Application Activity 3 - Mental Health Hour

With all that is going on in the world, I have been needing to take more breaks and check-in with myself to see how I was REALLY doing. With the covid-19 pandemic continuing to impact our lives, racism occurring in our lives and reading about events in the news, devastating international events, and many other upsetting and distracting things going on, in addition to our ‘work’ in classes, it can be hard to maintain motivation and focus.

Therefore, I want to normalize taking time to do something for yourself. Even when you catch yourself thinking: “the last thing I have time for is a break,” you really need one. An example that really inspired me was Simone Biles taking a break during the Olympics to focus on her mental health.

Instead of coming to class on Thursday, April 21st, I am requiring that you take the time to do something for yourself. It can be anything (legal) that will help you feel better. I have included some ideas below. Your application activity this week is to reflect on what you did. It will be graded based on completion of a thoughtful reflection written in complete sentences. 

Reflection Prompts:

• What did you do during your mental health hour?
• How did taking an hour to do something for you make you feel?
• How might you incorporate prioritizing your mental health into your life going forward?

Some ideas for what to do during your Mental Health Hour:

• Try one of these “grounding techniques” https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques (Links to an external site.)
• Try a walking meditation: https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/walking_meditation (Links to an external site.)
• Take a nap!
• Make goals related to your mental health: Take a piece of paper and fold it into 4-6 columns (by folding it horizontally or vertically). Take each cell on the paper to be a goal you would like to achieve, such as personal health, mental health, hobbies, physical health etc. write down a few things under these headings and give yourself a deadline as to when you would like to achieve a specific goal. Don't be hard when deciding deadlines. After that, you can optionally write down an action item, doodle or add something at the end of each cell to make your “goals” look more interesting. Have this paper with you and edit it whenever you achieve a task or add a new one