It is an evidence-based path, specifically designed for teaching mindfulness, meditation, and resiliency to BTA basketball player and other young adults. You will learn several skills, including meditation, breathing exercises, guided imagery, the body scan, and more. Each of these skills is designed to help you manage stress and enrich your life. Well-being is a dynamic and fluid continuum influenced by many interconnected dimensions. The challenge each of us experience is finding the balance that works throughout the many seasons of our lives. Key ingredients are appreciating the eight dimensions of well-being, knowing what works for you, and living with compassion and a sense of humour.

PHYSICAL

Physical wellness is essential to living a long healthy life. Important aspects of physical health include exercise, nutrition, sleep, sexual health and making healthy decisions around alcohol use.  Maintaining a healthy body not only promotes your physical health, but can benefit your emotional, intellectual and relational well-being too. Exercise: Find the time to get your body moving! Try to get at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity a week, with at least two days of muscle-strengthening activity. Potential Benefits: Reduce stress - Increase energy - Maintain a healthy weight - Improve memory, focus  & productivity - Better sleep - Improve mood & self-esteem.

ENVIRONMENTAL

Environmental well-being means leading a lifestyle that values the relationship between ourselves, our community and the environment. As environmental stewards, we have a responsibility to live in harmony with the earth, recognize our impact on its environment, and promote practices that will sustain its cherished resources. Foster your Environmental Well-being: Recycle - Bike or walk for your commute when you can - Use re-usable bags and water bottles - Be mindful of your water use - Go to the farmer’s market, choose locally-sourced food - Donate unwanted clothing. Potential Benefits: Reduce your carbon footprint - Small changes add to big changes in preserving our environment - Save money - Feel good about your practices - Locally grown food is fresher and more nutritious.

SPIRITUAL

Spiritual wellness allows us to find inner peace and harmony. Spirituality can stem from beliefs, faith, values, ethics or moral principles that provide purpose and direction in our lives. A healthy spirit helps us remain resilient and better prepared to face life’s challenges.
Foster your Spiritual Wellbeing: Keep a journal to reflect - Spend time in nature - Explore yoga and meditation - Travel. Potential Benefits: Sense of purpose and meaning - Resilience - Clear values to live by - Optimism.

EMOTIONAL

Emotional well-being involves recognition and acceptance of all of your thoughts and feelings, whether positive or negative.  Staying in tune with your emotions is critical to maintaining balance and resiliency.  Emotional health will enable you to cope with stress, work productively, and recognize your true potential. Foster your Emotional Well-being: Take time to yourself to quiet your mind and reflect - Get involved in extracurricular activities - Share your thoughts and feelings with someone you trust, and listen to others’ emotions too - Take care of your body. Eat well, exercise, and sleep – your mental & physical health are all interconnected - Laugh! Don’t take life so seriously. Sometimes humour is the best medicine to decrease stress and put life’s challenges in perspective - Be kind to yourself. We are our own harshest critics. Liberate yourself from unnecessary self-judgement by practising self-compassion. Create your own affirmation. Potential Benefits: Clearer mind - Improved productivity - Better mood - Enhanced self-esteem - Better communication skills.

INTELLETTUAL

If you look at the mission of BTA, you won’t find anything about our championships or our successes, but instead find phrases like intellectual transformation and new ways of knowing. Just like your physical and mental health, your intellect needs nourishment too. Intellectual wellbeing consists of critical thinking, stimulating curiosity, problem solving, and creativity. Intellectual wellbeing isn't confined to the classroom or office, but instead requires lifelong sustainment and cultivation. Foster your Intellectual Wellbeing: Read for pleasure - Check out a seminar or conference on something you're unfamiliar with - Go to a play, museum exhibit or poetry reading - Debate with someone (respectfully) - Learn another language - Do crossword puzzles - Study or travel abroad. Potential Benefits: Improve cognition - Experience a more stimulating life - Development of personal values and opinions - Open-mindedness - Clearer thinking - Improved concentration and memory.

RELATIONAL

Relational health focuses on establishing and maintaining meaningful relationships with individuals, groups and communities. It develops from on our interactions and connections with others. Having a network, grounded in supportive relationships, will make you feel satisfied and secure. Foster your Relational Wellbeing: Join a club or organization - Participate in study groups - Make an effort to stay in touch with family, friends, and mentors - Volunteer in the community - Maintain balance between work and social/study time - Potential Benefits: Feeling of inclusion and worth - Support during times of need - Personal growth & confidence: becoming more comfortable with who you are - Communication skills - Conflict management.

VOCATIONAL

For most of us, discovering our vocation is a journey of education, decisions, and  experiences. Vocational wellbeing is balancing life with an occupation that aligns with our skills and values, challenges us, and gives us a sense of fulfillment. Important components consist of goals and ambition, job satisfaction, personal performance, and a feeling of meaning and purpose. Foster your Vocational Wellbeing: Reflect often, where do you find joy and meaning in your life? - Explore different career and / or volunteer opportunities that arise - Keep an open mind - Participate in internships or research opportunities - Take advantage of career service resources. Potential Benefits: Find work/life balance - Feel a sense of satisfaction and stimulation - Open doors to new opportunities Discover new skills and interests - Experience a feeling of worth and value.

FINANCIAL

Financial wellbeing means being mindful of your financial decision making. Financial health comes from living within your means, differentiating between needs and wants, and managing short-term and long-term financial goals. Foster your Financial Wellbeing: Make a list or review your bank account of all purchases in one week – it may be more than you think - Start with small changes that will add up over time (i.e. make your own coffee rather than buying it) - Write a list before you go shopping - Ask yourself “do I really need this?” before an unplanned purchase - Start a savings account – add a small monthly automatic payment if possible. Potential Benefits: Achieve personal financial goals - Reduce debt - Decrease financial stress - Feel in control of and secure in your finances - Increase savings for tomorrow.