Our Thriving Together Well-Being Weekly presents resources for a different type of well-being practice each week. This week we're focusing on the importance of pursuing racial healing for well-being. Systematic racism is detrimental to everyone's well-being. Racial healing demands that all racial groups transform their thinking by unlearning the stereotypes and racial messages internalized about our own race and the race of others.  Write one of these Thriving Together Well-Being Weekly features! We’re looking for contributions on all topics related to well-being. See examples here and contact us at [log in to unmask] to get started. Thank you for helping our Mason community thrive together online.

Rx Racial Healing Circles (RHCs), created by our center's Senior Scholar Dr. Gail Christopher while at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, are founded on the principles of jettisoning the hierarchy of human value and narrative change through storytelling. The uniqueness of RHCs come from their focus on health, well-being, agency, inclusion, and our common humanity. Circles are designed for community building and racial awareness. This framework is rooted in spiritual and community-sustaining models in many indigenous cultures. The power of the RHC experience comes from sharing stories – telling personal stories (taking us to the heart space) rather than simply relating to an event (the mind space). Circle participants often can see their own experiences in the stories of others, which helps us to see ourselves in one another. Join us! Promote racial healing at Mason. Grow in empathy for others who are different from you. Use the power of story to bring healing in our community. Circles are available for all Mason students, faculty, staff, and alumni. You can sign up for Spring 2021 open enrollment circles here and choose either of these upcoming dates: Tuesday, April 13, 9 a.m. - 12 noon Monday, April 19, 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. You can also request an RHC in a closed enrollment format here for a specific Mason department, organization, or unit. RHCs for a department or organization must be optional and voluntary for all participants. We do not host RHCs for groups that mandate attendance. So, please plan to invite participants from your group without requiring attendance.

Spring into Well-Being (#SIWB21), Mason's annual well-being celebration, is happening from now until Friday April 23!   During #SIWB21, people from throughout Mason Nation and beyond are participating in Mason's well-being university events. Visit our center's events calendar for event details during #SIWB21. You'll find many events from throughout Mason to help you strengthen diverse aspects of your well-being. Visit our Mason Chooses Kindness (MCK) website for resources to boost your well-being through kindness, including the MCK Toolkit, MCK events such as Outdoor Sunset Yoga, a daily acts of kindness calendar, kindness bingo, and more.

View the #SIWB21 events calendar

Every weekday during #SIWB21, we'll challenge you to do something that can strengthen your well-being. View those challenges on the #SIWB21 Daily Challenge Calendar below, and on our social media. Throughout #SIWB21, we'll also share posts on social media. Just use the #SIWB21 and/or the #MasonChoosesKindness hashtags and we'll amplify your posts.

Our center is developing a model for well-being at Mason. We want to know what you think, so we can design the best model for students, faculty, and staff to thrive together. Learn about the model in this brief presentation and please let us know what you think by Monday, April 26 through this feedback form. Thank you for your valuable input.

In partnership with the Patriot Pantry, Mason Chooses Kindness has teamed up with Grace Cares to bring Mobile Hope to Mason! On Monday April 12 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., FREE Grab-N-Go food boxes filled with perishable and non-perishable items will be distributed in Little Lot K, across from EagleBank Arena. Registration required and limited to 240 people. Must display approved Mason COVID Health Check. Register on Mason 360!

Mason has a new initiative, and we want to hear from you! Groups from across the university have come together to develop a Mason Nation Engagement Initiative. We want to create events that help us grow together and connect with fellow Patriots. Please fill out the survey and tell us how you want to connect with the Mason Nation! Participants in the survey are eligible to win giveaways for their participation! Please complete by April 12. Please contact Debbie Weitzman-Ward at [log in to unmask] for further information.

Join our center and the Financial Well-Being Team in the Student Support and Advocacy Center (SSAC) for Money Smart Day, a free virtual financial literacy conference. Money Smart Day is open to students, staff, faculty, alumni, and other members of the community. Choose from multiple sessions throughout the day and evening! Mason students, register here! All others, register here!

On Thursday April 22 from 12 noon to 1 p.m., bring your questions about well-being to “Wondering about Well-Being? Ask CWB!”, a virtual open house with people from our center who help us thrive together at Mason. Drop in anytime to ask us any questions you’d like about well-being. Looking forward to meeting you and answering your well-being questions! Register here!

