Between assignments, exam prep, work, and social outings, it’s so easy to overlook your own well-being. You may treat the aftermath of sleepless nights with ungodly amounts of coffee and energy drinks and bear the stress of a busy life because that’s what being a college student is supposed to be like, right?
The thing is, neglecting your own needs jeopardizes not just your physical and mental health. It also gets in the way of your academic success. In fact, a study by Evan Zahniser, PhD, revealed that higher levels of self-care correlated with better academic progress among graduate students.
But what exactly does self-care mean? Can it involve turning to the reliable writing service at EssayService to catch a break? Do you have to try meditation and mindfulness? Or is it just a euphemism for being selfish in your decisions, the impression you might have gotten if you’ve encountered the term on social media?
What Self-Care Is…
Simply put, self-care means taking care of your physical and mental health through a variety of practices, from getting enough exercise to making time for hobbies or other fun activities. The goal of self-care is to ensure your well-being in a multifaceted approach.
In broad strokes, adopting a self-care approach to your life means:
- Prioritizing your needs to support your mental and physical health;
- Building and maintaining healthy lifestyle habits;
- Making time for yourself to enjoy life beyond studying.
…And What It Isn’t
Let’s bust a couple of myths while we’re at it. Self-care isn’t about spending tons of money you don’t have on yourself. It’s not about binge-eating your favorite but oh-so-unhealthy snacks. And it shouldn’t be focused on turning yourself into a perfect version of yourself by all means necessary.
Think of self-care as the art of living a fulfilling, rich life with joy – and maintaining your physical and mental health. In reality, that’s all there is to it.
Why Self-Care Matters
Switching your outlook on life to prioritize your health comes with numerous benefits, such as:
- Keeping stress at bay and coping better with it;
- Feeling better about yourself, improving your sense of self-worth;
- Improving your quality of life and level of satisfaction with it;
- Preventing burnout.
Take Care of Your Body to Take Care of the Mind
You may believe your mind and your body exist in separate planes, but that won’t make it true. They’re intrinsically interconnected: you can’t have a sound mind without a sound body, as the saying goes.
Here’s how to maintain a sound body through sleep, exercise, nutrition, and hydration.
Get Enough Sleep
Are you getting between seven and nine hours of sleep every night? That’s how much time the National Sleep Foundation recommends young adults (aged 18-25) to spend in the kingdom of Morpheus. And yet, more than half of college students report sleeping less than seven hours a night, according to a study by Zeek, Megan L et al.
Lacking sleep can lead to slower reflexes, difficulties thinking and concentrating, and mood changes (e.g., being irritated or anxious). You may also get sick more often as lack of sleep reduces the effectiveness of your immune system.
In the long run, chronic sleep deprivation also puts you at a higher risk of cardiovascular issues, type 2 diabetes, and cognitive impairment.
Here’s how to make sure you catch enough z’s every night:
- Create a sleep schedule – and stick to it.
- Set a bedtime routine to “teach” your brain when it’s time to shut down for the day.
- Don’t spend too much time in bed while awake; if you can’t fall asleep, get up and do something else until you feel sleepy.
- Limit your exposure to bright lights and screens around bedtime to avoid disrupting the sleep-wake cycle.
- Avoid taking sleeping pills in the long run: relying on them can harm the quality of your sleep.
- Stay active throughout the day: exercising is likely to help you fall asleep more easily.
Exercise
Being physically active is another crucial aspect of physical and mental health, with many benefits. It helps control weight, prevent diseases like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, and counter anxiety and depression. It also provides an emotional lift, boosts energy, and helps you sleep better.
How much exercise should you get done? Well, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends adults dedicate at least 2.5 hours of physical activity a week. That amounts to around 20 minutes of exercise every day.
As for the type of exercise, the choice is all yours. Find what works for you, whether it’s jogging outdoors, dancing, yoga, cycling, swimming, functional strength training, or even kickboxing.
Nutrition
A well-balanced diet provides your body with all the nutrients it may need to remain attentive, control weight, and avoid conditions like heart disease and cancer. Highly processed foods, in turn, may put you at a higher risk of not just weight gain but also symptoms of depression, especially if you don’t stay physically active.
