RRC President Stephanie Forsyth, at the 2012 Welcome Party for Immigrant and International Students.

At Red River College, we value a healthy environment and express this through promotion of creativity, wellness, flexibility, safety and sustainable learning. RRC President Stephanie Forsyth is a strong proponent of health, wellness and life balance.

As she did last year, Stephanie recently provided some insight into her personal beliefs, attitudes and activities on the subject.

Who are some of the people in your life that you look up to as Wellness role models?

My partner. She is the epitome of health, placing a high priority on physical fitness, healthy eating and mental health.

Children often act as good wellness role models, due to their ability to play, take on new things, and laugh and enjoy themselves. Are there some lessons or experiences that you can draw from your own childhood, or from being with children when it comes to Wellness?

I have the gift of two elementary-aged children in my life who have been great in keeping me focused on taking time each day for play. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t spend at least 30 minutes playing football, baseball or road hockey, or some other active activity with them.

Wellness is sometimes broken up into physical, mental and spiritual aspects. How do you try to balance these areas in terms of your own personal wellness?

It can be pretty hard to balance and schedule physical, mental and spiritual fitness. My partner and kids remind me of the importance of wellness; I want to be around for the long term – for them and for myself.

I try to stick to a routine of physical fitness by engaging in some physical activity at least 30 minutes to an hour each day; generally that involves doing something with the kids. When we are not out doing a sport, we hit the community centre as a family – my partner and I are in the gym while the kids are in swimming lessons or enjoying the pool.

I also try to avoid the ‘grab and go’ meal approach. I keep a small stock of healthy snacks in my office, and focus on meals that give carbs and sugars a miss.

It’s easy to become stressed in my job, so it’s important to focus on mental and spiritual fitness. For me that comes in the form of talking and connecting with family and friends, and by taking time out for reflective practice – e.g. reviewing the events of the day and thinking about the lessons learned, ways to enhance my performance, as well as acknowledging the things achieved.

To do these jobs, you need to be grounded and have mentors or ‘thought-partners’ you can turn to.

I find that ‘grounding’ in the Indigenous view of the world, the values of which are almost universally held among Indigenous people. These are values of community, relationship, harmony, wholeness, respect, interconnectedness and reciprocity – reciprocity between people and the natural world (the Buddhists might say ‘mindfulness’), and the circular nature of life – the natural cycles that sustain all life.

This Indigenous view was taught to me by Elders and knowledge-keepers through conversations, ceremony and story-telling, and there are particular Indigenous people who have remained my guides and ‘thought-partners’ today.

Some people will seek “creative” activities as part of their Wellness mix, whether this be writing, photography, acting, gardening or storytelling. Are there any creative activities that help you maintain a sense of wellness?

I express my creativity in cooking and gardening. I enjoy cooking with fresh vegetables and herbs from the garden to use in dishes like lettuce wraps, salad rolls and pad thai.

How important do you think it is to set Wellness goals?

It’s very easy to get off track, to let health and wellness priorities fall to the wayside. It’s very easy to not put ourselves first a few times a day or a week.

I have found it important to set small attainable goals – for me that currently means eliminating carbs like bread and pasta from my diet, as well as all sugar (with the exception of course of dark chocolate!) and having meetings while walking about. As I spend most of my day engaged in meetings, either one-on-one or in small groups, I am striving to have more ‘walking and talking’ sessions when I am meeting with someone one-on-one.

Given how busy life is, do you have any strategies for “making time” for Wellness activities as opposed to “taking time”?

I schedule wellness times in my calendar and try to stick to them.

The Wellness Committee at RRC tries to foster a wellness culture on campus through the Wellness blo, and activities like the Wellness Walk-a-thon, the Rebel Run and the Chili Cup. In what ways can the College continue to build upon the Wellness culture on campus?

It’s good to see College staff engage with each other across the organization, as it helps build community and organizational health. Community engagement is critical to the health of an organization. It would be nice to see monthly events held, even informally. These help build awareness and understanding of each other as individuals, not just co-workers.

Building this sense of community is challenging, however, as we sometimes forget that organizations are ‘living’ ‘human systems’, not words or organizational charts on paper. Our emphasis needs to be on people and the relationships that we have to one another. Too often we get focused on tasks and timelines and the end products, and forget that the process of working together is often more important than the end goal. If we focus more on these relationships at work and how we are working together, I believe we will become a more compassionate College, and will exhibit even greater patience, kindness and understanding with one another. Read More →

It’s official, there is now an RRC team registered for the Color Me Rad run/walk on July 21! What is Color Me Rad? The website has a very “colorful” way to describe what it is….basically you run/walk 5km and throughout are attacked with color bombs. Really for no good reason, other than it’s silly and fun!

