Painting a Brighter Future: Raising Mental Health Awareness with STU’s Paint and Plant Event
On a beautiful Wednesday afternoon, students gathered in St. Thomas University’s Wabanaki Student Centre for the monthly Creativity for Mental Health monthly program that is used to help create further awareness for mental health on the University’s campus.
The final Creativity for Mental Health event was called “Paint and Plant”, where the 15 registered attendees painted their own plant pots while discussing self-care, this month’s chosen topic to discuss in hopes of raising mental health.
The three prior events focused on self-compassion, gratitude, and building one’s emotional awareness. Creativity for Mental Health ran alongside weekly Guided Mindfulness Activities, a six-week Anxiety Group and a weekly recovery group throughout the semester, all with the hope of raising awareness and improving students’ mental health.
The metaphor of comparing a growing plant to someone’s self-care was a key factor in the chosen activity, according to STU’s mental health coordinator Brittany Sprague, who organized and hosted the event.
Every student engaged in a table discussion about self-care while uniquely designing their own pots. Topics ranged from a general discussion about self-care to going over some popular myths surrounding this area of practice.
Having the chance to speak with the University’s Mental Health Coordinator and their peers, students were able to speak freely in a safe and supportive place about their own personal experiences, giving them the opportunity to connect with others who attended the gathering.
“I think this is such a great idea”, said one of the attending students. “This is a fun way to spread awareness of the issue while getting a chance to learn more about self-care.”
Students were excited to participate in the tight-knit event, as even those who hadn’t registered prior arrived in the hopes of getting a seat to be able to join the fun. Sprague says that the final event had the best showing of students out of the four hosted this semester.
“We actually only had one student attend the first one, which is pretty funny looking back on it”, said Sprague following the event. “So, it’s nice to see the progression of these creativity events throughout the year.”
Sprague, who is in her first year as Mental Health Coordinator at STU, hopes to build on the success of these events and use her experience to spread awareness further and help students overcome mental illness.
Everyone came up with unique ideas for their own plant pots, varying from base colours to faces, and even creative, intricate designs before seeding them and taking them home to take care of in hopes of both of their pots growing into beautiful plants.
Playing into the metaphor of ourselves being the plant, requiring self-care to help yourself grow and flourish, as the seeds that were placed in each personalized pot would if taken care of with water and nourishment.
Giving students the opportunity to express their creativity while being in a relaxed and supportive atmosphere was a great way to attract them to this event, as well as future ones.
Having an event that brightened the mood of all who attended was great for the students, as many saw it as being a way to relieve and deal with stress leading into the winter semester’s final days before exam week begins.
As the event began to wind down, students began to slowly trickle away with their newly planted seeds and a renewed sense of importance for self-care and mental health awareness. The success of the Paint and Plant event was a testament to the true value of combining creativity and discussion to engage students in important conversations about mental health.
“I’m excited to do more of these events in the future”, said Sprague. “I think it’s extremely important for us to hold these events with the goal of spreading mental health awareness across campus.”
