As part of your New Year’s resolutions, you promised yourself you would be taking steps towards forming healthy habits and prioritizing your wellness. To help you achieve this, we would like to introduce you to the Healthy Mind Platter. The Healthy Mind Platter, created by Daniel Siegel and David Rock, focuses on seven mental activities for optimum mental health and overall wellbeing. The seven activities include:

• Focus Time – Giving your undivided attention and care to a task.
• Play Time – Providing yourself the opportunity to be spontaneous and creative.
• Connecting Time – Being intentional about connecting with other people and the natural world.
• Physical Time – Making time for physical activity.
• Time In – Taking a mindfulness break to reflect internally and focus on sensations, images, feelings, and thoughts.
• Down Time – Carving out time to let your mind relax and wander without a purpose.
• Sleep Time – Ensuring time for the brain to rest and recover from the day’s activities.

With practice, these activities can become habits and have a powerful impact on your life. The Office of Wellness and Mental Health and NOVA Online hosted a Healthy Mind Platter workshop to talk about these activities in depth during Spring 2024 Welcome Week. Check out the Virtual Student Union (VSU) for more information!