🤍Navigating Mental Health in College with Lexi Poole🤍
Not sure how to balance college, work and social life while keeping on top of your mental health? Neither, bestie. Lucky for us,
Lexi Poole is here to share her tips on how to do exactly that!
Once I truly believed that mental health is a journey and perspective that looks different for everyone, I felt as if every burden of the world was lifted off my shoulders.
For so long, I was holding myself to an unrealistic standard as a measure of my happiness.
I began to accept that bad days are okay and that everything is not in dire need of my effort to fix. Embracing the acts of sitting in my own emotions and introspection have allowed me to release myself from the false expectations I had in regards to what happiness is supposed to feel like.
As a double-majoring college student and content creator on Instagram and YouTube, life did and can still become overwhelming. The pressures of deadlines, requirements to maintain my scholarship, meetings, and exams undoubtedly drove me to the brink of a breaking point.
There was a time I felt every emotion until I felt absolutely nothing.
Ironically, I missed feeling everything, including the bad. Hopelessness was the only thing I felt and if something can be empty and heavy all at once, it is that.
At a point, I became terrified of the idea that I would never break out of the place that I was in and that was when I took the initiative to do everything in my power to give my mind a safe space for the clarity, comfort, and nurturing it deserves.
I have achieved a lot throughout my 20 years of life, but no accomplishment measures up to that of regaining control of my mental health.
Today, I encourage myself and everyone surrounding me to honor their feelings. The best gift I have ever given to myself is the freedom and space to do so. Finding peace and excitement in solitude is a superpower that I am so proud to have.
These are the ten things I wish I knew and accepted sooner:
No one is entitled to your free time.
Therapy is great once you find the right fit for you.
There is no shame in getting the help you need outside of what you can provide yourself.
Your feelings don’t have to be understood to matter.
Taking time for yourself should be on the top of your list of priorities.
Not everyone deserves your vulnerability.
Your tears are a gift.
Bad days don’t always need to be turned around.
It’s okay if sad songs comfort you.
You know yourself better than anyone else.
The fast-paced digital world we live in is a breeding ground for comparison. Hustle culture does not secure success if happiness and balance are not coupled with it. Your level of productivity does not equate to your self worth and not everything is meant to be controlled.
It is okay to mess up. It is okay to have to start over. It is okay to be content with who and where you are.
College is the best time and place to not have everything figured out. If it is not okay right now, it will be.
Lexi Poole
Instagram: @lexijpoole
YouTube: lexijpoole