Mason students, faculty, and staff, take a mindful break in your day and contribute to your well-being through Mindful Mason Moments. These free online mindfulness sessions take place at 12 noon every weekday from now until May 14. On Mondays through Thursdays, the sessions end at 12:30 p.m. On Friday, the sessions end at 12:20 p.m. Thursday sessions make use of Mason's innovative Arcadia installation. Visit https://go.gmu.edu/MindfulMason to join any Mindful Mason Moments session!

Take a well-being break to enjoy Mason's Arcadia greenhouse installation, which converts the biorhythms of plants into sound and light! Join Mindful Mason Moments sessions on Thursdays this semester for mindfulness practices that make use of Arcadia. Enjoy outdoor Yoga classes that utilize music from Arcadia on April 13, April 22, and April 28. On Earth Day (April 22) at 7 p.m., enjoy the free online performance "The Earth Day: Arcadia Mixtape".  Performances will include singing, dancing, poetry, aerial silks, painting, and more – all from student and faculty artists! Enjoy the Arcadia live stream!

The Resilience Badge program helps you develop existing individual resilience by presenting new strategies and bringing the science of resilience into the conversation. Successful completion of the six modules results in a digital credential in resilience. Mason students and employees can enroll in the program by logging in with their NetID and password. The program provides updated, interactive materials for you to make sense of resilience in your life and points you to various Mason resources that can support your efforts to make resilience a part of your well-being and part of your overall student success. The Resilience Badge is an asynchronous program for you to work through at your own pace in Blackboard.

This is an optimal time to become a certified leadership coach, as many people need coaching to manage today's stress, uncertainty, and change well. The well-being leadership skills you'll learn in our Leadership Coaching for Organizational Well-Being program can empower you to achieve significant success, both personally and professionally. Consider these inspiring success stories from our coaching alumni. Our coaching program is designed specifically for professionals striving for positive change in team and organizational culture. The Mason coaching focus emphasizes strengths-based approaches and methodologies as well as transformative practices that deepen self-awareness, develop coaching presence, and facilitate organizational well-being. This experiential program features a competency and research-based curriculum that aligns with the International Coaching Federation (ICF) requirements and coaching competencies. We are currently accepting applications for Cohort 11, which will take place in a live virtual format from September 2021 to January 2022 (application deadline is July 15, 2021). Join us for a virtual open house on May 18 to learn more about our Leadership Coaching for Organizational Well-Being program! Read more details here, and contact us at [log in to unmask] with your questions anytime.

Learn more and apply for Leadership Coaching for Organizational Well-Being

Our NEW Leading Thriving Organizations program will prepare you to create a thriving workplace culture. It will show you how the science of well-being applies in your workplace and how your personal well-being can influence your organization. Topics include: the science of well-being, strengths-based leadership, evidence-based well-being practices and interventions, workplace and organizational well-being, and how to make thriving organizations a reality. This program will give you opportunities to practice evidence-based techniques and learn proven organizational well-being interventions. After earning this certificate, you will be equipped to implement knowledge and skills that will impact both individual and team performance. We are currently enrolling for our Fall 2021 program, which will take place in a live virtual format from September 2021 to October 2021.

Learn more and enroll in Leading Thriving Organizations

Our Polarity Thinking program will equip you to deal successfully with polarities -- interdependent forces that create tension in complex situations. This certification helps you see how "both/and” Polarity Thinking helps create leverage for the complex and critical challenges that all leaders, teams, and organizational systems face. You will use Polarity Thinking™ concepts, practices and tools (including the Polarity Map® and the Polarity Assessment™) and gain experience managing polarities in a consulting/coaching client relationship. You will also earn a certification in PACT™ (Polarity Approach for Continuity and Transformation) through this program. See what program alumni have to say about Polarity Thinking in these testimonials. We are currently enrolling for our Fall 2021 program, which will take place in a live virtual format from September 2021 to November 2021. Join us for a virtual open house on Tuesday April 20 to learn more about our Polarity Thinking program!

Learn more and enroll in Polarity Thinking

Join our center's mailing list to receive information you can use to strengthen your well-being. Please share the signup link with your colleagues, as well. We look forward to connecting with you!