hi everyone, it’s kristy back again with another article! this month, i’m excited to highlight a topic that i’m passionate about- mental health. enjoy and feel free to share this with your other friends.
with school back in full swing, it means constantly balancing between school, friends, extracurriculars, and self-care. it can be easy to forget to breathe and instead let anxiety take over.
last week, i completely forgot about taking care of myself and pushed myself too hard in school. as a result, i woke up on saturday with a sore throat. instead of studying, i took the day to sleep and eat everything i could to speed up my recovery process.
when you neglect self-care, it will eventually catch up and start affecting your performance in other areas of your life. it’s important to take preventative measures, to not only live a happier life long term but to strengthen your mental health.
imagine, a stronger mentality could positively influence your perspective on overcoming an obstacle or lead you to trying new things. hence, here are 5 resources for you mental health that i would 10/10 recommend.
1. Superbetter App
this app focuses on resilience training, by playing games that involve anxiety, depression, and stress. it teaches you how to conquer tough situations and how to stay motivated through it all. many have used it to build better habits or start a creative project. try it out and tell me what you think in the common section below!
2. Untwist Your Thinking
i am a firm believer in the quote by rick warren, “The way you think determines the way you feel, and the way you feel determines the way you act.” it’s a one page pdf that lists 10 different ways to challenge your current negative thoughts about a situation. i personally love it because i am a risk averse person and will often think of the worst case scenario to prepare myself. In reality, it’s not productive and this helps remind me that I need to look at it through a different lens.
3. Crisis Text Line
as shown in the infographic above, calling into the hotline is quick and easy. sometimes, you need someone to talk to that isn’t a close confidant like a friend or trusted adult. not only are the counselors extremely empathetic, they can usually can help you see the situation for what it really is. depending on where you life it may take 30 minutes to 1.5 hours to start talking to someone. this service is 24/7 and 100% free, and is one of my favorites.
4. 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Exercise
just like what the title states, this exercise is to help bring yourself back into the present moment. use this in times of stress and anxiety to help calm yourself down. this has helped many of my friends, and instead of focusing on the thoughts in your head, it makes you observe the environment around you. i like how in step 5, you have to repeat a quality your admire about yourself- it ends it off on a great note!
5. Half of Us
half of us is a website that gives insight on an abundance of struggles that people face such as abuse, body image issues, and depression. not only does it give information about these topics, there are also more resources that they link to help others. the purpose this website is to decrease the stigma around mental health and encourage a healthy discussion.
thank you so much for reading my article, if you enjoyed please stay tuned for next month and leave a comment below! what are your thoughts on mental health? how do you take the time to take care of yourself?
all the best, kristy hong
Leave a Reply