Posted:
14 Feb 2024
This Valentine’s week, the Wellbeing Team is celebrating relationships in all their forms. Creating and maintaining good connections with others can increase our sense of belonging and can also improve our wellbeing by helping us better manage stress and anxiety.
These positive relationships can be with family, friends, fellow students, work colleagues, animals, or nature, and the more we put into cultivating our connections, the more we get back from them. Of course, the most important relationship we have is with ourselves. How we treat ourselves, our self-esteem, affects how well we look after ourselves and our ability to bounce back from setbacks. The NHS has information and tips on Ways to build a healthy relationship with yourself and Ways to build healthy relationships with others.
As it’s LGBT+ History Month, it is a good opportunity to highlight that LGBT HERO has plenty of help, advice and further support for common relationship challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community.
At University, the supervisory relationship can come with its own challenges, especially for postgraduate students. The Cambridge Students’ Union has a guide on Managing supervisor issues and the Cambridge University Counselling Service (UCS) runs termly workshops on How to get the best out of your supervisory relationship. The Wellbeing Thesis is also a good resource for postgraduate students and has strategies for Managing Your Supervisor
For some of us, Trinity Hall represents our place of work which can play a central role in some people’s lives. Positive relationships with colleagues can increase our sense of connection to the workplace and improve wellbeing. However, there may be times when we find our working relationships more challenging. Mind has some information on how to be mentally healthy at work and manage difficult work relationships.
Finally, if you would like to develop your relationship with nature, you might like to consider adopting a pet plant from the Gardening Team. They will be distributing plants on Central Site on Valentine’s Day (14th February) around 12pm, outside the Graham Storey Room or near the Porters’ Lodge depending on the weather. The Wellbeing Team will also be present asking the ‘Friendlier February’ Valentine’s Day question “How will you tell a loved one or friend why they are special to you?” We look forward to seeing you there!