All proceeds from the race go to Camp Manitou, and everyone is a winner as this is a fun run/walk. Read More →

A Graduation Speech

Anyone who has signed up for DailyGood.org will have come across the Graduation Speech by Nipun Mehta, given at the May 2013 graduation at Harker School in California. If you haven’t read it, it is worth the time it takes to read. It’s inspiring in what seems at first to be a contradictory way. He introduces himself with good news and bad news. The good news is oh so brief while the bad news sounds rather hopeless at first. But Nipun keeps talking and offers some interesting solutions that he calls Keys. If you don’t want to read the whole speech, inspiring though it is, one thing worth looking at is the ServiceSpace web site, something he started about 10 years ago. It is about generosity – as Nipun says while paraphrasing the Dalai Lama, “It is in giving that we receive.”

Greater Good

When I think of personal wellness, just one of the aspects (there are plenty more) that comes to mind is related to feeling helpful and useful to others. For me being helpful doesn’t come only from empathy, it actually is selfish in a way – it feels good, it gives me a purpose, it allows me to believe that my activities and beliefs are meaningful.

If you are interested in the many aspects of living a Meaningful Life, go and explore the Greater Good site. It is chock-full of podcasts, videos, links, and printed information that will inspire, inform, and possibly lead you to even better wellness in your life.

Games, anyone?

There is a new type of game that sounds very intriguing and may well help players feel more connected to the world as a whole. I’ve never been a gamer of any kind but I may become one when I try some of the Games Aiming to Change the World. A couple of the game links just provide information about the game but most of the links take you right to the game where you can take on the challenge if you so choose.

If you look on the right side of the Games Aiming to Change the World page, there are links to related blog posts. Even if you’ve never been an instructor, you’ve been a student of one form or other. The blog post about Priming Your Brain for Academic Success covers some useful ideas whether you’re on the teaching side, the learning side or both sides of the academic world.

Irrational Decision Making

Speaking of how our brains work, apparently this rather important part of our bodies can trick us so well that when we think we are making a rational choice, it is anything but. A Behavioural economist, Dan Ariely, (a very humourous speaker, by the way) gave a TED talk (well, actually he did a study and wrote a book first) about just how irrational our decisions can be and why. Watch the TED talk video, listen to Dan Ariely, and laugh along with the audience. Decide what you think and then wonder if your brain is telling you the truth.

And more about our brains

What is the internet doing to our brains? A short video illustrating an interview with Nicholas Carr, the author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains will let you know (and it might worry you a bit.) The first 15 seconds of the video reminded me of when I first started venturing onto the internet back in the middle ages (Windows 3.1, I think). I remember having a great time looking for information on the internet but was constantly getting lost – as in losing track of what the heck I was looking for in the first place. It was a bit overwhelming. I can vividly remember my fleeting wish that I could just find what I needed in a book. My brain has since adjusted, thank goodness, or maybe not.

Some great reminders from Manitoba Health as we start to enjoy the heat.

Heat affects the body’s ability to regulate its temperature.  The body tries to keep a consistent temperature (about 37 C or 98.6 F) but prolonged exposure to heat can result in conditions such as dehydration, heat exhaustion and heat stroke.  Death can occur if the body’s temperature climbs too high.

High humidity reduces the body’s ability to cope with hot temperatures because less heat can be lost by perspiration.  People with chronic health conditions, older adults, those taking certain medications or people performing strenuous activity, homeless people, infants and young children are at increased risk for heat illness.

Be prepared to cope with the heat and remember to check the weather forecast.

Heat illnesses can be prevented by:

• drinking plenty of water or other liquids before feeling thirsty;
• avoiding too much sun and preventing sunburn;
• planning energetic outdoor activities for cooler parts of the day;
• finding a cool place to go;
• taking a cool bath or shower;
• checking on family members, neighbours and friends when it gets hot, especially older adults and people with chronic conditions;
• not leaving dependents or pets alone in closed vehicles or direct sunlight; and
• limiting alcohol consumption.

Read More →

Yes, we are finally getting some decent weather and we want to spend as much time as possible outdoors.   What’s holding us back?  In Manitoba, blacklegged ticks (deer ticks) may carry the Lyme disease bacteria.  Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that can be transmitted to people through the bite of blacklegged ticks (deer ticks) and western blacklegged ticks.  When a young tick feeds on an infected animal, it picks up a bacterium, normally carried by mice, squirrels, birds and other small animals.  You could show symptoms in three to 30 days if you are the tick’s next meal after it has ingested infected blood.  Health Canada estimates that about 10 per cent of blacklegged ticks in any infected area carry the bacterium which causes Lyme disease.

