This year’s World Mental Health Week will take place from the 9th of October to the 14th, with World Mental Health Day taking place on Tuesday 10th of October.
With the theme for World Mental Health day set to surround wellbeing in the workplace, Mental Health Ireland have suggested five ways to wellbeing at work. The organisation suggests that companies and workplaces can use these five ways as a starting point for developing individual workplace wellbeing plans.
Even though the theme is surrounding positive mental health attitude in the workplace, the five ways suggested by Mental Health Ireland can be applied to college life too.
MHI’s Five ways to wellbeing are;
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Connect
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Be Active
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Keep Learning
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Take Notice
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Give
College makes the first step easy. Connecting with your peers and classmates is never hard when you’re surrounded by them all the time. Take some time out of your studies to have a coffee with someone, asking them how they’re doing, connecting with them. Showing somebody interest and expressing a genuine care for them can help people in more ways that you could ever imagine.
Keeping active in college can be tricky after all, how are we supposed to study, eat well, socialise and get at least eight hours sleep in just one little day? Try suggesting a group yoga session with your girls, or get off the bus a few stops early and walk the rest of the way. Keeping active helps to keep your stress levels down and in turn, calms your mind, winning!
Learning is something we do, or at least we are supposed to be doing every day in college, so this one should be easy for us, but let’s shake it up a little. Get yourself out of your comfort zone, educate yourself with something you’ve never shown any interest in before. If fashion is your thing, try reading something political or something about nature. Open your mind to new things and new ideas.
Sometimes we get so caught up in our own little world’s is that we forget to pay attention to the people around us. Taking notice of the people in your life will not only help them, but you too. Take a note of people’s feelings, ask the person sitting beside you in that three-hour lecture how their day is going. It’s the little things that we can do that can really make a person’s day.
There are so many mental health awareness groups in Ireland. Get involved with them, look up their events and promote it in your class. DCU has their very own Mental Health Society that are always around campus promoting a positive mental attitude, maybe try lending them a hand.
According to MHI, 450 million people worldwide suffer with mental health problems. Mental Health is not something we can ignore, but something we can help. Improving the stigma around mental health issues is something that everyone can do, every day. People underestimate the seriousness of mental health issues, so educating these people is key, the more you know, the more you will understand it.
It’s important that we use World Mental Health Week and every other week to our advantage. Promoting positive mental attitude, listening to people around us and being that little bit kinder could really give us all a push in the right direction.
And remember, it’s okay not to be okay.
Photo credit Pietro De Grandi