mindyourself-18-blog

[mindyourself-18-blog]

Ysabelle Branagan

UCD Student Help and Support

Your college years are can be some of the best years of your life. You finally have enough freedom as an adult without having too much responsibility (yet). But while college is often depicted as being “the best years of your life” in the media, this is not always the case. What we are not told by our secondary school guidance counsellor is that college is not always the ideal picture we see on the prospectus we get at the start of the year. You are entering an unfamiliar environment and while it can be exciting for some, it can be nerve-wracking for others. In particular, with UCD, you are entering an environment that is made up of over 30,000 people, which is enough to make even the most confident of people to feel a little bit apprehensive! As well as this, alcohol and recreational drug use are often associated with the “student experience”, which can often wreak havoc on your mental health. Whether you are a new or a returning student you can still feel overwhelmed, particularly at the start of a new semester, so looking after your mental health is crucial at this time.

This is where UCD Student Help and Support can help. This website offers help for everything, from managing your money or having issues with your accommodation to more serious issues, such as anxiety or depression. The site is easy to navigate and supplies students with valuable information and helplines that can help them in times of need, such as www.samaritans.org or www.reach.com . As well as providing students with plenty of resources, the network also gives the option of setting up an appointment with a student advisor, in case the student would rather speak face to face to a person about an issue rather than to someone on the phone. Another unique aspect of the help and support network UCD offers is that it also offers assistance to those who are worried about their friends, and gives them pointers on how they can let them know that they’re worried about them in an appropriate way. This feature of the site is extremely useful, as in some cases an individual can become so wrapped up in a problem they become totally blinkered, and need a helping hand even if they do not realise it yet.

So, while practices such as meditation or sport are good methods of looking after our mental health, they can sometimes not be enough, and we need access to more professional help. UCD Student Help and Support is an invaluable resource to every student that attends the university, and it can be reached here through the link: http://www.ucd.ie/students/support/ 

[mindyourself-18-blog]

How important is mindfulness in sport?

Imagine yourself standing over a last minute free, 60 yards out, dead straight in front of goal. The scores are level and the responsibility lies on you to win the county final for your team. Now picture this. The wind is blowing fiercely from left to right, and you like to float your frees just over the crossbar. You start thinking to yourself, ‘if I try to drill this over, I have a good chance of pulling it to the left and wide’. You have not been this nervous in your entire life and it’s the first time you’ve been trusted with a shot to win such an important game. If inly you could clear you head and focus on the task at hand, hitting the free that you’ve hit a thousand times before.

The above is a perfect example as to where the practice of mindfulness and improving your sports psychology can be the difference in controlling these nerves or letting them get the better of you. Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. With mindfulness training, we don’t just simply ignore our thoughts, we take notice of any intrusive thoughts, anxiety, physical tension in the body. We can then react accordingly to these feelings, either by reacting to them in a positive manner or by simply relaxing and allowing them to pass.

Although many professional athletes are experts at performing mindfulness techniques. The vast majority need to work incredibly hard at maintaining a positive mental state and even the most experienced athletes get nervous when the pressure is applied. However, it’s how they react to this pressure which makes them stand out from their peers. Successful golfers often talk about using their ‘goto shot’ when the pressure comes on, this allows them to be confident standing over the ball. They feel comfortable and they ‘know’ exactly where the ball is going to go. You, too, can improve your mindfulness techniques with a bit of practice.

Here are 5 tips for improving mindfulness in sport

Breathing - Focusing on your breathing will help to slow down your heart rate, relax and gain self-control. When nervous or anxious, breathing tends to become more shallow, reducing the oxygen flow to the brain. By noticing changes in breathing patterns and slowing it down, we can concentrate on maximum cognitive control.

Body - The majority of the time we take our body for granted. Our bodies are capable of incredible actions without even thinking about it; beat our heart, pump our lungs and stay upright without a thought. However, to get the most from our body it’s important to fuel it efficiently, and a healthy diet allows optimal performance. It’s also important to listen to negative feedback, if you feel a niggle or twinge, then it’s a sign that something isn’t quite right. Being ‘in tune’ with your body will breed confidence in your abilities.

