NEWS AND EVENTS
Virtual ‘Grand Challenges’ Workshops, June 5 through mid-July
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln is launching a process to identify the university’s grand challenges — major societal issues that can be solved only through interdisciplinary approaches. Beginning June 5, Nebraska faculty, staff and students will come together to identify up to three grand challenges to add to the three identified by Chancellor Ronnie Green in his State of the Union Address: early childhood education and development; sustainable water and food security; and resilience in our changing climate.
The university community can register online for the workshops. Additional details about each workshop are available on the registration page.
KUDOS TO OUR COLLEAGUES
ORED’s Institutional Animal Care Program was featured in a story written by Heidi Uhing from Research Communications. The story focuses on the IACP team’s adaptability under COVID-related campus restrictions and their continued ability to ensure that animals are well cared for during the pandemic. Thanks, IACP, for maintaining this crucial aspect of our research enterprise during this time!
WELLNESS WATCH
Focusing on Strengths to Increase Happiness
Sometimes we give our weaknesses and limitations more attention than our strengths. Yet research suggests that thinking about and applying our personal strengths can increase our happiness and reduce depression. Try the following exercise once a day for a week:
- Identify one of your personal strengths – a positive trait that contributes to your character, such as creativity, perseverance, communication or strategic thinking – and consider how you could use it in a new and different way.
- Write down the personal strength you plan to use each day and how you are going to use it. Then, do it – act on your strength as frequently as possible throughout the day.
- Repeat the steps above every day for a week. You may use the same personal strength across multiple days, or try using a new personal strength each day (you have several!).
- At the end of the week, write about the personal strengths you focused on during the week and how you used them. Write in detail about how you felt and what you learned from the experience.
A team of researchers conducted experiments comparing people who used a personal strength each day for one week and people who wrote only about early memories every day for a week. Those who applied their strengths reported an increase in happiness and a decrease in symptoms of depression immediately after the one-week experiment, and those changes persisted six months later.
Reflecting on your strengths can help remind you that you have important positive qualities and this reminder can build confidence and self-esteem – and in turn, increase happiness. Putting strengths to use enhances them and using them in new and different ways can reveal how useful your strengths are in a range on contexts.
Thanks to Laurie Sampson, learning and development coordinator, for submitting this item.
Thanks to all who contributed to this month’s OPEN Book. If you have something you’d like to include in the next edition, send it to Tiffany Lee.
