In today’s world, there are countless distractions to keep our minds running and our bodies on the go. When it’s time to finally rest, the cards are stacked against us. If you’ve found it hard to turn off the fast-flying thoughts or to get that heart rate down when it’s time to sleep, here are a few ideas and why they will help. 

Exercise works wonders on the brain. Our bodies were created to move! Whether through dancing, swimming, running, weight training, boxing, etc., something beautiful happens when you choose to make activity a consistent part of your week. Walking is often underestimated as a way to exercise, but it is a great and simple way to take care of your body and improve brain health. It is also a great starting point if you’re wanting to get into other forms of exercise too. 

Listening to people makes them feel special. It makes them feel heard. It’s sad, really, that such a simple thing as having someone pay attention to us while we speak can make us feel better. But that’s the truth of it. How often do you find yourself talking and see a person’s eyes glaze over or wander past you? How often are you listening to a teacher, lecture, sermon, and find yourself miles away thinking about a completely unrelated topic? 

Unfortunately, many of us have spent time grieving in the past 1.5 years due to COVID-19. We’ve grieved the unexpected passing of family members. This kind of circumstance can affect the way we interact with others, and the way we see ourselves. 

There are two kinds of grief: acute and persistent/complicated. Acute grief lasts about 6-12 months after the loss, and persistent grief lasts longer than the 12 months. If you are dealing with persistent grief, it may be helpful to see a mental health professional to help you process and move forward. During a time of grieving, it is common for your mind to be filled with memories, thoughts, and emotions connected to the person you lost. You may also have a hard time really accepting the loss and have deep waves of sadness and desire for them. Chronic stress also comes alongside acute grief and can cause several issues, including having a hard time sleeping, depression, anger or bitterness, loss of appetite, and anxiety (How to Overcome Grief’s Health-Damaging Effects, 2021). These symptoms should not be ignored but more so accepted as part of the grieving process. It is important to be kind to yourself when you’re grieving - your loss was and is important. 

Social media seems to consume every waking moment. When you don’t have all the accounts and stay updated, it can feel like FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). Younger people hang out in person and end up scrolling through Tik Tok, Twitter, or Instagram. When talking to my family, we often say “Did you see that ___?” The blank could be someone having a baby, getting married, etc. There have been days I’ve looked at my screen time at the end of the day, and the social media use has been 3-4 hours. Limits can be helpful in creating and maintaining boundaries with what we’re putting in our heads. It can feel like a daunting goal, but it is good for our mental health.

Society often talks in extremes. Either you are a workaholic and need to chill out or you are lazy and need to do something with your life. It often seems like there is no middle ground, no balance. Personally, I tend to stay busy. I like having a schedule, routine, etc. I crave productivity in my daily life. However, if I don’t give myself any time to rest, my productivity level goes down, I’m irritable, and I feel exhausted.

We’ve all had those days where we take a water bottle to our work day or school and at the end of the day, the water bottle is only half gone. In 8 hours, you’ve only drank maybe 8 oz of water. Drinking lots of water doesn't seem like a big deal unless you’re thirsty. We can all manage with just a little water everyday, but we should really be prioritizing this small part of taking care of ourselves. Creating and keeping up with this goal can make a huge difference.

Not surprisingly, during the pandemic, many people became interested in house plants. As someone who has been a “plant mom” for about 6 years, I can agree that my interest has only grown in the past two years. There are few things that bring me joy like doing anything involving plants. As far as hobbies go, getting into house plants is relatively inexpensive, fun, and they bring decor to your house. So, let’s talk about this hobby. 

Our brains never really seem to turn off. From the moment we wake up, to the moment we fall asleep at night, the gears are constantly turning. Even when we’re sleeping, we have crazy dreams or nightmares, showing us our brain is still functioning to some degree, trying to process what happened today. Because our brains are constantly working, it’s important we provide the best fuel. Eating the right/best foods can make a huge difference in how we feel and our brain health.

As children of a physical therapist, my brothers and I are constantly told to “Sit up straight!” As a student, I have spent many hours sitting (or should I say hunched over) at a desk on my laptop or reading. After a few hours, I notice that my neck, shoulders, and back of my head hurts. Freshman year of undergrad was terrible; sometimes, I had to stop working early due to head and neck aches. I even bought something similar to a recipe stand for textbooks to keep my head in line with my spine instead of dipping down to see a book. Posture is a seemingly harmless aspect of our physical and mental health; however, it affects more than we think. Therefore, we can easily create a goal of better postur

Society constantly tells us that we need to “Go, go go!” or we’re lazy, unambitious, or unmotivated. Even in this rising self-care movement, it can still seem like resting is frowned upon. However, rest is imperative! If we are constantly moving, thinking, working, etc., eventually, we will burn ourselves out and become irritable and all around exhausted. I personally struggled with this last year. 

