The life of a student is filled with long hours of work, stress, and anxiety. With so much responsibility and busy schedules, it can become very easy to neglect your well-being. Mental health is extremely important in helping you to maintain a happy and healthy life. Should your mental health be neglected, it could lead to negative and unhealthy results.

As a student at DePaul University, the DePaul Office of Health, Promotion and Wellness offers many self-care tips and tricks to help keep your mental health in check. I have taken the liberty of using all of these tips last week to see what the results would be, and the results left me looking up. Here are some great self-care tips:

1.Draw Something

You don’t have to be an artist to do this. Heck, you could even just use a coloring book. This is probably one my favorite tips because it really helps you to escape all of the stress you are feeling and focus on your creativity and free thinking through some scribbles on a piece of paper.

2. Exercise Regularly

I personally am quite the couch potato, so this was quite the challenge for me. But once I finally built up the motivation to go to the gym, it ended up being nice. It helped me to feel energized and cleared my head of the anxiety that I had been feeling.

3. Write Out Your Own List of Stress Busters

You know yourself best, so throw yourself a bone. Make a list of some things that will leave your stress free. Some stress busters of mine that I listed were watching my favorite TV shows and reading a good book. When you write it down in words, it helps you to feel more inclined to actually do said activities.

4. Listen & Sing Along to Your Favorite Music

Music is the best kind of therapy. I jam out to my favorite tunes all the time and it is definitely an easy and fun way to let loose and forget all your troubles.

5. Tell Yourself 3 Things You Like About Yourself

We often choose to point out our flaws and imperfections rather than admire the good and lovable attributes about ourselves. When I looked at myself in the mirror and told myself 3 things that I liked about myself, I immediately felt more positive and even empowered. It then opened up many more things that I realized I like about myself and has really impacted me to stay focused on the positive rather than the negative.

6. FREEZE! Stand Still for 2 Minutes

This was a lot harder than I thought. I did this twice because I struggled to understand how this would help the first time I tried it. The 2 minutes felt extremely long, and I kept feeling like I was wasting time, which started to stress me out. But then after the 2 minutes had ended, I realized that it really was only 2 minutes. The second time around, I was able to relax and just stand still because it felt like a long while for me to just focus on myself, while in reality, it is not long at all.

7. Express Your Appreciation

When you show your appreciation for something, you feel so much gratitude and positivity. I express my appreciation towards my friends in their love and care for me, and when I verbalized this appreciation, it in return helped me to value the happiness that I receive.

8. Stretch in the Morning and During the Day

This works incredibly well believe it or not. When I stretch, it helps me feel prepared and ready. One morning when I chose not to stretch, I felt incredibly tired and unmotivated for the rest of the day. Stretching really helps to wake you up and keep you alert.

9. Take 5 Slow Deep Breaths

Taking 5 slow deep breaths helps to gain back a level head. After doing this whenever I feel like I’m starting to panic or lose my mind, it immediately helps to soothe and relax me. It truly makes the world of a difference.

10. Take a Different Route Home

Spice things up. Changing your route home can be a breath of fresh air. Maybe you’ll find a new place you’d like to explore. Maybe it will be more soothing. Maybe you’ll run into a friend who takes the same route. Either way, this change can help change the tone for the rest of your day to a much more refreshing one.

The Campaign to Change Direction is a non-profit organization with a mission to inform people of the 5 signs of emotional suffering and empower them to take self-care measures about their mental health. The organization also seeks to change the stigma surrounding mental health.

For more information on their mission and mental health facts and tips, check out their website at http://www.changedirection.org/

Also, check out the hashtag #WeAreDepaulBlue to be directed to the resources for recognizing emotional suffering and self-care tactics to assist you.