Why is Mental Health Important for Students?

Having a jam-packed schedule can be great for practical things like resume building and gaining the experience necessary to succeed after graduation. But, it also presents the risk of burnout. Burnout occurs when a person has reached a state of complete exhaustion — mentally, physically, and emotionally. Burnout often leads to poor overall mental health which can be detrimental to a person’s productivity and success. 

With students, specifically, burnout and poor mental health can directly impact things like academic performance and social interactions. The decline of a student’s mental health may also occur silently and the student may not notice that they are experiencing burnout until they’ve reached the worst of it (which is often identified by things such as low grades, careless mistakes, and poor social interactions). That’s why it’s important to prioritize student’s mental health before things spiral out of control. 

In a survey conducted by The Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, nearly 66% of students reported that counseling services for mental health improved their academic performance. 

What Are the Benefits of Good Mental Health for Students?

Maintaining a strong sense of mental health is a key component in overall holistic wellness. It presents several unique benefits that will improve a student’s overall quality of life — even when things at school feel overwhelming and stressful. 

Benefits of good mental health for students include:

• Productivity — Academic performance will improve and students will be able to accomplish their assignments on time.
• Coping skills — School is an inherently stressful environment. Focusing on mental health will allow the student to manage stressful situations with more ease.
• Higher self-esteem — It’s easy to become wrapped up in things like test scores and surface-level indicators of success. Having stable mental health will help a student to have higher self-esteem and feel confident in their skills and success, even when it may be easy to let these pressures tell them otherwise.
• Healthy relationships — When a student feels good about themselves, they are more likely to participate in class and form meaningful connections with their peers, which will make for an overall more positive school environment.

How to Prioritize Mental Health for Students

What does it mean to prioritize mental health? In part, it’s a commitment to prioritizing activities that put holistic wellness at the forefront. Combining science-based practices like meditation, breathwork, and physical activity can help improve your overall mental well-being. For the best results, incorporate these rituals into your daily routine. 

Mental Health Activities For Students

Not sure where to begin? Try these mindfulness practices for students that may improve overall mental wellness:

Meditation and Breathwork

Engaging in a meditation practice regularly helps to refocus your sense of awareness and energy. Setting aside 10 minutes each day will ultimately result in bringing a sense of calm, peace, and balance. This is especially beneficial with students who are trying to balance several different tasks at once. A consistent mindfulness practice can help shift things into perspective and prevent these tasks from seeming larger than they are. 

Start your practice: AM Check-In with Olivia

Breathwork can also be incredibly beneficial when prioritizing mental health for students. When engaging in a breathing practice for relaxation a.k.a “down-regulating breathwork” – we are working on activating our parasympathetic nervous system. It sends signals to the anxious part of your brain that you’re safe. At the same time, this type of breathwork practice encourages your sympathetic nervous system — which is your fight or flight response — to turn off, resulting in a more relaxed state of being. This relaxed state can be particularly beneficial for students who may be dealing with a lot of anxiety around the pressures a school environment presents.

Start your practice: Calming Breath Hold Ladder with Ally

Movement

Mental health for students doesn’t only mean focusing on mind-driven wellness practices – physical movement is also a great way to improve one’s state of mental well-being. When you partake in some form of movement, your body releases chemicals called endorphins and serotonin to your brain. These chemicals are dubbed “feel good chemicals” for a reason.

Endorphins are known as the body’s natural painkillers. When your body releases these chemicals, the endorphins target pain and stress that you may be holding in your body, even unknowingly. Similarly, serotonin is released to help stabilize your mood. With a regular release of endorphins and serotonin combined, one will begin to feel more emotionally stable, less stressed, happier, and more calm. This relaxed state of mind is particularly beneficial to students who are constantly in a high-stress environment. 

It doesn’t take much to release these feel good chemicals. Even activities like a simple walk or a short stretching routine will increase the endorphin and serotonin levels in your body. But, if you’re looking for a more structured movement routine, consider Open’s movement for longevity approach. Movement for longevity means that our class programming has been designed for your body and mind to perform well for a long time. A movement program for longevity must include strength training for muscles to withstand stress and heavy loads, conditioning for a strong heart and lungs, and mobility to protect joint health. 

Start your practice, strength: Total Body 30 with Alex

Start your practice, conditioning: Feel Good Flow with Ally

Start your practice, mobility: Slow Flow with Lihi

It’s easy to let mental health for students get lost in the chaos of a busy student’s lifestyle. But, incorporating even one of these activities into one’s daily routine will have positive benefits and greatly improve one’s overall mental wellness and wellbeing.

Want to practice in-person? Visit our studio in Venice, CA.