For my 9th grade Literature class, we began to write a research paper with a topic of our choice. I chose to research over mental health and how to take care of it. For the past 2 months I have been constantly learning ways to take care of your mental health. What I had already known is that mental health can cause depression and anxiety, happens when over worked/overstressed, most people don’t seek for help, can come through genetics, and etc. With that being said here are a few things that I have learned: 

• “Treat yourself with kindness and respect and avoid self-criticism. Make time for your hobbies and favorite projects or broaden your horizons”. 
• “Try meditating, Mindfulness and/or prayer. Relaxation exercises and prayer can improve your state of mind and outlook on life.” 
• “Volunteer your time and energy to help someone else. You’ll feel good about doing something tangible to help someone in need — and it’s a great way to meet new people.” 
• “People with strong family or social connections are generally healthier than those who lack a support network.” 

• Eat nutritious meals. Eating mainly unprocessed foods like whole grains, vegetables and fresh fruit is key to a healthy body. Eating this way can help lower your risk for chronic diseases and help stabilize your energy levels and mood.” 
• Avoid smoking and vaping. 
• Drink plenty of water 
• Exercise, which helps decrease depression and anxiety and improve moods. 
• Get enough sleep. Researchers believe that lack of sleep contributes to a high rate of depression in college students. Adults generally need between seven and nine hours of sleep. A brief nap—up to 30 minutes—can help you feel alert again during the day. Even 15 minutes of daytime sleep is helpful. To make your nighttime sleep count more, practice good “sleep hygiene,” like avoiding using computers, TV and smartphones before bed. 

• “The ups and downs in your family member’s illness can have a huge impact on you. Improving your relationship with yourself by maintaining your physical and mental health makes you more resilient.” 
• “To be able to care for the people you love, you must first take care of yourself.” 
• A step toward achieving increased mental health is to value yourself. Take what you want into account when making decisions, whether it be about school or about hanging out with friends. Your desires and opinions matter; you matter. 
• Your mental health is in many ways connected to your physical health. Take care of your physical health by making an effort to eat healthy foods, stay hydrated, exercise, and sleep. All of these things help boost your systems and your mood. Visit these walking trails or hiking trails near campus to get started. 
• Though difficult, managing your stress is important to manage your overall mental health. Only you know how much you can handle socially, academically, and mentally. If you’re feeling anxious or overwhelmed 

• Setting personal, academic, and professional goals are a great method to hold yourself accountable. However, looking ahead at all the assignments, tests, and projects in a semester can seem overwhelming. Trying to focus on small, achievable goals is a great way to break up the bigger goals and make them seem less intimidating. 

I feel as if no one ever gives themselves a break and that Mental health is needed to be talked about for everyone to catch up on life. To focus on the good parts of life instead of worrying about school, work, extra activities. A break from reality. Mental Health is very well known but not as focused on. Overstressing your mind can really pull a toll on you. I feel it should be spoken of more than it is. 

 My ultimate goal is to make sure students don’t stress enough so that they can have fun and live their life completely and not overworking their mins. Teens at this age overstress as it is, trying to meet beauty standards, following our generation, trying to fit in, sports, school, work, trying to be the perfect daughter/son, etc. 

I want to help kids my age understand that your mentality is something that should be well taken care of. I want my piece to be read by others. I want others to trust me enough to talk to me and knowing I understand. Sometimes speaking to a stranger is easier than someone you’ve known your entire life.  

Putting my piece on the chipper website will reach students and help them learn how to take care of their mental health. No one will ever know every single reason to fully take care of mental health. But if there are ways to make our mindsets feel better, then using ways to help is so much better. Writing this piece has been useful and has helped me better understand what I wanted to learn in the first place. I hope this will teach others as well.