Emotional and mental wellness encompasses our ability to be resilient, improve our self-esteem, understand our emotions, and adequately cope with all the challenges life brings. It is a continual process of change and growth. Common mental and emotional challenges college students face include:
Emotional and mental wellness is impacted by various factors. While we do not have control over all of those factors, we can try to better manage some of the areas over which we do have control. By creating a protective environment and building skills, we are better able to handle what life throws at us.
Owls Care offers you several resources to help you mentally and emotionally thrive during your time as a student at FAU.
The information, education, and opinions provided by this website should be not be construed as specific medical advice or a recommendation of any sort. Owls Care Health Promotion and FAU are not responsible for the content shared by these websites.
The information, education, and opinions provided by this website should be not be construed as specific medical advice or a recommendation of any sort. Owls Care Health Promotion and FAU are not responsible for the content shared by these websites.
If you would like free stress management tools such as stress balls, aromatherapy, biodots, and more please fill out the Wellness Resource Request Form. This provides contactless pick-up of wellness items from the Boca Raton campus.
Establishing healthy habits while you’re in college will help you balance responsibilities later in life. In order to better manage your stress and stay on top your responsibilities, time management is essential.
Download the timesheet to plan out your week at a glance. What does your typical week look like? By filing out all of the things you have to do, you are able to see the available time that you have to implement things that you enjoy. You can fill out the sheet by color coding each 30 minute time block according to steps 1-7 (class, work, eat, sleep, study, movement, ect.) outlined in the timesheet. Use the additional tips as a guide!
Resilience is bouncing back when times get tough. We are faced with many challenges throughout our lives, especially in college. We can learn to cope and grow from these challenges to be a better person in the end. While many factors affect how someone reacts to adversity, anyone can learn to be resilient.
A social support system consists of the positive relationships that you have with those around you. They are who we depend on when times get rough. We lean on them for advice and support. We can strengthen these connections by having more interactions with these people. If you have friends you haven’t reached out to in a while, invite them out for coffee. Want to get to know the people in your class? Make a study group with them. Spending quality time with the people you care about helps us to conquer many challenges.
We can cope with negative experiences in many ways. Some of those ways are directed at the problem and some are directed at our feelings. The problem-focused coping strategies are the ones that will solve the problem. The emotion-focused coping strategies are the ones that will help us to deal with our emotions.
National Eating Disorder Association defines body image as the way an individual sees themselves when looking in the mirror and what they believe about their appearance, feelings about their body, and how they feel in their body
Maximize your quality of life, physical, and mental health by focusing on health goals instead of weight goals. This can look like getting consistent sleep, eating regularly, and moving in ways that feel good to your body.
Sign up for the Body Project, a 5-hour body acceptance program (2.5 hours on 2 different days). Learn skills to help you challenge society's beauty standards, build confidence, meet people, get free stuff, and have fun!
For more information and to sign up, click here.
Check out the Body Project in the news!
C.L.A.S.P. is a 90-minute upstander* training for suicide prevention. This training was developed by universities and colleges across Florida in order to empower students to have empathetic conversations with peers who may be showing signs of suicidal ideation and refer them to appropriate resources. These trainings are currently held virtually.
During this training students will:
To request a training session for your class, student organization, or department, please click here: http://www.fau.edu/owlscare/services/presentations.php
If you would like to be trained and are not part of an organization, please email
wellness@fau.edu.
* An upstander is someone who witnesses a problematic event and acts in a manner which positively influences the outcome. In this context, the person would be intervening when noticing warning signs of suicide.
Self-Care Note: Suicide prevention is a tough topic, and we respect your right to take care of yourself. Self care during a stressful presentation may look like anything from deep breathing to stepping away for a few minutes, and that’s okay. There will not be any depictions of suicide or other violent acts in this presentation. If you need to step out of the training for any reason, please notify the facilitators when you leave and come back.
If immediate safety of yourself or another is a concern, please call 911.
For more information on suicide awareness and prevention efforts across Florida and resources, please visit https://www.fgcu.edu/clasp/
For information on accessing on-campus mental health services, screenings, Kognito At Risk, or other programs, please visit https://www.fau.edu/counseling/ or call 561-297-CAPS (2277).