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EXCEL Partnering with SMTD Wellness Initiative

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The Eight Dimensions of Wellness
image source: https://uhs.umich.edu/

This academic year, EXCEL is partnering with the SMTD Wellness Initiative to present a series of events on Life-Work Balance. 

The Wellness Initiative was installed in Fall 2016 to provide students, faculty, and staff of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance with wellness services, education, and programming. 

So what do Wellness and Entrepreneurship have in common? “Both of our programs aim to help students be the best they can be in all areas of their life,” says Paola Savvidou, Wellness Initiative Program Manager. “We both want students to have tools for success and longevity of a life in the arts.” This mini-series was inspired by common student feedback programs received with requests for sessions on topics related to life-work balance.

The next installment of the EXCEL/Wellness Mini-Series is this Thursday, January 30th, 2020 and will discuss handling rejection. Rejection as a performer is part of the gig; it’s going to happen. How do we learn and grow without being too caught up in our reactions to “Am I not good enough?”. This session will explore self compassion, using a growth mindset and resilience, as well as discussions about how to learn from failures in a productive manner.

Emily Hyssong, SMTD’s CAPS Counselor

Facilitating will be Emily Hyssong, SMTD’s own embedded CAPS (Counseling and Psychological Services) Counselor. Reservations are appreciated for the event. RSVP here!

Future topics to be covered include dealing with performance anxiety and the stresses of graduate school. 

For more information on the SMTD Wellness Initiative, visit their website.

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New Young Creatives Book Club Tackles Imposter Syndrome

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How do you find the confidence to get past imposter syndrome and get down to business?

Right now, the new Young Creatives Book Club (YCBC) is tackling this big, relevant question. The book of discussion is Your Inner Critic is a Big Jerk: and other truths about being creative by writer, artist, and curator Danielle Krysa. Check out her TED Talk on the topic here!

Here are Danielle Krysa’s 4 Strategies for dealing with your inner critic:
1. Copy the experts.
2. Give your inner critic a name.
3. Say “thank you”
4. Translate & Rewrite

The idea to launch this book club was conceived by Melissa Coppola, a DMA Student and EXCEL Program Assistant. She says, “The aim is for like-minded, creative SMTD students to meet, socialize, and have fun through a communal learning experience. The staff has been thinking for the past two years about how EXCEL can host more casual gatherings of students interested in the topics of entrepreneurship in a welcoming and casual environment, and this idea has stuck with me. I’m so excited to be helping to lead the new program!”

Young Creatives Book Club Sticky note activity!

The first meeting of the Young Creatives Book Club (YCBC) was Tuesday, September 17th. The group watched the TED Talk, then they followed Danielle’s advice to answer the question, “What are the things your inner critic says?” They then put them into the various “Buckets of Lies” that the book describes as primary categories for these thoughts. Finally, the group reflected on how similar many of these thoughts were, and then took the post-it notes back to turn them into positive thoughts. For example, “I’m not good enough” might be turned into “I am trying my hardest and am exactly where I should be right now.”

Participants of the first session really appreciated the opportunity to discuss self-criticism with other artists. “I love the community formed,” one student shared. “We are not alone. We all struggle with these sometimes paralyzing thoughts.” Another student commented, “This topic is very important but rarely touched on in school.”

Young Creatives Book Club (YCBC) meets again on Tuesday, October 1st at 7 pm in the EXCEL Lab. Anyone is encouraged to attend, even if you weren’t at the first meeting or haven’t started reading the book! RSVP for the meeting on Handshake so we know how much food to order.

For an exciting culmination of the series, the third meeting will be Wednesday, October 16th at 7 pm. AND, author Danielle Krysa will be joining via Skype! YCBC is crowdsourcing questions for Danielle, so you can add any of your questions for her to this Google Doc. You do not want to miss this exciting event! BUT – for those who are interested but unable to attend, the Skype call will be recorded and available to watch later.

We hope to see you at a YCBC meeting! Questions about the Young Creatives Book Club? Stop in and ask at the EXCEL Lab, or email smtdexcel@umich.edu.