ChillWELL works to ease finals stress

Preparing for finals can be stressful, so WELLWVU: The Students’ Center of Health, held its second chillWELL event yesterday to help students de-stress, relax and keep their minds clear before next week.

Hearts of Gold partnered with WELLWVU to allow students the opportunity to pet service dogs during the event.

Students played with finger paint, molded play dough, brewed tea and focused on finding a mantra to help them get through the difficult week ahead.

Jordan McCann, an exercise physiology student and student educator for WELLWVU, explained the purpose and benefits of chillWELL.

"We are doing chillWELL during dead week just because that is when people start getting stressed out for finals, so it’s just to take a moment to chill out," he said. "We asked the Hearts of Gold service dog class to come and bring the dogs; it’s been a big hit – people are always stopping by to play with them."

WELLWVU has been promoting chillWELL, because time management tends to break down as students feel more stress, he said.

"We are here to help promote (students to) do what’s important. Students can get so overwhelmed with their schoolwork, but they need to take a few minutes out of their day to think of positive things, take a deep breath, relax and remember it will be OK," McCann said.

Brooke Nickelson is an animal and nutritional sciences student at WVU and teaching assistant for Hearts of Gold.

"For WELLWVU, we provide puppy petting as part of the WVU chillWELL. We did it as a favor for WELLWVU. We usually do presentations on our dogs and what we do for organizations," she said. "But as a generosity to WVU and for finals week, we decided to come out and have students pet the dogs."

Nickelson said WELLWVU asked Hearts of Gold to bring the dogs as another relaxation technique because playing with dogs can release endorphins in your body, which make you feel happy.

Angela Sparachane, pre-elementary education student at WVU, expressed her appreciation for the
chillWELL event.

"I’ve definitely been really stressed because I have a lot of finals next week. I think students can get so stressed that they feel like they might burst, but I think having the dogs here is so awesome," she said. "I can’t remember being this happy since I’ve been studying. I really just want to get this semester over with."

Katina Nicoloudakis, biology student at WVU and student health educator at WELLWVU, said chillWELL helps students relieve stress through a number of programs.

"We have a mantra workshop for students to come up with their own mantra through just kind of expressing themselves with words and pictures to find a mantra that they can keep to themselves to empower them and encourage them to do well," she said.

"I think it’s important for students to take some time for themselves, especially during finals week, because you can kind of wear your brain out if you tire yourself out. You’re more productive when you’re relaxed," Nicoloudakis said.

"That’s a big part of our program – when your mind and your heart are calm, you’re going to be more productive, and you’re going to think better," Nicoloudakis said.

For more information about chillWELL and stress reduction, visit http://well.wvu.edu/stress_management.