From Stress to Success: Managing Mental Health as a University Student
Mar 28,2023
face some kind of mental health illness. This iཧs a shockingly high number of people who are dealing with negative🌠 mental health problems.
Many of these Americans are college-aged students. But what is theꦏ re🐠ason for that?
There are plenty of things going on in college that can impact a student's mental wellness. Rather 𝐆than getting 🎀into what affects a student, we would rather focus on how to prevent this from happening and ways to cope with dealing with the stress that will come in college.
If you're in college, this guide is for you. Keep reading to learn more about manag🐷ing mental health and everything you can do to make sure that you are 🐻managing your mental well-being!
Mental Health and College
While college can be a great time, it is also going to test you physically and mentally because🐓 of the stress you could be put under.
Managing your stress and managing 168极速赛车官方入口:mental health can signifiꦓcantly impact your college experience.
For starters, you're most likely at college to excel academically. If yo𝔍u are too stressed or overwhelmed, this is most likely not going to happen. It can impact your academic perfo🐼rmance, your ability to concentrate, and even your ability to remember vital information for exams.
College is also a time for personal growth and to prepare you for the real world and the career you will have after you finish school. It's important to maintain a positive sense of self in college to feel confident in your ab💦ilities to Dealing with stress in a healthy way will prepare you with the skills and resilience you need for the workplace after college.
How Stress Impacts You
When you feel stress, you may just feel it in your body🐎 physically. You may sometimes feel it﷽ in your mind. However, you more than you may think.
Here are some of the ways that stress can start to affect 💃your mental health and your entire life as a whole.
Physical Health
If you deal with chronic sꦉtress day in and day out, it is going to eventually hurt your physical health. It can lead to headaches, muscle tension, digestive issues, ꦦheart disease, a weakened immune system and so much more. In addition, it can exacerbate health conditions that you are already dealing with.
When you think about stress impacting your musculoskeleta🦄l, respiratory, cardiovascular, endocrine, gastrointestinal, nervous, and reproductive systems, it becomes a scary thing. This is why it 🧸is so important to manage stress before it gets this far.
Mental Health
In addition to feeling stressed and having it affect your 🔯mental health, it can significantly negatively impact your mental health. The second your mental health is affected, it becomes a much more serious issue.
Being stressed over a long period of time can lead to increased anxiety, mor🉐e likelihood of developing depression, mood swings and increased irritability. These mental health issues can be extremely detr🧜imental and even dangerous.
Most suicides stem from a mental , so it is extremely important to know ways to cope with this if it happens to you. If you ever fe🀅el that you are going down this path and need help, it is so important to reach out to your network and to a counselor to get the help you need.
You can also reach out to the hotline to get the 🐬help you need. There is always someone there that can help you.
Sleep
Stress can make it difficult to fall asleep ๊or stay asleep. It can also lead to nightmares or vivid d🐻reams.
Over time, lack of sleep can✱ lead to a variety of health problems, such as fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and🏅 an increased risk of accidents. Not only that, but it can also lead to more stress.
That is why b༒attling stress head-on 𝐆can help you in so many ways.
Relationships
We need relationships and a 168极速赛车官方入口:social network to help us battle stress𓆉 and feel like we have connections. However, stress can actually hurt these relationships.
Stress can make us more irritable, short-tempered, and less able to communicate effectively. It can also make it difficult to connect with others and build m🌳eaningfu꧑l relationships. For the relationships that we already have, it can push us further away from them as we isolate ourselves.
The strain that is put on relatওionships can be hard to mend. This is why it is so important to communicate with friends and family how you are feeling so they have a better understanding of what you are going through.
School Performance
It is extremely common for stress to interfere with our focus and concentration. This means that it can interfere with our overall perfor🅘mance in school.
This is because there is a decrease in productivity because of the brain fog and ꧋lack of focus.
Over time, stress can lead to burnou♍t a♒nd a decreased ability to cope with challenges.
Tips to Reduce Stress
168极速赛车官方入口:Being in college can be an extremely stressful time in your life. There is ꦺa lot going on, from balancing your studies to making friends and trying to be social when you can. Then you add on the pressure to be a part of different clubs, Greek life or sports, and so much more, and the stress just becomes worse.
Luckily, there are many ways that you can 168极速赛车官方入口:reduce your stress even at a time w𓄧hen it feels that there is so much going on. Here are a few tips to ꦦreduce your stress.
