1. Exercise
I know, I know, exercising is generally no ones favourite thing to be doing and the thought of even just doing the dreaded walk to the gym from the comfort of your warm and cosy home is enough to make you recoil in disgust. But hear me out. Once you get over the initial dread of exercising and actually do a workout, the endorphins that are released in your brain afterwards often make us feel relaxed and happy, not to mention it does wonders for you self-confidence as you are making a positive improvement in you life. And the best part? It doesn't have to cost a penny, you don't need to join any gyms or clubs to reap the benefits of exercising, even doing something as simple as going for a long walk in a nearby park can effectively clear your head and help you feel at peace.
2. Socialise
As easy as it can be to just lie in bed with a huge chocolate bar and binge-watch some Netflix series all day, it's not really going to make you feel great about yourself. Sometimes the best things you can do to feel good involve communicating with other people, so if you find yourself sitting one evening with no real plans and you're feeling a bit sorry for yourself, then a good idea would be to text the people you enjoy spending time with and asking them to hang out. Yous could do anything, from walking to the near-by Nugelato to get some ice-cream and having a good chin-wag for a couple hours, to going on a cheeky night out and having a couple drinks and a little boogie to just let loose for the night. It's just always nice to enjoy someone's company for awhile as it helps us to feel less alone.
3. Put Down the Mobile Phone
Arguably this is the toughest tip on the list to actually utilise because lets face it, in this day and age we would be completely lost without our technology. Sending pointless selfies to our friends and sharing memes at the touch of a fingertip has never been so easy now that we can quite literally carry the ability to do this around with us in our pockets, but more often than not we find ourselves completely immersed in this online world, accidentally scrolling through TikTok for 4 hours or scrolling 3 weeks back on the UU Love Facebook page without even realising we're doing it. It's good to just take a step back from the technology for awhile, or at least the social side of it, and instead what you could do is finally get cracking on with something you've been meaning to do (ahem, coursework).
4. Find a Hobby
Sometimes the best thing you can do for your mental health is to have a simple, routine hobby that you can turn to when you just want to escape for awhile and take your mind off things. You could take up a sport such as running (back at it again with the exercise, I know) or make the small investment into one of those therapeutic adult colouring books which, from personal experience, are incredibly calming to use and help with anxiety. You could also join a club; universities often offer various societies to join, both course-related such as the Marketing society and just plain extra-curricular clubs such as Cheer-leading. Other small and easy hobbies you could take up include cooking (always useful for budgeting students who are trying to resist ordering off of Deliveroo every night), learning a new language through apps such as Duolingo, and even something as straightforward as reading or joining an online book-club to liberate yourself for awhile.
5. Surround Yourself with Good People
Maybe not the simplest tip on this list, but definitely an important one. One of the biggest things that take a negative toll on our mental health are the people we surround ourselves with, and what we sometimes forget is that we have the power and the ability to get up and walk away from people in our lives who bring us down: we just don't bring ourselves to do it. But there's nothing more freeing than the feeling of relief when you walk away from a person who has only succeeded in dragging you down as opposed to lifting you up, whether that be in a romantic relationship or a friendship group. If someone is getting you down, it is completely within your right to slowly start ghosting them, which although is a sucky feeling its probably what they deserve. If its a more serious situation that you feel you can't escape from then there is no harm in turning to the people you trust the most such as family and close friends, and also several external sources that can help you such as the National Domestic Abuse Helpline. Its all worth it when you finally cleanse the toxicity out of your life and can continue living with a massive weight lifted off your shoulders and a much improved mentality.
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