Today is University Mental Health Day, where universities and students across the country raise the profile of mental health with the hope of making it a university priority. The pressures on students, and university staff for that matter, are increasing - financial pressures, academic pressures, redundancy fears, restructures - and the impacts of this on mental health have become very clear.
In the run up to University Mental Health Day we have been sharing a series of self scans; daily one minute scans that you can take part in wherever you are and which help you to understand what is going on in your mind, body, heart and soul. We believe that these are intrinsically linked to your mental health and wellbeing so the scans aim to guide you through connecting with how you are doing. If you can answer that question, you are better equipped to work out what to do next.
The scans are for everyone, whether you’re thriving, just surviving or you feel like you’re not even doing that. At the point of thriving it can be easy to let ‘self-care’ slip but checking in on ourselves for a minute each day can help us to assess if there are things we could be doing to look after ourselves better or to express gratitude for a season of life that is going well.
Today’s scan focuses on our mind. Andy uses the image of our thoughts as cars going past as he guides us through the scan. Take a minute now to watch it and see how you respond. If you find it helpful, go back to our earlier blogs this week when you have time over the next few days and see how you find them. It may be that the mind scan gives you something to take action on already, or you might think that a scan of your heart - or emotions - is where you need to spend a minute just now.
If you’ve found these scans useful, share them with a friend, colleague or family member who you think might benefit from them too.