Hi my name is Gaia and i'm a fourth year Psychology of Criminology student,
a student mental health champion and part of the Content Collective social media team. Today I'm
going to be giving you three top tips on managing your mental health at university alongside support
you can access at NTU. Alongside uni I also run a YouTube channel called Gaia Rose where I post
university advice, student vlogs and lifestyle, and document my life at NTU. My first tip is to
make sure you aren't behind on uni work so it doesn't overwhelm you and then negatively impact
your mental health. I know this can be hard as a student but it's a really good habit to start
assignments as soon as they're announced. Write down all of your deadlines as soon as you get
them on something like an academic wall planner or a post-it note that you can stick on your desk or
anywhere else where you're going to see them. For me I write all of my uni deadlines or tasks I need
to do in my 2022 academic planner that I literally take everywhere. I also colour code every module
or type of task so I can visualise the work a lot clearer. After working out all the tasks you need
to do, break them down into smaller chunks. For example, having the task 'write a 3000 word essay'
on your list may look really overwhelming, so first block out all the time you want to give
to researching that topic and then break down the writing itself into introduction, main body,
and conclusion, and set yourself a daily goal of for example writing 200 words a day for it,
something realistic that you know you can achieve. My second tip is to find a
hobby that is going to mentally stimulate you that is outside of your uni course,
something that is going to encourage endorphins. For me, I study quite a theoretical, essay-heavy
course so I like to find ways of expressing my creativity through vlogging or drawing in
my spare time. A great way to find new hobbies is to join societies or sign up to events run by the
Students' Union such as Give It A Go week which is designed to get you to try something new and make
friends. Also when you're taking part in these group activities make sure you surround yourself
with people that make you feel good. Recently I found a new passion for counting my steps daily,
being a student I spend a lot of my day just sat at my desk and often forget to move around as much
and I found counting my steps via a step counting app such as the fitness app on my Apple Watch
really helps keep me active and those endorphins flowing. Not only does exercise naturally improve
mental health, but improving my steps makes me feel really accomplished and good about myself.
However on those days where I don't hit my step quota it's really important to remember that a
small amount of progress is still progress and it's all about balance at the end of the day you
should always listen to your body. My third tip is at the end of each day write down something
positive that happened. Even if it felt like the worst day ever, write down something positive that
happened that day. This could be something as small or mundane as waking up early or
remembering to drink lots of water or shower. You'd be surprised there's probably way more
positive things that happen to you in a day than negative but it's human nature to do a post-mortem
on your day. As humans we tend to downplay the positives and solely focus on the negatives that
have happened to us. Also if you write down something positive to happen to you each day,
it's something really nice to look back on at the end of the year. Personally I also write down
things I'm grateful at the end of each week, such as having food on the table, spending time with
friends and family or being in a position to have a positive impact on someone's day. So if you or
a friend are struggling with your mental health there is a variety of support available at NTU
including speaking to student support advisors, Silvercloud, which is an online system designed
to help you access online CBT programs. You can also access support through Healthy NTU
or registering for the NTU Health Centre. All of these can be found online via the StudentHub. If
you're passionate about mental health and helping others, you can join a community
of over 200 NTU students called the student mental health champions where you can sign-post
students to NTU support or external mental health organisations such as the NHS. It's free to join
and you don't have to study Psychology to be a part of it. You can take part in running mental
health activities throughout the year such as rock painting sessions, mindfulness walks or
producing blogs and social media content spreading awareness about mental health. You can also help
out with events such as world mental health day and wellbeing week. Throughout the year you'll
also be provided with nationally recognised mental health training and come away with a certificate
of recognition which all look amazing on your CV. It's a great way to also meet friends for life
so if this sounds like something you'd want to be a part of copy the link that I put on the screen
here to sign up. So those are my three tips on managing mental health at university and accessing
support at NTU. I really hope this information helped and thank you so much for listening, bye!