While it may be tempting to grab a burger and cola from the nearest fast-food chain or subsist on frozen pizzas and ramen noodles, those meals shouldn’t be the backbone of your diet. Here are a few tips on how to eat healthy:
- Avoid sugar-sweetened and carbonated drinks;
- Consume enough plant-based and whole foods (vegetables, nuts, fruits, seeds, whole grains, eggs, fish);
- Cook your meals whenever possible;
- Don’t force yourself to eat foods you don’t like;
- Avoid cheat days and cheat meals.
Hydration
Water is essential to life as we know it, and that rings true for the human body as well. You need water to regulate body temperature, transport nutrients and oxygen throughout the body, and get rid of the waste. Severe dehydration, in turn, puts you at risk of seizures, kidney failure, and even brain swelling.
While you may have seen or heard that every adult has to drink eight glasses of water a day, that’s an arbitrary number. The best way to know how much water you need is to listen to your body: in other words, drink whenever you feel thirsty. (Just make sure to drink water, not juice, coffee, soda, or energy drinks!)
Now, What About Mental Health?
Taking care of your mental health spans adopting healthy coping mechanisms, pursuing hobbies, taking breaks, socializing, and spending time outdoors, among other things.
Learn to Manage Stress
Stress is an inherent part of student life, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t reexamine your relationship with it. Prolonged stress, after all, puts you at a higher risk of depression, digestive problems, heart disease, high blood pressure, sleep issues, and weight gain – and that’s not even a full list.
Stress management rests on three pillars:
- Understanding the natural stress response. Simply knowing why your body reacts the way it does can go a long way in mitigating the symptoms. Furthermore, it’ll help you recognize when you’re stressed – you may not realize you are for some time.
- Knowing your stressors. What puts you on edge? Assignment deadlines? Exams? Public speaking? Take stock of all known stressors – you can even write them down – and stay on the lookout for new stressors throughout your daily life.
- Selecting a coping strategy that works for you. Whenever possible, try to avoid stressors. For example, if assignment deadlines put you on edge, do your homework ahead of time to submit papers in advance. If avoiding a stressor isn’t in the cards, consider breathing and mindfulness exercises to cope with stress. (For example, to calm yourself before giving a presentation.)
Take Breaks
When you’re pressed by a deadline, taking a break can seem like a waste of time. You have to finish this paper by 6 pm! You can’t afford another C-, so you have to cram as much prep for that exam as humanly possible!
Stop that train of thought. Take a deep breath – and spend the next five to ten minutes away from the task at hand. Don’t worry, it won’t jeopardize your concentration or performance: even if it seems counterintuitive, taking breaks improves productivity.
To make your break as effective as possible, spend it on an activity that would require shifting your focus away from the task at hand. Draw, do a creative writing exercise, or go for a walk. The point of the break is to help you detach your thoughts from your studies.
As for the frequency, the rule of thumb is to take a break for five to ten minutes every hour. However, people are different, and you may find yourself in the zone when the time for a break rolls around. So, it’s best to listen to yourself and take breaks whenever the fatigue makes itself known.
Find a Hobby
Time for brutal honesty: Is there something else to your life besides studying, working (probably), and other obligations? Do you have hobbies? Do you do something because you’re passionate about it, because it makes you happy?
If you’ve just realized you don’t have any hobbies, it’s high time you’ve changed it. The good news is, the sky is your limit! Even if you have ten lifetimes to burn, you won’t be able to try every single activity. You can pick something new and unusual, from needle punching to martial arts – or stick to classics like reading, drawing, or playing a musical instrument.
Now, do you have enough time for your hobbies? If not, make time for whatever strikes your fancy: you can schedule your me-time every day to engage in a hobby for 15-30 minutes, for example.
Declutter
Clutter can be associated with higher stress levels. So, unless you don’t thrive on living in an organized mess because it’s your natural way of being, cleaning up and organizing your room – and keeping it tidy – can go a long way in helping you regain a sense of control.
What’s more, keeping your quarters clean and organized can provide you with a mood boost and reduce anxiety.
Unplug from Social Media
Yes, social media can be a force of good. It can connect you with friends hundreds of miles away, help you stay in touch with family, and engage in a local community.
