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achievement

Wellbeing Winners

Wellbeing Winners

By Marlene Dong on October 4, 2019

Congratulations to Patty Hambler (Health Promotion & Education) and Barbara Hsiao (Faculty of Land and Food Systems) on being the recipients of the 2019 President’s Staff Awards for Wellbeing. On October 2, they received their awards at a special reception held at Norman McKenzie House.

The Wellbeing category was incorporated to the President’s Staff Awards last year in recognition of the important role faculty and staff play in promoting workplace health. The award celebrates individuals and teams that create opportunities for others to thrive at UBC: from leading activities and initiatives that promote social, physical and/or mental health and wellbeing, to inspiring community members to care for themselves and each other.

“Always above and beyond”

For the past 20 years, Patty Hambler, Director of Health Promotion & Education, has pursued opportunities to improve the health and wellbeing of the UBC community, with particular emphasis on the student experience.

Her leadership in embedding health in all aspects of campus culture has played a role in changing the university’s policies and practices regarding student mental health and wellbeing. One of the many examples of her work was the creation of the Mental Health Awareness Club in 2010, a student-led initiative that is currently UBC’s largest mental health promotion club.

Furthermore, Patty was the driving force behind the development of the Peer Programs, which enable student volunteers to enhance campus wellbeing. She also led the creation of the Mental Health Needs Assessment, a project involving a multidisciplinary team of faculty and students.

“Patty’s inspiring leadership and vibrant demeanour has been an inspiration to each of us,” says Steven J. Barnes, Michael Lee, Karen Smith and Judy Chan, members of the team that nominated Patty for the Wellbeing award. “We were all separately drawn to Patty’s leadership and effort in bringing about change in policy and practice related to student mental health and wellbeing.”

In 2008, Patty partnered with Human Resources to promote a thriving UBC community. This collaboration led to Thrive, UBC’s first campus-wide mental health initiative.

For her coworkers Kelly White and Diana Jung, this effort demonstrates how Patty values collaboration. They note: “[It] laid a significant foundation for important and sustained partnerships between units and portfolios across UBC working towards the wellbeing of the campus community.”

“Unfailing support”

Barbara Hsiao is a trusted advisor to many in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems. Her dedication has defined the workplace culture, where faculty and staff thrive in a harmonious environment and can feel satisfied with their careers and work.

With a distributed workforce of over 110 people at UBC Vancouver, on farms, in research fields, and at the Dairy Education and Research Centre in Agassiz, BC, Barbara has created a positive culture that reaches every staff member.

“As the first person many people meet when they join the faculty, Barbara does an outstanding job of showcasing our workplace culture right from the start,” says Dean Rickey Yada. “Every day, she demonstrates how to create an environment that is inclusive, appreciative and values wellbeing of its employees.”

Barbara is also regarded for bringing people together through many initiatives, such as fundraising for the Heart & Stroke Foundation’s Big Bike event. In addition, she organizes professional development activities for staff to learn something new and bond with colleagues.

“These events encourage relationships to form through greater team-building and trust,” notes Director of Marketing and Communications Karen Lee, who was responsible for Barbara’s nomination to the award. “Coming to work doesn’t just mean doing work; we are encouraged to enjoy our time here at UBC with colleagues. And we do!”

Tell us how you thrive

Do you know a colleague or team that’s championing health and wellbeing at UBC? Contact us to learn how they might be featured in a future Thriving Campus or Thriving Faculty story.

Photos: Paul Joseph, UBC Brand & Marketing

Posted in Healthy UBC Initiatives, Information Update, Thriving Campus | Tagged achievement, celebration, heath, president's staff awards, recognition, Santa Ono, Support, UBC, wellbeing | Leave a response

Pleasure Takes Practice

Pleasure Takes Practice

By Melissa Lafrance on May 2, 2019

Guest contribution by Dr. Thara Vayali

Pleasure is associated with many different things. It can occur beneath the sheets, at the finish of a difficult project or with devotional work. Occasionally, pleasure is associated with hedonism, the unrelenting pursuit of self-indulgence.

More often, pleasure is associated with instant gratification, but it’s important to differentiate between the two. The body and mind don’t have to exert much effort to achieve instant gratification; the reward is small, and the chemicals that signal pleasure are fleeting. Pleasure itself, however, is simpler: it’s a mental or physical sensation of joy and has longer-lasting effects in the body. The sensation of pleasure is the result of a well-deserved “win” in the context of feeling safe and calm. For example, finishing a race at your fastest pace can feel well-deserved and safe – if you’ve trained regularly and the race course was filled with people who support you.

Human beings are continually searching for pleasurable experiences, yet it is a state that can only exist under two circumstances that may not be easy to achieve: reward and safety.

Reward is a journey of effort and achievement. Safety is both a physical and emotional necessity. While physical safety is occasionally out of our control, we can speak about ourselves more positively, which can help develop a safe, emotional environment where pleasure can exist.

Mindful awareness of our habits in daily life can allow us to open up to pleasure when we want to. While reward and safety may be complex concepts to understand, I offer you some ideas for exploring these concepts to help you increase your capacity for pleasure.

Reward

Create a challenge deadline and give yourself meaningful challenges. For example, if you’ve always wanted to publish a book, set up a schedule to write each morning. Challenge yourself to read aloud from your book draft by the end of a season and invite anyone you feel supported by.

The “effortful” work of creating a reward challenge means that:

  • it is important enough for you to stay committed even when someone else’s needs filter in.
  • it exists in a timeline you set solely for yourself.
  • the timeline realistically recognizes all your other responsibilities.
  • the challenge requires effort, whether physical or mental.
  • the desired result requires you to work just beyond your current skill level.

It is not easy to tick all these boxes quickly and you may notice you can realistically only do one to three genuine challenges a year. Creating effortful challenges allows for reward to contribute to a lasting sensation of pleasure.

Safety

Notice the language you use to speak about yourself. Do you undermine your efforts or minimize your achievements? Do you defer compliments or gratitude? Do you blame yourself when things don’t work as planned? Learning to speak positively to yourself takes time, but by becoming aware of your own language, you can begin to create a safe mental space for yourself.

With daily practice, you can increase your capacity for pleasure.


Dr. Thara Vayali is a Vancouver-based naturopathic doctor and yoga teacher, UBC alum and popular guest contributor to our Healthy UBC newsletter who specializes in intestinal and immune health, hormones, and pain-free bodies. For more information about Thara, visit www.tharavayali.ca.

Photo: Sean McGrath (Flickr)

Posted in Guest Contributor, Mindful Moments | Tagged achievement, Dr. Thara Vayali, empowerment, mindful moments, Mindfulness, pleasure, practice, reward, Safety, self-care | Leave a response

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