8 Lessons to Focus On This School Year For Better Mental Health
Another school year is upon us. This means a whole new year of things to worry about and new challenges to deal with. For our students it means new subjects to master, new teachers to meet, perhaps new friends, new school, even an entirely new town. But let’s put aside all the academic and social challenges for one minute. Because there is another set of challenges we often neglect to address.
The challenges to our students’ mental health.
With back-to-school looming, now is the perfect time to address and implement some important habits, truths, and attitudes that will help create the necessary patterns in life that lead to better mental health for your student.
Sleep. Get it.
Our students have homework, sports, activities, family obligations, and even part-time jobs. With so many things on their plate with so little time—what's the first thing we all sacrifice? Sleep—especially our students. Staying up later, getting up earlier, too much time in front of a phone or computer screen. All of it contributes to not just a lack of sleep but a lack of good sleep.
The mental health of our students (all of us, actually) largely depends on enough good sleep. Sounds simple right? That's because it is. Set the bedtime. Wind down. Commit to the hard stop of what needs to be done that day. Turn off the screens. Go to bed. Their minds will thank them for it.
Click Here to Learn More About Prioritizing Sleep
Exercise. Do it.
No, you don't have to spend money and enroll at the local YMCA; you don't need to run out and purchase the latest and greatest in fitness equipment. Just don't be lazy. Take a daily walk, a bike ride, or challenge a group of friends to find creative ways to get fit together.
Staying active and being in shape not only helps physically, but activity helps build a healthy mind. Your student's brain is rapidly developing. So fast, in fact, they can't even keep up with it. So staying active is critical in ensuring ongoing development is given the best chance.
Click Here to Learn More Exercise Benefits
Eat Healthy. Not Doritos.
Let's be real. Modern society has made it so easy to grab tasty and often addictive foods. Speed and convenience seem to win every time. But have you ever considered the impact sugar and processed foods have on our bodies and minds? It's bad. Really bad.
Our foods are full of all kinds of addictive ingredients that can actually create health problems, mental fog, and even brain atrophy can result as an effect of long-term diabetes. How we eat is habitual, and taste buds need to be developed. Food that we don't like today will likely change over time. For me, growing up eating beets was equivalent to a life sentence behind bars at an abandoned Alcatraz. Today, we eat fresh beets from our garden several times a week. And so do the kids.
We have a rule in our house. If you can’t read it, don't eat it. It simply means that if you don't know how to pronounce the ingredients, you probably shouldn't eat them. The solution is easy. Eat fresh by shopping around the edges of the grocery stores.
Click Here to Learn About Healthy Sugar Limits
Rest.
Not sleep. But rest. Rest is different from sleep. Rest is an intentional pause in your day or week to do something else that restores you—in mind and body. Rest means finding a hobby, an activity, a great book, relaxing in a hammock, or a long hike in the woods. It means pulling yourself away from your everyday world.
When we do, we give our minds and bodies time to rest and recover. Far too many of us are in a constant state of go. Our culture celebrates people who are always busy and overwhelmed with a never-ending to-do list. It's a badge of honor. A virtue.
Don't be fooled. Busyness is not a virtue. You need to rest. Celebrate being bored. Help your students enjoy the quiet moments of nothing to do and the time spent doing the things they genuinely love.
Click Here to Learn About the Negative Impacts of Busyness
Community. Get Some People
Somewhere in childhood development, the idea of independence is supplanted in our consciousness. It's a bootstraps, all by myself kind of lifestyle we assume is the best of all options. But in fact, the opposite is true. While learning some independence as we grow older is critically important and necessary to become a productive adults in the adult world. You can't rely on mommy to get you out of bed each morning, make breakfast, pick out your clothes and drive you to work. There comes a moment when mom’s help becomes just plain weird.
Think less independence and more interdependence. Think community. Because that's what we were designed for. We were designed to need each other, to live together, lean on one another, and love each other. One way or another, your student will be drawn into a community—it's natural. Finding the right kind of community—the supportive kind, the loving kind—the kind that supports and builds their mental health is critical.
Click Here to Learn About Creating Community
Faith. Life Is Bigger Than You.
There is a disturbing and growing trend among the rising generation—it's a declining belief in God. Researchers call it the rise of the nones. This simply means young people are increasingly identifying with no religious affiliation. They are bombarded with so many worldview options that they create their own worldview entirely based on their unique experience. It's a worldview birthed from a philosophy known as post-modernism.
Faith. Specifically, faith in Jesus provides your students with a lens and perspective that helps them see what is absolutely true. A truth that sets them on a path to hope, healing, and freedom.
Gratitude.
Researchers and social scientists have made it crystal clear that an abundance of gratitude is directly linked to our mental health. In other words, the more we practice gratitude—specifically, verbalize it or write it frequently—the happier we are. When we look for what is good, our brains become wired to look for it, see it, and get a rush from it.
So practice daily with your students, intentionally looking for things to be grateful for. Get beyond asking them, "how was your day?" Instead, dig a little deeper and ask, "What are three really cool things about today?" As they begin to search and download the events of the day, recalling the good they experienced will actually produce a dopamine response and will physically alter their brain chemistry in a good way.
Click Here to Learn More About the Benefits of Gratitude
Serving Others. Because It’s Not About You.
The world doesn't revolve around you, your kids, or your family. I know, big surprise, right? I know you know that, but we often live like we believe that it does. We would much rather focus on numero uno. It's even easier to pass it along to our kids. Just listen to the narrative:
“You need to get good grades, so you can go to college and get a good job. Because you need to be successful, get married and give me some grandkids.” Don't get me wrong, all those things are essential (ok, maybe not the grandkids, but that sure would be nice). But a constant focus on ourselves and our needs can actually raise our stress levels and create greater anxiety where we live and die with every success and failure.
Changing that narrative means taking the focus off of ourselves by putting others first. Take care of some neighbors, serve at the local rescue mission, or ask your church how you can be more involved. One of the best things you can do for your mental well-being and your student's mental health is to put others' needs before yourself.
Wait. There’s More.
These are not one-and-done concepts. Each of these requires patience, practice, and relentless repetition. So it’s important to hear similar messages and techniques at school and at home. And these eight habits and attitudes are precisely the kinds of topics we address in the Get Schooled Tour. We intentionally engage students in mental health education and provide them with the tools they need now and in the future.
If the schools in your community haven’t experienced the Get Schooled Tour, there is no time to waste. Book it now.
