Mental Health For Young People – Keep Your Independence During Summer Break
Mental Health For Young People – Keep Your Independence During Summer Break
Finally, another college year is coming to an end, and you’re probably wondering about mental health for young people and how to keep your independence once summer break kicks and you’re back in your family home. Besides studying hard, you’ve become used to the idea of being responsible for your life, from attending classes to buying things you need, and the idea of being the ‘child’ in your home is something you wish to avoid, right?
Instead of staying at college, your independence can follow you home if you determine what level of independence you are seeking and how you will communicate it to your family. Of course, if you wish to pause the responsibilities a bit and just relax from all the stress, long hours of studying, and everything else a college life symbolizes, that is perfectly reasonable for caretaking your mental health for young people. However, those who are interested in being independent during summer should continue reading as we’ll bring you useful tips to achieve it easily.
1. Define Your Independence
It might seem weird to you, yet independence can mean different things to different people. For instance, are you only looking to have your earnings and not have to explain to your parents what you spend your money on? Or, are you looking to live your entire life independently from your family, including cooking, doing your laundry, and participating in overall family costs? Once you know what your independence includes, it will be easier for you to achieve it and talk about it with your family members.
2. Set Your Independence Goals
Are you looking to get a job in your hometown? Then you should start applying for jobs a month or two before your college years come to an end. Are you looking to spend more time outside your home? Then start looking for activities that will ensure you’re making the most of your free time. Are you looking to cook, clean, and do all chores at home on your own? Make sure you have everything you need to do it, from groceries to your preferred laundry detergent.
3. Organize Your Time
To be successful in your independence, you will need to organize your time properly. Whichever activities you are keen on implementing as a form of strengthening your feeling of independence, plan accordingly so you have enough time to finish them and also have enough time to relax and be with your family and friends. You can use the calendar on your phone to schedule these activities, whether it is a summer job or cooking your dinner. This will also give you a pretty good idea about how much time you have for other activities in your schedule and help you avoid feeling stressed or overwhelmed due to poor planning.
4. Communicate Your Independence Decisions with Family and Friends
To truly be independent, people who are important in your life will need to be aware of your activities. This will help them understand you better, help you achieve your goals, and find a suitable time to spend with you. Also, you might even notice that it’s a bit challenging to be more independent than usual at home. So any support you can get can help you feel more fulfilled when achieving your goals. Your family and friends might even advise you on how to be more efficient while exploring your independence at home. Your parents might share with you quick dinner recipes so you don’t spend too much time in the kitchen. While your friends might help you manage your money more efficiently by sharing money-saving techniques that worked for them.
5. Divide Your Goal into Milestones
The summer can be quite long when you have a goal to achieve by its end. To keep you on track and ensure you are working towards your goal, consider separating it into milestones. For instance, if your goal was to get a summer job, you can set a successful completion of the month as a milestone. This will provide you with a feeling of fulfillment each time you achieve your milestone instead of being focused on such a general goal. If your goal was to cook for yourself, why not cook a new dish every Friday dinner for the entire family? This way, your family will be able to participate in your independence journey and support you through it.
6. Celebrate Your Independence
We’re often focused too much on setting and achieving our goals that once something is achieved. We just move to the next thing. As much as being self-driven and motivated in life is a quality, you need to enjoy the highlights of your life as well. This means celebrating your milestones, unexpected moments, obstacles being overcome, etc. Celebrate your first summer job salary by inviting your best friends for a drink and sharing memories from childhood while sipping on your favorite cocktail or mocktail. Celebrate preparing an exotic dish for the first time by sharing the recipe with your friends or inviting them over for a dinner. After all, if you feel good about your accomplishments. You will be more eager to go towards your goals rather than being intimidated by them.
In Final Words
Being independent is incredibly valuable for every young adult who is stepping out of their comfort zone of being always taken care of and stepping into the role of the person who depends on themself. Mental health for young people does matter! Therefore, regardless of what independence means for you at this point, keep in mind that this can change over time. To be honest, this summer if you focus on your mental health, then next one you can focus on a summer job.
Whatever your goal is, make sure that working on achieving it makes you feel good about yourself. College is stressful on its own and you should use the summer months to recover, sleep enough, laugh, and have fun. There is nothing wrong with that, so make sure that your definition of independence is aligned with what you actually need.
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