WCC WELLNESS
Intellectual Edition
Sneak Peek Of WCC Wellness
Intellectual Edition

  • What is Intellectual Wellness?
  • 5 Tips For Improving Your Intellectual Wellness
  • FREE Brain Game Apps
  • WCC YouTube Tutorial Videos
  • WCC Mask Distribution
  • Mask Crochet Helper Tutorial
  • Reading & Listening Corner
  • Blackstone Valley Children's Place Story Time
NOTE: Please be advised that for the safety of our customers links to informational websites will be the full expanded addresses without hyperlinks. Please copy and paste the expanded address into your web browser to view the websites and articles. Thank you!

What Is Intellectual Wellness?
Intellectual wellness encourages us to engage in creative and mentally-stimulating activities. These activities should expand your knowledge and skills while allowing you to share your knowledge and skills with others. Intellectual wellness can be developed through academics, cultural involvement, community involvement and personal hobbies. As intellectual wellness develops, you are able to develop personal resources that work together with the other realms of wellness in order to achieve a more balanced life.
5 Tips For Improving Your Intellectual Wellness
  1. Instead of sitting down and watching television at the end of the day, opt for a good book or podcast instead. Podcasts are also excellent ways to learn about new topics you may be interested in.
  2. Learn a new skill. Is there a skill that immediately came to mind when you read this? Now is the time to go out and learn it! Whether it's cooking, gardening, crafting or building, learning a new skill is a fun and interactive way to improve your intellectual wellness.
  3. Play a board game. Strategy board games are all the rage currently, making board games both fun and intellectually challenging. Some of our favorites include: Clue, Risk, Settlers of Catan and Pandemic. Try your hand at these to improve your critical thinking skills.
  4. Complete a daily word search, crossword puzzle, or sudoku to enhance your intellectual wellness. These are easy activities which keep the mind engaged and entertained simultaneously.
  5. Improve your time management skills. Poor time management can lead to increased stress, which hinders every aspect of the Wellness Dimensions. Staying organized and on track allows your mind to work more efficiently and effectively.
FREE Brain Game Apps
Exercising your brain is just as important as exercising your body. We all know what happens when we don’t get enough physical activity—without a session at the gym or a good brisk walk before work we find ourselves slipping down the spiral of less motivation and less energy. The less we do, the more challenging it becomes to get back in shape, be healthy, and feel great again.

People who commit to their mental wellness, on the other hand, are in a position to thrive mentally. Intellectual wellness, which is one of the seven dimensions of wellness, opens us up to new ideas and experiences. This mental stretching can empower us to make wiser decisions, improve our skills, and to feel motivated to take on new challenges. Now that’s a recipe for success!

Here are a few FREE Brain Game Apps you and your family could try!

  • Skillz - Logic Brain Games - This is a fun logical game that gives a good test for your brain. With this brain game, you can help players to learn to distinguish between different colors and improve their skills. The players sharpen their minds while having fun playing this game. This logical game is a skills test game.

For Apple
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/skillz-logical-brain-game/id1261485835

For Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.rention.mind.skillz&hl=en_US

  • Lumosity: Brain Training - Improve memory, increase focus, and feel sharper — with the #1 brain training app, personalized for you.

https://www.lumosity.com/en/

  • NeuroNation - Brain Training & Brain Games - With NeuroNation personalized brain training, you elevate your brain day by day. Whether it's weaker memory, dwindling concentration or thinking too slowly - only 15 minutes of training a day can make problems disappear and give your brain new momentum. 

For Apple
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/neuronation-memory-games/id821549680

For Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.nn.mobile.app.main&hl=en_US
WCC YouTube Tutorial Videos
Our very own Shannon B. and Monique B. have put together a few fabulous short informational and tutorial videos on essential oils, acrylic painting, making food dishes, & more for you to enjoy!

  • Informational Essential Oils

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNoprSNoO6A&t=530s

  • Acrylic painting on Glass

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qe93ROGekHY

  • Mediterranean Orzo Salad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjIdQdfqp38

  • Homemade Fresh Guacamole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVk9izXn75U

  • Essential Oil Dog Flea & Tick Spray & Facial Toner Spray

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXZtzXfvG90&t=21s

WCC Mask Distribution
Based on Governor Baker's order and in preparation for the eventual reopening of our community, the Northbridge Coalition and Valley Volunteers are gathering resources and information to help facilitate and distribute the sewing and distribution of cloth or cloth-hybrid masks with either elastic or ties for both children and adults, and with/without filter pockets.

