{"id":54,"date":"2025-10-30T13:21:01","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/?p=54"},"modified":"2025-10-30T13:21:01","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T13:21:01","slug":"shake-it-out-how-to-keep-your-mental-health-positive-during-mid-term-stress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/2025\/10\/30\/shake-it-out-how-to-keep-your-mental-health-positive-during-mid-term-stress\/","title":{"rendered":"Shake it out: How to keep your Mental Health positive during Mid-term Stress"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings readers,<\/p>\n<p>Today, I am going to talk about good strategies to improve your mental health at the University of Iowa. As the weather gets colder and the assignments pile up, it&#8217;s important to make sure you are taking time for yourself.\u00a0 I do a variety of different things to keep my mental health positive, but everyone is different. What works for me might not be your jam, so I am including activities my friends do, too, for some variety.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Getting active<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>My favorite thing to do is take a long walk, either alone or with friends.<\/li>\n<li>I also love to go to the rec center and exercise.\u00a0 Personally, I like to either do the row machine, elliptical, or bike.<\/li>\n<li>One of my friends loves to go to pick up volleyball games that happen every Tuesday and Thursday!<\/li>\n<li>I\u2019ve also gone to fitness classes offered by the Rec Center. If you are a student, you can find them on your MyUI page, and if not, they <a href=\"https:\/\/recserv.uiowa.edu\/groupfit\">are on the Fitness Center website for everyone.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hanging out with friends\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>On Tuesdays, Insomnia gives out free cookies if you come in your PJs. I love to go with my friends and grab cookies.<\/li>\n<li>Every Tuesday night, there is a new DWTS episode. One of my friends meets up with me every week to watch it.<\/li>\n<li>Finally, every Friday, my roommate and I do what we call Fro-yo Fridays to celebrate getting through the week.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Staying Organized and Keeping Clean\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>I keep track of all my assignments on my phone&#8217;s reminder app (I have another post about how to stay organized with college assignments coming soon).<\/li>\n<li>I also clean my dorm once a week, usually on Thursday.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Getting sweet treats <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>After a long day, I love to use my dining dollars to grab a smoothie at the gym.<\/li>\n<li>I also love to walk to the campus Starbucks and grab a drink.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Having time to relax\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>I love to curl up with a good book (right now I\u2019m reading The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher).<\/li>\n<li>I also love to do Yoga\/ meditation in my dorm room.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are just a few of the things I do to make sure that I am taking time for myself and my mental health when I am busy.\u00a0 I hope you try to incorporate one or more of these things into your day if you are feeling overwhelmed by homework or classes.<\/p>\n<p>Until next time,<br \/>\nSavannah<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-54 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-medium'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/2025\/10\/30\/shake-it-out-how-to-keep-your-mental-health-positive-during-mid-term-stress\/img_0319-1\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0319-1-225x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0319-1-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0319-1-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0319-1-300x400.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0319-1.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/2025\/10\/30\/shake-it-out-how-to-keep-your-mental-health-positive-during-mid-term-stress\/img_0607\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0607-225x300.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0607-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0607-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0607-300x400.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/files\/2025\/10\/IMG_0607.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings readers, Today, I am going to talk about good strategies to improve your mental health at the University of Iowa. As the weather gets colder and the assignments pile up, it&#8217;s important to make sure you are taking time for yourself.\u00a0 I do a variety of different things to keep my mental health positive, but everyone is different. What works for me might not be your jam, so I am including activities my friends &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/savannah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}