2023 Thrive Week Events
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 2023 Thrive Week at a glance
All Week Long Events

Kind Thoughts Box
Faculty Events, Staff Events, Student Events
Jan 23, 2023 to Jan 28, 2023
12:00AM to 12:00AM

The Habit Course: Building Better Habits Personally and Professionally
Faculty Events, Staff Events, Student Events
Jan 23, 2023 to Jan 27, 2023
12:00AM to 12:00AM

Pulse at PACE (Employee Fitness)
Faculty Events, Staff Events
Jan 23, 2023 to Jan 28, 2023
12:00AM to 12:00AM
Monday January 23, 2023

Jan 23, 2023
3:30PM to 4:30PM
Tuesday January 24, 2023

Jan 24, 2023
10:30AM to 12:00PM
Wednesday January 25, 2023

Mindfulness Session with Cara Jane Dempsey
Faculty Events, Staff Events
Jan 25, 2023
10:05AM to 10:55AM

Live Well: Manage Stress, Prevent Burnout and Live a Resilient Life
Faculty Events, Staff Events, Student Events
Jan 25, 2023
7:00PM to 8:00PM
Thursday January 26, 2023

Free Flow X Period Equity Project
Faculty Events, Staff Events, Student Events
Jan 26, 2023
1:00PM to 3:00PM
Saturday January 28, 2023 - Bonus event
Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Benefits Presentation with Jordan Roberts
Faculty Events, Staff Events
Feb 21, 2023
10:30AM to 11:15AM
Thrive Week – On Demand Mental Health Talks
McMaster Office of Alumni Engagement Archive of Online Talks
Below are a sample of the mental health talks available on-demand from the McMaster Office of Alumni Engagement. You can find more of these talks through the link at the bottom of the page.

The Mindfulness Revolution: The science behind improved physical & mental well-being Link to Video
Mindfulness and meditation have been around for thousands of years – however it has only been in the last 2 decades, where researchers have gained immense insight into the benefits of this ancient practice. Research now suggests that mindfulness not only benefits our minds, but also our bodies. During this talk, Shrey Vazir discusses the latest science on how mindfulness impacts the mind and the body, the 5 ways in which it improves our physical well-being, and the 5 ways in which it optimizes our mental well-being. From improving our cardiovascular health and immune response, to slowing the cognitive decline from Alzheimer’s and reducing physical pain, learn about the vast scientific benefits of mindfulness from an evidence-based lens.

Power Personal Growth By Understanding Your Enneagram Type Link to Video
Have you ever wondered what the Enneagram was? Or have you ever thought about which of the nine types of Enneagram you are? The Enneagram is a powerful and insightful model for personal and professional growth. It has a solid foundation in modern psychology, with roots dating back more than 2,000 years into sage antiquity. This insightful webinar introduces the profound intricacies of the Enneagram’s nine types. Certified Enneagram instructor and author Dr. Patrick Bishop will focus on how personality manifests as egoic compulsions of heart, mind, and behavior.

How to Work With Anyone (Even Difficult People) Link to Video
Do you work with difficult people? Does it cause you much-unneeded stress? When we’re dealing with difficult people, our creativity, productivity, and engagement suffer. Conflict and stress compromise our ability to think clearly and make sound decisions. In this insightful webinar, Amy Gallo, author of Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People), shares research-based, practical advice on how to best work with people who push your buttons and build your interpersonal resilience in the process.

Managing Anxiety with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: What is it and how can it help? Link to Video
Anxiety is a universal emotion that we all experience but, for 1 in 4 people, anxiety can be significantly debilitating. Join Dr. Randi McCabe as she helps participants in this webinar learn about the nature of anxiety and its disorders and how to determine when the experience of anxiety warrants intervention.
Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is an evidence-based psychological treatment that is a first-line treatment for individuals with anxiety disorders. In this webinar, participants will learn about CBT and how it is used to target anxiety symptoms, as well as available resources, including self-help and therapist-assisted treatment.

The Loneliness Crisis and The Power of Human Connection Link to Video
As human beings, our brains are wired for connection. The feelings of disconnectedness people face today—isolation within our families, digital addiction, emotional trauma— hold worrying consequences for our mental well-being.
The metaverse, AI, and post-pandemic hybrid work all threaten the human connection we are wired to need as human beings. So how do we connect in a polarized world and across generations? Human connection specialist and best-selling author, Simone Heng, shares the techniques that authentically bring us together regardless of age, gender, race, and geography.

