Ways to Flourish

Dr. Kelly Crace, Associate VP for Health & Wellness at the Wellness Center, joins us once again! This time, we are talking about authentic excellence in organizations, as well as how to create flourishing "&" cultures instead of "or" cultures. We also touch on the Life Values Inventory, which helps individuals determine their personal values and in turn help them flouri...

Meet Candice Fox, William & Mary's new Assistant Director of Health Promotion and Sexual Violence Prevention Specialist! Candice is incredibly excited to be on campus and begin connecting with students. We talk about her background, her passion for prevention, and what healthy relationships mean (and don't mean) to her. Stay tuned for future episodes with her! Resources: clfox@wm.edu...

If you use the dining halls on campus, you've seen the changes this year. Aramark is William & Mary's new food service company that is going to focus on quality and innovation while being accessible to all students on campus. Becky Vick is Aramark's Health and Wellness Manager who is a resource for our students. Today, she talks to us about her background, her passions regarding...

Today in our bonus episode, find a comfortable seat and get ready to quiet your mind. Becca Marcus, psychotherapist with the W&M Wellness Center, leads us in a guided meditation session. To learn more about mindfulness and get to know Becca better, check out our previous episode "Even You Can Practice Mindfulness." And, whenever you want a few moments of peace and calm, feel free to...

"Mindfulness" is one of those words that can have the tendency to draw someone away if they don't completely understand what it is or how to practice it. Luckily, psychotherapist Becca Marcus is here to explain how mindfulness can be beneficial to anyone's life, no matter if they're practicing a formal or informal version of it. If you'd like an extended tutorial on h...

Season 7 of Ways to Flourish is here! Lindsay, Calder, and Ginny are back in the recording room after a semester and a summer away. We talk about our past few months, our hopes for the upcoming semester, and some of this season's guests. Ways to Flourish releases every Wednesday, and you can listen to us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or however else you get your podcasts. We hope everyone has h...

It's once again that time of the semester where we get to sit down and reflect on how the past few months have gone, as well as look forward to the future. Ginny and Calder have a long-distance chat about the expectations versus realities of our semesters, some work culture differences between William & Mary and France, and what we're looking forward to come summer and fall. If you&a...

The month of May is Women's Health Month, which means that there is all the more reason to learn about what resources are available on campus that pertain to women's health. W&M VOX: Planned Parenthood Generation Action is a club that advocates for reproductive justice. Today, we talk to Becca Gaylin, President of VOX (and our very own Wellness Ambassador!), about what the club stand...

Being at William & Mary, we've probably experienced imposter syndrome at some point. Although common, it is not insurmountable. Today, we unpack imposter syndrome with Kelly Crace, Associate VP for Health & Wellness. We chat about how imposter syndrome manifests, what factors can lead to imposter syndrome, and how we can create a healthy sense of "enoughness."

Join yoga therapist Patti DeBlass as she leads us through a real-time breath work session! As we talked about last week, breath work includes various techniques that involve our breathing, and it can be a pretty broad definition. Though there are many different techniques for various situations, the session today is meant to help you take a little pause to work on your physical, emotional, and spi...

Yoga therapist Patti DeBlass believes in the power of breathing. In this week's episode, we discuss how mindful breathing can help us through our day, what some misconceptions are about breath work, and how certain techniques are integrated into other meditational practices, like yoga. Stay tuned for next week's experiential episode when Patti leads us through a session of breath meditat...

We have talked a lot on Ways to Flourish  about meditation and its benefits, but did you know that you can even take classes about it? Dr. Mark McLaughlin leads a class called "Meditation & Wellness" during which students have the opportunity to learn about how meditation can be integrated into everyone's lives, and with registration coming up, it should definitely be on your li...

Ways to Flourish hopes that you have had a great spring break and that you are entering the second half of the semester feeling refreshed and mentally well. Speaking of mental wellness, the new wellness tracking app WeBe is launching right now at William & Mary! WeBe allows its users to track their mental health while engaging with their chosen communities. In today's episode, we talk to...