However, sometimes, social media becomes too much. It’s a known fact that social media can promote anxiety and provoke stress. That’s not to mention scrolling feeds can take up a lot of your time!
So, if you’re an avid social media user, consider cutting down on it:
- Use the Screen Time stats to estimate how much time you already spend on it.
- Set a time limit whenever you open the feed.
- Uninstall the mobile app and log out of the account on your phone if the pull is irresistible.
Self-Reflect
Reflecting on your life and experiences can help you become more engaged in your daily life, reevaluate your choices, and even make you happier. But how exactly does someone engage in self-reflection? Here are several ideas – take your pick:
- Keep a journal. You can write down your thoughts in a notebook, create blog posts, or even record videos of yourself. Journaling can be unstructured – you just write whatever is on your mind – or prompt-based.
- Practice gratitude journaling. What are you grateful for today and in your life in general? That’s the prompt for your entries. You can answer it every day – or do so once or twice a week – to help yourself focus on the positive aspects of your life.
- Consider guided meditation. Take five or ten minutes to focus on your breathing and ponder questions posed by the guide. You can find guided meditation tracks on your preferred podcast platform, in dedicated apps, and even on some streaming platforms.
Socialize
Humans are social animals. So, if you realize you don’t remember when was the last time you hung out with friends or family, it’s time to start prioritizing social bonds over exam prep, work, or paper writing.
While you’re at it, make sure you don’t just spend time around other people to avoid isolation. Build deep connections to make social interactions fulfilling.
That said, however, listen to your needs. If you’re more on the introverted side of the spectrum, take the time you need to recharge your batteries alone.
Go Outdoors
Spending time in nature correlates with better mental health outcomes. But we probably don’t need to tell you how important it is. If you had to stay at home during lockdowns, you’re already well aware that staying inside for too long can drive anyone mad.
So, make sure you don’t stay indoors-bound for too long. Take time to go for walks, spend time in a park while reading or jogging, or play team sports outside.
How to Make Self-Care Work for You
Before we leave you to reexamine your life through the lens of the self-care mindset, here are four tips to help you foster healthy lifestyle habits.
Beware the One-Size-Fits-All Approach
Self-care isn’t a silver-bullet strategy that you can find online and apply to your life step by step without a single change. While the importance of sleep, nutrition, and exercise is undebatable, how you promote them should correspond to your needs and preferences.
For example, if you’re a night owl, forcing yourself to go to bed at 10 pm will lead nowhere – it may even cause you to feel like a failure for not being able to fall asleep. Or, if you can’t stand gym exercise but love spending time outside, going for a walk will be times more enjoyable than forcing yourself to run on a treadmill.
Start Small
Self-care may seem a massive undertaking, especially if there’s an abyss between your current lifestyle and the ideal one where you sleep enough, exercise, and have time for hobbies.
Don’t try to reinvent your whole life in one go: besides the risk of overwhelming yourself, you’re likely to slip up fast enough. And once you slip up, you may get discouraged on all the other healthy lifestyle habits you’re trying to foster.
Instead, start with small actions. Go to bed a bit earlier instead of watching another episode of a TV show. Spend 15 minutes drawing if that brings you joy. Call a friend or family member.
Don’t Wait to Get Started
If you’re already feeling burned out or experiencing the telltale signs of chronic stress or sleep deprivation, there’s no better time to start prioritizing your health (yes, even over your grades, if it comes to that). But don’t wait for a wake-up call that grave to adopt the self-care mindset!
Stick to a Routine
Humans are creatures of routine. So, create specific routines to promote self-care in your life – and stick to them to foster the right habits.
This can mean going to bed and waking at around the same time every day (yes, even when you don’t have morning classes), having meals at around the same time, or scheduling “me time” to indulge in hobbies.
Final Thoughts
Self-care is a journey, not a destination; it’s not about following the trend or becoming a perfect human being. As the name suggests, it’s simply the idea that taking care of your health and needs should be a priority.
Embarking on this journey means continuously building habits (and forgiving yourself for slacking off at times) and discovering new ways to improve your well-being. So, go ahead and find what works for you!
