Recently, mindfulness activities for college students have gained popularity in managing feelings of anxiety, stress, and depression. Practicing mindfulness activities keeps us rejuvenated, hopeful, optimistic, and motivated.
It also contributes significantly to our focus, attitude, and self-esteem. As we continue to embrace these activities, we can establish healthy habits even in other areas of our lives, such as workouts, healthy eating, and many more.
Normally, college life comes with a lot of peer pressure. It’s a phase of adulting whereby we are trying to find our true identity and the direction of our lives.
Yet, with all the freedom that comes with it, we are required to make informed decisions every day.
Not only for our holistic (spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical wellness) well-being but also for the betterment of our careers. What are the mindfulness activities for college students?
Mindfulness Activities for College Students
Here are six mindfulness activities for college students that can see us through overwhelming situations. They can be practiced every day and anywhere.
Daily Journaling
Every day comes with its battles and wins, and the only way to keep ourselves on track is by writing down a to-do list. This also helps us stay in control and focus on approach driven motivation.
Getting out of the house with a picture of what is expected of us all day will help us to be at the right place at the right time. Here, we can plan for every free minute available on that day.
For example, I can be having two-morning sessions on a particular day. After that, I have all the time to do whatever I want until evening. To avoid being idle, I can choose an activity that will keep me engaged. Such as playing or watching football, reading a book, swimming, skating, or any other activity and adding it to my to-do list.
This will keep my mind aligned. This is one of the most popular mindfulness activities for college students.
We can as well journal emotions and predominantly negative emotions. It’s a great way to process and get over them.
We can as well have an evening journal. It helps us discover our achievements no matter how small and failures on that particular day. It’s an excellent way to keep us focused on ourselves, celebrate achieved milestones, and learn from our failures.
Daily Gratitude
We often complain, murmur, and find fault in every situation, which magnifies our concerns. Practicing gratitude helps us pause, reflect, and recognize every meaningful thing surrounding us.
For example, we often compare ourselves with our peers, from our dress code to our daily cash flow, extravagant birthday parties, etc.
We even envy them, which can easily throw us into a pit of self-pity. It’s such a relief to embrace our backgrounds with so much gratitude. It improves our self-esteem, and we can walk around with knowledge and understanding.
We aren’t less of a person because we are not keeping up with the trending fashion or eating lunch from a 5-star hotel. Practicing gratitude reshapes how we perceive our hardships and gives us hope that this too shall pass.
Daily Affirmations
Self-awareness is such a powerful source of motivation and confidence. And when we know who we are, we will probably know what we want.
This will keep our minds from wandering and doing things so we can fit into other people’s lives. Practicing affirmations opens our minds and gives room for new ideas.
Also, it’s possible to be anxious in an exam room. This can empty everything we have learned, and we can end up failing our exams not because we didn’t know but because of anxiety.
We can overcome this by speaking to ourselves words such as, ”I can do this”, ”I am enough”, and we end up calming the raging anxiety.
Mindful Breathing
When faced with a stressful situation, we tend to take shallow breaths unknowingly. Taking a deep breath shifts our attention from the stressful situation to ourselves, thus calming us.
For example, we can be going through a difficult moment, such as losing a loved one or heartbreak, and it can be hard to concentrate in class.
Mindful breathing brings our minds in control as we focus on every inhale and exhale.
We are restored to mental and emotional functionality, and we can now focus on the session. This can be done for up to 10 minutes consecutively with closed or open eyes.
Physical Exercises
Workouts don’t necessarily mean signing up for a gym. A morning walk or an evening is enough. We can mobilize our friends to join us in physical exercises.
Such as nature walks, jogging, running, yoga, dancing, and other activities that can break a sweat. It’s not only a good way of keeping us motivated, but it’s also an addition to keeping us fit.
That’s why it is counted as the most important mindfulness activities for college students
Physical exercises help us get rid of negative energy and build our social life, especially when doing it with friends. So apart from keeping our brains active, we achieve a lot.
Social Media Detox
We live in a digital era with many social media platforms, from Facebook to Instagram, TikTok, etc. It can be very addictive if we are not careful enough. For example, we have encountered students who are always glued to their phones, even during lectures.
This can easily drift our attention, losing a whole learning session. In other circumstances, some of us will spend every free minute on social media, which is very unhealthy.
We deny our brain the opportunity to be creative, and we can quickly lose track of our studies and our whole being.
Taking a break from social media won’t break a bone. On the contrary, it improves our creativity and helps us refocus. Even if we don’t have anything to do, we should learn to embrace silence and self-company.
Key Takeaway
We don’t have to walk around so dull, unmotivated, anxious, and unfocused. These mindful activities for college students are enough to keep us focused and our brains aligned.
While some may appear simple, others will require structured and dedicated routines.
The objective is to bring our minds under control in all circumstances, no matter how overwhelming they are.
When the mind is calm and relaxed, we let go quickly and live the moment.