LYNNFIELD ― During the middle school’s annual Wellness Week, students learned how to balance stress and anxiety while also having fun.
“I put together this week to bring awareness to the importance of healthy decision-making skills at the middle-school level,” said Lynnfield Middle School physical-education teacher Sheri Weeks. “The kids look forward to it every year.”
Weeks first came up with the idea for this event more than 10 years ago, when she was a health-education teacher at the middle school.
“It is just about highlighting the healthy choices and healthy decision-making,” said Weeks. “When I was teaching health education as part of the curriculum, it was something that I really wanted to highlight.”
“The staff looks forward to it too,” said Weeks. “Just a great experience for the whole school.”
The event is taking place with the support of A Healthy Lynnfield, the town’s substance-use prevention coalition.
One of the central events of this year’s Wellness Week is inviting a guest speaker for an extracurricular class called “educational assembly” to talk about balance, self-care, and self-love.
This year’s invited speaker is Sammy Davis, a professional hockey player, member of the Boston Pride women’s ice hockey team, and a postgraduate student at the Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions.
“I am trying to teach the students at the Lynnfield Middle School about self-care and treating yourself with kindness, and taking ‘me time’ out of your day to put yourself first,” said Davis.
Davis started her presentation with a “mindful minute,” allowing the students to close their eyes for a minute, adding that it helps her to feel grounded and that she uses it a lot “before something really big.”
Davis then asked the students what their idea of self-care was. Being with friends, eating healthy, doing things that make you happy, and having fun were some of the answers that the students came up with.
“What I understand as self-care and self-kindness is just telling yourself what you need, and sometimes slowing down and pausing, and taking a break from some things,” said Davis. “Sometimes you don’t always need to be dealing with something. It’s really all about the little things.”
However, according to the speaker, sometimes what brings you happiness, doesn’t always bring happiness to others.
“Everybody’s health care looks different,” said Davis.
She also shared with the students that it was important to specifically plan for rest time.
“At high school I had a lot going on — I was playing sports, building social relationships,” said Davis. “I started using a planner; it just became more of a self-care mindset.”
“When you are in an uncomfortable position, when you are doing something that you don’t want to do, you can say no,” she continued. “Sometimes you need to take a pause and put yourself first.”
In addition to the educational assembly, the students enjoyed a variety of activities during the 2022 Wellness Week at their school, like themed days, trivia, and a mural contest.
“We have a mural contest, where they get to design a mural — alone or with a group of friends,” said Weeks.
The winner will then paint the mural on one of the school walls. Students also get to practice some sports during the week.
“In the gymnasium we have theme-based activities,” said Weeks. “Like hand-eye coordination, muscular strength, and team building.”
Matthew Angelo, a health teacher at the middle school, said students there love being physically active. He said the students look forward to the tradition of Wellness Week.
“Today we are doing the color theme, and you can see how all the grades are really representing their colors,” said Angelo on Tuesday. “The student engagement is really strong.”
Students spoke positively about Wellness Week.
“It’s really fun, and I enjoy it,” said Lauren Mattia, one of the student leaders.
Annabelle Eckhardt, another student leader at the middle school, said the event is intended to teach people how to take care of themselves and manage their stress. She said it is also intended to teach people to stay well and healthy.
“I learned how to manage stress and anxiety, and how to balance your sports versus your school, and how important balance is in your life,” said Eckhardt.
Emrys Klee, another student leader, agreed, saying: “Wellness Week is a really great opportunity for people to kind of relax at school more.”
“It’s fun, because it shows a way of being confident in your body, doing fun activities, and making good choices,” added Sarah Mitchell, also a student leader.
Mitchell said her major takeaway from this week’s theme is “to be the best person you can and don’t think what others think of you.”
