Making Time for Self-Care This School Year
A new school year means a chance to hit the reset button and start fresh with new habits, new friends, and new opportunities to explore who you are! Whether you’re new to ChathamU or you’ve been here awhile, don’t forget to build mental health and wellness into your back-to-school routine. Even if you’re feeling nothing but great vibes, a little strategy around self-care now will prevent burn out later. Read on for resources and tips!
Bookmark These Resources:
The Counseling Center
Our mental health professionals at the Counseling Center offer a safe, confidential, and non-judgmental space available to all registered students during the academic semesters at no charge. They’re here for you if you feel stressed, overwhelmed, or in need of a listening ear. They’re open for virtual appointments and some in-person appointments, with HIPAA-compliant Zoom accounts for secure, confidential, and private teletherapy. For in-person offerings, head to the back of Woodland Hall’s ground floor, between the book store and the Health Center. To schedule an appointment with the Counseling Center, call 412-365-1282 or email counselingcenter@chatham.edu. Fall and spring term office hours are 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. To explore all their offerings, head to MyChatham, or check out this Pulse@ChathamU piece, which explains what the Counseling Center can do, and how easy it is to reach out.
TalkCampus
TalkCampus is a peer-to-peer support platform where peers and professionals are available 24/7 via the TalkCampus app. It’s a safe place where you can talk anonymously about anything and get support for your mental health and whatever is on your mind.
Chatham also offers mindfulness activitie, group counseling and dialogue spaces for LGBTQIA+, Black and IPOC students, and additional mental wellness activities throughout the year. Check MyChatham Happenings frequently!
Build Mental Wellness Into Your Everyday Life:
Check in with yourself
If you don’t know your baseline, you won’t know when you’re starting to get off track, so checking in with yourself is key! Keep a journal, have a note on your phone, download a wellness journalling app— just take a few minutes every day to assess your feelings and well-being. A super quick exercise you can do every night before winding down is called “Rose, Thorn, Bud,” where you list one thing you’re grateful for that day (rose), one thing you wish went better (thorn), and one thing you’re hopeful for (bud). The idea is to acknowledge the negative, but accentuate the positive, so that you finish every day knowing how you feel, and looking forward to something great.
Create Community…
A fun, supportive community is essential for personal well-being, and for success in college life. It’s totally fine to lean into your hometown friendships the first few weeks of school, and to maintain the ones that work with you as you grow. But to flourish where you are, you have to put yourself out there. Go to every event, try out for an intramural sport, join a student organization, and remember: everyone around you wants to make friends too, so just go for it! As Chatham’s Dr. Carrie Tippen said in a recent advice post:
“There will never be another time when you are loaded into rooms with people your own age who share your interests and tastes and have ample time to talk to you and walk with you and eat with you and stay up late with you and get up to shenanigans with you. You will not find another group of people so open to friendship and ready for new adventures than first year college students. Friends are just waiting to be made everywhere you look.”
…But Don’t Forget the Me-Time
That being said, it’s important not to over-schedule yourself with school + social life. Make sure you’re leaving time to do the basics like eat nutritious foods, maintain your hygiene, clean your space, manage your schedule, etc. Block off a morning or afternoon once a week and make that time just for you. If you have a roommate, talk to them about creating blocks of alone time in your room so that you’re both getting the space you need. Cultivate an enjoyment for your own company— take yourself on an adventure, dress to please yourself, and above all else, be kind to yourself.
Touch Grass
We don’t mean that in the snarky internet way; we mean it as in… get outside! Chatham’s Shadyside Campus is known for its beautiful scenery and award-winning arboretum, so if you’re feeling overwhelmed, consider making “outside time” a daily appointment on your schedule. If you’re craving a wilder kind of nature, our Eden Hall Campus has 388 acres of hiking trails, farm land, goats and chickens, and even a sensory garden for you to really max out your mindfulness. Plus, it’s just a shuttle ride away.
Communication is Key
It can be really, really tough to acknowledge when you’re not doing well, but it’s so important that you let the people around you know when you could use help. It’s okay to tell people you need space, or need company, or need more time. That goes for roommates, instructors, parents, and friends. When you advocate for yourself and your needs in a timely, considerate way, people will want to help you out—you just have to let them know you need something first.
Read Up:
We at Pulse@ChathamU want our students to succeed in every facet of their lives, and mental wellness is no exception! Pulse has tons of posts on wellness, from tips to expert advice and more. Below are just a few links to some of our favorite posts:
We hope that you use some, all, or even just one of these tips and resources to start the school year with a mindfulness mindset. You can explore the Counseling Center’s offerings on MyChatham here. Try the peer-to-peer support platform TalkCampus, where peers and professionals are available 24/7. If you’re in crisis, please call your local crisis number, 911, or resolve Crisis Services at 1-888-7-YOU-CAN (796-8226). 💜
