With sub-zero temperatures and finals week in full swing, it can be challenging for students to stretch their legs and take a minute to de-stress. Thursday’s RestWell at RecWell event was meant to give students respite of peace during a tense week.
Hosted from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Beacon Room at the University of Minnesota’s Recreation and Wellness Center, the RestWell event was intended to give students an excuse to study, relax, socialize and build community, said RecWell Director of Brand and Creative Strategy Olivia Wicker.
“We started it three or four years ago,” Wicker said. “Originally, we were thinking, ‘Let’s just get some hot cocoa,’ and then, throughout the years, we’ve added in more crafts and got a lot of good feedback from students about what they like.”
The event included dedicated arts and crafts tables with snowflake making, pen making and origami as well as study tables for students to get some work done.
Wicker said the RecWell hosted similar crafting events in the past such as “Inkwell”, a dedicated pen-making event during midterms in October.
Another popular RecWell de-stress activity is “Kindness Grows,” an event put on every spring at both the University’s Minneapolis and St. Paul gyms where students can decorate flower pots and plant seeds, according to Wicker.
“We do get the feeling people enjoy it,” Wicker said. “I guess the only way we really know is because students keep coming back every year, and they usually leave with a smile and their hot cocoa.”
Wicker said they expected 300 to 400 attendees this year, based on previous numbers.
“We’ll go unless we run out of supplies, which I feel like we’ll run out of Reddi-Wip because that’s been really popular,” Wicker said.
Second-year student Willow Hosmer said events such as RestWell are great at helping her stay relaxed, warm and cozy, especially with the colder weather moving in.
“There’s no pressure of talking to anyone or doing really hard things,” Hosmer said. “I can come and be my inner child. I haven’t made snowflakes since elementary school so I can totally let go of my brain and just have fun.”
Hosmer said the event’s social aspect was also integral because this time of year with finals and cold weather can be isolating.
Second-year student Abby Groos said having de-stress events at RecWell is a good idea because students can come and relax, but it also makes it easier for less frequent RecWell users to utilize the center’s facilities.
“I’m not as scared to go because there’s people there, and it’s more of a community space than a gym,” Groos said. “I don’t have to work on anything intense but I could if I wanted to, and that kind of exploring can sometimes be very scary at a place like the gym.”
First-year student Jean-Steven Tougnon said he had only seen the poster for the RestWell event after finishing a workout and decided to check it out, thinking it would be a nice place to finish some schoolwork.
“I still gotta grind so I wasn’t really into the regular activities,” Tougnon said. “Not that they’re not cool, I just have some things I gotta finish.”
Tougnon said de-stress events like RestWell are great because they allow students to take a break from electronics and the stress that comes with them.
Doctorate student Agro Gushwa said his opinion on de-stress events has changed, initially thinking that they were problematic due to promoting de-stressing without dealing with the sources of said stress.
“But I think oftentimes people study longer than they really need to,” Gushwa said. “They’ll study for five hours and think they haven’t done enough, but having a break like this does more justice to the long-term study habit than continuous studying and having a headache from it.”
Gushwa said future events should incorporate more physical activities and promote a “mind/body getaway” atop the more creative de-stress activities.
One way students can incorporate a more physical study break during finals week is through the group fitness classes at the RecWell. From Dec. 12 to 20, group fitness courses will run on a reduced schedule, but students will be allowed to attend free of charge.
