The beginning of the Spring semester is upon us, which means that us college students are frantically marking our calendars with a never-ending slew of deadlines, events, and meetings to attend to. Many of us are starting new internships and maybe even new jobs. The start of a new semester is always awash with exciting new adventures.

However, with the busy hustle bustle of the college kid lifestyle, it can be difficult to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself. Mindfulness usually gets pushed to the back burner in favor of papers, projects, and parties.

Life is crazy busy, no doubt. In fact, you might have already adopted the mentality that sleep is not necessary, and you may or may not have googled intravenous coffee injections - just to check and see if it has been invented yet.

While taking care of yourself may not be your top priority you need to be sure to implement simple habits into your everyday lifestyle that will be beneficial in keeping your stress levels down and your mindfulness in check.

Throughout the semester it is especially important that we remind ourselves to take a moment to ourselves every day in order to rejuvenate and refresh our mind, body, and soul.

I decided that I did not want to simply preach to you the different ways in which to practice mindfulness. Instead, last semester at the beginning of my own mindfulness initiation, I embarked on a little mindfulness and meditation journey of my own. Spanning from Tuesday to Monday I spent each day of the week engaging in a different mindfulness activity and documented what I thought afterward.

As we delve into the spring semester I believe this is the perfect time to share with you what I was able to learn last semester.

Day 1 - Meditation

There are more than a handful of meditation type that one can indulge in. For me personally, as a person with no solid experience with meditation, I picked the easiest possible form - an iPhone app that provides guided meditations.

There are a variety of apps to choose from, some free and some paid. After stumbling through the selection, I decided on an app.

I have attempted meditation on and off over this past year with varying levels of success. I figured that beginning with meditation would be a great day one for this little journey of mine. I decided on guided meditation as it seems to be the most simple and readily available method via good 'ole smartphone apps.

Using the Simple Habit App I followed the 31-day fresh start playlist. The first track, which is where I started because I like to follow the rules here, is titled Starting Fresh. This seemed suitable so I clamored into the center of my bed, sat crisscross and limited the amount of light in the room.

I purposely waited until the end of the day to meditate because I wanted to see just how effective it was at making me feel calm, less-stressed, and rejuvenated.

Without a doubt, it was hard to focus at first. My cat was incredibly concerned by my actions and began meowing at me and nudging my leg approximately twenty seconds into the meditation session. Eventually, he accepted that his human was just going to continue acting bizarre and I was able to focus on the words and my breathing.

I noticed that I take very shallow breaths and that it is almost uncomfortable to take deeper ones. While I felt silly at first, as I began to focus on myself and my thoughts I was able to block out distractions and turn all my energy to myself. At the conclusion of the session I felt much more relaxed than when I began, however, I can see where meditation is a learned practice.

Overall, I can say that I would recommend meditation to someone who wants to dedicate ten to fifteen minutes or less each night to center their thoughts and relax.

Day 2 - Connect with Nature

Nature has a calming force about it. Be it spending time with the animals that inhabit our Earth or taking a mindful walk down a trail, nature easily gives us a chance to reconnect and realign ourselves from our busy go-go-go lifestyles.

My plans to connect with nature perfectly lined up with a class assignment that led me to the Arboretum at the University of Central Florida campus. I began the day with a tour of the vast areas dedicated to organic farming and nature and tied it up by volunteering for two hours on the same land I had spent learning about that morning.

There is something about spending time in nature, observing your surroundings, and appreciating the life around you that has an incredibly calming effect.

As someone who used to work outside at an equestrian facility and spent her days in the greenhouse or animal enclosures for FFA and 4-H, spending some time with nature was like getting back to my roots.

But while I was rolling up my sleeves and getting involved with the gardening process at the Arboretum, if getting dirty is not something you are personally interested in there are other ways to enjoy nature. I recommend going for a walk on the trails in your local park. If your options are extremely limited you could spend some time in the grassy common area on campus, outside or apartment, or in the backyard of your house.

Nature is all around us, and the solitude we sometimes need is available if we just take the time to seek it out.

Day 3 - Coloring

Adult coloring books have become a widely accepted activity over the past couple years. Most bookstores boast at least one complete display of coloring books marketed to adults.

I decided to pick up one of these coloring books (This one, if you're interested.) and try my hand at one of my favorite childhood activities.

The great things about coloring is that is it not only a calming activity that is proven to lower your heart rate but also an activity that will help you get in touch with your inner artist. Even if that inner artist is only proficient at drawing stick figures, coloring helps you to flex your creative muscles.

If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of coloring I suggest reading this article about the benefits of coloring as it goes into a bit more detail than I cover in this article.

I found that after I completed a page of the coloring book I felt much more relaxed, my breathing had slowed, and I had harnessed a focus that I was having trouble keeping earlier on in the day.

