Mental & Emotional Wellness

What is it?

• Stress is a natural response to demands placed on you. Without stress, we would not accomplish much. However, too much stress can cause problems, negatively impact your health, decrease your productivity, and affect your relationships. Therefore, it is important to learn to manage your stress, especially when a large number of demands are placed on you.
• Stress is not just a mental game but a physical response that has a lot of negative consequences if not managed in the long-run.

Some signs of too much stress are:

• Behavioral: Eating more or less, sleeping too much or too little, isolating yourself from others, procrastinating, using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs, and nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing).
• Physical: Aches and pains, diarrhea or constipation, nausea, dizziness, chest pain, rapid heartbeat, loss of sex drive, and frequent colds.
• Emotional: Irritability or short temper, agitation, inability to relax, feeling overwhelmed, sense of loneliness and isolation, depression, and anxiety.
• Cognitive: Memory problems, inability to concentrate, poor judgment, seeing only the negative, anxious or racing thoughts, and constant worrying.

Mindfulness

• Mindfulness means focusing on what is happening in the present moment. When practicing this, you are not thinking about the past or the future. It helps to acknowledge your thoughts as they pass by, without judging them.
• Mindfulness can help to reduce symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression and improve overall wellbeing. For more resources on mindfulness,  click here.

Focus on You

• Make time to do things you enjoy
• Listen to music that improves your mood
• Practice different stress management techniques like breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or visualization. Learn about these techniques and more by signing up for a  stress management consultation
• Stop by our Stress Oasis and make your own aromatherapy bag. Engage your senses and relieve your stress with your favorite scents
• Build and connect with your social support system
• Reach out to  Counseling and Psychological Services
• Want to chill out now? Check out the super cool  Calm.com  website
  The information, education, and opinions provided by this website should be not be construed as specific medical advice or a recommendation of any sort. Owls Care Health Promotion and Florida Atlantic are not responsible for the content shared by these websites.

Get Organized

• Schedule out your day and don’t forgot to pencil in “you time” too!
• Take study breaks. Create good study habits by taking a 5 – 10 minute break approximately every hour.
• Schedule a  time management consultation  to discuss how to be more efficient with your time and responsibilities.
• Create or find a good place to study with minimal distractions.
• STOP multitasking - focus your attention on one project at a time.

Take Care of Yourself

• Get active. Move your body for at least 30 minutes a day doing your favorite activity
• Try out yoga or Pilates. They are great low-impact stress relievers. Check out  Campus Recreation  for a schedule of classes
• Fuel your body. Make an appointment with the  Registered Dietitian Nutritionist  on campus to personalize you’re eating plan
• Catch some zzzzzzz’s. Make sure you are getting 7 - 9 hours of sleep each night to ensure that your body is functioning at its highest capacity throughout the day.
• STOP multitasking - focus your attention on one project at a time.

Relaxation Techniques

• Breathing
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation
• Body Scan
• Visualization
• Meditation
• Nature and Animal Sounds

The information, education, and opinions provided by this website should be not be construed as specific medical advice or a recommendation of any sort. Owls Care Health Promotion and FAU are not responsible for the content shared by these websites.

Stress Oasis

If you would like free stress management tools such as stress balls, aromatherapy, biodots, and more please fill out the  Wellness Resource Request Form. This provides contactless pick-up of wellness items from the Boca Raton campus.

Plan it out

• Start with your classes and labs 
• Add in your work shifts and don't forget commute time
• Schedule in time to eat during the day. We recommend aiming for at least 3 meals and allowing yourself at least 30 minutes to eat if possible
• Find a realistic and ideal bed time that allows you to get 7 to 9 hours of sleep before you have to get up the next day. Try to keep your "bedtime" as consistent as possible to help you fall asleep quicker each night
• Finally allocate 2 to 3 hours each day for homework and studying
• Then after you have all your "required" tasks scheduled you can add in other activities like group meetings, going to the gym, etc. 

