Summary
In the article, “Simple Ways to Optimize Your Mental Health While in College,” Michael Schroeder offers a list of ways students can take care of themselves through the academic and social demands of college.
Schroeder encourages students to pay attention to their own mood and feelings and emphasizes that getting help early for problems like anxiety and depression is very important. He says, You needn’t be diagnosed with a mental health condition to benefit from taking steps to improve your psychological well-being .
Anther way is called physical exercises, is essential in reducing mental health problems by pushing our body to release endorphins that keep ours good mood and helping cogonitive functioning. However, being sedentary can be risky since we will put more weight and research shows that this could weigh down our mental health by increasing the risk for depression.
According to Schroeder, what you eat is also important, since diet affects mood and anxiety. He warns students against quick fixes, like tobacco, alcohol, and drugs to boost mood. He says these can result in bigger problems later.
Schroeder recommends mindfulness and meditation to help with uncomfortable situations and self-isolating behavior. He says mindfulness involves focusing on the present moment: Bringing awareness, acceptance, self-compassion, curiosity, and just noticing non-judgmentally those internal experiences as they’re arriving. This, he says, is a good way to process difficult experiences or feelings. Loving-kindness meditation, which he says is similar, is a practice by which we focus on positive experience and people and send thoughts and wishes to those we love.
Schroder argues that it is important to have outlets for coping with feelings and experiences, and for this he recommends journaling. Also important, he says, is developing a network of social support – good friends and family – and staying in touch with them while avoiding people who are unsupportive. According to Schroeder, not having a good social network has health risks, and research shows that those who are socially connected are mentally and physically healthier. He suggests scheduling mental-wellness activities on our “to-do” list.
It’s vital to get sufficient rest and appropriate sleep habit, and poor sleep mess up our brain and circadian rhythms by altering brain and gene function so that it triggers mental problems and become hard to function all day.
Finally, Schroeder encourages students to become involved in activities that give their lives meaning and purpose, such as volunteering to help others. He says experts claim that this is a very effective way to improve mental well-being.
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