While I don't think that I could personally color every day as it is incredibly consuming to complete one of the intricate pages, I do think that it is something that I will keep on hand for days that I feel especially jittery.

Day 4 - Do Something You Love & Focus On What You Love About It

Everyone has a passion, even if you haven't found yours yet. I have a passion for equestrian sports.

I can spend hours in the barn with the horses. There's something about the smell of hay and the methodical motion of familiar barn chores that simply speak to me on an emotional level.

If you aren't sure what your passion is, then take this mindfulness exercise to a new level by experimenting with different interests of yours until you find one that brings you a sense of fulfillment or joy.

While I would have loved to have spent the day at a barn I instead decided to focus on something that was readily available to me within my own home. Reading.

Reading is something that unfortunately gets pushed to the "hey wouldn't it be nice if I could do this" list on most days, especially amidst a busy school semester. However, for Day 4 I set out to change that.

I allotted a section of time in the middle of my day (A time that I often begin to feel bored, unfocused, and mentally drained.) to pick up a book I had wanted to start reading.

For thirty minutes I curled up in bed, with no distractions, and simply enjoyed the world unfolding between the pages. Thirty minutes were over before I knew it.

And guess what?

I felt much happier and much more focused after indulging in one of my favorite pastimes!

It can be hard to say yes to the things that you 'want' to do when there is an ever-growing list of things you 'need' to do. But remember, your brain needs and break and life shouldn't be all about work. Everyone needs a bit of time to play!

Day 5 - Take a Mindfulness Walk & My Unexpected Hurdle of the Week

The fifth day of my mindfulness week I was hit with an obstacle that completely threw me off.

I had planned to spend a part of my day going for a mindfulness walk by myself. Mindfulness walks are a great time to think and reflect on your day, your future plans, and the thoughts that are floating around in your head being ignored most of the time. It also allows you to get out of the house, away from your study space, to get some fresh air and a bit of exercise.

However, I woke up feeling absolutely awful. My entire day was spent in bed, fearing that the end of my world was nearing.

As with any time that I spend doing something that is not directly benefiting myself and moving me forward in some way - I felt guilty. I beat myself up over not getting everything done that I needed to and not spending my Day 5 as I had planned.

However, this set me to thinking about another mindfulness tactic that I feel like we often ignore. We always feel that if we aren't doing anything that we are being unproductive.

We run out bodies into the ground, forcing ourselves to continue working by drinking caffeinated beverages and practicing a variety of other self-destructive activities.

If you don't feel well or you begin to feel sluggish. Give yourself a break. If this means you're in bed all day, so be it.

Our bodies are often trying to speak to us, yet be chose to ignore them and stifle their concerns with coping mechanisms that only mask the problem at hand.

Be as nice to your body as you are to your mind. Sometimes it needs rest. If you're sick, then you need to offer yourself the time it takes to get better or else you will likely produce low-quality work and flounder in your day-to-day responsibilities.

Day 6 - Five Minutes of Simply Doing Nothing

This is exactly as the header suggests. Do nothing. For five minutes. I'll be honest and upfront - this did not go well for me.

I can meditate as I am focusing on something, however, these five minutes are ones that you spent doing nothing and blocking out everything. You should clear your mind and indulge in a complete absence of stimulus.

I was going crazy by the time I hit the sixty-second mark and came out of the five minutes feeling as though I had lost five minutes of my life. This is never how you should feel as you exit a mindfulness exercise.

Day 7 - Journaling

The most common problem I believe people have when it comes to journaling is finding something to write about. I've spent a decent portion of my years filling a variety of notebooks, journals, and diaries (Yes, the ones with the locks that are insanely easy to break into.) with my thoughts, feelings, and deepest darkest fears.

It might be a side effect of being a writer, but I find that journaling comes easily to me. I am decently opinionated and I almost always have something to say.

I added journaling to this journey because since moving to Orlando to attend UCF I have stopped writing in a journal and it is a habit that I wanted to return to as I find it to be beneficial for both my mental health and a nice way to revisit fond memories.

I curled up in bed at the end of the night and broke out a crisp new journal to pour my thoughts into and spent the following fifteen minutes doing just that.

My recommendation since continuing this journaling practice past Day 7 of my mindfulness adventure, is to develop a routine. Maybe you always journal while you eat breakfast before class, or maybe journaling is the last thing you do before you turn your bedside lamp off and hit the hay. Find what works best for you and stick to it.

Bonus tip: If you aren't sure what to write about check out these websites for some journaling prompts that are sure to help you put pen to paper:

30 Journaling Prompts for Self-Reflection and Self-Discovery

119 Journal Prompts for Your Journal Jar

52 Weeks of Self-DIscover Prompts for Your Bullet Journal

25 Journaling Prompts to Boost Your Success

Where Am I Now?

Embrace a mindful lifestyle and watch how your entire life becomes more enriched!