Mental Health
Mental health encompasses our emotional, psychological, and social well-being; the state of an individual’s mental health can impact how they respond to their surroundings, handle stress, build relationships, and make decisions.
Why is it important for college students to understand?
- Students are surrounded by stress-inducing factors—academic pressures, balancing obligations for jobs/extracurriculars, social pressures, and more.
- College students, in particular, are also often adjusting to a new environment and a new lifestyle away from home which can have an added impact on their mental health.
How can we actively take care of our mental health?
- get regular exercise
- eat nutritious meals regularly and stay hydrated
- make sleep a priority
- find a creative outlet
- set daily goals
- practice gratitude
- stay socially connected
Mindfullness
Mindfulness is the practice of engaging yourself with your surroundings to relieve stress and relax your mind. Many mindfulness techniques largely focus on the importance of deep breathing, which is greatly beneficial to your overall health, as it increases the oxygen flow to your brain and in turn, improves your concentration. Other mindfulness strategies could be just completing simple tasks or activities you enjoy while engaging yourself with your surroundings.
Simple Ways to Practice Mindfullness on Campus
- meditation
- breathing exercises
- yoga
- journaling
- walking/hiking outdoors and paying attention to your surroundings
Resources to Practice Mindfullness
Healthy Minds
- provides guided courses which improve skills to:
- enhance personal wellbeing
- build healthy relationships
- improve communication, performance, and creativity
- includes podcast-style teachings and progress tracking features
- provides access to hundreds of free meditation programs
Smiling Mind
- over 300 free meditations
- includes programs for stress, sleep, & more
- allows you to follow the impact of these meditations on your wellbeing
Day One Journal
- private, digital journal
- allows you to add photos, videos, audio, and more
- gives you access to new journal prompts each day
- provides customizable writing templates
- tracks your journaling streaks