More TWLOHA-WU

One final post about Washburn's TWLOHA u-chapter. I just wanted to share about our final event of the year - the Love Moves 5k. This was the third year TWLOHA-WU has hosted this event and all money, aside from raffle tickets, was donated to the national organization.

We had about 25 people participate and raised over $550 for To Write Love On Her Arms to use to continue to help those struggling.

Below are some photos from the event

 Photo Credit: Hayley Harris

 Photo Credit: Paul Kirkwood

 Photo Credit: Rachel Proffitt

 Photo Credit: Murray Heikes

  Photo Credit: Murray Heikes

 Photo Credit: Murray Heikes

Outreach On Campus

Finals are approaching rapidly and that can mean that increased stress levels are starting to make an appearance throughout college campuses. TWLOHA at Washburn wants to make sure everyone is still practicing self care. We were thinking of ways that we could spread that message on campus and came up with the idea to make little baggies to hand out with a variety of stress relievers in them. Things like stress balls, chocolate, positive quotes, bubbles, etc. 

We are going to be tabling in the union during success week from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. If you are a Washburn student and are in need of some self care help, please stop by! 

Here's some photos from other tabling events we have done in the past:

 Photo Credit: Rachel Proffitt

 Photo Credit: Rachel Proffitt

 Photo Credit: Monica McDougal

 Photo Credit: Rachel Proffitt

Photo Credit: Monica McDougal

Self Care

Last week at our TWLOHA meeting, we discussed self care. This is a reoccurring theme with the topic of mental health, but for good reason! Taking care of yourself should be number one on your priority list!

Mental well being is what I focus on on this blog, but it's important to make sure you are physically well too. If you want to get read more about taking care of yourself physically I encourage you to check out Lauren's blog (link on the side of the page) or click here.

Feeling great physically can do wonders for yourself mentally, even if it's just making sure you get enough sleep each day. As a college student, that is a constant struggle for me but trying to work on little things like that helps with my stress levels and puts me in a better mood. Kassidy's blog does a great job of incorporating both physical and mental well being and I suggest giving it a read! The link is also on the side of the page or you can click here.

Some ways to actively practice self-care:

Photo Credit: Google images

Ways To Help: The Trevor Project

There are many organizations that exist solely to raise awareness and help those struggling with their mental health. To Write Love On Her Arms is one of course. If I were to make a list of every single one, it would take quite some time, but I did want to point out one that I became familiar with over the last year.

The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning (LGBTQ) young people ages 13-24. One thing I really like about this organization is that they have a 24/7 hotline. So literally whenever someone may need help, counselors are there.

All photos belong to The Trevor Project's official Facebook page 

I was introduce to The Trevor Project through YouTuber, Tyler Oakley. For the past few years for his birthday, he has asked his subscribers to donate to the foundation instead of sending him fan mail and/or gifts. This year he was able to raise over $500,000. There's something really great about seeing someone who knows they have the ability to reach a lot of people and is able to take advantage of that in a positive way.

I encourage you to check our their website HERE to read some more about them and what they do. If you can't donate but still want to help, SHARE! Post about it, talk about it with your friends and family, etc. Just starting that conversation can reach so many people!

Community

People need other people.

I mentioned that saying in an earlier blog post. It's one of the most important concepts to grasp in my opinion. It's very important that you have other people in your life that you cant turn to when something happens. Whether that something is good or bad, being able to talk about it with another person or group of people helps you process it. They are your community.

Not all communities are good though. The difference between a good a bad community can be explained by answering one question: Why are these people in my life?

You want to keep a community that pushes you in a positive way, that wants to see you be the best version of yourself, and that makes you feel better after being around them. Think of the reasons you hang out with these people. What commonalities are shared across the group? Are your shared interests things that are healthy or unhealthy for you?

Spotting a bad community can be difficult, especially if it's some of the people you are closest to. To give an example, I've had friends in the past that, even though we got along great, the habits that were being formed and encouraged weren't the best. It's hard to remove yourself from a group you've become so close with but ALWAYS be keeping in mind your well being. If you are going to be in a better place mentally without those people, it is completely okay to let yourself move on.

It's also not good to solely invest yourself in just one community. Not everyone is going to get along 100% of the time so if things start getting tense in one group, you might need other people to turn to. Same goes for sharing your entire self and story with just one person. That's not healthy for either party. It's great to talk about your story and it deserves to be heard, but think of WHO deserves to hear it.

Again, people need other people. Make sure you have some good communities in your life and don't feel guilty removing the negative. 

To Write Love On Her Arms

Since I may reference TWLOHA in the future, I wanted to provide a little more information about it. Especially the UChapters program and Washburn University's involvement.

Twloha's founder, Jamie Tworkowski, put this whole thing in motion with a single story posted on myspace (originally). You can now find it here on twloha's website. After he posted that story about his friend Renee, he received many responses of people in similar situations or people who knew someone that needed help. And after a while, twloha became a non-profit organization. This started in 2006 and this provides an excellent look at just how much they have accomplished since then. One major acheivement was in 2011 when they were awarded $1 million from Chase at the American Giving Awards. 

Twloha's mission statement:

To Write Love On Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. Twloha exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

Twloha Links:

Official Website (my description here is very brief and summarized so I suggest going here to get a more in depth look at what the organization is about)

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UChapters:

The UChapters program is a network of student organizations on college and university campuses that exists to embody the mission and vision of To Write Love on Her Arms. Through organized meetings and events, each chapter serves as a voice of inspiration and support for students and their surrounding communities.

Twloha-Wu is in it's fourth year as a student organization and we are continuously working on reaching out to as many people as possible. We cover a different mental health topic each month. Meetings vary from discussion based to speakers to community building activities to occasional potlucks. If you are interested, we meet Thursdays at 5 p.m. in the LLC Blair Room.

This is a photo of some members of twloha-wu with founder, Jamie Tworkowski this past summer at the UChapters conference. (Photo by: Molly Walter)

Twloha-Wu links

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