For many of us, self-care sounds like a privilege rather than a right to keep ourselves healthy.
For many of us, self-care sounds like a privilege rather than a right to keep ourselves healthy.
5 min read
Ahh, self-care. Imagine it! You’re on a beach on a tropical island, you can hear the waves rhythmically crashing on the shore and the birds cawing. The temperature is absolutely perfect while you breathe in the crisp, salty air. You can feel your shoulders and jaw relax for the first time in ages, and your heart rate slows down to a pace you didn’t even know it could anymore. Yes, this counts as self-care but record scratch... this is not always realistic. Gorgeous vacations are a great form of self-care, but self-care should be incorporated into our daily lives, not just when we can afford to take off from school and work and lounge at the beach or explore a new city (wouldn’t that be lovely).
As college students, our schedules get PACKED! Most people are working part-time or full-time, sometimes multiple jobs, while going to classes, having schoolwork and readings to do, and taking care of other personal responsibilities. It can feel like there is not enough time for much else. Because of this, things start to move around on the priority list. Self-care is something that tends to fall lower and lower on the priority list until it is dang near forgotten. For many of us, self-care sounds like a privilege rather than a right to keep ourselves healthy.
Self-care looks different for everyone, so it is important to find what works best for you to nurture your mind and body outside of your responsibilities. Yes, going on tropical vacations every other week would be an ideal form of self-care, but it is not necessary for self-care to be effective. There are many ways we can incorporate self-care into our daily lives. Here are a few ideas, but remember, self-care is personal to you. So don't be afraid to get creative!
I know, I know—when your schedule is at its busiest and when you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or depressed, meditating is often suggested and even more often discredited. But it is a way to train your mind just as you would train other muscles of the body. Meditation is a major part of Buddhism and Hinduism that has been adopted into the mental health field because of its benefits for the mind and body. There is often a misconception that meditating means that you have to completely clear your mind and not allow any thoughts to come through, but that is not always the case. Sitting down to meditate, especially as a beginner, it is nearly impossible to not allow any thoughts—that resistance can actually produce shame, guilt, and self-judgment. There are many forms of meditation, one being visualization, similar to the beginning of this post. There are numerous meditation/visualization videos on YouTube to listen to and help you out as well.
First and foremost, finding affordable therapy can be a great start. It can be difficult to find affordable therapy—thankfully, Sol Health’s entire mission is to provide affordable therapy to our clients! Having a safe, comfortable space to discuss hardships proves to be so much more helpful than bottling things up, which usually leads to higher anxiety and burnout. Additionally, affordable therapy can help relieve some financial stress surrounding therapy, as you won’t have to pay upwards of $200 per session. Setting aside 45 minutes to 1 hour weekly to focus on your mental health can significantly improve your mental state. Although there are numerous types of therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a common one that has a lot of data supporting its effectiveness. Ask your therapist about CBT if you’re interested!
Finding time for small, manageable self-care tasks between obligations can assist in making your busy schedule feel less overwhelming. For instance, taking 5-10 minutes to walk around your apartment, building, or even outside to break up your day and focus on grounding yourself. If walking is not accessible, then use this time to stretch (there are some great YouTube videos for chair yoga) or practice mindful breathing techniques. 5-10 minutes may seem short, but practicing self-care tasks daily can help remind you to stay grounded, mindful, and may even help lessen the overwhelming feeling of jumping from one responsibility straight into another.
Building a morning self-care routine and/or a night self-care routine can be helpful. Starting your day with a short series of stretches or mindfulness activities can help you feel more ready to take on the day. Similarly, ending your night with stretches, breathing exercises, or something that relaxes you and your nervous system helps to release the burden of stress from the day. Routines are found to be beneficial for the mind and body in reducing stress. Additionally, after some time, routines can become second nature. It may be true that there are negative routines (mindlessly scrolling on TikTok, going to bed later than we should, forgetting to eat throughout the day), but being able to change this narrative can also encourage empowerment as we recognize our own autonomy in our lives.
Negative self-talk and negative self-image can be so ingrained in us that we don’t even recognize how automatic they are. There may be times when we think about something we said in class for days because it was “so stupid” or “so embarrassing” or “who even let me in that class; I don’t deserve to step foot in that school again.” Might sound extreme, but when we take notice of our negative thoughts and self-image, we recognize how often (and how mean) these thoughts are. Therefore, practicing self-compassion is a huge way to combat these thoughts and beliefs.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a type of therapy that focuses on thought patterns, how those thought patterns impact behaviors, and how to replace negative thought patterns with positive or neutral thoughts. Self-compassion can be practiced in a CBT setting. It can be difficult to incorporate self-compassion when you’ve spent your whole life thinking of yourself in a negative way. A quick way to practice self-compassion is to imagine one of your best friends came to you with the same problem. For example, let's say you said something embarrassing in class, and you cannot stop thinking about it and telling yourself how embarrassing and stupid you are. Now, imagine your best friend came to you with the exact same story and was saying to themselves how stupid they are. What would you say to that friend? Would you be encouraging and uplifting to make them feel better? Or would you call them stupid, embarrassing, and agree with the mean things they are saying? Putting it in this perspective can really change the game to help recognize that you deserve to experience kindness, especially from yourself! This is one of the many things that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can aid in when in therapy.
Ultimately, there are many different ways to practice self-care in our daily life. Yes, you deserve vacations multiple times a year, but when those are not feasible, taking breaks throughout your day to stretch, practice mindfulness/grounding, set time aside for therapy or for self-care routines, practicing self-compassion, and so much more can provide a wonderful foundation to nurture your mind and body. These are only a couple of ideas to get you started on your self-care journey. Reach out to us or your therapist if you have any more questions about self-care or creating a self-care routine!