Environmental Awareness - Noticing external factors while training can increase performance at a competitive stage. Factors such as wind, temperature, humidity, preparation, hydration and equipment used can all play a factor in sports performance. Allowing yourself to be aware of these factors can be the difference between winning and losing. Also, being aware of external noises can then allow you to intentionally block them out.

Clear Goals - Setting clear goals is essential to meeting targets and improving. The goal can as small as wanting to do 10 push-ups a day for a month or something much larger such as running a marathon a month for an entire year. An intention has to be in place for an action to occur, and by completing a task, a great sense of achievement is attained. Small gains can lead to huge changes.

Imagery - When performing a task, try to keep the images related to that task, and keep them positive. For example, if you’re in a situation like the free taker above. Imagine yourself lifting, striking and scoring the point just before taking the shot. In the lead up to a big game or event, imagine every aspect in detail. What can you do to improve on each aspect. Positive mental preparation is key to consistent performance.

Always remember that whatever sport it is, it’s just a game. Nothing is more important than your mental health, so if you struggle with anxiety or any other negative thoughts on a regular basis, reach out to people whether it’s family, friends or a complete stranger, people are here to help. You can also contact mentalhealthireland or this link includes a list of organisations that are here to help.

Tomas O’Leary 

[mindyourself-18-blog]

UCD Student Help and Support

Your college years are can be some of the best years of your life. You finally have enough freedom as an adult without having too much responsibility (yet). But while college is often depicted as being “the best years of your life” in the media, this is not always the case. What we are not told by our secondary school guidance counsellor is that college is not always the ideal picture we see on the prospectus we get at the start of the year. You are entering an unfamiliar environment and while it can be exciting for some, it can be nerve-wracking for others. In particular, with UCD, you are entering an environment that is made up of over 30,000 people, which is enough to make even the most confident of people to feel a little bit apprehensive! As well as this, alcohol and recreational drug use are often associated with the “student experience”, which can often wreak havoc on your mental health. Whether you are a new or a returning student you can still feel overwhelmed, particularly at the start of a new semester, so looking after your mental health is crucial at this time.

This is where UCD Student Help and Support can help. This website offers help for everything, from managing your money or having issues with your accommodation to more serious issues, such as anxiety or depression. The site is easy to navigate and supplies students with valuable information and helplines that can help them in times of need, such as www.samaritans.org or www.reach.com . As well as providing students with plenty of resources, the network also gives the option of setting up an appointment with a student advisor, in case the student would rather speak face to face to a person about an issue rather than to someone on the phone. Another unique aspect of the help and support network UCD offers is that it also offers assistance to those who are worried about their friends, and gives them pointers on how they can let them know that they’re worried about them in an appropriate way. This feature of the site is extremely useful, as in some cases an individual can become so wrapped up in a problem they become totally blinkered, and need a helping hand even if they do not realise it yet.

So, while practices such as meditation or sport are good methods of looking after our mental health, they can sometimes not be enough, and we need access to more professional help. UCD Student Help and Support is an invaluable resource to every student that attends the university, and it can be reached here through the link: http://www.ucd.ie/students/support/ 

[mindyourself-18-blog]

How important is mindfulness in sport?

Imagine yourself standing over a last minute free, 60 yards out, dead straight in front of goal. The scores are level and the responsibility lies on you to win the county final for your team. Now picture this. The wind is blowing fiercely from left to right, and you like to float your frees just over the crossbar. You start thinking to yourself, ‘if I try to drill this over, I have a good chance of pulling it to the left and wide’. You have not been this nervous in your entire life and it’s the first time you’ve been trusted with a shot to win such an important game. If inly you could clear you head and focus on the task at hand, hitting the free that you’ve hit a thousand times before.

The above is a perfect example as to where the practice of mindfulness and improving your sports psychology can be the difference in controlling these nerves or letting them get the better of you. Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. With mindfulness training, we don’t just simply ignore our thoughts, we take notice of any intrusive thoughts, anxiety, physical tension in the body. We can then react accordingly to these feelings, either by reacting to them in a positive manner or by simply relaxing and allowing them to pass.

