You are not alone, together we thrive.
The UVic Student Mental Health Blog is dedicated to promoting positive mental health and reducing stigma. Hear directly from UVic students sharing their personal stories and tips for maintaining wellness, and learn ways to increase your happiness and wellbeing and decrease your stress as you navigate life as a student!
UVic Student Club Spotlight: Students Above Stigma
Hello, happy March everyone! I recently discovered a great club that was founded here at the University of Victoria and wanted to share it with you all, it is called Students Above Stigma. Here are some facts from their website: • Founded in 2020. • Sydney Waddington,...
I’m Graduating, Now What?
As someone who is in their last semester, the thought of what I am going to do after graduation has been at the forefront of my brain for the past couple of months. The reality is that after June of this year I will be leaving the safe academic bubble and that is...
UVic Harm Reduction Centre: What is “Harm Reduction” and Why is it Important?
Hi friends! This month, I wanted to talk about serious (an incredibly important) topics. This post will include discussion of risky behaviours, as well as of substance abuse and addiction. This past year, an absolutely massive spike in overdoses and...
Tips for Emotional and Academic Wellness
Over my years in university, I have learnt how academic and emotional wellness go hand in hand. During school, times can get extremely stressful and sometimes we forget to focus on our emotional wellness which can affect our academic wellness. There are many tips to...
Physical Wellness
If you were to ask someone about what it meant to be physically well, chances are that they wouldn’t have to think very hard before answering. Our concepts of physical wellness and health are largely culture-based, and informed in large part by the media that...
Community Wellness in 2021
Community wellness is more relevant than ever due to the increased social isolation caused by quarantine restrictions. In person interactions are limited and when allowed they are different than before with smaller capacities and social distancing requirements. This...
Tips and Practices for Healthy Emotional Wellness
Hey everyone and welcome back! I hope you all had a restful, and if you felt the struggle of transitioning into online classes like I did, a rejuvenating winter break. While on break, I spent some time reflecting on the past semester and thought about how I could...
Spiritual Wellness: Getting in touch with our spiritual side
In preparation for UVic’s 7th annual Wellness Week, I was tasked with writing a blog post about spiritual wellness. This year’s Wellness Week theme is “Pathways to Wellness” and examines five areas of individual and community wellbeing: community, emotional,...
Academic Wellness: Finding Balance
Hi everyone! Happy Wellness Week, and happy Academic Wellness Day 🙂 In post-secondary academics, student wellness appears infinitely less important than the outcomes they are able to achieve in their courses. The implications of this for us students are immense. This...
A Few Reminders for Anyone Who Might Need Them<3
Hi all<3 (Disclaimer: if you have covid-news fatigue and/or are simply sick and tired of hearing about the virus/virus-adjacent topics, I encourage you to stop reading here, and go enjoy your favourite type of self-care [my personal recommendation is to go watch...
Grit: A Tool For Success Often Forgotten About
It has reached that point in the semester where I have been feeling a little drained, in dire need of more sleep, and honestly, quite unmotivated to study for and write my finals, and finish up assignments before winter break. Juggling the various assignments and...
Burnout, and Seeing the Light at the End of the Tunnel
As a 5th year student who is starting my practicum in January, these next couple of weeks have been exhausting for me. This semester is my last one that is course-based and continuing the momentum that I have had since September has been tough as the days are feeler...
Facing Stigma and Moving Forward
Stigma is a powerful force that can impact a person throughout their life despite having support systems in place or moving away from unhealthy situations. It is not the fault of the stigmatized person, but society has many preconceived, often misguided, notions or...
How to Create a Self-Care Toolkit
Dear Readers, Lately, I have been having the need to regroup and collect my emotions throughout the day in the form of self-care. I recently created a toolkit for myself filled with items that have been helping me with my mental health journey this semester. This time...
Post Panic Attack Recovery/Self-Care
Hey again! This month, I wanted to talk about panic attacks. I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like the only part of panic attacks/Panic Disorder (PD) people talk about is the attack part. They talk about mindfulness, and breathing, and calming down, etc.....
The Book Club: Offering shelter from the storm of 2020
One of the joys of no longer being a student is finally having the time and energy to read books for pleasure. Since most of my classes were political science or English, I had a seemingly never-ending list of required readings. Reading a book purely...
The Over Consumption of Negative Media & the Impact it Has on Our Mental Health
Media plays such a vital role in our lives as it connects us to others in our communities and around the world which is especially true now because of the pandemic. However, there seems to be more negative news stories than positive ones on every platform which has...
Practicing Good Sleep Hygiene (The Realistic Version)
Hey again! In my last blog post, I shared how beneficial improving my sleep hygiene has been for my mental health. I then shared resources outlining different ways one can improve their sleep hygiene: (Anxiety Canada, CDC, and the Sleep Foundation). For me,...
Tips to Reduce Exam Anxiety
Hello everyone, hope everyone is adjusting well to this new normal for the semester. Time flies, we are already done the first month, but also at the same time the most stressful times start now. It can become overwhelming very easily. Trust me over four years, I...
Where School Ends, and Life Begins
As someone who thrives off balance, these past few months have felt quite off-kilter, as I am sure many of you have also felt. The summer months, which many of us look forward to each year in order to "take a break" from being a student, were nothing like they have...