The Awesome Human Project: How to Struggle Less and Thrive More in Work and Life Link to Video
There is an Awesome Human inside every single one of us, with a great capacity to create a positive impact in the world. But to embrace your Awesome Human, you need to strengthen your emotional fitness skills and break through the mental blocks that hold you back. In this inspiring and practical webinar, Nataly Kogan, a leading expert on emotional fitness, shares her vulnerable personal story of burnout and the essential mindset shifts, scientific research, and, most importantly, tangible skills and practices to help you strengthen your emotional fitness and develop a more supportive relationship with your thoughts and emotions. Nataly fuels you with her signature contagious energy and practical tools to realize your Awesome Human potential in every area of work and life—with less stress and greater energy, joy, and a sense of meaning!
Link to Library of All McMaster Office of Alumni Engagement On-Demand Talks
Digital Gratitude Wall
Why is Gratitude Important?
Grat·i·tude: a feeling of appreciation or thanks.
According to Harvard Health, gratitude has been associated with greater happiness. Gratitude allows us to feel more positive, reminisce on past memories, improve health & resilience, as well as aid in developing strong, long-lasting relationships. Therefore, allowing gratitude to be a part of our everyday lives will improve our mental health.
Writing what you are grateful for become more optimistic. Therefore, we have included a digital gratitude wall for Thrive Week. Members of the McMaster community are all welcome to come share what they are most grateful for. We also encourage everyone to read over other’s posts to see for further positive reflection.
The inspiration for the digital gratitude wall comes from UBC’s Thrive.
Thrive Week Resources
Information Box Group

Student Wellness Centre Learn More
If you or someone you know is in need of support, the Student Wellness Centre is here to help! Providing a range of counselling options and wellness programs, we help students get the most out of their McMaster experience, academically and personally.
- You can book your initial appointment with a counsellor by calling 905-525-9140 x 27700. Together you will be able to explore support options and decide on your pathways to receive support. Learn more here: https://wellness.mcmaster.ca/services/counselling/#tab-content-accessing-counselling
- Walk-in Counselling Clinic appointments are available daily on a ‘first come first serve’ basis.
- Monday-Wednesday, check-in begins at 12:30pm and ends at 3pm
- Thursday check-in starts at 1:00pm and ends at 3p
- Friday check-in starts at 1:30pm and ends at 3pm
- Crisis support page https://wellness.mcmaster.ca/crisis-support/
- Check out our full list of wellness programs for the Winter 2023 semester here: https://wellness.mcmaster.ca/programs/

Human Resources Services Learn More
Human Resources Services offers access to mental health resources to staff and faculty through programs such as the Employee and Family Assistance Program (EFAP). . Individuals can contact Homewood Health through their website or by phone toll-free, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to book appointments, or access any EFAP service. HRS also offers access to workshops, workplace accommodations and much more.
McMaster also offers staff & faculty a comprehensive package of benefits to support their, and their families, psychological wellbeing. For many this includes coverage for mental health services (and more).
Visit the McMaster Human Resources Services website to learn more about programs and benefits available.
Human Resources has created some slides you can add to meetings, lectures and presentations. Click the links below to download some of the pre-filled slides or use the templates provided to make your own! We also have a Thrive Week Zoom background you can download, to help remind others to check out our mental health resources. Help spread the word – let’s get everyone thinking and talking about mental health!
Thrive Week Template Presentation Slides
Download Pre-filled Slides
Each link downloads a different pre-filled slide, depending on which type of activity you would like to incorporate!
Remember to Breathe |
Instructions for a box-breathing exercise. |
Mindfulness Matters |
Link to a page with guided relaxations resources. |
Body Break |
Includes a link to 4-minute movement video. |
What is Thrive?
Thrive is a time when we come together as a community to learn about, talk about, and explore ways to support our mental health. The last 18 months have brought unprecedented challenges that have impacted the mental health of our community, and now more than ever, it is important that we support one another in learning to thrive.
Promoting mental health literacy, reducing stigma, reflecting on diverse perspectives and experiences of mental health, creating a supportive campus culture, and ensuring our community has the resources to help them understand mental health issues, and improve coping skills and build resilience, are key to building mental health and to living, learning, and working well— this is what Thrive is all about!
Thrive is for everyone—we all have mental health, and while it might look and feel different for each of us, we all benefit from maintaining and fostering it. Whatever your pathway to mental health may be, we invite you to learn about it, talk about it and explore it during Thrive.
How Thrive started
Thrive began as an idea between two colleagues at UBC in the spring of 2009. Patty Hambler was working primarily in student health promotion at the time and Suzanne Jolly in a similar role that focused on staff and faculty.
They shared common goals in wanting to help create a campus environment that better understood the importance of mental health and wellbeing as well as one that was supportive of individuals to make choices that promoted not only healthy bodies but healthy minds.
Creating this type of a cultural shift was not going to be an easy task but they decided to try a new approach: combining wellbeing programming to include student, staff and faculty audiences.
First annual Thrive week launched that same year at UBC Vancouver with 20 different events and the tagline ‘Health, Community, Commitment’.
By 2014 Thrive had over 65 partners and 100 events and activities marked a highly successful initiative that reached over 35,000 campus community members. Thrive events were hosted on two UBC Campuses and in 7 different locations.
Thrive at McMaster
In 2018, Human Resources Services joined up with the Student Wellness Centre to host the first campus wide Thrive Week.
Thrive & Learn
Learning how to best take care of yourself can be overwhelming. The purpose of this page is to give you a more focused understanding as to how to best set yourself up to Thrive!
The content of this page is based off of UBC’s Thrive.