Although many professional athletes are experts at performing mindfulness techniques. The vast majority need to work incredibly hard at maintaining a positive mental state and even the most experienced athletes get nervous when the pressure is applied. However, it’s how they react to this pressure which makes them stand out from their peers. Successful golfers often talk about using their ‘goto shot’ when the pressure comes on, this allows them to be confident standing over the ball. They feel comfortable and they ‘know’ exactly where the ball is going to go. You, too, can improve your mindfulness techniques with a bit of practice.

Here are 5 tips for improving mindfulness in sport

Breathing - Focusing on your breathing will help to slow down your heart rate, relax and gain self-control. When nervous or anxious, breathing tends to become more shallow, reducing the oxygen flow to the brain. By noticing changes in breathing patterns and slowing it down, we can concentrate on maximum cognitive control.

Body - The majority of the time we take our body for granted. Our bodies are capable of incredible actions without even thinking about it; beat our heart, pump our lungs and stay upright without a thought. However, to get the most from our body it’s important to fuel it efficiently, and a healthy diet allows optimal performance. It’s also important to listen to negative feedback, if you feel a niggle or twinge, then it’s a sign that something isn’t quite right. Being ‘in tune’ with your body will breed confidence in your abilities.

Environmental Awareness - Noticing external factors while training can increase performance at a competitive stage. Factors such as wind, temperature, humidity, preparation, hydration and equipment used can all play a factor in sports performance. Allowing yourself to be aware of these factors can be the difference between winning and losing. Also, being aware of external noises can then allow you to intentionally block them out.

Clear Goals - Setting clear goals is essential to meeting targets and improving. The goal can as small as wanting to do 10 push-ups a day for a month or something much larger such as running a marathon a month for an entire year. An intention has to be in place for an action to occur, and by completing a task, a great sense of achievement is attained. Small gains can lead to huge changes.

Imagery - When performing a task, try to keep the images related to that task, and keep them positive. For example, if you’re in a situation like the free taker above. Imagine yourself lifting, striking and scoring the point just before taking the shot. In the lead up to a big game or event, imagine every aspect in detail. What can you do to improve on each aspect. Positive mental preparation is key to consistent performance.

Always remember that whatever sport it is, it’s just a game. Nothing is more important than your mental health, so if you struggle with anxiety or any other negative thoughts on a regular basis, reach out to people whether it’s family, friends or a complete stranger, people are here to help. You can also contact mentalhealthireland or this link includes a list of organisations that are here to help.

Tomas O’Leary 

#UCD #student #sport #mental health #mindfulness #mindful #sports psychology #help #train hard #right frame of mind #free taking #hurling #soccer #golf #football #gaa #mental strength #mindfulness training

[mindyourself-18-blog]

How to reach student wellbeing with music

Student life is not always easy to manage, especially because of stress-related problems. It’s time to remember the benefits of music! In fact, studies suggest that there are beneficial effects on health to have activities in our life. However there are many other activities that lead to relaxation. So what is the particularity of music?

Listening to music reduces anxiety and stress

An experiment was conducted by Japanese researchers on laboratory mice to prove the physiological effects of music. These mice had high blood pressure, and they were made to listen to Mozart's Symphony No.7 in D major, K.45. They have proven that it activates the production of dopamine and reduces blood pressure. During moments of stress, listening to music has a positive physiological effect, it’s a direct reaction of the body (Sutoo, D. & Akiyama, K. 2004). Especially during exams, the reduction of stress allows the increase of productivity.

Listening to music breeds dopamine release. Let's look at the scientific aspect: dopamine manages the motivation and reward systems, it’s within the limbic system that we find the euphoric actions. (Moraes, Rabelo, Pinto, Pires, Wanner, Szawka and Soares, 2018). Listen to music so effects similar to drugs or chocolate, but without the negative consequences on your physique. It also increases the level of cortisone (stress hormone) and increases the amount of serotonin, which reduces the rate of anxiety, especially during exams.

   Music develops cognitive skills like memory and attention

People practicing music have more gray matter in the frontal cortex, whereas this hosts important working memory processes (Sluming, Brooks, Hhoward, Downes and Roberts, 2007).

