St. Antony’s College has launched its second annual Mental Health Awareness Week, which runs to May 19th.
The theme chosen this year is ‘The Habit of Mental Health,’ and each day has been constructed around three key aspects of maintaining good mental health: (1) physical health, (2) mindfulness practice and mental-health workshops, (3) social events and crafting.
Nainika Dinesh, the college’s Graduate Common Room president, commented that “The main driving force of the week for us was to just be able to have conversations about mental health and create a space where people can come together and talk. Oxford can be an intense place, and events like this help take some pressure off and let us have fun while hopefully having some productive discussions!”
The college’s welfare team will be hosting workshops from RESTORE on anxiety and depression, and a workshop by Dr. Timothy Knowlson, a counselling psychologist at Oxford, on how to support your friends.
The lama Aria Drolma is scheduled to visit on Thursday from New York to explain her journey from supermodel to Buddhist lama, and share tips on mindfulness. Jericho Comedy is set to perform on Thursday night. Other events include Ceilidh and Bollywood workshops. All events take place in the mindfulness yurt, which students can use to relax throughout the week.
All events are free and open to all students and staff of Oxford University, expect for the RESTORE workshops which have limited spaces and require sign ups. More can be found on their Facebook page, or by emailing Susan Degnan and Yang Han at gcr-vpwelfare@sant.ox.ac.uk.