Our aim is to connect those with a need for this resource with those able to meet this need. As such, we are looking for volunteers who are available to sew masks, who are available to monitor distribution sites adhering to physical distancing recommendations, and those who may wish to help supply fabric, nose pinch materials, elastics and or ties. 

Further, if you are in need of masks and are unable to get to a distribution site, we would like to hear from you as well. As we work out the details of this Mask Drive we will be providing updates, so please be on the lookout for more information via our Instagram and Facebook pages and our email messaging.

To begin, we will be leaving a covered container outside of the Whitin Community Center entrance for anyone who would like to donate masks in a sealed or tied off plastic bag. If you are in need of a mask, you may also pick up a mask from the same container. Please only take no more than what you need for your household so that we may serve as many in the community as possible.

If you have questions, would like to volunteer and/or donate, or if you have a need for masks, please call our number at  508-234-8184 , or email us at  info@ourgym.org  or email  Monique Boucher-Adams, at monique.boucher@ourgym.org.
Mask Crochet Helpers Tutorial
Mask Helpers are a great way to keep elastic off of the ears to reduce soreness after wearing face masks for a long period of time. Easy to stitch crochet strips have a button on either side to hook the elastic mask loops on. This pattern and video has two versions of the helpers...a vertically stitched "stretchy" version and a horizontally stitched "sturdy" version. A great project to make for personal use, but also consider donating them as well!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K-Bn684RoI

Full written instructions are here:

https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fiberfluxblog.com%2F2020%2F04%2Fcrochet-mask-helpers-two-ways-free.html&redir_token=jpS3dZm8pEYXN49F9N3m9UPnD_t8MTU5MTgyMTA5NEAxNTkxNzM0Njk0&event=video_description&v=9K-Bn684RoI
Reading & Listening Corner
Reading can inform you, make you think and question your preconceived notions, help you connect with a character or engage you as you try to predict the twist ending. All of these things feed the mind and nurture your intellectual curiosity. Below are a few suggested book titles from some of our WCC Staff!


Quarantine Classics

  • The Alchemist, Paul Coelho
  • 1984, George Orwell
  • To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee
  • Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
  • Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte
  • On The Road, Jack Keroua
  • Beloved, Toni Morrison
  • Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
  • Night, Elie Wiesel
  • One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey

Quarantine Reading For Teens & Adults

  • The Island of Sea Women, Lisa See
  • Beyond the Bright Sea, Lauren Wolk
  • An Ocean of Minutes, Thea Lim
  • Dark Matter, Blake Crouch
  • Dear Edward, Ann Napolitano
  • American Dirt, Jeanine Cummins
  • City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert
  • Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling
  • I Am Haunted, Zak Bagans
  • Outlander, Diana Gabaldon
  • Twilight, Stephenie Meyer
  • Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom Riggs

Quarantine Reading For Children

  • The Borrower's, Mary Norton
  • The Cat In The Hat, Dr. Seuss
  • Harold And The Purple Crayon, Crockett Johnson
  • The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
  • Matilda, Ronald Dahl
  • The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
  • Winnie The Pooh, A.A. Milne


Quarantine Podcasts

  • The Moth Podcast All Together Now: Fridays with The Moth - Annalise Raziq & Wilson Portorreal. All Together Now: Fridays with The Moth is a new weekly addition to our podcast, featuring stories suitable for ears of all ages.

https://themoth.org/podcast


  • Snap Judgement - Mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, and dramatic radio. Hosted by Glynn Washington. Listen For Free. Our Podcasts Support Us. Listen For Free. Senior Year Mixtape - Snap Classic. It’s Senior Year and Alex, Damaris, and Brantin have been dreaming of the day they get to leave Mission High and enter adulthood.

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/snapjudgment


  • This American Life - A weekly public radio program and podcast. Each week we choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme.

https://www.thisamericanlife.org/

  • Up And Vanished - What Started as an Experiment to Explore a Story Turned into a Mission for the Truth

https://upandvanished.com/about/


  • Edinburgh International Book Festival - Made up of more than 100 events for adults, families and children, the programme will feature both live and pre-recorded conversations with leading writers, poets and artists from around the world.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/2019-edinburgh-international-book-festival/id1480692790
Blackstone Valley Children's Place Story Time

Our BVCP program is happy to offer story time to the children in our care and to those in the community! Simply click on the button below to access our BVCP Facebook page and follow us. Videos are being directly uploaded to the page.

https://www.facebook.com/ginny.alicea.9

Whitin Community Center
60 Main St. Whitinsville, MA 01588
508.234.8184 | www.WhitinCommunityCenter.com