The Students’ Association held its first Self Love Club event on Monday Sept. 10 to welcome the new semester.
The event focused on paying attention to oneself and recognizing invisible illnesses. Originally the event was supposed to take place outside but was moved indoors, to the student commons, due to rainy weather.
The event was put together by the SA in conjunction with Spark Clarity. Free 10 minute massages were available from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. as well as free henna art.
“So far it looks awesome,” said Allison Barnes, the event coordinator for the SA. “The event hadn’t even started yet and we already had a lineup for the massages and the henna.”
Clary Chambers, a motivational speaker, whose business is called Spark Clarity delivered a speaking session at 12 p.m. in the commons. The talk focused on self-love and recognizing invisible illnesses. This was Chamber’s 31st public speaking event.
Chambers discussed the reasoning behind the name for the event.
“I chose Self Love Club for the event because when I was at Carleton — during frosh week — there were all these clubs and societies to sign up for. One thing that I thought was missing was a club or a type of event that focuses on your health or wellness.”
Chambers has a condition called fibromyalgia and spoke to attendees about her own journey and experiences dealing with an invisible illness. Chambers also feels that campuses could use a better understanding of invisible illnesses.
“It’s quite common that other folks, even people that are in Algonquin today, have invisible illnesses that we don’t know about,” explained Chambers. “So anything from mental health, having depression, anxiety that would be invisible, diabetes would be invisible, chronic migraines that would be invisible. Having somebody talk about it, for myself, has made me more patient and compassionate.”
Currently, Chambers is touring the country doing similar talks.
“We are traveling all over Canada this year doing talks at different universities trying to hit as many mental health weeks and stuff like that — and in summer 2019 we’ll be launching an adult summer camp.”
Throughout the event, Chambers was around speaking individually with students and handing out stickers and colouring sheets.