13.9: Summary

In this chapter you have been introduced to the wide range of factors that impact your health. Health is much more than keeping your physical body in good shape. Good health also includes your mental and emotional health, quality relationships, and prioritizing your personal safety.

The contributors to physical health include eating clean, non-processed food; staying hydrated; moving your body daily; and getting sufficient sleep. You now understand why it is necessary to prioritize sleep, and that quality sleep is also dependent on the way you eat and exercise. You have identified ways to improve what you eat and how you sleep. With these changes you should be able to fall asleep with ease, stay asleep all night, and wake up feeling energized. Your mind will be clear and sharp. and you’ll get more done in less time, massively increasing your productivity and your success in college.

You now understand that a certain level of stress is to be expected. Chronic stress, however, is damaging to the body, so it’s important to have a variety of tools to manage stress. Practicing mindfulness, deep breathing, and gratitude can have a powerful impact on your emotional, mental, and physical health.

At the beginning of this chapter, you were introduced to a simple way of thinking about your health—nutrients in, toxins out. This means eating plenty of fruits and vegetables and avoiding junk food, soda, and other sugary beverages. If you move often throughout the day, drink plenty of clean water, and prioritize your sleep, you will help your body detoxify. Reduce your exposure to toxins by paying attention to what you put in and on your body. If you wouldn’t eat it, don’t put it on your skin or hair. A helpful way to remember to take care of your health is to follow the rule of eights: aim each day for eight hours of sleep, eight servings of fruits and vegetables, eight glasses of water, eight minutes of mindfulness, and eight meaningful connections, and incorporate any one of these eight ways to move—walking, aerobic exercise, strength training, yoga, Tai Chi, stretching, HIIT, or dancing.

Career Connection

Your Best Self

Returning to our definition of self-care – self-care is anything that makes you better– there is an addition that may help direct you in further developing your approach. Humanist Psychologist Carl Rogers described the healthy and vital individual as a fully functioning person. According to Rogers, this person strives to and may act in congruence with what they envisioned as their ideal, best self. This was the process that Rogers referred to as self-actualization, and as a precondition to authentically helping others. Based on this understanding, a revised definition of self-care could be: self-care is anything that makes you better and helps you live more like your best self.

Previously mentioned was the idea that self-care says, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.” If self-care is, in part, about realizing our best selves, it matters what you fill your cup with. There may be times when getting food-to-go and watching Netflix is the best thing for your mind, body, and soul. Other times, those same things could just be more junk that isn’t serving you or your development towards your best self. Therefore, when you think about your self-care needs, it may be crucial to ask:

• “What does my best self want?”
• “What does my best self need?”
• “What can I do now that my current self and future self will both thank me for?”

To help guide you in recognizing and acting in alignment with your ideal self, self-awareness and self-compassion may be essential. The next section covers these in more detail.

ACTIVITY : MY BEST SELF

My Best Self

Describe your best self. At your best, according to you:

• What is your best physical self? What can you do with your physical body? How do you feel?
• What is your best mental self? What do you think? What is your mindset? How do you care for a healthy mind?
• What is your best emotional self? What do you to support positive emotional states? How do care for yourself in negative emotional states? How do you develop greater emotional intelligence?
• What is your best social self? What are your social networks? Who are your most important relationships? How do you nurture them?

Find a time to give yourself 20 minutes or more of uninterrupted writing.

Key Takeaways

• Getting enough sleep is very important for wellness and success in college. It’s easy to determine if you’re getting enough sleep.
• Don’t fall for popular myths about sleep. It’s worthwhile to get enough sleep, which gives you an improved ability to focus and apply yourself more efficiently in your studies and work.
• Excessive drinking or substance abuse is a common—but unhealthy—response to the stresses of college life. While the decisions are yours, it’s important to understand the effects of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs and how they impact your life.
• Quitting smoking is hard, but it’s clearly worth it—and lots of help is available. If you’re a smoker, make this the year you become proud of yourself for quitting.
• If you like to drink, be honest with yourself. How much does drinking enrich your life, and how much do the effects of drinking interfere with your life? Make smart decisions so that you live your life to its fullest without regrets about losing control.
• Avoiding drugs can be a complicated issue, certainly not as simple as simply deciding to say no. But you’ve already made the decision to attend college, and that’s a smart decision. Make smart choices in other areas of your life as well.
• Sexual health is an important dimension of wellness and something we should all think about to affirm our values and make responsible decisions.
• Your time in college and your overall health and well-being would be seriously impacted if you were to acquire a sexually transmitted infection or experience an unwanted pregnancy. You owe it to yourself—and anyone with whom you are in a relationship—to have the facts and know how to protect yourself.
• The huge number of sexual assaults that occur every year is one of our society’s “dirty little secrets.” This problem is as rampant on college campuses as in society in general. You need to know what’s involved—and what to do to protect yourself from the pain of becoming a victim.

• Good health helps you be more successful in college.
• For good nutrition, eat a varied diet with lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains and minimize fats, sugar, and salt.
• Regular exercise is not only important for good health but is a great way to reduce stress in your life.
• Sleep is one of the first areas where college students cut back when they find themselves too busy with classes, work, and other activities. Taking the time to get enough sleep, however, makes you so much more efficient when studying that it can actually save you time.
• Substance use and abuse not only takes its toll on the body but also contributes to problems in college, at work, and in the future. You may need to make a smart decision between short-term pleasures and long-term success.
• Since many stressors are unavoidable in life, we all need to find good ways to minimize their effects. The best stress-reducers over time become good habits that will increase our wellness and help us succeed in college and careers.
• If you are having an emotional or relationship problem that persists and affects your life, don’t hesitate to seek help. Most colleges have counselors and health professionals trained to help you get through any crisis.
• Sexual health is your own business—except that sexuality usually affects and is affected by others. Smart choices focus on protecting yourself from potential problems, regardless of your choices about sexual activity.

Rethinking

Revisit the questions you answered at the beginning of the chapter, and consider one option you learned in this chapter that might make you rethink how you answered each one. Has this chapter prompted you to consider changing any of your habits?

Rank the following questions on a scale of 1–4. 1 = “least like me” and 4 = “most like me.”

1. I eat enough fruits and vegetables every day.
2. I get enough sleep.
3. I have, for the most part, healthy relationships with friends and family.
4. I feel like I know how to manage stress.