Why Is Self-Care So Important for College Students?
Self-Care? In college?
Yes, self-care in college.
What exactly do we mean by “self-care.”
As the name suggests, self-care is “taking care of yourself”. It’s really just that simple. Self-care is what we do to promote our own physical, mental, social, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing.
Sad to say, many students view the act of self-care to be something of luxury or something that’s expensive and unaffordable. Well, I am here to dismiss all those allegations. The art of self-care is so cheap and absolutely everyone can afford it. It can be in the form of taking a walk, getting 8 hours of sleep, reading a book, or lighting a candle.
During college, 95 percent of the time, we spend it working on assignments, catching up on lectures, working on group projects, writing notes, studying, writing lab reports, trying to finish our honors thesis, (do I really need to continue?). It’s really hard for us to find time for ourselves. Sometimes, we just want to finish our assignments and get them over with, so what do we do? We stay up all night, #TeamNoSleep #TeamAllNighter, eating no meals and relying on caffeinated drinks to keep us awake.
Eventually, what do you think will happen when we do this consistently? It will lead us to have those “burn-out” moments.
Having those moments is the worse feeling ever and so self-care helps to avoid those.
In this article, I will be sharing some reasons why having a self-care routine while in college is so important.
1. Self-Care Boosts Your Confidence.
SELF-CARE IS NOT SELFISH. Putting your needs before others, including your schoolwork is not selfish.
Unfortunately, we cannot make everyone we interact with happy. You shouldn't try to please everyone all the time. It's just not worth it. You will begin to live your life according to someone else's standards, depleting yourself of any sense of genuine happiness.
You need to listen to what YOU want and always remember your self-worth.
By doing this, you will feel better about yourself and thus you are able to improve in different aspects of your life, including your academic life.
Self-care is extremely important in maintaining a healthy relationship with yourself and others. It produces positive feelings, which build self-love, self-confidence, and self-esteem.
2. Self-Care Prevents Burnout.
Burnouts happen when we have been under extreme and prolonged stress. We feel exhausted and frustrated with the demands of academic pressure. We begin to lose motivation and we become easily agitated. We start to feel hopeless and helpless and if we don’t deal with this quickly, then it will spiral out of control.
So what should you do to prevent burnout?
Take a break. Leave that study space, go take a nice walk, do some yoga, go outside and look up at the sky or the stars, plug in your earphones and listen to your favorite happy playlist or an inspiring podcast. Shut down that computer and start to appreciate the little things.
Most importantly, GIVE YOURSELF CREDIT. Say positive things to yourself and accept the fact that you are working hard to achieve your dream.
3. Self-Care Leads To Happiness.
With college comes those low days that we all have. We are drained, tired, and in urgent need of a relaxing vacation to the Caribbean. There are days where we want to stay in bed for a couple more minutes, we don’t want to study or we feel discouraged.
Practicing self-care doesn’t make our problems go away, instead, it makes us feel content and refreshed. We have more energy and we see things from a different point of view.
Whenever you are feeling any negative thoughts, get a book, a journal, or a piece of paper and write down all your negative feelings. Release all that negativity onto that paper.
When you do this, you are transferring all that negative energy from your mind onto that paper, thus removing those thoughts.
Next, I want you to get a lighter or some matches and go outside (a large space away from people) and burn it.
Yes, burn it.
Now, breathe. You have safely removed all negativity and you are ready to conquer that assignment or ace that interview.
Recycle that space in your mind with new positive thoughts.
4. Self-Care Helps You To Perform Better.
Practicing self-care helps to improve your focus and concentration. How? By practicing mindfulness.
Mindfulness is a type of meditation. It focuses on being aware of what you are feeling in the moment. It reduces mind-wandering and improves our focus and concentration.
College students spend a lot of time stressing about coursework or tuition fees whether it’s in the past or the future. It distracts us from focusing on being in the present.
The next time you find yourself worrying about what happened in the past or what will happen in the future, take a few minutes to bring your attention to the present moment.
Practicing mindfulness will help improve your memory, reduce anxiety and improve your focus and concentration.
These are all things that we want to maintain while in college
So, in a nutshell, self-care is the things we do to protect, improve and maintain our physical and mental health throughout college.
Please do not take these things for granted. And remember that you can’t control your circumstance, but you can control your reaction.
Self-care is free. You have to nourish in order to flourish.
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