With finals just around the corner, students are now gearing up for the grueling homestretch – a time filled with late night study sessions and stress-induced anxiety that haunts them into the day. Fortunately, UNH Health Services has constructed a place and time for students to relax and to help combat the worries that come with their academic responsibilities.
“It is a break from the action, a place to unwind for a while,” said junior Kacie McFadden, a communications and marketing major interning with Health Services. “Our goal is to relax all of your senses for maximum comfort, and creating a peaceful place,” she said.
Upon entering the room in which the Relaxation Station is held, a soothing aroma of lavender and sage emanates from every corner as light-hearted music plays softly from the speakers. These little details help to calm some manners of anxiety and worry. Within the room is a table offering delicious spa-beverages such as fruit-infused water. Various hands-on activities such as mandala coloring are offered, and magazines focusing on traveling, leisure and music are scattered about the room. Pamphlets regarding health and well-being can also be found, offering hints and tips on living a stress free life.
Dawn Zitney, a wellness educator councelor at UNH, provides various educational programs that focus on health and well-being, and she understands that students are stressed out.
“We live in a culture where we are always doing, doing, doing,” Zitney said as she lounged at the Relaxation Station. “We don’t always need to be doing something, if students want to come in and simply just look out the window, I would love it.”
Along with aromatherapy, music therapy and other stress relieving activities found at the Relaxation Station, visitors can also share casual conversations with relaxed individuals who won’t judge or criticize. Stressful feelings begin to dissipate the moment one passes through the doors of the Relaxation Station. Everyone there is seeking similar purposes, so the atmosphere is always casual and calm, and one that offers a welcome respite from the constant barrage of priorities and responsibilities.
This is the first semester that the Relaxation Station has been implemented on campus, and is open at Health Services every other Tuesday between 12:30-1:30 p.m. The plan is to continue the program next semester in order to establish a firm foothold so more students will become aware of what Health Services offers. Zitney and McFadden encourage all to come to the upcoming event days as they promise it to be a stress free environment.
