We all need feel good activities to get through exams or particularly busy periods in the office. At our amazing University in Wellington, staff and students alike have been working hard and feeling the onset of the Southern hemisphere winter. It is therefore heartening to see supportive initiatives to ensure we stay healthy and take breaks. Victoria University has just had its wellbeing week offering an exciting variety of wellbeing related activities such as free hot drinks and giveaways, a wellbeing quiz and lunchtime basketball. Students’ Union President, Sonya Clark, is organising puppies to visit the campus shortly. They are teaming up with the SPCA to bring puppies in for a day during study leave next month. Victoria Plus students and some keen staff like myself braved the wild wind and planted 1800 trees on Te Ahumairangi Hill, Wadestown for an initiative organised between the University and Wellington City Council. It was a great way to contribute to environmental and personal wellbeing.

So over the next few weeks of lectures and exams or busy workplace schedules, ensure you take a break, get up, go out, get involved and go places with friends. In this blog “Are You Pushing Yourself Too Hard? 5 Signs of Self-Induced Stress” from the Huffington Post, you can consider that when the pressure starts pouring on, instead of pushing, you can choose to pause.

In the context of all that, also make sure you study smart and get the best grades you can! Good luck.

Original photo by mjtmail (flickr)