As a college student, you might tend to put your mental health on the backburner. This is a dangerous practice as we enter the school year further and we have more responsibilities to manage. This can lead to many people feeling overwhelmed with anxiety and burnout around their responsibilities. This article has some quick ideas for what you can do to help your mental health in college.
Practicing Self Compassion:
Practicing self-compassion when you are struggling with burnout and anxiety is a vital process. This involves making sure that you are using kind words with yourself, and making sure that you are not falling into a negative spiral with your language around this. You can do this by envisioning that you are talking to a close friend going through the same struggle and using the same language that you would use for them.
Setting Boundaries:
Another vital part of protecting your mental health is making sure that you are setting boundaries. This can involve not going to every club meeting because you need to work on your homework, or because you simply just need to take a break from people. Setting boundaries is an integral part of your mental health because it allows you to focus on yourself and making sure that you are okay. You can also do this by naming your limits and writing them down.
Seeking Social Support:
Having a good group of friends can be vital when discussing student mental health. This can be in the form of checking up on each other every once in a while or going to a designated group for anxiety.
Sleep Hygiene:
Making sure that you are getting adequate sleep is vital to your mental health. Sleep hygiene is not just about making sure that you are getting enough hours of sleep, but the time before you go to bed. Here are some tips that you can do to make sure that you are getting enough sleep:
- Make sure that you aren’t drinking coffee right before you go to bed, or within a few hours of going to sleep
- Limiting the amount of blue lights and screens that you see before you go to sleep
- Stretching before you go to sleep.
- Following a set routine of what you do before you go to bed.
- Getting exercise during the day might help you sleep easier
Spending time in nature:
Spending time away from your phone screen can be incredibly beneficial to helping your mental health. This can be as simple as going for a walk without your phone, or even travelling to your local park and just being in nature.
Be in The Present Moment:
When we tend to experience anxiety and mental burnout, we tend to stray from the present moment and get lost in our thoughts. This can lead to us straying into our pasts or focusing heavily on our future. You can combat this by making sure that you are staying in the present moment, and not allowing yourself to get too caught up in either the past or the future.
Planning your schedule:
By planning your schedule, you can make yourself more efficient, causing fewer last-minute things to pop up and cause you a great amount of stress. You can do this by getting a planner and making sure that you are keeping a comprehensive schedule of what needs to get done each day to ensure that you are successful.
Taking a Break:
Another vital way to make sure that you are taking your mental health seriously is by making sure that you are taking breaks every once in a while. If you do not take breaks, you can significantly increase your rate of anxiety and your risk of mental burnout.
You can make sure of this by taking breaks to make sure that you are eating, and taking some time away from the screen.