Healthy Self, Heal Thyself

Here’s a little spoiler for you: This post is going to be about self-love and the importance of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah— it may get a little cheesy at some point, but I promise it’ll make life better.

I live in Southwest Florida, which is a little road trip of 19 hours. That’s including pit stops here and there. I know this because I. drove. here. Wild, right? I get that a lot when I tell people I didn’t fly.

It hit me pretty quickly that this year was going to be a different experience. I remember having Biology, Chemistry, and Psychology exams all within the same week. When I had a demanding week like this in high school, my mother would always make it a point to designate a weekend for me to relax. It would involve either having a family movie marathon or going to my favorite restaurant. It always gave me something positive to look forward to once the hard work was over. Now, I wasn’t going to have that mind cleansing day with my family.

In high school, I stressed. It was sort of my thing. I stressed about friends, school, work, and doing everything right. I would worry: Did I offend my friend when I told her she should try harder in her Spanish class? Did I study enough for my biology exam? Do I really have to go to work today? Am I a good enough person?

It isn’t healthy, but it happens— everyone engages in thoughts like these, especially when you don’t have your on-point mother there to guide you to your normal, fun-loving self. Being so far away from home, you also miss the comfort of your own space and privacy. I am a person who values little moments of alone time where I can reflect and spend time on myself. Living in a room where you always seem to be two feet away from your roommate makes things like that kind of hard.

Everyone stresses, everyone gets the feeling that they are doing something wrong and things are just not going the way they want. You’re not alone. You’re not a drama queen or king. (Well, maybe a little.)

The key is not ignore the stress when it starts to build up. If you just need a breather and a mind refresher, here are some of my favorite things to do on campus:

1. Go out for a walk. There is a little trail near the athletic fields (pictured in header) that provides such calming scenery and is perfect for mind cleansing.

2. Lay out on Haber Green and read a book.  Might I suggest You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero. Phenomenal and motivating read.

3. Hit the gym. There’s nothing better than a great workout to sweat that stress off. I’ll admit, Arcadia’s gym isn’t huge, but it has what you need. Do some cardio; it is a great stress relief to get in a minimum of 20 minutes of cardio a day.

4. Journal. Here is the cheesy stuff I was warning you about: Set aside 10 minutes of your day to write out thoughts that are clouding your mind.

5. Declare an “I Got This Day” and choose to do things that you love. Yes, celebrate you.

Remember, everyone thinks at some point that the world is bringing them down. It is inevitable. But you must not bring yourself down. You cannot control what life throws at you, but you can control how you react and how you treat yourself. Be kind to yourself. Love yourself like you love others. No one is you, and that is what is so great.