Self-care is defined as "the actions that an individual might take in order to reach optimal physical and mental health." It isn’t a new concept, but self-care has become quite a buzz word lately, and for good reason. Taking care of yourself is important and good, conscious self-care has the potential to improve and maintain your mental well-being, physical health, social relationships, schoolwork, career and overall quality of life. There are countless ways you can take care of yourself when you are stressed by practicing emotional self-care. Here are just a few that I have used to combat the stress of student life:
Get some time to yourself.
As a full-time student who has spent three years living in dorms, I know how hard it is to find time to be alone. Even when you are in your room alone, dorms are noisy and generally not very private places. Your roommate walking in and out, people talking in the hall, loud music and TV’s nearby—my personal pet peeve—and countless other things could distract you and eventually get annoying. Depending on your personality, this could bother you more or less than it bothers me, but as an introvert, I need a lot of quiet time to myself. Ear plugs and headphones are my best friends, even now that I have a single room. If you can find some time alone time to focus on yourself, that’s one of the best things you can do, even if you’re outgoing or extroverted. Especially when I'm stressed, finding a quiet corner on the top floor of the library to just sit and think, or even going to a quiet park off campus has helped me regain some of my sanity.
Take a drive or go for a walk.
Driving or walking somewhere off campus can be a mental break from the stressful patterns of student life. Whether it’s turning down random roads with your GPS turned off or spending an hour walking around off-campus, take some time for yourself by going somewhere without a destination in mind. Just don’t forget to have a method of finding your way back!
Breathe.
Even if it’s just a couple minutes between classes, sit with your eyes closed and focus on your breathing. Breathe slowly and deeply and give yourself permission to take a moment for yourself and not think about anything.
Practice mindfulness.
Whether you already like to meditate and want to try a different relaxation technique, or have no experience with meditation at all, mindfulness is starting to become a more popular approach to relaxation, self-care and self-awareness. There are even studies supporting the idea that mindfulness decreases symptoms of depression. There are a myriad of apps, websites and even YouTube videos with guided mindfulness exercises and guided meditations. One is Headspace, which has an app for both IOS and Android. It offers a free 10 days worth of daily mindfulness exercises with 10-minute audio clips and accompanying videos. I absolutely loved Headspace when I used it, and it started my search for other guided mindfulness apps and resources. As I noted, only the first 10 days are free, and subscriptions to the rest of the content has different prices, with the most popular being $7.99 a month for two years (my stingy, college student-self says “boo-hiss” to that, but I’ve definitely been tempted to buy it since I loved it so much). I would totally recommend at least trying out the free trial as an introduction to mindfulness. Of course, there are many free alternatives all over the internet, including Take a Break (available for IOS and Android). You can find plenty just by looking up “guided mindfulness” in the App Store, Google Play Store, a Google Search, or whatever your preferred search engine is.
Do some journaling.
You may be an avid journal junkie like me, journal every once in a while or may not have even thought about journaling. Either way, I always recommend journaling to people who ask me about managing stress. Journaling helped me keep my sanity intact during my sophomore and junior years of college, when I took at least 10 classes each semester, discovered a growing number of my health problems and experienced some of the hardest days of my life. Even if it was just five minutes spent writing about my day and how I felt about it, I was able to realize things I wasn't aware of before, gain new perspectives and become more relaxed. As tempted as I am to spend 10 minutes watching Snapchat stories and scrolling through Instagram, those 10 minutes could be a great opportunity to practice some self-care and make myself more relaxed, happy or at least more self-aware.
Coloring.
I would bet $50 that you’ve seen adult coloring books in stores in the past year. There are reasons they are getting so popular! They take little energy, little thought, and can be very relaxing. Not only that, but they are also satisfying because you are creating something artistic. How often do we create things? As students, we spend a lot of time doing homework, studying and talking to friends. We may write papers and make projects, but unless you’re a type of arts-related major, it is less likely that you spend a lot of time creating something artistic. Whether it’s an intricately designed adult coloring book like Stress Relieving Patterns, a mandala—there's some interesting information about mandalas here if you're interested in knowing more about them—a fun throwback coloring book like SpongeBob or just a piece of notebook paper and some colorful pens, coloring can have a relaxing effect. You can also get free coloring pages online to print out!
Go to a therapy session (or more than one)!
Many college campuses offer free counseling services by certified therapists. These counselors have experience working with students struggling with stress, depression, anxiety disorders, grief, health problems and countless other difficulties. There are so many short and long-term benefits of talking to someone about your stress. Talking to friends is great, but talking to a trained person who does not already have an emotional connection to you can be a great experience. I did not start going to counseling sessions at college until the end of my sophomore year. I wish I started earlier, because it has been so helpful in developing my understanding of the ways I think about and react to stress and anxiety, and how I can make that better.
Something important to remember about therapy is that it may take a few tries for you to find the right therapist. Trying more than once is usually a good idea if your first experience wasn’t what you expected. However, if you try it several times and really don’t find it helpful, then that’s okay! There are plenty of other ways to take care of yourself!
Emotional self-care is an extremely important concept in such a fast-paced environment as college. Spend some time on yourself! There are countless ways to practice self-care, and not every method is right for everyone. Take the time to think about what you need, and what forms of self-care are right for you.