Establish good habits

• Get organized
• Make a “To Do” list to accomplished everything you scheduled
• Figure out what strategies work best for you
• Learn how to modify your routines
• Manage your time more efficiently and effectively by using one these Top Time Management Apps for Students rated by  TopUniversities.com

Minimize distractions

• Set aside time for studying
• Find/create a quiet place
• Put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” or “airplane mode”
• Change your notification settings so that you don't get distracted

Balance

• Set boundaries and make sure you have time in your schedule before you commit
• Schedule time for yourself
• Manage your stress by scheduling a  stress management consultation  with Owls Care to find what works for you
• Learn tips for collaborating and resolving conflict
• Include relaxing activities into your schedule
• Take breaks and to help you mentally and physically recharge

Study Habits

• Clear the clutter: Create a space where you can focus
• Minimize distractions: Put your phone on DO NOT DISTURB and pick a quiet place
• Listen to music: Non-lyric music is the perfect choice to study to.
• Stop multitasking: Focusing on one thing at a time allows you to be more productive and produce better quality results.
• Pick a scent: Create a relaxing study environment with smells that make you happy
• Use different colors: Writing in different colors allows your brain to recall different categories of information
• Study in chunks: Break up your study sessions to help you stay focused
• Monitor caffeine intake: More than 400 mg of caffeine (4 cups of coffee) is too much!
• Don’t pull all-nighters: Your brain does not process and retain all the information you want it to when you are tired.
• Treat yo self!: Take breaks and reward yourself for completing study sessions

Timesheet

Download the timesheet to plan out your week at a glance. What does your typical week look like? By filing out all of the things you have to do, you are able to see the available time that you have to implement things that you enjoy. You can fill out the sheet by color coding each 30 minute time block according to steps 1-7 (class, work, eat, sleep, study, movement, ect.) outlined in the timesheet. Use the additional tips as a guide!

Download Timesheet

Coping Skills

We can cope with negative experiences in many ways. Some of those ways are directed at the problem and some are directed at our feelings. The problem-focused coping strategies are the ones that will solve the problem. The emotion-focused coping strategies are the ones that will help us to deal with our emotions.

Problem-Focused

• Active Coping.  This looks like trying to solve the problem that is causing you stress. For example, changing study habits after you don’t pass an exam.
• Accepting Responsibility.  This involves recognizing our own role in a situation and trying to make it right. For example, having a fight with a roommate about cleaning and admitting that you could also pitch in more with the chores.
• Social Support.  The need for informational, tangible, and emotional support.
  • Problem:  seeking advice or help. For example, getting a tutor to help you with a class.

Emotion-Focused

• Social Support.  The need for informational, tangible, and emotional support.
  • Emotional:  venting about your feelings. For example, talking with friends about your terrible day.
• Positive Reframing.  This includes thinking of a situation differently. For example, failing one test but realizing the lowest grade will be dropped.
• Self-Regulating.  This is about managing your feelings. This can look like taking time for a stress relieving activity after a long day.

Eating Disorders

• Unhealthy relationship with food and weight that includes extreme emotions, attitudes, and behaviors surrounding weight and food issues. Types of eating disorders include:
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa
• Binge Eating Disorder
• Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder (OSFED)
• Counseling and Psychological Services  are available to discuss any concerns or issues you have around food and body.

• Compliment others and yourself on more than just physical appearance; recognize smarts, creativity, uniqueness, non-body oriented characteristics
• Make a list of things your body allows you to do and appreciate them
• Don’t let the way you feel about your body prevent you from doing things you enjoy
• Speak out against the “thin ideal” or “beauty ideal” created by the media
• Challenge negative comments about appearance
• Surround yourself with people who support these conversations
• Check out these  library resources  for more information on body image

For more information and to sign up,  click here.

Check out the Body Project in  the news!

C.L.A.S.P. is a 90-minute upstander* training for suicide prevention. This training was developed by universities and colleges across Florida in order to empower students to have empathetic conversations with peers who may be showing signs of suicidal ideation and refer them to appropriate resources. These trainings are currently held virtually.

During this training students will:

• Identify the importance of upstander training
• Recognize prevalence, risk factors, and warning signs of suicide
• Practice talking to a peer about suicide and other important skills
• Discover on- and off-campus resources

To request a training session for your class, student organization, or department, please click here:  http://www.fau.edu/owlscare/services/presentations.php   

If you would like to be trained and are not part of an organization, please email  wellness@fau.edu.

* An upstander is someone who witnesses a problematic event and acts in a manner which positively influences the outcome. In this context, the person would be intervening when noticing warning signs of suicide.

Self-Care Note: Suicide prevention is a tough topic, and we respect your right to take care of yourself. Self care during a stressful presentation may look like anything from deep breathing to stepping away for a few minutes, and that’s okay. There will not be any depictions of suicide or other violent acts in this presentation. If you need to step out of the training for any reason, please notify the facilitators when you leave and come back.

If immediate safety of yourself or another is a concern, please call 911.

For more information on suicide awareness and prevention efforts across Florida and resources, please visit  https://www.fgcu.edu/clasp/