Inspiration for the Kirkcaldy campus wellbeing tree
Student wellbeing week is being celebrated on Kirkcaldy Campus (10th– 14th November), and at the heart of those celebrations will be a tree. A wellbeing tree, inspired by a tree which grows in Beveridge Park, a short walk from the campus. The tree started the month in a blaze of colour but following the recent wind and rain is now looking a bit bare and wet. Students and staff will have the opportunity to write on leaf-shaped sticky notes what they find helps with their wellbeing maintenance and add these to a painted tree outline in the reception area of the campus.
How do you maintain wellbeing? The answer I suspect is going to be as varied as the number of different tree species currently growing in Beveridge Park. At different times, I suspect we will all find different things help.
How we use an academic library may also help or hinder our wellbeing maintenance.
Meeting up with friends and studying with them can be a positive experience. Studying with someone else makes the experience less lonely; do however try and be considerate of those also studying nearby.
It is tempting when you have settled into a comfortable seat, laptop out, surrounded by books to get your head down and work solidly until the assignment is completed or that information re-read and absorbed for an exam, but a micro break is good for you. Get up and walk around; go get a drink. Most of the library sites have drinking water located nearby and access to a hot drink.
In the main library there is the Create Space, a creative and wellbeing space on the ground floor. You could take some time away from your studies and spend some time creating something, colour in, use your hands to do a jigsaw, build some Lego – something other than typing on a keyboard.
Each library site has a leisure reading collection (Library search) that would enable you to discover different characters, emotions and environments and provide a connection or an escape. There are also titles to help with wellbeing ranging from happiness to grief.
I enjoy nurturing plants and walking around gardens that I do not have to maintain. Wellbeing week in Kirkcaldy campus library will be a good week for me; we have been given a donation of plants and will be offering everyone the opportunity to take home a plant or sow some seeds and grow their own. For wellbeing week there are a variety of activities planned across the University. In Kirkcaldy we also have a book swap, the wellbeing tree, DUSA and different charities will be on campus throughout the week.
With the piles of leaves on the floor we are all stepping over at the moment, we notice the natural world, we can see the different colours. Let us know what you would write on a leaf – what helps with your wellbeing maintenance?
Autumnal tree colours Kirkcaldy station carpark