For many people, college is the most fun time in life. You’ve got more freedom than ever before, and you can use that freedom to explore yourself and learn who you truly are. However, there’s another side to that coin of freedom – responsibility. And the combination of responsibility and freedom that makes up most of a student’s lifestyle isn’t always liberating. After a while, it’s known to take a toll on students’ mental health.
The combined pressure of maintaining your social life while attempting to stay on top of all your studies can overwhelm you. With that in mind, we’ve come up with a couple of ways in which you can maintain your mental health in your student years.
Talk About Your Stress
Sharing problems is difficult – but every time you talk about something that’s bothering you, you’ll feel the pressure lifting at least a little bit. And the pressure of your upcoming exams and studying can lead to a lot of anxiety and stress – which is something you shouldn’t keep a lid on all the time.
Try to think of someone you’re comfortable talking to about this – a family member, friend, or even a course tutor. Someone is bound to suggest something practical that could help you deal with your current situation – or they’ll at least make you feel better with kind words of support.
Try To Reorganize Your Time
College is the first time when you’re solely responsible for how you organize your time – which can be a source of pressure in and of itself. And if things aren’t going well and you feel stressed out, reexamining how you’ve organized your day-to-day life may be a good idea. There may be some inefficiencies that you can change for the better and improve your mental health.
For instance, if you think your studies could be going better, go beyond the core curriculum and seek online study help – the Internet is filled with resources that can probably make things easier.
Also, try reorganizing your schedule to squeeze in some exercise time throughout the day. If you’re spending all of your time behind a desk, you’d be surprised to learn how much even 20 minutes of light exercise a day can help with your mood. Even a brisk half-hour walk might be enough to release some much-needed endorphins into your body.
If you manage to make a habit out of exercising, you’ll find that the process leaves you feeling happier and more concentrated. Plus, you’ll probably sleep better as well.
Don’t Drink – Or Drink Sensibly
Partying is one of the quintessential student activities – and yes, your student days are likely the only time you’ll be able to do it three times a week. However, you should still demonstrate some caution and restraint; the last thing you want is to burn out and feel depressed.
Bear in mind that alcohol itself is a natural depressant. So always limit your consumption to something sensible, and don’t develop bad habits, especially not because of peer pressure or shame.
Find Some Time For Yourself
In college, finding any “me” time is easier said than done – you’ve got a lot of stuff to keep up with. However, it would help if you relieved the tension from time to time by doing stuff you genuinely enjoy when you’re alone. No matter how brief this time is, use it to listen to your favorite music, draw, watch TV, or even meditate.
And even if you’ve never dabbled in meditation before, try it – just 20 minutes each day is excellent for calming your mind.
Set Realistic Goals
Unfortunately, mental health issues make even the most mundane tasks extremely difficult. And if you feel like your mental health isn’t where it should be, don’t try to do everything at once and push yourself hard.
Instead, focus on setting realistic goals that are measurable and achievable – that way, everything you do will seem like a long series of smaller victories. Whether it’s getting started on your next essay or just cleaning up your room – every tiny win will help you build up your confidence and mental health in the long run.
Get Enough Sleep
We couldn’t overestimate the importance of sleep even if we tried – every single sleep study out there shows that introducing proper sleep patterns to your life brings massive benefits, especially in terms of physical and mental health.
And notice how we said, “proper sleep patterns” instead of “more sleep” – those two aren’t necessarily the same thing. We all had days when we slept for 12 hours and woke up as tired and battered as we would with 4 hours of sleep. That’s because the quality of your sleep is equally important as its length.
It would help if you tried getting into a regular rhythm of going to sleep and waking up at roughly the same time of day.