{"id":5824,"date":"2024-07-12T15:32:58","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T06:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/?p=5824"},"modified":"2024-07-12T15:32:58","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T06:02:58","slug":"talking-mind-maintenance-with-chass-honours-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/2024\/07\/12\/talking-mind-maintenance-with-chass-honours-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Talking mind maintenance with CHASS Honours students"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr \/>\n<p>The health of your mind is central to navigating the demands of academic life. I recently got to talk to some Honours students from CHASS about looking after theirs.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Yesterday (11\/7\/24) I got to speak to some Honours students in Arts and Archaeology, who are heading into the busy last half of the year writing their theses.<\/p>\n<p>Presenting was me and Ana, one of the <a href=\"https:\/\/students.flinders.edu.au\/support\/student-success-wellbeing-advisors\">Student Success and Wellbeing Advisors (SSWAs)<\/a>. It was an opportunity to remind students of good self-care and relevant support services they could access.<\/p>\n<p>It was a small group, which honestly was surprising given that there was free beer, wine, and pizza there.<\/p>\n<p>For my talk I focused on what it means to look after one&#8217;s mind (given how important one&#8217;s mind is for doing high quality academic work).<\/p>\n<p>I specifically referenced the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindspot.org.au\/info\/the-big-five\/\">Big 5 work<\/a>, from a research group out of Macquarie. That work indicates there are five &#8216;proven activities that lead to better mental health&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>They are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div class=\"name\" data-wfid=\"d097b1a30068\" data-parent=\"256c0ea0e471\"><span class=\"innerContentContainer\">meaningful activities<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"name\" data-wfid=\"744d232ae793\" data-parent=\"256c0ea0e471\"><span class=\"innerContentContainer\">healthy thinking<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"name\" data-wfid=\"dad6dc09fac2\" data-parent=\"256c0ea0e471\"><span class=\"innerContentContainer\">goals and plans<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"name\" data-wfid=\"e8d7d30c6338\" data-parent=\"256c0ea0e471\"><span class=\"innerContentContainer\">healthy routines<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"name\" data-wfid=\"9551feba970a\" data-parent=\"256c0ea0e471\"><span class=\"innerContentContainer\">social connections<\/span><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I have actually <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/2022\/08\/22\/the-small-things-you-do-on-a-daily-basis-can-positively-influence-your-mental-health\/\">written about that work previously on the blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The concept is pretty simple. The more often you can engage in these activities the better foundation you create for good mental health. Importantly though, these activities need not take a lot of time. And if there is something that students reliably tell me, it is that after study, work and other responsibilities are taken into consideration, they don&#8217;t feel like they have a lot of time for other things.<\/p>\n<p>With that in mind, the Big 5 can be activated in small ways. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Meaningful Activities<\/strong>: Listen to a favourite podcast or read a chapter of a book for 10-15 minutes during a break.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Healthy Thinking<\/strong>: Spend 5 minutes in the morning practicing gratitude by writing down three things they are thankful for.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Goals and Plans<\/strong>: Set a small, achievable goal for the day, like reviewing lecture notes for 20 minutes between classes.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Healthy Routines<\/strong>: Consistently eat a healthy breakfast to kickstart the day.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Social Connections<\/strong>: Message a friend or join a study group for 10-15 minutes to discuss assignments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For those who were in attendance, it was lovely to talk to you and I wish you all the best with your theses this year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The slides from my presentation can be accessed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dropbox.com\/scl\/fi\/1tsofcxaaroczi29610wa\/Mental-Health-of-Everyday-Life.pdf?rlkey=ri0h8ucjokihwdmy00ftpv444&amp;dl=0\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can learn more about the Big 5 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mindspot.org.au\/info\/the-big-five\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can subscribe to the Student Health and Wellbeing Blog <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/2024\/07\/12\/can-now-subscribe-student-health-wellbeing-blog\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>You can make an appointment to speak to a Student Success and Wellbeing Advisor <a href=\"https:\/\/students.flinders.edu.au\/support\/student-success-wellbeing-advisors\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If you think you need to speak to a counsellor (i.e. mental health challenges), learn more <a href=\"https:\/\/students.flinders.edu.au\/support\/hcd\/counselling\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5825\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2024\/07\/people-and-food.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2024\/07\/people-and-food.png 1200w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2024\/07\/people-and-food-300x75.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2024\/07\/people-and-food-1024x256.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/71\/2024\/07\/people-and-food-768x192.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The health of your mind is central to navigating the demands of academic life. I recently got to talk to some Honours students from CHASS about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":5828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,81,2502,23,15454,31,5875,42],"tags":[19441,19442,19443,15329,19110,19109,19440,15328,5388,3448,19444,15331,19063,5428],"class_list":["post-5824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-skills","category-flinders-services-and-programs","category-life-skills","category-mental-health","category-productivity","category-psychological-tools","category-talks-given","category-well-being-at-flinders","tag-arts-and-archaeology","tag-big-5-activities","tag-busy-schedules","tag-goals-and-plans","tag-healthy-routines","tag-healthy-thinking","tag-honours-students","tag-meaningful-activities","tag-mental-health","tag-self-care","tag-simple-strategies","tag-social-connections","tag-student-wellbeing","tag-support-services"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/student-health-and-well-being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}