It’s finally 2020, the beginning of a new decade! Something that is always on everyone’s mind at this time of year is how to best incorporate wellness into their life. So for the first RTP180 of the year, we brought in five experts to give their take on this timely subject.
To kick us off, Shahnaz Khawaja from UNC Chapel Hill’s Office of Student Wellness talked about fostering resilience. She said, “when life knocks us down we tend to stabilize if we are resilient humans.” Shahnaz went over how we can get stuck in Allostatic Load from stress which puts us in a “fight or flight” mode for an extended period of time. This can trick us into believing we’re doing something but really we’re working too hard. Check out the video to learn more about allostatic load, or stress-related wear and tear, and how to avoid it by using different social engagement responses.
Next, Stephanie Terry & Felisa Brown from Medicine Mama’s Farmacy gave us an overview of CBD wellness. Our lucky audience members got to try CBD gummies while Felisa taught us more about cannabis and the naturally occurring properties that help combat stress and anxiety. Felisa concluded by saying “CBD is powerful, helpful, healing and could be a wonderful addition to your wellness routine.” Check out the video to learn about some different ways CBD can help you!
Mary Williams-Stover from the NC Council for Women & Youth Involvement gave us some surprising facts about women’s health in NC, including that women’s health in NC rates as a “D.” She talked about different ways we can improve this score, and how it’s important for us all to understand the statistic so we can be a part of the change. She left us with some inspiration: “Make our dream for NC come true. That is that NC will be the place where women thrive and live their best lives.” Check out the video to learn more about women’s health in NC.
Next, Wendy Stewart from PetPalsNC came out with her team (including two of their therapy dogs!) and spoke about the therapeutic impact that our pets can have in our lives. Therapy animals have become more popular in the last 20 years. This, Wendy explained, is due to the fact that more people are looking for alternative therapy and treatments. Fun fact: not only dogs can become certified. Cats, birds and even reptiles can, too; the animal just has to have specific qualities. Check out the video to learn more about what it takes to certify your pet.
Our last team of the night, Leigh Fultz and Dylan Scott from Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, came to talk about their incredible wellness program. Fujifilm won the healthiest employer award multiple times, and was also ranked #9 out of 5,000 for healthiest companies in the USA – and there’s a good reason why. Since 2015, with the help of corporate sponsorship, they’ve started many programs to help their employees with their health, including a wellness center and a new industrial athleticism program. Check out the video to learn how to find a company to sponsor your wellness program, how industrial athleticism prevents injuries in the workplace and for a list of the wellness benefits for inspiration.
Ready for more #RTP180? Our next topic is Expressions of Color—be sure to reserve your tickets for the February 20 event! This event will be about celebrating Black talent in honor of Black History Month.
Thanks to presenting sponsor RTI International for enabling us to provide a platform for our community to share their knowledge. We’re also glad to have UNC-TV as our producer—if you can’t make it to any RTP180 event, you can catch the live stream beginning at 6:00PM EST the day of the show at ncchannel.org, and be sure to follow along with us on Twitter using #RTP180.