Just Keep Breathing

“Are you sure you are doing okay?” I’ve been asked that question frequently for the past few months by my friends and family. Ever since I moved down to Florida officially everyone has been worried about my wellbeing, especially my mother. This semester we weren’t prepared for all of the challenges I was going to face but regardless we dealt with each one as they came. Balancing mental health in college is not an easy feat but I’m lucky to have a good support group around me.

For the past few months, I have been living on my own in my apartment and I have learned quite a few things about maintaining not just my physical health but my mental health as well. Before the semester took off it was easier for me to have the time to cook and meal prep as well as go grocery shopping. As the semester got busy though, I pushed a lot of that to the side due to the fact I believed I was getting too busy to have time to cook meals.

I started eating out a decent amount and while that’s not necessarily bad for me, I should have probably taken the time to meal prep on Sunday’s so when I knew I would be having late nights it wouldn’t take as much time to make the food as it usually would if I was starting from scratch.

While I was still going to the gym and trying to eat as normal as possible, I was also struggling internally. This semester was just incident, after incident, after incident and finally around mid- October I reached my breaking point. I had been dealing with a lot of my problems internally and one night when I was on the phone with my mom it all just kind of poured out for me.

After a long talk with her and then with my dad, I ended up canceling all of my plans and driving home for a weekend. Turns out that was exactly what I needed. It gave me the opportunity to process what I had been through and it helped center me to come back and finish the rest of the semester strong.

As a working college student, it is hard to maintain a healthy mental health state. When your job requires a lot of time and so does your school-work along with paying bills, getting food, having a social life etc., people start to seriously struggle. That is why it is so important to not only place emphasis on your physical health but your mental as well.

You can live by the 20-80 rule, (20% exercise, 80% diet), as a perfectly normal lifestyle but you also have to make sure you are taking the time you need to take care of yourself. Whether it Is going to the gym, doing a face mask, sleeping-in, having a movie night, or even going home, it is essential you take that time to help your mental state in the best way possible.

“Improving your physical wellbeing is one of the most comprehensive ways you can support your mental health. You’ll have an easier time maintaining good mental habits when your body is a strong, resilient foundation.” (nami.org)

As I previously spoke about, I spent my semester in this class discussing my health, my allergies, how/what to eat etc. but I never really discussed the thing that correlates with physical health which is mental health. While I have really struggled this semester in both aspects, I am slowly starting to improve both as the semester ends and I hope to continue improving for the next semester as well.

Photo by: Emily Banaitis