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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Valdosta chapter.

Juggling school, friends, family, work, and extra activities is a lot to handle all at once and can take a huge toll on your mental health. Your mental health is extremely important during these stressful times. Self care is a crucial step to maintaining good mental health, but finding time to start and keeping up with self care is a stressful task in itself. Making self care a priority will not only make you more happy, but it’ll help improve your life all together. Here are some pointers to implicating and maintaining self care in your life…

Take Breaks From Social Media Daily

Social media can create a roller coaster of emotions, from watching funny TikToks to getting overwhelmed with unrealistic beauty and body expectations. Excessively checking and updating your notifications is an unhealthy habit that most of us fall into (even if we don’t want to admit it). Staying on your phone for hours on end is an unhealthy habit for your physical and mental health. Falling into this habit can create unhappiness, anxiety, and depression. Setting a timer to limit the amount of time you’re on your phone will be a hard adjustment at first, but eventually the weight will be lifted off of your shoulders. Taking a break and stepping away from your phone will also give you more time to do other actives that you enjoy such as reading, hanging out with friends, or just taking some down time to yourself.

Stick to a Daily Routine

Starting a routine whether it’s a morning, night, or a daily routine will allow you to help your stress levels, promote healthier habits, and give you more motivation throughout the day. Creating a routine will allow you to know what to expect in your day. It can help prevent you to not overthink what is going to happen throughout the day. A routine can also help promote healthier habits by allowing you to have more time to mediate, workout, read, or to just have time to yourself. These healthy habits will allow you to have time to wind down from stressful times. A routine can also keep you motivated throughout the day. By completing each task in your routine, it will make you feel accomplished and motivate you to finish the rest of your routine.

Now you’re probably thinking, “How do I create a routine?”, here’s some tips and steps on creating a routine that is best fit for you. First, set some big and small goals that you want to accomplish such as reading a chapter a day or going outside for 20 minutes. Next is to create your plan and follow it. Writing down your goals and tasks for the day will allow you to stay on top of what you want to do in the day. Also, be prepared to have good and bad days. You’re not going to want to stick to your routine everyday, but just remember that it’ll eventually pass and try to stick to your routine. And finally, remember to reward yourself throughout your progress. It’s hard to stick to a continuous routine, and you should be proud of yourself for

Take Care of Yourself

Taking care of your physical and mental well-being should be your top priority. Taking a break from life when it gets too much is extremely important. Remembering to eat well balanced meals, sleep regularly, drink water, excising, taking time to yourself, and surrounding yourself with people that are positive impacts in your life are important and needed. Try to repeat positive affirmations in the morning. Affirmations can help you keep an optimistic mindset and boost your confidence. Also, don’t bottle up your emotions. Not giving yourself the opportunity to feel emotions in the moment or putting them off, can lead to being more anxious and depressed. Your feelings are important.

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Emily Harmon

Valdosta '25

Hey, my name is Emily Harmon. I’m currently a freshman at Valdosta State University, and I am majoring in Early Education. I am from a small town in Georgia, but I have moved around a lot due to being in a military family. I love plants, traveling, hanging out with friends, reading, and writing. As a young queer woman, I want to inspire and encourage others to learn to love themselves and to be who they are.