Wellness Collection
New to the SHHS ebook and audiobook library is the Wellness Collection.
There are approximately 400 books, both fiction and non-fiction, that will help students and staff learn about better ways of living and coping with challenging aspects of life. Beyond dealing with the challenges there are many books that simply guide us to live a better life.
Read on down this page to learn more, or if you want to have a look at the new Wellness collection, you can go directly to our SHHS ePlatform in a web browser (https://smithshillhighschool.wheelers.co/). Use your school login details to login. If you want to learn about how to set up the ePlatform app on your phone or tablet, go to this guide: SHHS Library eBooks and Audiobooks.
Featured Categories From the Wellness Collection:
Click on any of the featured book categories below to view more books like these.
At times, many of us feel well and this can be a great time to also learn about and practice strategies like mindfulness to increase our wellbeing. Lots of people experience mindfulness as a protective practise that not only helps to keep us well, but even helps us grow in wellness.
Personally, I definitely find times like a global pandemic and lockdowns challenging at times and I try to regularly do things like read about ideas of how to live better, how to understand the human mind and our world. To me, it’s a bit like fertilising the garden and planting seeds; it doesn’t always have an immediate effect or benefit, but it feels good to take positive actions towards my wellbeing and a lot of the time it pays off in ways that make my life, my outlook, and my relationships better. I encourage you all to try reading (or listening) to a book that will help you grow in your wellness; you may find that it opens up a whole new chapter in your life where you enjoy learning about your mind and how to live better.
For challenges like anxiety and depression, there are great reads to help us understand the problems and possible solutions; it can just be helpful to know you are not alone in facing these sorts of problems. Finding the right book for yourself is empowering, finding strategies that work for you can be life-changing.
Does sport make sense to you? If you are passionate about your sports, then you can also use this as an opportunity to learn about your mind. You will get the double benefit of improving your game and gaining mind skills that you can draw on in other areas of your life. Elite sports athletes around the globe talk about things like 'mindset' and the 'inner game', they have specialist coaches who teach them strategies like mindfulness so that they can respond to days when their game is off and get back into the zone. Think about those great tennis matches where someone is down two sets, it's match point against them, and they fight back and win the championship -this is winning at the mind game! Try one of these sports psychology books.
Maybe life is going well, maybe you want to try to keep tweaking your life and pushing yourself towards living a great life. Maybe you see the world as altogether crazy and without purpose. Books in this category of Meaning and Purpose may help you see the world anew as an opportunity in which you can live a better life and feel a strong connection to a future that you want to make for yourself. These are books that recognise that life is difficult at times and that deep down we all have opportunities to build a life of meaning; these are not always easy options, but these books lay out paths that are well recognised by society as valuable and helpful.
Please remember, reach out to a trusted adult, teacher or school counsellor when you need to. Jumping into thinking about meaning and purpose in life can be hard work and complex; talking to a trusted person when you feel the need to is a smart strategy and can be incredibly helpful as many of us have gone through similar experiences and made our way through them. Having a good support network helps. Having said all of that, many of these books are uplifting and inspiring!
To have a look at the new Wellness collection, you can go directly to our SHHS ePlatform in a web browser (https://smithshillhighschool.wheelers.co/). Use your school login details to login. If you want to learn about how to set up the ePlatform app on your phone or tablet, go to this guide: SHHS Library eBooks and Audiobooks.