We all love our furry friends, but did you know that pet therapy is actually supported by science? We sit down to chat with Dr. Mark Sullivan, the handler of therapy dog Stella, as well as senior Grace Phillips about what pet therapy is, what kind of traits make an animal good at animal therapy, who benefits from pet therapy, and what Grace's research about animal therapy has found. Make sure...

Our beautiful campus has practically been made for biking, and the recent nice weather means that getting outside is becoming easier than ever. The W&M Bike Alliance has existed for a long time, but it has seen renewed life in the last couple of years. Today, we chat with student Bike Ambassadors Charlotte Russell and Drew Laird about what can be the physical, mental, and environmental benefit...

People always say that studying abroad is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and this is certainly true. However, like most things, study abroad brings its own challenges that we sometimes don't talk about enough. In today's episode, we sit down with students Ciara Curtin and Zak Zeledon to talk about how study abroad has changed their habits and worldviews, how study abroad can bring unex...

In celebration of Valentine's Day, this week, Ways to Flourish is again diving into conversations about healthy relationship practices! Hannah Artiles-Stravers from the Office of Health Promotion and sophomore Krithika Layagala discuss an article posted to the New York Times entitled "Dating is Broken. Going Retro Can Fix It." We talk about what we agree with in the article, what th...

The Black & Brown Girl Expressive Arts initiative seeks to provide a therapeutic environment for Black and Brown women on William & Mary's campus. Today we talk to the creator of the initiative, Wellness Ambassador Raven Pierce, about what the Black & Brown Girl Wellness Series is, how art can be effective as a form of therapy, and why it is necessary to have spaces on campus dedi...

Nutrition and diet never have to be boring. Today, we have a great chat with the school's new Dietitian Julia Green about the history of dieting, some common misconceptions that we can bust open, why we often get caught up with "diet culture," and how the Campus Dietitian can be a great resource for students. If you see Julia around campus, don't hesitate to say hello (and in t...

Happy FDOC! You may have heard of or seen Fun Max by now, but do you know why he exists? Today, we sit down to chat with Wellness Ambassador Max Beers to discuss what the Fun Max initiative is, why he dons the Fun Max mantle, and what some upcoming plans are during the new semester. Catch up with Fun Max's shenanigans @wmfunmax on TikTok or at @wellnesswm on Instagram!

Ways to Flourish is back for Season 6! We hope you feel ready to return to campus and begin the year of 2023. Once again, campus will be bustling, but this time the weather will be warming us over the weeks. We've had some really incredible conversations this semester. Although they have been pre-recorded, we are still around, so please do not hesitate to reach out! Email wellness@wm.edu, or...

Whether this past semester for you has been filled with vigor, lethargy, or both, it seems to have left many of us feeling drained and in need of some well-deserved rejuvenation. As Winter Break gets underway, the team chats about the past few months as well as what we're looking forward to in the new year. We at Ways to Flourish wish you peace and warmth wherever you are, and we'll catc...

During finals week, we at Ways to Flourish hope you are taking time for yourself and caring for each and every one of your dimensions of wellness! We are finishing out our two-month 8D series by talking to Wellness Ambassadors Rebekah Cohodas and Punnammal Gross. We take a deep dive into how spirituality is related to religion, how we can tell we should better tap into our spiritual wellness, and...

As we are continuing on with the last week of classes for the fall semester, we may be thinking about making plans with friends for the weekend, which means it's as great a time as ever to talk about the social dimension of wellness. We chat with Wellness Ambassadors Emma Herber and Raven Pierce about how to find your people at W&M, how social interactions can and should make us feel, and...

We at Ways to Flourish hope you've had a rejuvenating Thanksgiving! Today, we're forging on with our 8D series by talking to Wellness Ambassadors Lily Dines and Marion Biondi about physical wellness, one of the most well-known (but neglected!) dimensions. We chat about how physical wellness encompasses more than just exercise, how important sleep is while in college, and what ways we lik...