Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 64
Date: April 18, 2023

Participants: John Webster, Elise Seifert, Cameron Earnshaw and Sheila Webster
Guest: Ayesha Munir

Start times and Segments:

[0:00:35] What’s On Your Mind: Elise and John discuss an article, “Regular visits to green spaces linked to lower use of certain prescriptions – study”, from the Jerusalem Post. The observational study found that frequent visits to green spaces such as parks and community gardens led to decreased use in some people of drugs used for depression, anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure an asthma. Visiting three or four times a week was associated with lower use of mental health medications. The same effect was no observed if people looked outside from their house. It occurs to us that we often move our bodies (exercise) when we visit these spaces. We’re often walking, swimming, cycling, hiking, running, etc. We wonder whether that helps with the positive impact.

[0:09:15] Expanding Minds Interview: [Spiritual Wellness] We interview uni student Ayesha Munir, who answers our questions about hijabs. She had preconceived notions about the hijab before she started practicing her Muslim faith more. She wondered why women had to cover their bodies, but then learned about the beauty of it and how it’s not supposed to be a barrier. It’s supposed to liberate Muslim women and make the feel even more powerful, because they’re being judged purely by their actions and not by how they look and how their body looks.

[0:25:10] Adventures of the Starving Artist: Cameron has a mixed bag of things to do. He’s breaking in the new contracts he obtained recently from a lawyer. It’s a relief, because dealing with paperwork had been a hurdle to him. Now he has a sense of calm. He’s excited about helping with instrumentation on a couple songs he’s helping with.

[0:30:01] Move That Body: We came across a social media post that displayed helpful visuals of a moderate amount of different foods to eat, based on the size of your hand.

[0:35:17] Running Popup: Many Zoom or Teams calls end with a series of “goodbye” and “see you later” and “enjoy the evening” and on and on. Can we come up with a catch phrase to end these calls?

[0:36:17] Flipside of the Coin: After a not great experience at a restaurant, we chat about how to head into the next restaurant trip with a better frame of mind. We got caught up on how expensive restaurant’s have become. We hesitated in ordering more wine, or dessert for other reasons. Next time we’ll head into the experience with positive thoughts. It should improve things.

Guest Information: Ayesha Munir is a first year student at the University of Waterloo, in the Arts and Business program. She’s majoring in legal studies and hoping to minor in human rights. She’s currently a part of the UW Legal Studies Society as well as UW Raising the Roof. Ayesha has a part-time job and is on the City of Kitchener’s Anti-Racism and Equity Committee. In her free time, she enjoys working out, reading and spending my time outside in nature.

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Thanks for joining us,
(-(-_(-_-)_-)-)   Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila, Elise, Isabelle and Julie