Activities by The Lake hacks happy hormones

Taylor’s Student Engagement and Leadership (SEAL) fostered a community for healthy lifestyle through their free-of-charge ‘Activities by The Lake’ in June for students to exercise after class for physical and mental health.

Twelve activities were offered: Art Therapy Mindfulness, FITCamp, HIIT, Hula Hoop, Jumping Trampoline, Jump Rope, Laugh Yoga, SpinPoi, Tabata, TaiChi, Yoga, Zumba.

There was no limit to the number of sessions a student could participate in, as long as slots were available; staff were welcomed too.

Each session was conducted for an hour between 5 PM to 8 PM

(Source: Taylor’s SEAL)

Top three students who referred others to participate in the activities stood a chance to win RM 250, RM 150 and RM 100 respectively; a club or society who had the most participants under it had a chance to win a RM 500 grant.

Derrick Chan, President of Taylor’s Community Service Initiatives, found improved emotions after participating in the Art Therapy Mindfulness.

He explained that the art was done with their eyes closed; there were no restrictions on the colouring. He had never heard of such activity in Malaysia before.

“When I closed my eyes, I could feel more,” he said, adding that a question was prompted when drawing each pattern.”

“It cleared my negativity and made me reflect on what I have done so far as a university student.”

Edward Teoh, Organising Chairperson and SEAL’s Event Specialist, compared Taylor’s with other universities abroad to decide on the choice of activities.

“For example, I googled for activities that students do in China and basically came up with TaiChi … Hula Hoop is something they do in the US, so I tried to implement it here.”

There were 150 sign ups, said Teoh, “but the turn up was not so good; that was challenging.”

Edward said that some students participated in a TaiChi session for

“five seconds and then they left.”

He found that Jumping Trampoline was most favoured by the students.

Mayu Onozawa, an international student from Japan, said “I attended most of the activities but Jumping Trampoline was the best.”

Ritchie Lee, Founder of Jumping Fitness Malaysia, explained that it is a low-impact cardio exercise which stimulates the lymphatic system for a stronger immune system; it involves push-ups, squats, planks, and sit-ups on a trampoline.

Ritchie thinks that the participants were really passionate and keen to learn

He said that ‘Activities by The Lake’ was a great approach for students to experience various exercises for stress management.

Mayu added that she was very excited as she was very stressed about classes. “It was so refreshing.”

However, she commented on the very little promotion of these activities. “My friends only knew and became interested when they saw my posts.”

Teoh said that he would improve on marketing in the future, such as displaying more event posters and banners around campus. He mentioned that the hot weather was another weakness.

Chan suggested that the activities be conducted at night.

He added that the sessions were not flexible enough as some classes were still ongoing.

“I also think that SEAL could have held them a month before the high peak of assignments.”