Last winter, we surveyed some UNMC Today readers and asked them how they thought we were doing in terms of publicizing useful information to the campus. Many of those surveyed said they wanted to see more on wellness in the newsletter.
On a separate note, we also noticed that the articles we published about the UNMC 1 Million Step Challenge regularly garnered significant response from the campus.
In response to these developments, we have started “Wellness Wednesday,” a weekly series dedicated to all things wellness.
If you’re like me, the word “wellness” brings to mind exercise and healthy eating. While those are indeed aspects of wellness, the term covers a much broader spectrum.
One description of wellness is that of a person having a general sense of well being.
Jayme Nekuda, director of the employee benefits and work-life programs division in human resources, also serves as UNMC’s wellness manager. She likes to talk about the “five dimensions of wellness” — social, physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional.
To get that sense of well being, she said, people generally need some level of satisfaction in each of these dimensions.
Are we going to talk about exercise and diet? You bet we are.
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Instead, we’re going to talk about going to the dentist.
Kidding. Well, sort of, anyway. Seems to me oral health has a place in this series.
So does art — which brings about a sense of wellness in many people. For others, it’s volunteer activity or intellectual pursuits or social interaction. Heck, even getting out for a baseball game or a movie can help one improve his or her sense of wellness.
If you really think about it, there’s hardly an area of a person’s life that doesn’t fall within the five dimensions of wellness.
And we’d love to hear from you. What do you find helps you get a sense of wellness? What wellness issues would you like to see discussed? Send your ideas and comments to today@unmc.edu and we just may feature them in an upcoming Wellness Wednesday.
So be well and we’ll catch you next Wednesday.