Well-Being
Well-being is the ongoing process of reflecting on and engaging with your values and actions to help you thrive now and into the future. Understanding our well-being helps us to navigate the peaks and valleys that are a natural part of life. We have defined 8 dimensions of well-being; check them out below.
Emotional
Identifying, expressing, and managing your entire range of emotions, experiences, and vulnerabilities.
Intellectual
Seeking to expand knowledge, skills, and creative abilities for the sake of learning.
Physical
Pursuing regular movement, a nutritious diet, adequate sleep, and practicing consistent preventative behaviors.
Social
Establishing a sense of connection and belonging to others and your community through positive interpersonal interactions.
Career
Engaging in work that is meaningful, enjoyable, and aligns with personal values.
Environmental
Living in and contributing to a safe, healthy, and sustainable environment.
Spiritual
Understanding your core values, how you make meaning of what happens to you, and what provides you with comfort and relief.
Financial
Developing a relationship with money and skills for managing resources.
Tips and Campus Resources
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Emotional Well-being
Emotional well-being encompasses optimism, self-esteem, self-acceptance, and the ability to experience and cope with feelings independently and interpersonally. Emotional well-being includes practicing self-care, fostering inner resources and resiliency, finding unique ways of coping with stressors, creating satisfying relationships and setting boundaries, empathizing with others, being realistic about expectations and time, and knowing when to ask for help.
Increase Your Emotional Well-Being
- Take time for yourself. Be sure to set aside time for activities that help you relax and relieve stress. Looking for a podcast or app recommendation for mental health? Check out this link.
- Don't be afraid to ask for help! Call or visit the Health & Counseling Center (HCC) to schedule a confidential counseling appointment. You can also call the HCC after hours to speak with a counselor on call.
- Learn more about stress and check out some tips for managing it here.
- Need resources for yourself or a friend, but unsure of where to start? Submit a Student Outreach & Support (SOS) Referral to get connected.
Campus Resources
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Intellectual Well-being
Intellectual well-being encourages participating in mentally stimulating and creative activities. Intellectual well-being is not limited to the classroom. It is the ability to think critically, reason objectively, and explore new ideas and different points of view. Intellectual well-being emphasizes lifelong learning and inspires curiosity.
Increase Your Intellectual Well-Being
- Visit Academic Advising to schedule an appointment with an advisor or academic coach for support in navigating classes, gaining new study skills, and planning your time here.
- Take advantage of resources at the University Libraries such as Study & Tutoring Support at the Anderson Academic Commons.
- Visit the Innovation Labs to take a woodworking workshop or learn to use the 3D printers.
- Learn about offerings out of the Newman Center and see a show.
- Go to office hours or ask a professor to talk about their path and interests.
Campus Resources
Center for World Languages & Cultures
Science and Engineering Center
Learning Effectiveness Program
Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship & Learning (CCESL)
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Physical Well-being
Physical well-being is not just about the absence of illness, but maintaining a lifestyle that supports your health and ability to thrive. This includes adopting habits such as routine medical exams, immunizations, sexually transmitted infection (STI) screenings, getting adequate sleep, maintaining a balanced diet, committing to regular movement or activity, and more. It's about minimizing risky behaviors and cultivating habits that make you feel better and suit your lifestyle.
Increase Your Physical Well-Being
- Incorporate regular movement or physical activity into your daily routine. Go for a walk, ride your bike, or check out what offerings at the Coors Fitness Center.
- Make food choices that are balanced and make you feel well. Connect with Sodexo Dining Services to see what options they have and what support they can provide.
- Feeling sick or need a flu shot? Visit the Health & Counseling Center for a wide range of medical and counseling services.
- Take charge of your sexual health by using protection, having open communication with your partner(s), getting tested for STIs, and getting routine physical exams.
Campus Resources
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Social Well-being
Social well-being focuses on connecting with your community and the people around you. This includes being aware of your own social and cultural background as a bridge to understand diversity and depth present in other backgrounds. This dimension encourages taking an active part in improving your communities, connecting with others, establishing supportive social networks, developing meaningful relationships, and creating inclusive and anti-oppressive spaces.
Increase Your Social Well-Being
- Get involved! Consider joining a student organization or club sports.
- Take advantage of campus opportunities through Undergraduate Student Government, DU Programming Board, or the Newman Center.
- Learn more about student groups and offerings from the Cultural Center.
- Attend a workshop on identity or take part in our dialogue program through Inclusion & Equity Education.
Campus Resources
Housing & Residential Education
Newman Center for the Performing Arts
Undergraduate Student Government
Learning Effectiveness Program
Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship & Learning (CCESL)
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Career Well-being
Career well-being involves preparing for and participating in work that provides personal satisfaction and life enrichment that is consistent with your values, goals, and lifestyle. This dimension includes taking a thoughtful and proactive approach to career planning and assessing personal satisfaction and performance in one's work.
Increase Your Career Well-Being
- Visit Career & Professional Development for help with resumes, references, cover letters, mock interviews, and more!
- Gain the skills to be "career ready" for any job by volunteering or joining a student organization.
- For job and internship opportunities, visit Pioneer Careers.
- Monitor Career & Professional Development events for networking and job fair opportunities.
Campus Resources
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Environmental Well-being
Environmental well-being inspires us to live a lifestyle that is respectful of our surroundings. It involves understanding the dynamic relationship between the environment and people, as well as recognizing that we are responsible for the quality of the air, water, and earth that surrounds us, and in turn, that social, natural, and constructed environments affect our health and well-being.
Our environment and the way we feel about it plays a big role in how we live our lives. This includes our social environment (acceptance and treatment by peers and those around us), our natural environment (air, water, and climate conditions), and our constructed environment (proximity to resources, infrastructure, and living conditions).
Increase Your Environmental Well-Being
- Join an environmental student organization.
- Get involved with the Center for Sustainability.
- Donate any unwanted usable items for the Sustainability Sale during finals week. Housewares, shoes, clothing, and more are accepted.
- Check out some sustainability tips here.
- Explore outdoor spaces on campus and in the surrounding DU community.
Campus Resources
Housing & Residential Education
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Spiritual Well-being
Spiritual well-being involves seeking and acquiring meaning and purpose in life, as well as participating in activities that are consistent with one's beliefs and values. It is more than prayer and believing in a higher being. A spiritually well person seeks harmony with the universe, expresses compassion toward others, and practices gratitude and self-reflection. When we integrate practices of spiritual well-being we are able to connect in mind, body, and soul.
Increase Your Spiritual Well-Being
- Check out the Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship and Learning (CCESL) to find opportunities to make meaning out of your time at DU and put your values into action.
- Did you know the DU campus is an arboretum? Walk the Chester M Alter Arboretum to reflect, meditate, reduce stress, and find inner peace.
- Join a faith-based community at DU.
- Check out the Interfaith Calendar to schedule events and meetings for anyone to attend.
Campus Resources
Center for Community Engagement to advance Scholarship & Learning (CCESL)
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Financial Well-being
Financial well-being involves our relationship with money, resource management skills, making informed financial decisions and investments, setting realistic goals, and learning to prepare for short-term and long-term needs or emergencies, while maintaining an awareness that everyone's financial values, needs, and circumstances are unique.
Increase Your Financial Well-Being
- Check out CashCourse, a free, web-based, self-directed financial literacy program that provides students with financial information, tips, and skills necessary to be financially successful.
- Check out the Student Employment website to find on- and off-campus job opportunities.
- Check out the Office of Financial Aid's Budgeting and Saving tips.
- Learn about the Student Assistance Fund.
Campus Resources