It's never too late to start learning an instrument in your spare time, but you don’t necessarily need an instrument: you can sing, even if it's wrong! This will help you reduce your stress! (Vajpayee, 2018)

  It can influence your mood and increase productivity

Of course as long as you don’t listen to Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings that reminds us of the end of the movie Elephant Man, listening to music with dopamine release can put us in a good mood (Newstex, 2015). It sounds obvious, but it's not a reflex that we can have whenever we are nervous. Listening to ambient, or swinging music can help you increase your productivity. Choose your music according to your activity: soft to relax if you are agitated or disturbed, catchy to give you motivation.

  Improve your sleep

With soft music, research has shown that it eases sleep and it decreases the number of awakenings during the night. Sleeping time is reduced as sleep time increases. As a result, when the quality of sleep increases, it makes us more efficient and productive. On the other hand, poor sleep can lead to problems such as depressed mood. (Clements-Cortes, 2015).

  Allows you to be more creative

Music can stimulate thoughts, images, feelings, it can evoke memories and associations. When you're running out of ideas in a time when you have to create an original project, take the time to lie down, and let yourself travel.

To conclude

The positive effects of music therapy can not be ignored. When you wake up, take the time to sit down, listen to relaxing music for 10 minutes and don’t think about anything. This can be a positive way to start a good day.

  This year's events are organized by UCD School of Music. Feel free to take a break in your studies and spend a friendly and warm moment! Click here to find all the events. 

Here is a small preview of the choir of the UCD Choral Scholars.

References:

Sutoo, D. & Akiyama, K. 2004, "Music improves dopaminergic neurotransmission: demonstration based on the effect of music on blood pressure regulation", Brain Research, vol. 1016, no. 2, pp. 255-262.

  Moraes, M.M., Rabelo, P.C.R., Pinto, V.A., Pires, W., Wanner, S.P., Szawka, R.E. & Soares, D.D. 2018, "Auditory stimulation by exposure to melodic music increases dopamine and serotonin activities in rat forebrain areas linked to reward and motor control", Neuroscience Letters, vol. 673, pp. 73-78.

  Sluming, V., Brooks, J., Howard, M., Downes, J.J. & Roberts, N. 2007, "Broca's Area Supports Enhanced Visuospatial Cognition in Orchestral Musicians", Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 27, no. 14, pp. 3799-3806.

  Vajpayee, S. 2018, Therapeutic effects of music, Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd, New Delhi.

  Clements-Cortes, A. 2015, "Tune into good sleep with music", Canadian Music Educator, vol. 57, no. 1, pp. 47-49.

  Wall St. Cheat Sheet: How Music Can Increase Your Productivity 2015, , Newstex, Chatham.

#music relaxation #UCD #mindfulness #health #take a break #concerts dublin #student wellbeing #music student wellbeing #UCD School of Music #events dublin #music benefit student #music productivity benefit #student mindfulness

[mindyourself-18-blog]

Tips for Being Mindful

As a student, you may find yourself struggling with stress, lack of focus, depression symptoms, anxiety, you find yourself becoming increasingly ill and you are losing our motivation. I myself have faced these and I was kicking myself when I found out the easiest way to deal with these all at once with no extra cost and very little time taken out of my day

What I found was something called mindfulness. It has become increasingly popular over the last few years for god reason as I guarantee, after these few steps, you’ll find yourself becoming a much happier, healthier person both inside and out. They all revolve about simply being aware of yourself. They may sound silly, but I encourage you to give them ago and come back and tell me how you did. I gave some tips and a sample routine anyone a try below. They can be some of the best steps you can take, in living your best life

TIPS

1.       Start Simple: It sounds weird at first but it’s a key starting point. Think about little things every day. This can be anything like the flavours of your food and how it changes throughout the meal, the coolness of a glass of water, the warmth of your chest. This is kind of like exercising the mindful part of your brain. They sound simple but from doing this, we a start moving on to how we feel throughout any instant of the day and start seeing what may be affecting us in our daily life.

