Having your health is a number one priority, especially during busy, stressful and full-on university life days. Healthy McGill helps students stay in touch with health, awareness and balance. Heather Johnson, Healthy McGill’s Active Living Coordinator and Communications Coordinator, has been kind enough to share some more information on Healthy McGill, its goals, events, messages and some advice to students. Read our interview below to find out more about Heather and this amazing group that is right on campus.
Anna Stuber for Her Campus McGill (HC): Tell us a little bit about your position. What is Healthy McGill and what kinds of things do you do for it?
Heather Johnson (HJ): Healthy McGill is an on-campus health resource for McGill students which falls under the umbrella of Student Health Services. In addition to running the Shag Shop, a safer sexual health boutique, we offer a peer health education program promoting mental health, active living, nutrition, sexual health and drug and alcohol education. Our goal is to provide students with accurate information in a safe environment and support them in achieving and maintaining a ‘healthy lifestyle’, whatever healthy means to them. Within Healthy McGill I’m the Active Living Coordinator as well as the Communications Coordinator. I oversee a team of peer health educators and we aim to promote the messag[e] that active living is the most productive 30 minutes of the day, it can be anything a person wants it to be and it’s a great way to make and maintain friendships. In my role as Communications Coordinator I work on Healthy McGill’s listserv and social media which includes Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. So basically I get to communicate to the masses about health and hope that at least a few other people find my jokes as funny as I do (see: It’s Febru-self care-y!).
HC: How did you originally get involved?
HJ: I originally got involved with Healthy McGill through volunteering on the Mental Health peer education team in my fourth year. I was really interested in trying to promote the idea of a balanced student lifestyle to my peers. I was also given the opportunity to start up a Twitter account for Healthy McGill and I loved being able to provide helpful resources in conjunction with silly hashtags in a way I thought students could relate to. After graduation, I planned on leaving to travel but after attending a really cool presentation from University of Toronto’s MoveU program at CACUSS (Canadian Association of College and University Student Services) I was really inspired to stay and take on the Active Living team at McGill.
HC: What are some of the events Healthy McGill puts on?
HJ: By far our biggest undertaking this year was our two week #SelfCareChallenge this February. Every day, we had five different challenges representing each of our teams and people could choose to do however many they wanted and share [them] with us on social media. The idea behind it was to have students discover how taking the smallest bit of time for themselves each day to do something small could have really positive implications. The sense of community we were able to achieve from that challenge was unbelievable and so exciting. But more commonly, our activities include weekly campaigns. Teams choose a health topic to discuss and create a campaign around it, such as: it’s time to take a movement break, get creative in the kitchen and eat the rainbow, get tested, name that mocktail, contraception inception, risky business, eating disorder awareness week, mental illness awareness week, no health without mental health, positive long distance relationships, body-talk free week, find the right fit, exam health 101 and weekly yoga. This semester, the Active Living team has created three minute Movement Break videos for professors to play during lectures to re-energize students, which we’re very excited about.
HC: What is your favourite Healthy McGill message?
HJ: Without a doubt, my favourite message from Healthy McGill is that health is whatever you want it to be and whatever your goals are we can help support you in that. I feel that we are so bombarded by things we ‘should do’ or ‘must avoid’ to prevent some horrible outcome that this idea of ‘health’ becomes really unattainable. “You can’t have dessert!” Why not? Everything in moderation. Enjoy it! “You’re not fit unless you go to the gym every day!” But activities of daily living also can make you feel just as great. Everyone should feel free to find what works for them, ideally in a really open-minded, non-judgemental way. Health isn’t a one size fits all model, it’s highly individualized. We want to empower students to make their own decisions. I’m incredibly proud to be a part of something that takes that approach.
HC: What makes Healthy McGill so popular among students?
HJ: Simple: we are students. We’re peers dealing with similar things and our messaging is relevant to what students are going through (i.e. how to be more active in the library, great ideas for study snacks to pack, taking mental health breaks, ways to party safer, ideas for safer sex, staying at your best during exams, etc.). We also have really fun give-aways, which I don’t think hurts our cause.
HC: What would you say is one of the most important pieces of health advice you could give to students?
HJ: For me, I think it all comes down to finding your own balance. That’s going to take a lot of trial and error, but at the end of the day no one is going to understand your needs better than you, so take the time to notice and figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. Does being active make you feel good? How active do you like being? What foods make you feel good? What helps you destress? Are you comfortable with your sexual health? Does your knowledge about drugs and alcohol allow you to have fun and feel safe? I think, as students, it’s easy to think it’s GPA first and everything else falls behind, but finding the right balance can help you feel and be at your best which will then affect your school, work, extracurriculars, relationships, well-being…everything. You’re worth taking the time to figure that out.
Thank you again to Heather for taking the time to share important health information with us. Check out the Healthy McGill website for more guidance on how to stay balanced and well.