Tips for Improving Mental Health for College Students

Journals help you keep in touch with yourself. You have the opportunity to pen down how you feel about an experience or day. It would help you unwind and come in touch with how experiences or things made you feel and could also serve as a reminder to remind you of how certain experiences made you feel in the past. It can also be used to monitor growth and personal improvement.

You must remember that you are just human and as a human, you are bound to make mistakes. Always remember not to be too harsh on yourself. Be kind to yourself even when you feel you should be blamed for certain misfortunes.

Always try as much as possible to socialize with your family. Be in touch with your

family, most times they know you more than you think and can cheer you up when you are at your lowest. Also, try to stay with to stay in touch with those few good friends who would listen and be with you when you need them the most.

As weird as it sounds, meditating helps a lot in clearing your head and helping focus your thoughts better. So, on days you are feeling a bit overwhelmed by activities and can’t seem to focus on any particular task. Try meditating, clear your head and you would be grateful you did.

Don’t ever underrate the place of hobbies in your life. Sometimes, you just need to give yourself a break and engage yourself with activities you enjoy that boost your self-esteem and make you feel good about yourself. So, take that time off and go do what makes you happy.

You might already know this but just to reinforce it. Social media is a very toxic space. Most times you won’t have the comfort to filter what comes your way but then you should take some time away from social media every now and then and stay in the present. Social media is filled with a lot of negativity and hurt and consuming all of that every single time would be very detrimental to your mental health.

Exercise helps pump you full of adrenaline which sometimes is known as the “feel-good” hormone. It gets you euphoric and positive. Exercising also gives you a certain control of your life, and helps you set milestones and surpass them over time. Exercise can also give you a sense of purpose which is very good for your mental health. Exercise also makes sure you have an amazing shape which makes you more confident about yourself.

The importance of good food can never be underrated. A good meal can go a long way. Try to stay away from the junk that pumps you full of toxins, makes you feel fat, and doesn’t quite satisfy your cravings and needs.

Sometimes all you really need is good support. You need those few people that would always be there for you when it gets tough and support you on your way up. Having a strong support network would do wonders for your mental health especially if you have moments when you slip into depression. Knowing that you have someone you can call that would listen and help you up when you are down would help extensively in improving your mental health.

As lazy as it may sound, you actually need to get enough sleep. Don’t miss quote me though, I didn’t say too much sleep, I said “enough”. You need to sleep to get your entire body system well rested, your mind inclusive. So, forget all the quotes about men sleeping and poverty being related, try and get some sleep, your mental health is worth more than you can make.

Substance abuse is very rampant in most colleges and with peer pressure, you might find yourself hooked on one of these substances. If you haven’t gone too far in, I would advise you to stop as soon as possible. Those split seconds of relief or pleasure you get from those substances are not worth the damage to your mental health. Stay away from substances and drugs. If you are addicted already to a substance, please seek help as soon as possible.

If you want to feel good about yourself, volunteering is one of the best ways to achieve that. Try volunteering from time to time. Being able to affect change in your environment or to a group can help boost your self-esteem and mental health. Volunteering would also make you appreciate the little things more. Be it a soups kitchen or just community service. Get out there and volunteer.

You can never go wrong with a reward. For a good deed or a job well done or a milestone achieved, you can treat yourself to something nice that you would like and enjoy.

This would improve your mental health and help you feel good about both the little wins as well as the big ones.

There nothing a good smile or laugh can’t fix. Give it a try, when you feel tensed and stressed try and smile or laugh it off. It eases you and gets you filled with positive energy to tackle whatever situation you have ahead.

When the feeling of dread becomes a bit too overwhelming, it might be time for you to get some help. Depression is real and it can be so overwhelming that it takes away the joy from even things you would normally enjoy. When feeling left out and alone and like the world is against you, seek help from a professional and start your journey back to a healthy mind.