Generation Wellness Blog

Welcome to “WellVille", a wellness center for district staff in Long Island, New York. In this episode of the GW Spotlight, Debbi Rakowsky, school social worker in the Three Village School District, shares her insights about creating a space for educators to pause, connect, and shift from a culture of burnout to balance. In this video, you will learn:

• How WellVille got started
• A typical school day in WellVille (virtual + in-person)
• Equipment for the staff wellness center
• How WellVille provides free counseling + workshops for staff
• A creative way to get your walking steps in throughout the school day
• Ideas for staff check-ins and support
• How to get funding for your staff wellness center
• The #1 thing you need to start your own staff wellness center

With compassion fatigue, anxiety, and depression on the rise, we must shift the paradigm of self-care is a luxury to self-care is a priority. As you will see from watching this video, Debbi shows us...

QUOTABLE: "Childhood self-control predicts physical health, personal wealth and public safety. Self-control is more important than intelligence and social class."

This TED Talk walks through the benefits of teaching mindfulness to our students and challenges the idea of why we don't do it more often. Our focus is often on the test scores, the quality of a paper, or the ability to spell properly. The skills underneath all of those standards can be achieved through mindfulness.  Mindfulness is the foundation of all learning, it is teaching others how to pay attention, focus, attain to a task, and retain information. In turn, these skills will help students accomplish those academic tasks, and become more successful adults.

SOURCE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yJPcdiLEkI

This month’s experiment is about connecting with 1-3 people and sharpening our empathy super powers. What better time to do this than right now during so much uncertainty, stress, and grief with the pandemic? Everyone is facing some type of battle and connection is the key.

“Empathy is a way to connect to the emotion another person is experiencing; it doesn’t require that we have experienced the same situation they are going through.” -Brene Brown

Empathy is not trying to fix the problem or share your story, rather it’s about listening for understanding, validating emotions, and expressing words, body language, and tone that create a sense of “feeling felt”.

[EXPERIMENT] The invitation is to reach out to 1-3 people and connect with them. Maybe ask about their “rose” and “thorn” or “high” and “low” during this pandemic. Practice empathizing vs. sympathizing to increase feeling seen, heard,...

Do you remember the feeling you felt in May 2020 when the world watched George Floyd take his last breath?

Do you remember the discussions that followed?

Do you remember when we promised you that we wouldn't stop facilitating important discussion around equity, awareness, and social change, even when the media had stopped talking about it?

We are back and we hope you will join us tomorrow for the Fall 2020 LET'S TALK ABOUT IT.

Here is the link to register for the Zoom Call facilitated by Generation Wellness Trainer, RJay Barsh at November 18, 2020, 4pm PST: REGISTRATION NOW CLOSED.

You are invited to ask an anonymous question after registering. The video above provides a few clips from the previous Let's Talk About It sessions. See you soon!

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed individuals to change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

In 2013, our first training consisted of 2 people. Fast forward 8 years later and we've trained over 15,000 educators and impacted 500,000 students. Let this be a reminder that we all start somewhere and when a community comes together for a bigger purpose, we change the world. This video provides a glimpse of the wellness champions who continue building strong hearts, minds, and bodies. We love you!

While all of us are familiar with the recommendations to stay physically healthy - wash your hands, cover your cough, practice social distancing, sanitize high-touch areas - Tumwater School District quickly realized that we also need to tend to the social/emotional health needs of our staff, students and their families. Being hurled into completely unknown territory - some dealing with the stresses of a lost job, sick loved ones, anxiety, and more - Tumwater School District quickly partnered with Lyndsay Morris, Founder of Generation Wellness and BHHS alumni, to address these important aspects.

TSD has committed to staff, student and community wellness by utilizing a phase-in system to provide ongoing resources, utilizing grant funds, as they endure the challenges of the pandemic:

Phase 1: Staff Wellness 

Learn more about the Workplace Wellness Academy here.

Phase 2: Family Wellness

Learn more about the Family Wellness Toolkit here.

Phase 3: School...

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