What is Self-Care?
Self-Care is the act of taking care of yourself to maintain health. Taking care of yourself can look different for each person as we all need to meet our own individual needs. To learn different avenues to Self-Care, read further here.
: Learn More
What is Eating Right?
Eating a balanced diet is connected to lessening symptoms of stress and depression. As we’ve all experienced, it can sometimes be hard to eat healthy during increasingly stressful and busy times. To learn different avenues to Eating Right, read further here.
: Learn More
Why does Movement Matter?
Adding activity to each day can help you manage stress and can boost your mood. Movement is particularly important in increasingly sedentary lifestyles. To learn more about Movement Matters, read further here.
: Learn More
What is Relaxing Rest?
Quantity and quality sleep both matter. Getting good quality sleep for long enough will help you tackle work, classes, and life’s everyday challenges. Sleep can also improve your overall health and immunity. To learn different avenues to Relaxing Rest, read further here.
: Learn More
What is Community Relief?
Helping others adds to your sense of purpose, connection, and wellbeing. Volunteering not only helps others but also helps yourself. To learn different avenues for Community Relief, read further here.
: Learn MoreWays to Improve Your Self-Care
- Practice Journaling: Learn more on how to get started with meaningful journaling here.
- Turn off your phone: It doesn’t have to be for long! But shutting down your phone will help alleviate anxiety
- Quality Time: Spend some time with the people in your life who make you the happiest!
- Write a Gratitude List: Write down 5 things you are grateful for today
Students – student specific resources can be found here.
Staff – staff specific resources can be found here.
Faculty – faculty specific resources can be found here.
Ways to Improve Eating Habits
- Learn Your Options: McMaster’s Hospitality Services has extensive accommodations for allergies, nutrition and dietary restrictions.
- Practice Intuitive Eating: Listen to when your body tells you to eat
- Food Literacy: Unfamiliar with cooking and eating on a budget? Check out the SWC’s resources.
- Eat Breakfast: Do not avoid eating the most important meal of the day!
Ways to Improve Movement
- Fitness classes: Athletics & Recreation run a variety of fun classes you can check out here.
- Stretch it out: Nothing helps your body better than a yoga/stretch session after a full day of sitting in front of a computer.
- Go for a walk: Getting outside in the fresh air can help clear your mind and give you a break from work and school
- Join in on the Fun: Join an intramural team
- Get in Nature: Go on a hike around Hamilton
- Too cold out? Jump in instead: Attend a recreational swim
Video curtesy of TED.
How to Sleep Better
- Try to get 7-9 hours of good quality sleep each night: The Canadian 24-hour Movement Guidelines recommends this as optimal for ages 18-64
- Get off of screens before bed: This allows your mind to unwind
- Establish rest routines: so your body can get used to a routine, so it knows when to go to bed
- Take a nap: A 20-minute nap during the day can leave you feeling more refreshed and well-rested
Video cutesy of TED.
How to Help Your Community
- Personalize it: Donate to causes that are near and dear to your heart
- Be Nurturing: This world can never be short on kindness!
- Volunteer: Look to your local community charities and organizations for ways you can get involved
- Spread the Word: Share what you’ve learned with friends and family to encourage community support
- Donate to McMaster’s 2021 United Way Campaign: click here to support.
Video curtesy of TED.