Peace and Purpose Project promotes school wellness

The Peace & Purpose Project is a new program offered during the FOCUS block that seeks to help students achieve

The Peace & Purpose Project has been carefully planned by the school’s very own staff and faculty. Health Teacher, Ms. Alina Muir, and Director of Guidance, Ms. Lucy Blanco, came up with the idea because they wanted to find a way to help students strengthen their mind, body, and soul while understanding that we are all works in progress of our creator’s masterpiece.

“Through The Peace & Purpose Project, we aim to help our students. We cannot achieve total wellness unless we have a balance of all four in our lives,” Mrs. Muir said.

To understand the importance of The Peace & Purpose Project, it is crucial to understand why students need wellness in their lives.

Wellness involves being aware of and making choices towards a healthy and fulfilling life. It is a state of complete physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being. Maintaining awareness of one’s thoughts, feelings, physical body, and surrounding environments are essential for being mindful. When put into practice, mindfulness tunes one’s thoughts and allows them to be in the moment instead of dwelling on the past or future.

Ms. Muir has spent much of her time coordinating with the Guidance Department and the Campus Ministry staff to implement new and healthy outlets for the Olla community. The students, teachers, staff, and parents will be offered the opportunity to become more mindful of their health while focusing on four core components: the spiritual, social, intellectual, and physical.

The students will be offered diverse counseling sessions focused on nutrition education, yoga, prayer, kickboxing, gardening, meditation, self-defense, Zumba, stress management, digital literacy, women in leadership, and much more. Many of these offerings will also be made available for the faculty, staff and parents.

“This program aims to help you, our students, understand that we are all a work in progress — that the goal of each day is to strive for peace in our hearts and purpose in our lives. This is not a destination; it is a journey!” Ms. Muir said.

The Peace Project held it’s introductory class Wednesday, October 28, the project hosted a course on relaxation with yoga and meditation. The two other courses held this past week were on: managing digital overload — continually being on our devices and cardio — getting your heart rate up in between classes.

“I loved the discussion on Digital Overload. I think that it’s a very relevant topic today now with the coronavirus since we spend many more hours looking at our screens, “ junior Claudia Michiels said. “After listening to the discussion, I realized that I need to prioritize more time for myself most importantly without a screen”, she said.

If students wish to participate in any project activities, they can look for Ms. Muir’s emails and register using the link included. All activities will be hosted virtually, so students must register before participating in any of the project activities. Once a student has completed their registration, then Ms. Muir will send them their Zoom meeting credentials.