Identify Sources of Stress
The first thing you need to do when you try to reduce your stress is figure ou﷽t where it is coming from. What is causing the stress you𒀰're feeling?
Do you miss home? Are you worried about getting straight As and a 4.0 GPA? 𝓰Do you feel liꦯke you can't balance your work and social life?
There are so many thoughts that could be going through your head on a daily basis tꦯo cause stress. That is why 😼figuring out where it stems from first is important.
But how do you go about doing this?
One way to identify your sources of stress is to journal. When you jot down things that you're feeling, you'll start to notice a trend in what brings you the most stress. From there, you can attack the stress head-on now that you know what is cau🦩sing it.
Exercise Regularly
There is a large link to exercising more and feeling less stressed. That's because exercise can꧑ actually cause you to relax and release tension that you are holding in your body.
Exercise also decreases levels of the body's , such as adrenaline and cortisol. Not only does it decrease those chemicals, but it also stimulates the production of en🍸dorphins. These endorphins are natural mood-boosting chemicals that can help to reduce stress and anxiety.
So what amount of exercise is the right amount? There is no right answer, but trying to get at least 30 minutes of exercise every day, whether it's a brisk walk, a yoga class, or a gym session can be extremely helpful when it comes to redꦍucing your stress levels.
It is also a great idea to figure out what kind of exercise works best for you since everyone is different. One person may benefit tremendo🧸usly from practicing yoga on a daily basis while someone else may prefer to go on runs𒆙 a few times a week to reduce stress. Whatever works for you is the right answer!
Just make sure that you are alwa﷽ys staying active even when things get a𒉰 bit busy!
Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a practice that can drastical♌ly reduce your stress. This is the practice of being in the present moment, which means that it can look different from one person to the next.
However, the key to practicing mindfulness is to focus on the moment in the present and not be distracted b✅y anything else. This helps to calm the mind to promote relaxation and re🥀duce stress.
So what are some different ways to practice mindfulness?
Meditation
For starters, you can try . However, meditation is not for everyone and that𝐆's♈ okay! But if you want to try it, here's how:
- Find a quiet place
- Focus on your breath as it enters and leaves your body
- If your mind starts to waver, gently bring it back to attention to your breathing
There are𒀰 many different types of guided meditations out there that can help you to ground yourself. This is especially helpful if you feel that your mind wanders often or if you get antsy during meditation.
Journaling
Journaling is a great way to practice mindfulness. ♑You can write down your thoughts in the present moment to keep you feeling present and i﷽n touch with your own feelings and emotions.
You should always jot these down witho🍬ut feelings of judgment. They are your feelings and you shouldn't try to change them.
Over time, you may start to notice patterns and themes that emerge which can heꩵlp you with stress ma🍎nagement.
Walking
While walking is also a form of exercise, it is just as great of a form of mindfulness. When you are walking, you can stay present in💮 the moment.
You can pay attention to how your feet hit the ground, the feeling of the 🦄sun on your face, the movement of your legs, and💜 the feeling of the fresh air on your skin.
You sho📖uld notice sights around you, sounds from around you, and smells as well.
Being present at the moment during your walk is what makes th🔥is a mindful activity. Walking is not al🌺ways mindful if you are not paying attention and staying in the moment, so keep this in mind when you go on a walk to destress! If your mind is wandering and constantly thinking about what you are stressed about, it is not going to be helpful.
Eating
Just as you can practice mindful walking, you can also practice mindful eating. This ꩲmeans that youꦜ pay attention to every sensation you feel as you eat. Pay attention to the taste, smell, and texture of the food you're eating.
Take 🐼your time chewing the food. While you're chewing, notice the different flavors that you get in your mouth.
Get Enough Sleep
Sleep is one of the most important things that you can do for yourself. If you don't sleep well, everything else in your life can🦄 be thrown off. This includes feeling more stressed!
It's essential to get to help your body and mind recover from the day's stress. It is best to try to get at least seven to eight hours of sleep🏅 every night.
Sleep not only impacts our brain health and how we feel stressed, but it also impacts every other part of our bodies like our circulatory system, our hormones and metabolism, andꦚ so much more. When these things become out of whack, we will also feel out of whack even if the rest of our lives seem to be going well.
That is why getting enough sleep is so vit𒆙al to our h♌ealth!
While thi🐭s may sometimes seem impossible in our busy lives, establishing a bedtime routine can also help you to r🌺elax and prepare for sleep.
