Getting ready for university

Gratitude has been found to significantly increase positive wellbeing and can help people feel happier. Gratitude is feeling thankful but also having a deep appreciation for someone or something that produces a long-lasting effect. The activity below can help you to focus on things that have been good in the last week, to help build your positive wellbeing. These can be small things to significant events. 

Gratitude journaling 

This could be done once a week, or even every day, depending on what works best for you.

1. Use a space where you can write your thoughts down, whether this is a notepad on your phone.
2. Take time to think of something over the last week you are grateful for. If you can, aim to note down 3 things. These can include people, or objects, or events that went well. You may want to write why they went well or talk about people or things that mean a lot to you and you are grateful for.
3. You could share something from your gratitude diary with someone that you trust.
4. Keep this list safe and read through it when you are low or finding it hard to be grateful for things in your life. 

Mindfulness is about being present, in the moment, and not holding any judgment of yourself or your thoughts. We can spend up to 46.9% of our time thinking about something other than what we’re doing, and this thought-drifting can typically make us unhappy. This activity, with a bit of practice, can help you to take a step back from your thoughts and give you a skill that can help to not get lost in overthinking. It can also be done anywhere, whilst doing almost anything. 

Five senses activity

This activity is easy to remember as it uses the five senses and can be used whilst you are in your room, walking between lectures, struggling to focus throughout a seminar, or finding that you are overthinking. You can practise the five senses, at the start of a lecture to help focus. Take time to go over these five steps and take a 1–2 minute pause between each bullet point:

• Five things you can see, such as the desks or chairs.
• Four things you can hear, such as the hum of the air con.
• Three things you can touch, such as the smooth desk surface.
• Two things you can smell or like the smell of, such as your perfume or a roast dinner.
• One slow breath, slow and conscious.

Mindfulness can take a lot of practice but once you get to grips with how it can help you to become more present, it can be another tool to add to your wellbeing toolbox. 

We can often get trapped in negative cycles of stress and negative thought patterns, so it can be vital to highlight positive aspects of our day-to-day lives. Highlighting what you do well and what helps you to stay well can impact your mental wellbeing and improve your university experience. This task helps to highlight these areas, and can identify what aspects of your lives help to build a shield against stress and ruminations of negative thoughts. 

My shield

Create your own shield using four squares, reflect on the different sections.

• ‘What I do well in university?'
• ‘What makes me happy?'
• ‘What makes me feel safe?'
• ‘What I like most about my support system (e.g. family, friends)?'
• Understanding what you do well and what helps you to stay well can impact your mental wellbeing and improve your university experience.

Sleep difficulties are commonplace, especially at uni. Taking notice of your sleeping routine or bad habits you may have fallen into overtime is a useful practice that all people should do if they are struggling to sleep. You might even be in the majority of people who are struggling with sleep even more since lockdown because of the relentlessness of isolation. Poor sleep can have a large impact on our wellbeing, as it can impact concentration, mood, motivation and memory. There are small changes you can make to your sleep routine that may help you to sleep better.

Tips and advice

If you are struggling with sleep it is recommended to make a few subtle changes, rather than trying to implement all the tips all at once. Have a read through the ideas and choose what will work best for you.

• Routine: a bedtime routine is key. As children we often had brilliant routines, but as we develop into adulthood, we are more stressed and have less routine at night. Try to set time aside to wind down and be in bed by a time that is achievable to you. This goes with the morning as well. Set a time to be up and get up when that alarm goes off!
• Blue light: avoid using tablets/phones/laptops/TVs at least half an hour before bed as the blue light in screens can suppress the body's release of melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate sleep.
• Night-time thinking: people can tend to struggle to sleep if they over-think at night or think of all the ‘things to do’ the next day. It can be useful to write down your thoughts before bed. If they are worries you can’t control, physically throw them away. If they are thoughts about things that need to be done – you have your ‘to do’ list for tomorrow, so leave that responsibility for the next day.
• Tossing and turning: when people struggle to sleep, they can often toss and turn for long periods of time. The brain is then making a connection between your bed and staying awake. If you have not fallen asleep within 20 minutes, it is advisable to get up and do something relaxing for 10 minutes before trying again. Keep doing this until you fall sleep, to help make an association between your bed and sleep.
• Alcohol: people may believe that when they have drunk alcohol, they sleep better but it has been found that alcohol prevents the REM cycle, so the quality of sleep is not good. Cutting down on alcohol can therefore improve sleep.
• Bedroom: our environment can have a large impact on sleep so it may be worth looking at your bedroom and your bed to see if there is anything that can change - what are your pillows like? Is it dark enough? Are you warm enough?
• Remember that any change takes time, practice and patience, but give any of the above tips ago!

The Sleep Council website offer further resources and information. If you are struggling to cope please visit the Student Wellbeing Service.

Stress is a normal part of a uni life, due to challenges related to work-life balance, academic pressures, financial stress or external factors. Stress can sometimes become overwhelming due to not having healthy coping mechanisms. This can lead to either poor mental wellbeing or the development of unhealthy coping mechanisms. This task aims to highlight some of the healthy versus unhealthy coping mechanisms, so that you can see what strategies you may be putting in place that are working and what may need challenging. 

Tips and advice

1. Everyone copes with stress in different ways and stress is a normal part of life. There are many kinds of healthy and unhealthy ways of dealing with pressure and stress, and it is important to have an awareness of what helps and doesn’t help you in the long term.
2. There are healthy ways that help to reduce stress and relieve symptoms, as well as help to build resilience for the future. Unhealthy ways of dealing with stress can mask the symptoms in the short term. They may also introduce new stressors and increase the effects of stress in the future.
3. Think about healthy and unhealthy ways of coping that you do and write them down. 
4. If you find yourself listing many unhealthy coping mechanisms, ask yourself is there anything I would like to change or be doing differently. If you believe that your unhealthy coping mechanisms are causing a risk to you, such as substance misuse then refer yourself into the Student Wellbeing Service who will be really happy to help support you.
5. After you have created your lists, reflect on what you do to stay well and how this could positively impact your mental wellbeing and improve your university experience.
6. Ask yourself this question; how do you manage your own stress and how can you incorporate health stress management into your life?