Find your Flow: celebrating a lifestyle of onward, upward, and inward, challenges students during J-term to think deeply about all forms of health, including workout classes and introductory sessions on lesser known ways to increase your wellbeing.
Junior Biology and Spanish Major Hanna Engebretson has planned and executed many aspects for “Find your Flow” through her passion for being healthy and inspiring others to do so as well. She took her experiences of having excess time during J-term and decided to create a positive way for students to spend their time during this month.
“I was thinking about J-term and how you have so much time during the day, so I wanted to create a month of events that gave students something to do with their time,” Engebretson said.
“Find Your Flow” is much more than becoming physically healthy. It challenges students to think about a variety of forms of being healthy. Meghan Krause, Director of Wellbeing, added on to Engebretson’s ideas of physical wellbeing to create an even more well-rounded experience for students.
“The biggest factor in our wellbeing is the ability to attend to ourselves. The purpose is to give people tools that they can use to help themselves.”—Meghan Krause
“J-term is a great opportunity for the entire Gustavus community to take time to reflect and ask good questions and explore what is important as individuals and as a community,” Krause said.
“Find Your Flow” offers skill power workshops that take place many nights of the week. These are opportunities to hear from various leaders on campus regarding certain areas of well-being.
Skill power workshops included a variety of topics, such as “How to Create a Life” with Neal Hagberg and “How to Tap Your Passion for a Cause” with Amy Pehrson. Next week’s speakers include, “How to Deepen your Friendships” with Lisa Rinehart, “How to Connect with Nature” with Professor Pam Kittelson, and several others.
“We tried to make it well-rounded so it appeals to a wide variety of students,” Engebretson said.
Twenty minute “blissiplines” are opportunities to explore lesser known aspects of health, such as acupuncture, aromatherapy, and meditation. Krause leads these informational sessions.
“The biggest factor in our wellbeing is the ability to attend to ourselves. The purpose is to give people tools that they can use to help themselves,” Krause said.
Other month-long events included a book club discussing Charles Duhigg’s “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business.” The “Find Your Flow” Instagram challenge took place, asking students to submit photos regarding a word of the day.
Sophomore Rachel Hain has been taking full advantage of the opportunities through “Find Your Flow.” She tried out most of the workout classes offered by Engebretson and has been to several of the speakers as well.
“It’s something so many people struggle with when they don’t have a community to talk about it with or learn how to discover health.”—Hanna Engebretson
“I am interested in well-being and I don’t have a lot of commitments during J-term. It gave me a scheduled opportunity to explore some different ways of working out,” Hain said.
She recognizes the importance of wellbeing and realizes that for a lot of Gustavus students, it is not a priority. Meetings, homework, and Netflix can often get in the way of paying attention to wellbeing.
“We get caught up in life and don’t pay attention to ourselves. This is an opportunity during a time where we might not have much to do, so people can take advantage of it,” Hain said.
“Find Your Flow” has provided an environment for learning about health and encouraging discussion about the wide variety of ways to increase your wellbeing. Engebretson recognizes the difficulty in working on wellbeing on one’s own.
“It’s something so many people struggle with when they don’t have a community to talk about it with or learn how to discover health. So that’s what I wanted to create — something with unity that would bring people together,” Engebretson said.
For more information on how to take advantage of “Find Your Flow,” stop by the Wellbeing office. Classes, speakers, and other sessions similar to those that took place this month will be offered during Spring semester for those who didn’t have a chance this month or want to continue to improve their wellbeing.
-Laura Isdahl