It’s been a rough past few weeks for everyone, Guilfordians included. The Active Minds Club here at Guilford College recognized that, and so the advertisements for the Stress Less Week were sent out in the Guilford Buzz and What’s the G?

The Stress Less Week included three different events on three different days of the week. The club advertised each event in the Buzz throughout the week, along with the Zoom code and password needed to attend each day.

The first activity, on Wednesday, Nov. 11, was a meeting inviting participants to speak about the state of their mental health, discuss what had been going on over the past few weeks and use the space to maybe vent out a few frustrations.

The president of the Active Minds Club, Jillian Morrison, said in regards to the meeting, “Students need time and space to explore their emotions, and we hoped that by providing an outlet for this, students would come together in community.” 

The meeting provided a great opportunity for students to meet new people despite its low turnout, and the events for the rest of the week held promise.

The activity for day two, held on Thursday, Nov. 12, was a game of Kahoot, complete with prizes for each placement. The object of the game was for participants to answer questions about mental health statistics quickly and accurately in order to have a chance at the club’s prizes.

Morrison has said that this was done in an effort to make some of the more unnerving or upsetting facts about mental health seem more fun. 

“A lot of the statistics are shocking, and college students should be aware of these realities,” Morrison said. “To celebrate this event, we gave gift cards to the first, second, and third place winners. We hoped that by putting these facts into an interactive game, students would realize that everyone has mental health (struggles), and that no one should ever feel ashamed about what they are going through.”

For their final day on Friday, Nov. 13, the club had initially planned to show the movie Elf over Zoom for it’s attendees, but in light of the recent cuts to Guilford’s majors and staff opted instead to promote the student-led teach in happening on the same day (the survey from which was posted in the Buzz recently). However, they did put the link to the movie on their Instagram page, @activemindsguilford, in case anyone wanted to watch the movie independently or with their friends.

Despite that, overall the week was considered by the club to be a success. Morrison feels that, even though the meeting’s overall turnout was low, it went well and accomplished the club’s goal: “Our two goals were to get new members for the club and connect with our community, and I feel like we accomplished both. This week has been extremely stressful and emotional for many students, and this event allowed me and the other officers to meet new people and lift each other up. ”

Morrison has also said, while not having any concrete plans for the spring semester, that the club wants to be able to host more virtual events such as this one. 

“We will also plan more programs that resemble our Chalk About Stigma and Spooky Self-Care events,” Morrison said. “We think it’s important to have a balance between building community through virtual events, and giving students supplies to practice self-care on their own. We want our community to incorporate these skills into their lives outside of Guilford, and we hope that by holding these kinds of programs, they learn the importance of prioritizing their mental health.”

Knowing about this club and the kinds of activities it hosts can be beneficial to Guilfordians who don’t feel they have their own space to discuss their feelings or open up about their struggles with their mental health. Since the past few weeks alone have been so full of stress, it’s important to be able to have both an outlet to talk about these feelings and a place to be able to forget about it and be away from stress.

Students who are interested in attending meetings like this should follow the Active Minds club to hear any new announcements, and watch the Buzz to learn about events that are interesting to them. Everybody should have a place to feel safe, and Active Minds can help with that. It’s just as one of Morrison’s favorite quotes says: “Just because no one else can heal or do your inner work for you doesn’t mean you can, should, or need to do it alone.” -Lisa Olivera