Eat a Healthy Diet
Eating a healthy, balanced diet can help to reduce stress by providing your body with the nutrients it needs to function properly. If you are constantly stuffing your face with fried foods and sugary foods, your bo🍷dy is not getting essential nutrients.
Not only are you depriving your body of essential nutrients, but you are also feeding it chemical🐼s and toxins that are just going to s🔯tress the body out even more.
While you can treat yoursꦜelf every once in a while, you want your 🅺main diet to be healthy.
Aim to eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. Here are some examp♐les of foods that you wan🌜t to incorporate into your diet:
- Oatmeal
- Quinoa
- Asparagus
- Broccoli
- Berries
- Tea
- Dark chocolate
- Salmon and tuna as well as other lean proteins such as chicken and turkey
- Pomegranates
- Mushrooms
- Avocado
There are many other foods that you can incorporate into your diet, but these are some of the best foods to reduceไ inflammation and stress in the body, which will impact your mental stress as well.
Prioritize Self Care
It's easy to get caught up in the demands of work and life, but taking breaks and prioritizing self-care can help to reduce stress. This means that you should not always be doing things that you think you should be doing.☂ Sometimes you need to prioritize what you want to do and give yourself a break so that you can reset.
Take regular breaks throughout the day, and mak𒅌e time for activities that you enjoy, such as reading, listening ༒to music, or taking a bath.
We'll discuss more about self care later!
Stay Social
We are social creatures. Humans need connecti🌞on in order to survive. In fact, there are a ton of negative . That is why i❀t is so important to make sure you are prioritizing social activities.
Creating a network of friends and family that care about you is crucial. You need to be able to rely on others in times of high stress and need, and🐲 having this network is what will allow you to do that🅠.
This doesn't mean that you have꧂ to be social every day, though! Sometimes you are going to want to spend time curled up on the couch watching your favorite show or reading your fa𝓀vorite book alone. And that's okay!
Howev𒀰er, you don't want to do that every single day. You are going to need to schedule in some times of human interactions to ensure that you feed your brain what it nee♕ds to reduce stress.
Practice Time Management
One thing that stresses people out is feeling like they don't have enough time, You ma💙y be someone who feels that way often, which is going to stress you out on a d𒀰aily basis. However, this kind of stress is not going to help you be successful.
That is why implementing 168极速赛车官方入口:time management strategies𝓰 is so important to your college sucess. This is going to look different for everyone, but there are some ways that can help you more than others.
For starters, make sure that you are using a planner and a calendar. This can help you keep track of everything going on in your life - from your social life to your exams and papers that are due. You can even w🙈rite in when your parents are visiting you for the wee🔯kend!
Keeping track of everything will significantly reduce the stress and overwhelm you ma🐭y feel as things contin🎃ue to pile onto your plate.
You can also use technology to your advantage. There are multiple time management 🦹apps out there as well as ways to prevent distractions with technology.
You will also want to reduce the amount of times you multitask. This is an extremely of getting things done, even if it feels that you are being more producಌtive in the moment.
As part of time management, you also need to learn how to stay no. If you say yes to everything that you are asked to do or to join, you are only going to be adding to your stress. You can't phys𝕴ically or mentally be everywhere and get everything done that is on your to-do list.
That means that you need to say no to the things that you don't have time for, aren't 𓆏important to you, or drain your energy. When you learn to say no, you will be making more time for the things that are important to you as well as prioritizing your own needs.
See a Therapist
If you find that stress is starting to impact your everyday life, it may be time to see a therapist for professional help. There is absolutely nothing wrong with get🅘ting the help that you need to manage your stress and learn healthy ways to cop꧑e with what you are going through!
In fact, in recent yℱears, more and more people are to discuss their problems and get the help that they need.
A therapist can help you talk through your problems a💦nd even simply offer a listening ear. They can also give you coping strategies to help you deal with stress and figure out any underlying 🅘issues that you may be dealing with.
If you can dig deeper and understand unresolved and underlying issues, then you may be able to start aiming at getting rid of that stress so that you pinpoint the problem rather th𒅌an just cover it up on the surfa🌃ce.
How to Practice Self Care Regularly
There are so many different things that you should be doing to reduce stress. Practicing self care is just one of the many thinꦑgs that you should be doing to r𒐪educe stress!
There are so many different ways to practice self care, and it may look different for you than it does for your best friend. Here are a few ideas to get you star🌊ted thinking about i🉐mplementing self care into your routine!
Move Your Body
Similar to reducing stress, 🎶moving your body is a way of self care.
