You Gotta Nourish to Flourish

 


By Peer Educator Savannah Merrell

Hi! My names Savannah Merrell. I’m a Peer Educator and psychology major here at MiraCosta College. I’m also a mom to two toddler boys and a military wife. In my free time I enjoy practicing self care by meditating, going to the beach, reading, and hiking. 

Feeling Stressed? Anxious? Overwhelmed?

Being a college student can sometimes leave us feeling all these things. Through full-time course loads, studying for exams, and all the other challenges outside of our college life, we may experience these feelings at least once throughout the semester. 

What can I do about it you ask? 

Well, I’m here to offer some useful tips to combat these tough feelings. I’d like to explore the benefits of deep breathing, meditation, and yoga. These three coping skills are not only beneficial for stress and anxiety, but also relaxing practices you can use in your everyday life. 

Let’s talk about deep breathing. 

Deep breathing can be practiced in many different ways. There’s the 4, 7, 8 method where you inhale for a count of 4, hold it for a count of 7, and exhale for a count of 8. If this exact method is challenging, you can always hold for a shorter time, but the key is to breathe out longer than you held it in for. 

Another deep breathing exercise is alternate-nostril breathing. With this exercise, you close one nostril with your finger and inhale and exhale through the opposite side, alternating sides as needed. 

Lastly, there is simply taking large deep breathes in and exhaling longer breaths out. 

The next coping skill I’d like to mention is yoga. 

Yoga is very beneficial for calming your nerves and centering your focus on being more mindful. You can watch beginner YouTube videos such as this one, or find a yoga class at a local YMCA or yoga studio, or do some relaxing beach yoga. 

The last coping skill I’d like to offer is meditation. 

Meditation is personally my favorite. Just like yoga, it opens up the possibility of being more mindful. There are endless types of meditation that you can practice. Some practices that are an awesome go-to are mindfulness meditation, guided meditation, focused meditation, and progressive relaxation. 

If you don’t know how to start meditation, MiraCosta College Health Services actually offers a free app called Shine that will walk you through it. You can also use headspace, insight timer, YouTube, and many more. 

Being a student is tough work and we all get to feeling stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed at times, but that doesn’t mean we have to feel that way forever. Using healthy coping skills can combat those tough feelings and help us manage better throughout the semester and even in other areas of life outside of school. 

I hope you find these skills useful throughout this semester and the future semesters you have ahead.

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