“If you feel inspired to use the new year to help you reset or change habits: great. And yet, the old you has survived every terrible day, every hard thing, every awful circumstance, and every heartbreak you’ve ever felt. The old you is a fighter, and that’s worth celebrating.” – Emily McDowell This year has…
As the holiday season approaches and we reach the end of 2020, many of us start to experience mixed emotions. Over the years, the holidays have come to represent warmth and celebration, in addition to the signal of a fresh start. But the holiday season can also be a major source of stress, particularly for…
It can be hard to study when a cat paces back and forth across your keyboard asking for attention, or when your dog literally takes a bite out of your homework because it fell off a cluttered desk onto the floor. The stress of final exams is real. What was once clear organization and spurts…
To anyone else supporting a family member or close loved one spending time in a psychiatric unit, rehabilitation center, or assisted living facility during this pandemic: I see you. I see the hard conversations, the tears, the fact that every answer just stirs up 12 more questions: Do they have a safe place to go…
Self-care looks different for everyone. Some find inner peace by practicing mindfulness, and others enjoy writing their thoughts and feelings in a journal. Regardless of your self-care regimen, we can all agree that the pandemic has changed the way we take care of ourselves. Prior to the pandemic, I would enjoy going out to new…
These are uncertain and anxious times, especially for students. As COVID-19 cases continue to increase, colleges are strongly discouraging students from returning to campus after Thanksgiving break, leaving many to finish the semester at home. The transition from being on campus to being home will not be easy. I know I will not have the…
Looking back, when I was a wide-eyed high school student, I had a lot of difficulty choosing which college to go to. That summer, I took a course at Ithaca College that cemented the decision for me. It was called “Communication, Culture, and Rhetoric,” led by a Black professor and predominantly attended by students of…
While walking through Kogan Plaza at George Washington University, there’s a stillness in the early morning coupled with unfamiliar silence. The regular stirring city atmosphere has minimized into a soft hum, with infrequent passing bikers and working professionals. Campus has maintained its looks with hints of buff and blue on university buildings but has lost…
As partners to Veterans, we understand the unique role that we all can play in being there to support Veterans’ mental health journeys. Our partners experienced places, conditions, and hardships that we cannot imagine. Their bravery and honor in serving their country is something that we feel immense pride in – but also have seen…
Quarantine has not been easy for me. I haven’t seen my friends in weeks, my summer plans were all canceled, and the future remains uncertain. There have been days in which I have felt great and those in which I felt down. In the past, I took the social interaction and learning that I got…
Active Minds is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization promoting mental health awareness and education for young adults.