Psychology in Everyday Life: The Need of and Ways to Promote Mental Health for Students
Physical and mental health are intricately connected to each other. Research over the years has shown strong linkages between what we think and feel and how our body responds, how healthy it stays and how we tolerate stress and cope with it effectively. Our daily life involves significant situations which cause us to experience a plethora of emotions on account of the multiple thoughts that run through our mind. This remains true for every stage of our life which points towards the need to focus on mental health.
A day in a students’ life
If you are a student then pick any day of your life. Look at the number of situations that you move through everyday which may require you to put thought into, exert control upon, manage emotions, predict the thoughts, feelings and responses of others, or manage your reactions to situations as they emerge.
It is no easy feat to move through the daily hassles of life even when you are student. The multiple vectors that have an influence include:
• What happened the previous day
• What today looks like
• The situations we anticipate will crop up
• Our expectations from interactions at home with family members
• Our feelings about what is going to happen at school or college or other significant relationships
• The anticipation associated with past situations which still remain unresolved
• The need to be productive and achieve something today
• The people you interact with outside your home in the community you reside in
• The need to have fun and engage in recreational activities
These and many more things go on in our mind on a daily basis that require us to constantly navigate through our thoughts and feelings. And if you do not feel in control and in charge of yourself, your thinking, the way you will feel, perceive, interpret and respond in a situation – your psychology – it would create a lot of distress for you.
Psychology plays a role in daily life
Psychology and mental health have to a large part been associated with mental ill health, disorders and diagnoses. What many forget is that mental health is pervasive and omnipresent in every sleeping and waking moment of our lives. It plays a pivotal role in everything we do and everything that we do not do. This implies that there is a constant interplay between our mental health and the way we live our lives.
In your daily life as a student, your mental health and your psychological make-up have a predominant role in determining how you think and feel about yourself based on how the above mentioned varied factors impinge upon you, what you make of situations and how you respond to them. This implies that it is quintessential for you to focus on your mental health and well-being to be able to feel great about who you are and what you do and what goes on in your life.
The creation of mental health in your daily life
There is no set way or quick list of do’s and do not’s that could ensure that your mental health is a guaranteed product. However, there are things which if you do or don’t do, could certainly contribute towards your overall feeling of well-being, enhance your resilience in difficult situations and move you in the direction of mental health.
1. Avoid focusing on what you cannot control. For many there is a tendency to get preoccupied with things which lie outside our locus of control. This creates feelings of helplessness which makes it difficult to navigate through the presenting situation in search of a solution.
2. Look at what you can do in a situation. Even the most challenging situation would have some aspects that you can exert some control over. Get yourself to attend to those parts. If there is nothing that you can control in a situation then get yourself to move away from it.
3. Do not get stuck with one problem for too long. When you keep staring at a problem it seems to become larger than life. If a solution is not emerging in your mind then disconnect from it and return to it later.
4. Try to avoid getting stuck with your thoughts. For most individuals the tendency to focus on a thought will only create more thoughts in a situation. You need to remind yourself to move from a problem focused approach to a solution focused approach which would imply that instead of focusing on the thought that is coming repeatedly focus on what you can perhaps do in that situation.
5. Know that it is ok to get stuck and that there will be situations which may not have an easy solution.
6. Most things are usually not as bad as we imagine them to be. It helps to ask yourself “What could be the worst that could happen in this situation?” Such an approach can help you create a more realistic appraisal of the situation which may allow you to start thinking about what you can do.
7. Give yourself multiple breaks. It is important to take a break to be able to rejuvenate the mind and the body.
8. Build in recreation into your routine so you can unwind and allow yourself to recharge for the coming day.
9. Know that interpersonal challenge are a part and parcel of being associated with people. Problems can frequently emerge but they can also be resolve. In such situations instead of getting stuck on what you felt try and also understand the other persons’ perspective which would allow both of you to move forward in the given situation.
10. Lastly, do not hesitate to seek support and speak to the people around you in case you struggle with a thought, feeling or situation.
