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This post is a modified version of an article that originally appeared on the Cengage EMEA \u201cUnstoppable Minds Blog.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n As Mental Health Awareness Month comes to a close, we\u2019re highlighting insights from someone who\u2019s been in students\u2019 shoes. While studying psychology<\/a> at Queen Mary University of London and serving as a Cengage EMEA Student Ambassador, Roya Mohamed shared three simple but powerful tips to help students take care of their mental health.<\/p>\n I remember my first year at university. All of the new friends I made<\/a>, the exciting modules I took, the societies I joined, my first time living away from home, learning how to cook and how to save money. It was such an exciting time full of adventure and new beginnings. I learned so much about myself and the world of adulthood. However, I also remember the all-nighters, the breakdowns, the tears, the times I almost gave up, the sacrifices I made and the feelings of loneliness and exhaustion I had. Being a student is not easy \u2014 <\/em>I would know \u2014 and the increasing academic and societal pressures cause a strain on our precious mental health<\/a>. Being thrown into the deep end during my first year caused my mental health to plummet and I fell into a deep depression where I had to go to therapy. It was a bleak time in my life and for a while I didn\u2019t know how to get out of the negative cycle I was in. But I did \u2014 hooray! There were a couple of changes I made to my daily routine that notably improved my wellbeing and stopped me from ever going back to that period of darkness. Follow these steps to start taking control of your mental health and wellbeing:<\/p>\n Not having a daily schedule can leave students feeling overwhelmed and unprepared. This can cause feelings of stress which can contribute to poor mental health. Planning time for revision, relaxation, hobbies, friends, family and sleep really helped to create a routine in my life and to avoid the anxiety I used to have about completing everything on my to-do list<\/a>.\u00a0However,\u00a0<\/em>it will take time to adapt and follow a routine. But having a structure to your life will make you feel less worried and we all know that worrying does us no good.<\/p>\n This is a psychological strategy that you can use to increase your self-esteem, confidence, self-love and positivity. How do you do it? The clue is in the name! This technique involves talking positively to yourself, praising your achievements no matter how big or small they are and motivating yourself with words of affirmation. Being kind to oneself is a crucial step to maintaining good mental health<\/a>. For example, when I received a grade that I wasn\u2019t happy with, I would say to myself, \u201cRoya, that was a very difficult exam and you still scored above the class average, you should be really proud of yourself!\u201d At first it felt weird doing this, but you begin to internalize the thoughts and quickly realize how good it makes you feel!<\/p>\n We all know that students have a tricky relationship with sleep. It is recommended that university students sleep for 7-9 hours a night. This can prevent you from feeling fatigued, sleepy, having low concentration levels and becoming irritable. However, we commonly see students pulling \u201call-nighters\u201d where they sleep very little \u2014 or not at all \u2014 in order to complete an academic task. I don\u2019t recommend this at all. When it comes to revising, all-nighters are practically useless. This is because our sleep cycle at night consists of four cycles, each lasting 90 minutes. In each stage of the cycle, our body and brain rejuvenate in different ways. One area that is affected is our memory of that day. If you don\u2019t go through the four cycles, then the hours of revision won\u2019t be \u201cconsolidated\u201d into your memory \u2014 moved from short term to long term memory. This causes stress and regularly losing sleep can contribute to poor mental well-being. Once I began to sleep enough, I really saw how it improved my life.<\/p>\n These are just some of the changes I began to make which took my mental health out of the darkness I was in and back to the bright old me!<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Roya Mohamed was a former Cengage Student Ambassador studying psychology at Queen Mary University of London.<\/em><\/p>\n \n <\/div>\n\n
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Positive self-talk<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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Roya shared three meaningful student mental health tips that can help improve overall well-being. If you think these tips might be impactful for your students, share this article and also check out \u201c5 Ways I\u2019m Building Connections With My College Peers<\/a>\u201d by Pranav Harwadekar, a junior at Texas A&M University.<\/h3>\n