Browsing Tag

winter lights

Second Winter Lights Event: Managing Stress and Finding Joy — Dec. 11, noon – 1pm

Now that we’ve entered December and the snow is on the ground, there is no question that we’re well into the winter season. At our last Winter Lights event, we talked about what we love about winter, and what the hardest parts of the season are. Winter can be filled with joy and beauty, it can be quiet and cozy. Winter can also be cold and isolating and full of stresses around finals, holidays, and end of year deadlines.

At our next Winter Lights event, we’ll continue that conversation and dive into those joys and stresses that we encounter during the winter. Counseling staff will lead a discussion about stress relief, finding joy, and demonstrate a relaxation technique. After the discussion, we’ll have a chance for everyone to create their own scent-pot mixture to take home and enjoy. Of course, we’ll also have snacks, related library resources, and a video of a crackling fire to keep us cozy.

Everyone is invited, we hope you’ll join us!

Winter Lights: Managing Stress and Finding Joy

Wednesday, December 11, 2019
Noon to 1:00 pm
O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library, room 102 (right inside the entrance)

Until then, enjoy some photos of last month’s event:

: Discussion about light therapy

: Winter lights

: Answers to what we look forward to and what is hard in winter

December 3, 2019 by

Winter Lights: Preparing for the Winter Days Ahead

The brilliantly-colored leaves of fall are mostly gone, and the temperatures are turning colder and we turned our clocks back this weekend. There were snow showers today, and we cannot deny that we’re moving towards winter at a brisk pace.

We hope you will join us next week for our kick-off Winter Lights event. Each winter, we offer a series of monthly events from November – February to gather together as a community and share ways to thrive in this Minnesota winter. Counseling staff will join us to discuss the mental and physical effects of shorter days and will talk about light therapy and demonstrate how to use a seasonal affective disorder (SAD) therapy lamp. We’ll have snacks and warm drinks, library resources you can check out, and a craft activity so you can take some of the light home with you. Plus, you can enter to win your own SAD light!

Winter Lights: Preparing for the Winter Days Ahead
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
12:00 – 1:00 pm, Room 108 in O’Shaughnessy-Frey Library

Photo of light jars created at last year’s November Winter Lights event.

November 4, 2019 by

News & Events

Winter Lights December event

We had a wonderful kick off to our Winter Lights events in early November when we heard about some of the stressors that come with wintertime and heard about coping strategies, and crowdsourced some ideas for local places to visit and things to do. We’ve collected all the ideas into one great library guide to surviving winter! We then decorated light jars so that we could all bring a little light back to our living space.

We hope you’ll join us at our next event on Tuesday, December 4. We’ll discuss ways to cope with holiday stresses and find joy this season. You’ll also get to make your own water light to take home.

“Winter Lights” is a four part series for students, faculty and staff to help you survive and thrive in the cold dark days of winter. Each session has a different theme includes a speaker, a hands-on activity, and a chance to brainstorm and share ideas to find light and joy in the winter. Those ideas are collected and shared on the library winter survival guide as the series progresses.

All are welcome at these events, whether you can make it to only one event or to all four, we hope to see you there! All events are held in the O’Shaughnessy-Frey library in the Leather room (108) from 3:30 – 4:30 pm. Future event dates are:

Dec. 4: Brighten your holidays
Jan. 8: Moving into a new year
Feb. 12: Growing into spring

November 30, 2018 by