By Anne Marie Coar
Staff Writer
The new year is well under way, and Marywood is offering several programs to promote physical and psychological health and well-being in 2009.
On Thursday, February 19, Marywood University will hold its seventh annual “Celebrate Your Body Wellness Fair.” It will begin at 11:00 a.m. and conclude at 2:00 p.m. in the Fireplace Lounge of Nazareth Student Center.
The fair is an interactive program which focuses on promoting health, fitness, and positive body image. Different booths will provide information on nutrition, personal health care, physical fitness, core training, positive body image, massages, sleep, adult ADHD, and scans of the spine and nervous system.
Marywood’s Counseling/ Student Development Center and Peers on Wellness are sponsoring the event. Several other university departments and clubs are also involved in the “Celebrate Your Body Wellness Fair.” They include S.O.U.L. (Students Organized to Uphold Life), the Physician’s Assistant Program, the Marywood Library, Chartwell’s Dining, the Human Performance Lab, Marywood’s Athletic and Recreation and Nutrition and Dietetics departments.
National Eating Disorders Awareness Week also occurs in February. As part of the “Celebrate Your Body Wellness Fair,” some of Marywood’s nutrition students will discuss healthy eating practices. There will also be pamphlets and other educational materials promoting good nutrition and positive body image. Additionally, participants can undergo eating attitude screenings.
Other community organizations are also participating in the program, such as Yesavage Chiropractic Services, UNO GYM, Inner Harmony, McCann Massage School, and the American Lung Association. Dietitian Janet Milner, RD will also be involved in the event.
Coordinator of the “Celebrate Your Body Wellness Fair” Ms. Marlee Stefanelli encourages students to come to the event. “It is an opportunity for students to spend some time appreciating and celebrating all their bodies do and can do,” she said. “We are bombarded with negative messages about our bodies on a daily basis, so this is a chance to experience positive messages about our bodies and overall wellness. This fair is unique in that it provides information on a wide variety of ways to enhance health and well-being.”
There will also be free food and giveaways. Everyone in the Marywood community is invited to attend.
Earlier this month, on Thursday, February 5, Marywood held another wellness event, the second annual Anxiety Screening Day, which was open to both the Marywood community and the general public. Participants took free, confidential, and anonymous anxiety screening tests. In addition, people had the opportunity to learn about stress and anxiety.
APA’s Stress in America Survey shows more than fifty percent of Americans have felt heightened amounts of stress in the past five years. And half of these people have recognized that stress has negatively affected their physical and psychological well-being.
Many of those surveyed experienced anger, irritability, nervousness, and depressed interests, energy, and motivation. These, along with headaches, tense muscles, fatigue, and difficulty sleeping, are some of the common physical and psychological symptoms of stress.
Other resources were available, which helped show participants the difference between normal anxiety and GAD (Generalized Anxiety Disorder).
Marywood’s Psychological Services Center will offer a depression screening in the fall, and another anxiety screening is scheduled for the next school season.
Ms. Courtney Tibbetts from the Psychological Services Center encourages everyone to participate in these programs: “It is an opportunity to learn a little about yourself and find out what resources are available if you need help.”