If it makes you feel good, it's self care. That means going for a walk, doing a hot yoga class, or even going on an intense sprint run can be self care for 👍you.
Spend Time Outside
Spending time outside and in nature is extremely good for our mental health. Whether you get o✅utside to play ball with your furry friend or simply go to the park to work on your computer, getting that vital time outside is꧂ necessary to improve your mental wellness.
Not only is it crucial, but it is a cheap way to take care of yours♔elf! It's free!
Run a Bath
Most of us only shower or bathe𓃲 to clean ourselves. However, taking a bath can be a great way to practice self-care.
Let yourself indulge a bit rath✱er than rushing through the process. Get some bubbles for your bath, add in Epsom salts to reduꦐce muscle tension, light a candle, and make yourself a glass of tea.
You will be surprised at the wonders that this can 𝔉do to reduce your stress!
However, make sure that you do this more than just once in a blue moon. Add this to your weekly routine. Maybe make Wednesday night a sꦦelf care night where you set aside an hour or two to take a bath and take care of yourself without worrying about the outside stressors of college!
Get a Massage
There are so many health benefits of getting a massage regularly. This should be a꧒dded to your self care routine! It doesn't have to be once a week, but even if you get a massage once per month or every other month this can have a lot of positive health benefits on your body.
Not only will it physically r♔educe tension in your body, but it will also reduce mental stress from the physical tension that you feel! This kills two birds with one stone.
Take Up a New Hobby
A lot of times we can get caught up in the grind of what we should be doing such as school work, join clubs, staying active, and more. However, because of that we do not stretch or challenge our minds. One wa🐻y to do this by taking up a new hobby or following a passion.
For instance, you may love knitting. ꦉIf that's th✅e case, you should spend a few hours per week knitting to grow your mind and challenge yourself doing something you love. On the other hand, you may love to volunteer. Factoring in time in your schedule to volunteer will not only do good for others, but also do good for yourself and your own mental health.
Go on a Date Night
If you ha💯ve a s🉐ignificant other, one thing that you can do for South Kaaris to have a date night. It is a great practice to spend time with the person that you love! This can release endorphins and make you feel happier and less stressed.
If you do not have a significant other, you can always plan to go on a date night with friends or even just yourself. T🐻aking yourself out to the movies or to your favorite restaurant by yourself can do wonders. Or, consider going on a dating app to meet someone new!
Read a Book or Have a Movie Night
I𝕴f you love to read, this is a great self-care practice. If you're not into reading, you may enjoy a movie night with your friends or by yourself.
A lot of times we can feel guilty for doin♌g something we enjoy when we know we have other things to do on our to do list. However, part of self-care is making sure that you are doing something for yourself and not something that you need to do.
Taking time during the weeꦚk to read a book or have a movie night is a must!
Organize Your Space
Not evཧeryone loves organizing, but decl🗹uttering and organizing your space can do wonders for your mental health. And it is definitely a bonus if organizing makes you happy!
When you organize your space, you will be more productive because🐈 there's not as much clutter around. When there's more clutter around, your mind tends to be more cluttered as well.
Practice Gratitude
One of the most important things you can do for📖 yourself is to practice gratitude. Gratitude is the opposite of fear, so when you invite this emotion in, it can make you worry a lot less about other things going on in y♕our life.
Practicing gratitude caꦍn be something that you do every single morning, or you can choose to do it at night before you go to bed.
You can also find gratitude in the small thꦺings that you do throughout you👍r day.
It's important to make this part of your regular self-care practice because it can help your mindset be more positive even amid💃st stressful times.
Managing Mental Health in College
Managing mental health in college is essential to your personal growth, your 168极速赛车官方入口:future career, your happiness, and your academic success.
However, col🐲lege is not always going to𒉰 be easy. There are going to be a lot of challenges that you face on a daily basis, and the more you face, the more overwhelmed you may start to feel.
That is why dealing with stres🐽s as it comes is extremely important in order to avoid what stress can ultimately do to you if left untreated.
After reading this article, you have many examples for what to do from self care to heꦰalt𓄧hy ways to cope on a daily basis.
One way you can manage the stress you feel is through connection. There is no better way to feel connected than to join the Honor Society! It is meant 🎃for anyone that has a goal and feels a pull t🦹o it.
By joining, you join💝 a group of lik🎀e-minded individuals who will push you to be better and give you the support network you need.
Ready to join? 168极速赛车官方入口:Click here anﷺd learn eve♍rything you need to know to get started today!