Whether it be school, work, sports, or just maintaining a social life, our day to day lives can get pretty hectic sometimes. A way I like to calm down and destress after a long day of rushing from activity to activity is bullet journaling. A bullet journal is a journal of your own design with the purpose of recording the past, organizing the present, and planning the future. Bullet journaling is a simple but effective way to organize your thoughts and free up brain space each month. It can be however simple or detailed you want it to be and all you need is a dotted journal and a writing utensil. A bullet journal keeps track of your goals each month and it’s fun to look back on and see how far you’ve come. It’s also a great way to get your creativity flowing. 

As a young person, I learned quickly from parents, school, or other adults that brain development is not finished until you’re about 25. There are plenty of decisions I look back on from my teen years and question what I was thinking. I wouldn’t choose that now! It’s true that brain development occurs well into your young adult life. Our brain actually changes throughout our entire life. Knowing the development stage we are in can help us make wise choices during that time to keep our brain healthy. 

The relationships we see around us can shape and change us, especially at a young age. We look up to our parents for several years, and the relationship between our parents may be the one we observe and analyze the most. Do they love each other first and their kids second? Do they try to hide arguments or have full blown yelling fights in the kitchen? Were they openly affectionate with each other or did they never touch in front of you? Family dynamics can be difficult, especially if your parents divorced during your childhood.

What makes these relationships so important? When you’ve had a relationship with someone since birth, there is a level of authenticity that is formed. You have shared experiences, memories, etc. from your childhood.

We all know that feeling. The feeling of dread, creeping over your body and pressing down on you. The seemingly abundant thoughts that keep coming at you with things you have to get done or will soon have to do. As a student, it can be overwhelming. Even when you’re able to get one thing out of the way, you get another assignment thrown at you. So if we can never truly get everything done, how are we supposed to get past this?

Stress and anxiety plague students all over the world. Everyone is, has, or will experience it at some point. As for me, I started experiencing stress around fifth grade. In the first week of school, I lost one of my math assignments and got behind trying to redo that, along with keeping up on all the new assignments we got. But even when I did catch up, I still found myself getting stressed out. That’s because for the rest of the year, I was constantly making sure that I stayed up to date on tests and homework. Even now, I struggle with trying to remember everything and keeping track of what I have to do. The truth is that no matter how behind or caught up you are, school is always going to be a source of anxiety. However, the good news is that no matter if you’re in fifth grade, college, or somewhere in between, there are ways to cope and greatly reduce school-related stress.

In January of 2021, I ran a half marathon for the first time. Prior to this race, I had never been much of a runner (AT ALL) and had only run about 3 miles in a different race. Despite this, my friend asked if I would run with her, which turned into training for a half marathon. I completed the race, but during the last half of training and after the race, I had pain in both knees. It hurt to crouch down at the grocery store, go up and down stairs, jump, run, etc. Around April, I finally got in to see a physical therapist. She told me that while my strength was great, I was very inflexible for someone in their 20s. She gave me 10 minutes of stretches I needed to do everyday to improve my flexibility and work towards healing my knees. Since then, my knee pain has immensely decreased, and I can run short distances again.

All too often in our society, sleep tends to be placed on the back-burner. We all like the idea of sleeping and letting our bodies rest after a long day. However, we don’t always make getting to bed a necessity. We all know what going on little sleep feels like, so why don’t we try to make sleep as routine as our mornings? It’s not always that easy. Sometimes it’s work that keeps us from getting enough sleep. Other times we have to be at some event that goes well into the night. These things are largely out of our control. However, there are also times when we are the root of our lack of sleep. Maybe it’s the time you're out late with friends. Or it might just be that night that you can’t seem to put your phone down. Either way, most of us aren’t getting enough sleep.

There are few hobbies that require as little to get started as drawing or sketching. Although this may seem like an intimidating hobby at first, drawing is really more about the way you see things than anything else. And like anything else, it can absolutely be learned. There are countless books or online tutorials about how to draw. The one thing that connects them all is the learned ability to look so closely at something or someone that you can break it down into shapes, shades, and angles. Besides, who doesn’t love an artist?!

ust because you may not think you’re “right-brained” doesn’t mean you don’t use creativity every day or wouldn’t benefit from it. Whenever you’re creating something, you tend to get “lost” in the activity - it requires more thought and concentration than it seems. This total absorption is sometimes considered to be “flow.” Being in this state of mind is caused by changes in brain function - brain waves slow down and original thoughts are easier to form. The prefrontal cortex actually deactivates for a time, which helps us be more courageous and less critical of our ideas. Endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine are all released in abundance - who wouldn’t want that? This is similar to how your brain would act during yoga, mindfulness, and meditation, such a natural feeling of contentment (Brenner, 2019).