Adult male, nymph, adult female and larva of blacklegged ticks

Blacklegged ticks exist in three active stages:  Larva, nymph, and adult. Unfed larvae and nymphs are light in colour and very difficult to see.  Unfed adult female blacklegged ticks are approximately 3 to 5 mm in length; and are red and brown in colour.  Adult males are smaller than females and are uniformly brown in colour.

Read More →

Throughout the year, Red River College hands out various awards to faculty and staff for their hard work and dedication. The following are award winners who were recognized at events prior to Friday’s Gathering with the President.

Read More →

Working as a sports official, or referee, is a noisy job. In fact, a recent study suggests that referees who use whistles are more likely to suffer from symptoms of noise-induced hearing loss compared to people in a similar age group in the general population. Whistles commonly used by referees can be as loud as 106 decibels, and science tells us that regular exposure, even briefly, to sounds above 85 decibels can lead to permanent hearing loss. Nearly half of the referees who participated in the survey reported ringing in their ears after a game, which is a symptom of damage to sensitive inner ear sensory cells that can lead to noise-induced hearing loss. The findings were published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene.

Gordon B. Hughes, M.D., program director for clinical trials at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders at the National Institutes of Health, has first-person experience of the perils of loud whistles acting as a referee at club soccer matches. “Everyone on the field needs to hear the whistle, so I would blow it hard,” says Dr. Hughes. “No matter how brief the sound was, it would hurt my ears every time. That’s a warning that the sound is too loud and potentially harmful.”

So what can referees do to protect their hearing? Dr. Hughes suggests using “vented” ear molds. “They are custom-fitted to the ear canal and reduce sound by up to 25 decibels,” he says. “That reduction will let referees perform their duty while protecting their ears all day.”

Whistles aren’t the only things making loud noises at sporting events, however. Cheering fans, marching bands, or other signaling devices such as starter pistols, add to the cacophony. So, whether you’re a professional referee or a spectator, think about wearing hearing protectors to save yourself from hearing damage.

What do you do to protect your hearing? Molded vented plugs do work so you can enjoy the noise and excitment as well as protect your hearing. It is a Win Win!

Health Services

This week on the Monday Mash:

Gardening with Native Plants.  It’s that time of year (finally) when gardens are being planted. If you’re looking for a good selection of native plants, shrubs and trees you can check out Prairie Originals which has a huge selection of potted plants and seeds. Also look at their resources, which includes landscaping tips, links to other local eco-networks, farmer’s markets, and nature photography. There is also a link to the Living Prairie Museum (located on Ness) which sells some plants as well, in addition to providing other resources, workshops and information.

Summer Reading.  Are you looking forward to enjoying a warm summer day sitting back and reading a good book while lazing in a hammock or comfy chair?  If you’re that type of person, consider dropping in to the Library closest to you and see what they have to offer.  One of the more interesting books that I’ve recently read is A History of the World in 100 Objects by Neil MacGregor of the British Museum, which exists as a book and a BBC radio series. This series tracks human history as told through little vignettes on selected objects, making it an easy book to pick up and put down at your leisure.

Discovering Art. The Winnipeg Art Gallery is one of many places that you can drop in to find interesting art.  They currently have a 100 Masters show on that goes until Aug 18. They also have some summer art camps beginning in early July. A couple of other interesting local galleries to consider are Ace Art and if you’re looking for something edgier the Plug In Gallery usually has something to grab your attention.

Summer is fast approaching and with school soon over for children, camp time starts. Whether assisting in a camp or sending your child to a camp you should check if immunizations are up to date! Vaccine preventable diseases are more likely to occur in groups of susceptible children and adults. Illness and severe complications can and do occur from these preventable diseases.

If sending a child to camp:

• Send a signed consent for them to be seen and treated by a health provider;
• Provide your contact number in case you have to be called for any reason; and,
• Send a copy of their immunization record along with any allergies and health instructions.

This helps them receive the attention they may need in as quick a manner as possible.

Camps are a special time for children and some may have health conditions or medications that make them more susceptiple to illness than the average child and they may not even be able to have certain protective vaccines. Feel good that your child is immunized for their protection so they can create an environment that helps others have a fun experience and be protected.

Check here for Manitoba Health information about vaccines and immunization schedules specific for various age groups.

Health Services

Want to get into shape? Want to make a difference? How you approach the later may actually help you to achieve both.

As raising money for charity is becoming increasingly difficult, taking on extreme challenges for charity can both capture potential donors’ attention and drive your motivation to work out like never before. After all, those adrenaline fueled stunts and epic, unforgettable, adventures do demand a certain level of endurance and physical prowess, non?

What can better capture the imagination than a six day multi-terrain race across the great, stony Gobi desert in China? Or perhaps eleven days whitewater rafting down the Zambezi into the depths of Victoria Falls, wrestling with the biggest commercial white water rapids in the world? Read More →