Financial concerns can impact on wellbeing. If you are facing financial difficulties or want to avoid them in the future, this highly informative session, provided by the Student Advice and Support Service, is for you! Topics include:

• Income maximisation, student funding, wages and tax
• Managing your spending
• Using a spreadsheet to plan your budget and cashflow
• Dealing with the unexpected
• Student Loan repayments – UK student loans

Presenter biographies:

Gail Langton is Loughborough University’s Student Advice and Support Service Manager. To date she has over 8 years of experience in Higher Education advice work. Prior to this, Gail worked with Citizens Advice providing debt advice and training to staff and volunteers.

Laura Penrose has worked on finance matters generally since around 1990 and specifically with student finance at Loughborough for 20 years, starting off with the advice service in the Student Union and from 2009 in the University, when the advice team transferred.

Are you a Time Boxer, a Deep Worker, a Daily Do-er or a Spontaneous Writer? In understanding how you work, it is possible to develop strategies to manage stress, and promote positive mental wellbeing. Over the course of this session we are going to find out exactly what kind of writer you are, and help you develop strategies to make your writing process more enjoyable.

As many students, academics and authors will be able to tell you, writing is a process. It can be stubborn, exciting, and exhausting. We believe in the value of recognising that getting words down on paper is not a linear process, and it is important to be attentive to your own writing style and rhythms. Sometimes you may experience writer’s block – at other times you may fall into an unstoppable flow of words, and it is key to realise that both are not only integral parts of producing a thesis, but also for managing your own wellbeing alongside your PhD.

Through our weekly Writing Gym sessions, we have noticed that writing your thesis can be done without stress and anxiety, it can even be fun, creative and sociable experience. For this workshop we have prepared a range of individual and group activities that will help you determine your writing profile and through group discussion we will develop various strategies that can support your unique writing process. We will also highlight the resources

Presenter biographies:

Emma Bates is a second-year Doctoral Researcher in Geography and Environment at Loughborough University. Her PhD research centres around how race and gender shape young women’s career decisions, expectations, and aspirations.

Kristina Gavran is a third-year Doctoral Researcher in Creative arts and her research is focused on true-life storytelling performance in clubs across the UK.

Katherine Woodhouse-Skinner is a second-year Doctoral Researcher in the English Department of Loughborough University. Her doctoral work aims to locate and recover the writings of female adolescents produced between 1660-1785 and consider the character of this life stage in this period of English History.

The PhD Support Network is an informal, weekly lunchtime drop-in for any PhD student. You can stop by, eat your lunch, have a chat with other students from across the University and receive support from those who are also undertaking a PhD.

It offers you:

1. Information and signposting to support services
2. A time to share experiences with one another
3. Valuable time away from your desk to relax and chat

Where/when?

Graduate Hub (Graduate House), every Tuesday, 12:30-13:30. No need to book, just turn up!

Delivered by sleep expert Professor Kevin Morgan, this workshop offers a person-centred introduction to how your sleep works, how it can go wrong under pressure, and how you can manage periods of challenge.

Whatever the presumed causes of acutely or chronically disturbed sleep, factors mediating insomnia symptoms (problems getting to sleep or staying asleep) are both limited and controllable. This workshop will briefly explore the drivers of normal and disturbed sleep, the impact of insomnia on day-to-day performance, and practical, evidence-based self-help approaches to sleep management.
The session will offer information, case-studies, resources and Q&A opportunities, while the learning outcomes have been designed to address 3 FAQs:

1. Is my sleep normal?
2. How does sleep disturbance affect my life?
3. If my sleep doesn’t work – how can I fix it?

Presenter biography:

Since completing doctoral research into drug treatments for insomnia at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh, Professor Kevin Morgan has maintained a career-long research interest in sleep and health. As an independent consultant his activities now focus on insomnia management, and sleep in elite performance. 

It is well-established that group exercise is hugely beneficial to a person’s physical and mental wellbeing. Circuits is a fun, full-body workout class that can be tailored to all fitness levels and ages. Incorporating equipment in addition to using own body weight, this class will include targeted tone and strengthening exercises for the arms, legs, cardio and abs.

Instructor biography:

Anna Taylor has worked at Loughborough University for 2 years as the Recreational Sport & Physical Activity Coordinator. Anna is a Level 2 Fitness Instructor, a Beatz Dance Fitness Instructor and an Aqua Fitness Instructor.

Plant hangers are a creative and funky way to present plants and decorate any room. Dependent on the shape, size, colour and material they can be made to work with any vibe! Making them is a great way to de-stress and helps to focus your busy thoughts onto a fun, hands-on activity.

In this workshop you’ll learn how to do a selection of basic macramé knots, how to work with different materials to make these knots, and then depending on which knots you prefer you will create your own individually designed plant hanger to take home.

The thread we will be using is sustainable, and one type is made from recycled off cuts from fabric factories in Turkey. If you have a specific plant pot that you are making it for, we encourage you to bring it along, however if you don’t do not worry - the plant hangers you will make will be adjustable so should fit the majority of plant pot sizes!

Presenter biography:

Léa Sawicki will be running this workshop. Léa is a final year sport science student with a questionable obsession with plants, growing 20 in her room alone. She also has a keen interest in wellbeing, and currently leads the HeadsUp association in Loughborough Students’ Union, a committee focused on promoting positive mental health and raising awareness to help reduce the stigma. Additionally, she enjoys exercise and plays AU lacrosse, although why she is trusted with a stick with her track record of clumsiness is yet to be determined. 

Léa is a self-taught macramé lover and found this creative outlet over a year ago taking her plant obsession to the next level. She started her own brand called ‘Knotty’ and began selling the plant hangers in her mum’s shop in Brighton. She then decided she wanted to share this skill with others, primarily as it is a great way to de-stress, but also to make a room that little bit funkier. .