Recently, I’ve been living through a lot of stress and anxiety. About my classes and extracurricular activities, which, although fun, have been consuming a lot of time and, thus, increased my anxiety. About my future, because although I have rather clear ideas about what I want for my life and career, those ideas are pretty much contradictory (I’ve realized this a long time ago, but I still have no answer to the contradictions and still think a lot about them). About my place in this world.
In this sense, it was very helpful to have a Monday Table Talk exactly about stress and mental health in general. Although I didn’t talk much, I constantly compared what people were saying to my own experiences, and to my own ways of dealing with my issues. Although different things/actions/thoughts work for different people, there were a few things I’ve learned I can incorporate to my life.

First, writing down little good things that happens throughout the days. We often remember bad events easilier and focus on them, tending to forget small, good things that happen in our lives, and so taking note of them would be helpful to not forget about them. This semester, I already started keeping a journal with me, but I never used it in that way and, moreover, my entries occur very sporadically. Getting the habit of writing, daily, about the good events will not only make me focus on the good of my life, but also encourage me to externalize my thoughts more frequently into my journal.

Secondly, we were told to create a mantra that works for us. Something easy to remember and that can help getting us through difficult moments. Mine is “Being ‘OK’ right now doesn’t mean you’ll be ‘OK’ tomorrow”.
At the moment of the talk, I didn’t have any good idea, and so I kept my mouth shut. Thinking about it later, at home, I started to focus on the main reason I’ve been living through mental health issues (not only nowadays, but also before I came to college): I always think I’m not doing enough, and think I have to do more. Be that in academics or extracurricular activities. Be that socially (in terms of helping friends) or even in writing posts and commentaries on this very same blog (just take a look at the size of the comments I’ve written so far. You’ll see what I mean). Often, if I feel like I’m doing ‘OK’ with my current load, I feel like I’m not doing good enough and like I need to do more. And so I overdo. I over-commit. I sleep less. I overexert myself. And I still worry it’s not enough.
And that’s where my mantra comes from. Feeling “OK” at some point is NOT an excuse for me to push myself further uncontrollably like I do. Because then, I’ll eventually stop feeling “OK”. My mantra is a reminder of that, a word of caution, an attempt to give myself the time I need, and an attempt to kill this romanticization of tiredness that is apparently ingrained in my head for some reason. It’s a bit weird and kind of specific, but it’s been helpful so far. Tomorrow (actually, today. It’s past midnight already :p ) is pre-enroll for me. In making my plans for my next years, I considered adding a minor I always wanted to do. It would make my semesters significantly tighter and fuller (and would give me a second focus, aside from the already-hard grad school one), which would, once again, end up being very bad for my health. I almost this mistake. Almost.