The University’s Office of Health Promotion and Wellness is hosting 12 Days of Wellness, a program targeted toward faculty and staff during this stressful time of year.

The program, kicking off today in the lobby of Russell Hall at 11 a.m., is designed to encourage participants to take time for themselves when stresses from the holiday season and end of the semester can seem overwhelming.

“Give yourself the gift of health,” said Rebecca Kelly, the Director of the Office of Health Promotion and Wellness.

According to Kelly, end-of-the-year stress often results in people forgetting to think about their personal health as they focus on helping or pleasing others. The program hopes to counteract bad habits such as unhealthy eating, overspending and stress that often plague people throughout the holidays.

Despite the wealth of opportunities to get involved in local holiday fanfare, this program is not engineered to make participants’ daily lives more busy than normal, said Kelly.

“This is not a program to encourage people to do more, but instead step back and renew our spirit,” she said.

Kelly said the three tenets of the program are Reflect, Relax and Renew. The calendar events were chosen to revolve around these three ideas.

The 12 Days of Wellness plays off the 12 Days of Christmas idea, with each day promoting a unique theme for participants to focus on – Exercise, Nutrition, Family, Safety, Career, Intellectual, Social, Emotional, Self-Care, Financial, Cultural and Conservation.

Participants will receive daily e-mails with tips relating to the theme, as well as a calendar of events. The program will offer activities, such as massages and a yoga class, to encourage faculty and staff to relax, and also advertise a selection of community holiday events as fun activities to renew participants’ energy and spirit.

The Office of Health Promotion and Wellness conducts several programs throughout the year encouraging faculty and staff to cultivate healthy lifestyles. This fall, they organized the Crimson Couch to 5K Training and Walk/Run.

“We had 760 participants registered for the Couch to 5K and 540 faculty, staff, family and friends completed the 5K. They are automatically enrolled in the [12 Days of Wellness] program,” Kelly said.

Health Promotion and Wellness also offers a health screening program called Wellbama, according to their website, wellness.ua.edu. Wellbama is a free health and wellness program for faculty and staff. OHPW will offer a variety of programs in Spring 2011, such as Strive for Five, Strive to Scale Back and Spring Training.