2.       Do it in small increments: A well-known mindfulness exercise is meditation. Although the benefits are apparent, you might not have the time to spend hours meditating every day. Prudence and self-regulation are some of the mist uncommon traits today. Start small, how small is up to you. Do it on a study break or a walk o the shops. Science does show that brief meditation practices can have positive effects on our brain

3.       Do whatever form on mindfulness that suits you: You must know that ‘mindful’, is an adverb and can be applied to anything so take time to reflect on anything you do on a regular basis and most importantly, what you are comfortable doing. Personally, I love looking out the window on the bus, observing the different people at the different stops, how the landscape changes every few stops. It sounds weird, but it works for me.

4.       Learn to forgive yourself: By far the most important piece of advice I can give you. We are at an age where we surround ourselves in negative thoughts and its easy to get caught up in everything. We can’t get caught up on the little things. We must learn to forgive and forget so we can stop dwelling on past problems and focus on the now. Didn’t do enough study last night, forgive yourself. You missed training, forgive yourself. You can’t concentrate and your mind wanders, forgive yourself. The whole point of mindfulness is about learning and development. What happened in the past, stays int the past. The most important thing t do is take what you can from it and move on because that’s the best way to ensure, it doesn’t happen again.

#mindfulliving #tipsforlife #lifehacks #meditation #motivation #study break

[mindyourself-18-blog]

UCD Student Help and Support

Your college years are can be some of the best years of your life. You finally have enough freedom as an adult without having too much responsibility (yet). But while college is often depicted as being “the best years of your life” in the media, this is not always the case. What we are not told by our secondary school guidance counsellor is that college is not always the ideal picture we see on the prospectus we get at the start of the year. You are entering an unfamiliar environment and while it can be exciting for some, it can be nerve-wracking for others. In particular, with UCD, you are entering an environment that is made up of over 30,000 people, which is enough to make even the most confident of people to feel a little bit apprehensive! As well as this, alcohol and recreational drug use are often associated with the “student experience”, which can often wreak havoc on your mental health. Whether you are a new or a returning student you can still feel overwhelmed, particularly at the start of a new semester, so looking after your mental health is crucial at this time.

This is where UCD Student Help and Support can help. This website offers help for everything, from managing your money or having issues with your accommodation to more serious issues, such as anxiety or depression. The site is easy to navigate and supplies students with valuable information and helplines that can help them in times of need, such as www.samaritans.org or www.reach.com . As well as providing students with plenty of resources, the network also gives the option of setting up an appointment with a student advisor, in case the student would rather speak face to face to a person about an issue rather than to someone on the phone. Another unique aspect of the help and support network UCD offers is that it also offers assistance to those who are worried about their friends, and gives them pointers on how they can let them know that they’re worried about them in an appropriate way. This feature of the site is extremely useful, as in some cases an individual can become so wrapped up in a problem they become totally blinkered, and need a helping hand even if they do not realise it yet.

So, while practices such as meditation or sport are good methods of looking after our mental health, they can sometimes not be enough, and we need access to more professional help. UCD Student Help and Support is an invaluable resource to every student that attends the university, and it can be reached here through the link: http://www.ucd.ie/students/support/ 

[mindyourself-18-blog]

Meditation for Beginners

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Meditation is a habit that I have developed regularly in recent years.

 Meditation allowed me to change my life habits and different aspects of my behavior. Indeed, it helped me to become more peaceful, more concentrated, less worried and that allowed me to dismiss these moments of inner discomfort.

I am still very far from being an example in terms of meditation, but I think I can help you reader to make the same end of path as me.

The most important thing is undoubtedly that it taught me to understand myself and to be able to understand my own mind and be able to feel its sensations. Before I started these meditation exercises, I had never thought about what was going on in my head and what influenced my behavior without me knowing it. I am not telling you that I am able to control all of my feelings and emotions today, but I am able to interpret and understand my reactions. The fact that I understand better (not completely, but better), gave me more flexibility and freedom.

So, if you too wish to start with me in this new adventure and you want to follow my habits I will let you follow me through my various exercises to start the mediation work well. And while I'm not saying it's easy, you can start small and become better and better as you practice. Don't expect positive results from the start but it will happen soon.

These tips are not intended to help you become an expert in meditation but are intended to help you get started and continue. You don't have to implement them all at the same time-try a few, go back to this article, try one or two more each day.

