How to Utilize Spring Break for Self-Care

Hello everyone!

With Spring Break coming up, I wanted to write about ways to utilize self-care in graduate school. I tend to look forward to academic breaks to lounge around the house and procrastinate on assignments. However, we all know that is probably not the best way to utilize time off in order to be an efficient graduate student. I recently discovered the topic of self-care, which is the deliberate actions to promote healthy management of stressors that arise in our day-to-day lives. I practice self-care by creating mindful choices in my diet, lifestyle, and sleep schedule. I also exercise positive reinforcement with my friends and family, which supports my mental and physical well-being.

Adequate self-care can be an essential aspect of our mental health and academic performance. There are abundant resources to capture aid in wellness, mental health, or substance abuse disorders on the student life resources website. As a current OSU student, there is also free access to physical activities such as the Recreation and Physical Activity Center (RPAC). There are also many fitness classes offered to students as a means of physical activity and to alleviate stress and anxiety. One of my goals for 2022 was to utilize new resources to promote my wellness for the new year. The Ohio State University has made that goal easily achievable with all the student health and wellness resources!