We wanted to speak to you about something slightly different today, something that we believe to be crucial for pretty much everyone, however, as a student we feel this is especially important. You may have heard the term “self-care” being thrown around quite a bit lately, we wanted to give you an overview on the different support options available to you within BCU / through Graduate+ and what we offer.
What is It?
Ultimately, the act of self-care is to take some much needed time for YOU, not for your friends, family or significant other, but for you and you alone! The best thing about this is that it really can be anything you want it to be, it’s wherever you find pleasure or joy from. Such as taking a hot bath with some relaxing candles, listening to your favourite music, meditating, going for a walk in nature, taking time off your phone / social media… the list is totally endless and the majority of these activities don’t even cost a penny.
For students, it can be particularly hard to fit this in around studies and looming deadlines, we believe this makes it even more important to take this valuable time for yourself, be that just 10 minutes each morning, or longer on a weekend, ultimately, it should be a daily commitment of some form. Maybe you already practice self-care, what exercises do you enjoy doing, we’d love to hear!
Resources to Help
We have a large array of support and resources on offer within the university to help with wellbeing / mental health concerns, just practicing some form of self-care more can prevent burn out, again, something more highly prone in students with busy schedules like most of you have.
We have the BCU wellbeing and counselling teams who are here to help you, this could be in the form of one to one appointments or perhaps group exercises if you’d benefit from these more. For more details on these services you can check out the following link - https://www.bcu.ac.uk/student-info/student-affairs/enablement-and-wellbeing/mental-health-and-wellbeing
Along with the different teams situated on campus to help you directly we also work in collaboration with Big White Wall, a mental health and wellbeing online service and platform that you have free access to, 24/7, 365 days a year. On the platform you have access to different resources, self-care tips and advice being just one of these. To access the website and to create your own profile check out the website - https://graduateplus.bcu.ac.uk/information-and-resources/big-white-wall
Finally, the following are some handy websites full of useful information all about self-care / mental health! We hope you find these useful.
https://tinybuddha.com/blog/45-simple-self-care-practices-for-a-healthy-mind-body-and-soul/