Your Mental Health and Managing Stress

As you learned in this chapter, your college experience will be impacted by your own health and well-being. During these years, you will start the process of learning who you are and who you want to be. Your values will be questioned and your strengths will become more apparent not only to you but also to your support system. The goal of this chapter was to introduce you to the complex relationship between your mind and body; to help you identify the differences between feeling stressed versus being anxious; and to know when feeling sad may be symptoms of depression.

This foundational knowledge will help to empower you to not only improve your self-efficacy but also help you become more resilient during difficult situations. With the hope you can continue to grow in this area and improve your health and well-being, consider one of the items below and commit to setting it as your new top priority:

• Reach out to your support system and start the conversation with a person you have identified as an important support for your health. Tell them why you included them and let them know that you value them as a key person in your life.
• Identify other strategies that you can turn to during difficult times. Talk to your friends to learn how they handle difficult situations and if they have specific strategies that help them through such times.
• Consider the resources available to you on campus. Are there classes that can help you learn to meditate or how to handle stress? Where is the student health service and what treatment and prevention opportunities are provided for students?
• Think back to situations that did not go smoothly in the past. What knowledge and skills can you take from this chapter and apply to that situation which would have a different, more positive outcome. If a similar situation happens again, what would you do differently?