TIPS :

1.      THINK OF YOU!!! Sit down for five minutes. This exercise will seem simple and anecdotal, but it will allow you to start working on yourself. Start with only two minutes a day for a week. If this goes well, increase another two minutes and do it for a week. But Don’t force yourself to do the exercise!!

2.      PUNCTUALITY!!! Perform this exercise at the same time each day if possible (with the morning preference). The best exercise is to do this mediation work when you stand up.

3.      NO QUESTION!!! Don't let yourself be dragged into the existential questions of meditation. The majority of people worry about where to sit, how to sit, what cushion to use but the main thing is to find your own method of meditation. If you are comfortable on the floor, sit in a tailor. The exercise lasts only a few minutes so at first it doesn't matter much, just sit in a quiet and comfortable place.

4.      MANAGE YOUR BREATHING!!! Now that you are starting the exercise, be fully aware of your breathing. Just concentrate on your breathing when it comes in the net and comes out through your mouth. Try to feel it slipping to your lungs. Try to count "one" when you inhale the first breath, then "two" when you exhale.

5.      STAY STRONG!!! That's when my worst enemy appears. At a time of meditation your mind will wander and that in a certain way. This should not be an obstacle for you. When you noticed that your mind wandered, remained focused on your breathing and soothed you gently. It's practice, and you won't be good for it for a little while

6.      GETTING TO KNOW YOURSELF!!! This exercise to at least complicate must focus your attention on what haunts you during meditation. What's going on inside? It's cloudy, but looking at your mind wandering, frustrated, avoid the hard feelings you'll begin to understand what's going on in your body.

7.      YOURS ONLY FRIENDS IS YOU!!! When you begin to know yourself, it is time to trust yourself and adopt a friendly attitude towards you without leaving the critical side aside. If you manage to give yourself this love the work will be much more effective.

 If you complete your session, I will put you at disposal a video showing meditation exercises for beginners.

Glad to have met you and we meet very soon for the rest of the exercises!! 

ALLOCIO Guillaume

#meditation #mindfulness #morning #today #life #student #breathe #time #mental health #healt #self #practice #zen #mind #relaxing #love #mindfulnessmeditation #spiritual #spirituality #soul #energy #hapiness #meditate

[mindyourself-18-blog]

Mental Health in UCD: Student Help and Support

Your college years are can be some of the best years of your life. You finally have enough freedom as an adult without having too much responsibility (yet). But while college is often depicted as being “the best years of your life” in the media, this is not always the case. What we are not told by our secondary school guidance counsellor is that college is not always the ideal picture we see on the prospectus we get at the start of the year. You are entering an unfamiliar environment and while it can be exciting for some, it can be nerve-wracking for others. In particular, with UCD, you are entering an environment that is made up of over 30,000 people, which is enough to make even the most confident of people to feel a little bit apprehensive! As well as this, alcohol and recreational drug use are often associated with the “student experience”, which can often wreak havoc on your mental health. Whether you are a new or a returning student you can still feel overwhelmed, particularly at the start of a new semester, so looking after your mental health is crucial at this time.

This is where UCD Student Help and Support can help. This website offers help for everything, from managing your money or having issues with your accommodation to more serious issues, such as anxiety or depression. The site is easy to navigate and supplies students with valuable information and helplines that can help them in times of need, such as www.samaritans.org or www.reach.com . As well as providing students with plenty of resources, the network also gives the option of setting up an appointment with a student advisor, in case the student would rather speak face to face to a person about an issue rather than to someone on the phone. Another unique aspect of the help and support network UCD offers is that it also offers assistance to those who are worried about their friends, and gives them pointers on how they can let them know that they’re worried about them in an appropriate way. This feature of the site is extremely useful, as in some cases an individual can become so wrapped up in a problem they become totally blinkered, and need a helping hand even if they do not realise it yet.

So, while practices such as meditation or sport are good methods of looking after our mental health, they can sometimes not be enough, and we need access to more professional help. UCD Student Help and Support is an invaluable resource to every student that attends the university, and it can be reached here through the link: http://www.ucd.ie/students/support/ 

#ucd #student #mental health #resource #mindful #support #college #university #experience #anxious #anxiety #help