29 Introduction to Physical Health
Wellness is defined as actively pursuing those choices that will lead you to more fulfilling life. According to the World Health Organization, wellness is ” a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” This chapter covers topics relating to wellness help such as sleep and self-care.
Self-Care
Why is your physical health important? What does it have to do you with your success as a student and individual? Read the articles below to learn about why it is important to take care of your health and how you can take care of yourself.
- Why You Should Take Care of Your Body and Health
- Physical Self-Care. Do You Practice It?
- Physical Wellness Toolkit
Revisit Chapter 10: Taking Control of Your Health (pp. 342-411) from the chapter titled Taking Control of Your Health. After familiarizing yourself with those concepts, it’s time to dive into the importance of sleep.
Sleep
Sleep is foundational to your wellbeing. Choose one of the two articles to read to learn more about sleep and health.
Good self-leadership means recognizing when we’re not in alignment with our values. For example, we may value spending time with our families and closest friends but miss out on many micro-interactions that happen in face-to-face contexts.
Recognizing how to regulate one’s technology use is critical to one’s success. You have likely seen in yourself or others how using smartphones may impact relationships and sleeping habits . While smartphones and other technological devices may, at times, actually help us do better in particular college contexts, knowing when they become distractions will help us make use of them for our benefit.
Let’s face it – going to college can be stressful! Balancing the demands of your courses, your friends and family, and a job isn’t easy! But at the same time, guarding your health and well-being is critical to being a success student. How can you do both – manage the demands and also take care of yourself? UVU’s Student Life & Wellness Center is one resource that can help.
Student Life & Wellness Center
To have a healthy experience at UVU, you will want to maintain balance in your activities. Wellness is much more than proper exercise and nutrition. Wellness also includes social, emotional, spiritual (not necessarily religious), and intellectual dimensions.
Study the resources and services located on the UVU Wellness and the UVU Student Health Services websites. Which do you find useful? In what areas can you improve? Can you identify specific goals you can act on to improve your overall health this week (and beyond)?
Check out the Student Life and Wellness Center. It’s free for full-time students.