two items on the list.

What constitutes wellness?

As a starting point, the Wellness Committee wanted to get a better understanding of how staff define “being healthy” to see whether there was a dominant definition to help guide the committee’s activities. Not surprisingly, the definitions of “being healthy” covered a broad spectrum of ideas – including physical health, recreation and athletics; mental and emotional health and stress relief; and spiritual well-being.

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Here are a two ways to Get a Mental Health Break

1. Exercise Regularly:  In Exercise and Mental Health, the Mental Health Foundation (UK) lists some benefits of exercise:

• Less tension, stress and mental fatigue
• A natural energy boost
• Improved sleep
• A sense of achievement
• Focus in life and motivation
• Less anger or frustration
• A healthy appetite
• Better social life
• Having fun

The Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) agrees.

2. The CMHA says in Balancing Your Life, “Take a five-minute vacation – Each day, set aside five minutes for a mental health break.  Close your office door or go into another room, and day-dream about a place, person or idea, or think about nothing at all! You will feel like you have been on a mini-vacation.”

Using a podcast such as “Mindfulness – 10 Minute Practice Exercise” can help with “getting away”. When you come back to your work; you may find you have better clarity and perspective.

I have a confession to make: I LOVE chips! Potato chips, corn chips, you name it – if they’re coated in colourful saltiness and have that satisfying crunch, I’m all in. In fact, for full disclosure here on the Wellness blog, I love chips a little too much! I try to resist their temptation, but when I do give in, it’s quite the episode. Let me admit, dear fans of health and wellness, that it’s actually quite Cookie-Monster-esque: crumbs flying everywhere, eyes bulging, and a few “om nom nom nom” sounds to boot! Yes, as much as I long to be the vision of health, I do have my vices.

If you recall the old Lay’s potato chips ads, Karim Abdul-Jabbar challenged us with the slogan, “Betcha can’t eat just one.”

Sadly, this is not a challenge I would even consider entertaining. I know full well I can not and will not try to eat just one chip . . in fact, sometimes I feel I can’t even eat just one bag!

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Winter is almost…probably…possibly… over. Retrospectively, one of the things that kept me going through the many months of winter has been my love of sitting around a winter bonfire.  So here is my ode to the fantastic combination of fire and ice, forever entwined in my list of the top five things to love about winter bonfires.

5. Outdoor Cuisine – Coming in at number five is the culinary delight of cooking on an outdoor fire. I know for many people, this would be much higher on the list. In fact, it probably merits a post of its own – best bonfire recipes ever!!!  However, I’m usually a bit lame when it comes to outdoor cooking, opting for unwellness foods like hotdogs and marshmallows (alas, I’m not perfect).  As an aside, I actually think that the way someone cooks marshmallows says a lot about their personality.  I am a slow roasting, brown around the outside, non-charcoal kind of person.  I believe this reflects a certain meticulous maturity when it comes to cooking this gourmet desert. However, when I was younger, I was a lot more like my son is now – a “stick it in the flame and watch it burn like a torch” kind of person.

4. Functionality – Fire can have many uses, first on the list being heat and light.  Let’s face it, winter is cold.  Sometimes very very very cold. Standing around a fire with some sort of windbreak can make even the most frigid nights quite warm.

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The much younger version of myself would have scoffed to think I would one day become a proponent of “the workout”. The way I saw it, working out was exactly what the terminology indicated – work! Why on earth, I argued, would any self-respecting lady put on those ugly sweatpants and tie up her well-coifed hairdo just to spend an hour of torture in the gym? The gym – ugh, a place synonymous with panting, gasping, sweating and turning red and blotchy. And for what? Those hundred calories burned on the exercise bike (the only machine I thought my clumsiness could handle) was only a fraction of what I’d consume later with my family-size bag of Doritos in front of the TV.

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