Vol 3 No 12
Hello, friends.
Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Mental health issues in general.
Finals. The Holidays. Any number of things can cause us to long to
run away and hide. We all face
challenges of varying levels of difficulty as we go from day to day. It can make even the smallest task seem
daunting. It can become harder to eat,
sleep, socialize, be productive. And now
that we are in the last few weeks of classes, I am sure that this sounds like a
familiar song to some of you.
The title of this blog comes from an owl named Boggle. In the post, Boggle explains a few things about asking for help and about the things we can do for one another. And for ourselves.
I want to tell you that you are going to be okay. In order for that to be true, though, I need
you to do something for me. Or rather, for you.
What I need you to do is get a 3 x 5 card or something similar
and write the following words on it:
I AM WORTH IT
Then, on the back of the card, write down that you are worth
the following things:
·
Self-care
·
A good night’s sleep
·
Fun and adventure
·
A good meal
·
The help of a friend
·
The help of a professional
I suspect you are starting to see where I am going with this. Only one of those things is bolded and that’s
because all of the other ones fall under that one main one. I encounter students everyday who are not
engaging in that first bullet in one way or another and I want so badly to be
able to help them. One thing I can do is
to tell you that you are worth taking
the time for self-care. I think too
often we feel that we have to push ourselves to distraction without stopping to
breathe and relax. But this relaxation
is so important. We have to stop and
focus on ourselves now and then or all of those outside forces will keep
pulling on us. So, what is self-care?
“’Self-care’ refers to the active process of recovering,
maintaining and improving one’s health” (Ziguras). I love that this definition includes three
levels of health – which means that it applies to all of us, regardless of our
general mental health status. Engaging
in self-care means that you need to accept that you are worth caring
about. You are worth the care you give
yourself and the care that is offered to you by others.
And how do you engage
in self-care? Well, that depends a
little bit on who you are, because “[f]orms of self-care are as numerous and
diverse as the number of people who practice them; they run the gambit from
extreme workouts to binge-baking sessions” (Carlson). So engaging in self-care means that you need
to know a little bit about who you are. You
really need to know what brings you some small measure of happiness or
relaxation. It can be anything from
reading a book for a little while to practicing yoga, playing a video game to going
for a walk, doing 50 jumping jacks and painting your toenails to watching cat
videos for twenty minutes and drinking hot cocoa.
You notice something there?
Self-care does not have to involve that you wholly sacrifice your academic
or professional success. One of the most
liberating things we can accept is that self-care does not mean giving up on
your tasks or delaying your responsibilities to a dangerous level. Self-care does not have to take hours of your
time, nor does it have to cost a lot of money or require you to go anywhere in
particular. What it all boils down to is
taking the time to do something that will help you relax and refocus. Without these moments of indulgence, our
stress and mental health runs the risk of becoming too much for us to handle. We have to let some of the pressure off –
reward ourselves for hard work and persistence, for doing something difficult
or making progress on a project. Self-care “doesn’t need to be anything
elaborate” nor do we “need to do it all at once;” we just have to remember that
“trying to fit in the basics is a great place to start,” because that will “give
us a solid foundation to work from” (“Self-care”).
YOU ARE WORTH ALL OF THIS.
This said, I cannot stress enough that if you get to the
point where you feel you cannot handle the stresses in your life, you should
seek out someone you trust and get help.
Help-seeking is one of the most important and the hardest things we can
do that falls under the category of self-care.
There is no shame in asking for help and although it might be difficult,
it’s one of the most important things you can do. We have counseling services on campus, and there
are numerous faculty and staff who can help you find the services you
need. Don’t stay lost and alone if you
can’t handle the stressors in your life.
Help is out there for you. It is
a sad truth that “despite the relatively high prevalence of elevated stress and
mental health difficulties in college students, research has consistently
revealed that most students who have a problem do not seek help” (Hubbard, et
al).
Better for me is finding the best possible way to live and function while having struggles. I want to continue to grow and understand why my brain works the way it does. I want to learn how to prevent myself from closing off when I’m hurt. I want to put the work in and be able to stay rooted and confident in myself, my beliefs, and my mental state. I want to be the best me (Milner)
Works Cited
Carlson, Melissa.
“Finding Health and Happiness the Write Way: Blogging as Self-Care Within
Student Affairs and Higher Education.” Vermont
Connection, vol. 36, Jan. 2015, pp. 23–30. EBSCOhost,
ezproxy.flcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=101367094&site=eds-live.
Accessed 3 Dec. 2018.
Hubbard,
Kimberly, et al. “Stress, Mental Health Symptoms, and Help-Seeking in College
Students.” Psi Chi Journal of
Psychological Research, vol. 23, no. 4, Fall 2018, pp. 293–305. EBSCOhost,
ezproxy.flcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=132602564&site=eds-live. Accessed 3 Dec. 2018.
Milner, Alex. "The Reality of 'Getting Better.'" To Write Love on Her Arms. 26 Nov. 2018, twloha.com/blog/the-reality-of-getting-better/. Accessed 3 Dec. 2018.
“Self-care for Busy
People.” Blurtitout.org. The Blurt
Foundation, 24 Oct. 2017, www.blurtitout.org/2017/10/24/self-care-for-busy-people/. Accessed 3 Dec. 2018.
Ziguras,
Christopher. Self-care: Embodiment, Personal
Autonomy and the Shaping of Health Consciousness. Routledge, 2004. Google
Books. books.google.com/books?id=CksXt89K-6QC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false. Accessed 3 Dec, 2018.
