Redefining Wellbeing: A Journey to a Healthier Tomorrow

Despite the school embedding well-being days into its curriculum, it is undeniable that the students of AISJ don’t always have positive mental well-being. Participating in CCAs, maintaining relationships, and managing deadlines with assignments, especially on the infamous “assignment week,” affects the livelihood and wellness of our student body. When those bad days do happen, it leaves students wondering whether well-being really does what it’s meant to do.

As a student, I appreciate the impact well-being has on me. When experiencing the struggles of managing wellness in a school that either doesn’t provide any support or disregards it, AISJ gives students the tools they need to navigate their future lives, from education about drugs and relationships to social media and digital etiquette.

While AISJ does a great job of educating its students about aspects of life and well-being, as a school, we need to teach our community, especially students, how to manage their emotions, which is introduced during well-being lessons but is not focused on.

School is where people change, grow, and make new connections, but it is also where students face their biggest adversary: stress. In an environment that demands a lot for success, being able to manage your emotions is vital for mental well-being.

Cambridge University says that mental well-being is the combination of ‘feeling well’ and ‘functioning well.’ While ‘feeling well’ is how satisfied we are with our life from a subjective viewpoint, ‘functioning well’ is how we see our personal development. Students with positive well-being levels enjoy school and feel they are reaching their potential.

In an environment where students cannot manage their emotions, stress and worry blind students to feeling worse and, in turn, performing worse. By highlighting the need to prioritize managing emotions, students benefit not only in their education but also in other aspects of life, preparing them for their future.

Of course, as the brain’s frontal lobe wouldn’t be fully developed until the mid-twenties for most people, some might say learning how to manage emotions will truly never be effective. Still, it doesn’t take a complete understanding of yourself to be able to manage your feelings, no matter how difficult it might be.

With a better understanding of what the AISJ students need, well-being should stay, but with a slight improvement in prioritizing management, especially with emotions. Though it’s just a single change, even small steps can help achieve a nurturing environment that well-being strives to create.