student counseling center

Mindfulness Mondays in March

March 5, 2021 by theCrimson Leave a Comment

Natalia Velásquez, M.S., Outreach Coordinator | Student Counseling Center, Division of Student Life

Florida Tech’s Student Counseling Center welcomes you to join us in the practice of “being in the now” and sharing in the experience of mindfulness.

Every Monday in March, we will be providing information about what mindfulness is and how you can practice it, as well as offering a brief mindfulness activity for you to engage in throughout the week whenever you want to check in with your body and mind, notice what is coming up for you (thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations), and offer kindness to whatever your experience in the present moment.

You can find these activities every Monday on the Student Counseling Center Instagram.

Mindfulness is defined as the “awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally” by Jon Kabat-Zinn, the creator of mindfulness-based stress reduction.

Mindfulness can help us cultivate the ability to be more attentive to the present moment, both internally and externally, in order to reduce the amount of time we spend in the past and/or future. The present moment is all we have right now, and mindfulness can help us be more in tune with ourselves and engaged in our lives.

For example, have you ever checked the time at the end of the day and said to yourself “Wow, where did the time go and what have I been doing all day?”

I guarantee you, the majority of us, if not all, have had this very relatable experience called “living on autopilot.”

Autopilot is normal, and sometimes very helpful, especially when we have a lot to get done in a short amount of time. However, can you imagine what it would feel like to look back on your life when you are 80 years old and think the same thought? Scary!

Thus, mindfulness allows us to notice what we are experiencing in the present moment. We might be experiencing thoughts such as “I am going to rock this test,” “I am not good enough,” or “I miss my family” and feelings such as excitement, anxiety, and sadness.

This could also be bodily sensations such as increased heart rate, steady breath, or teary eyes and even outside experiences such as the warm sun, beautiful palm trees, and loving people around you. Whatever your experience, it is okay. This greater awareness provides us with information on how we might want to live our lives in the most meaningful way possible, in this very moment.

A major way to practice mindfulness is through regular meditation practice. Typically, meditative practices include sitting or lying down in a comfortable position, closing one’s eyes, and bringing attention to internal experiences, like breathing, for a few moments every day.

However, there are many additional ways to practice mindfulness and we encourage you to try them out and choose the best way for you! To learn more about mindfulness, follow the Student Counseling Center throughout the month of March where we will be sharing different mindfulness meditation practices via our Instagram page every Monday: instagram.com/fltechstudentcounselingcenter

If you find yourself in need of additional support, please reach out for help! The Student Counseling Center is here for you! Our center provides a variety of mental health and wellness services to assist you and other students in successfully reaching personal, academic, and career goals. Please take a moment to visit our website: https://www.fit.edu/counseling-and-psychological-services/ to learn more information about our services and support, as well as resources for psychological health and well-being. Be the healthiest Florida Tech Panther you can be!

Mindful Eating for a Healthier You

February 22, 2021 by theCrimson Leave a Comment

Natalia Velásquez, M.S., Outreach Coordinator | Student Counseling Center, Division of Student Life

From our humble beginnings, our bodies have known how to survive by understanding when they are hungry versus full. It is essential for us to be aware of and connect with both the physical and emotional aspects of our bodies so that we can be more intuitive and intentional in our eating habits. This is called “mindful eating.”

According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, mindfulness is the “awareness that arises from paying attention, on purpose, nonjudgmentally.”

Being able to increase our nonjudgmental awareness of our internal and external experiences just as they are, without trying to push them away or cling onto them too strongly, allows us to use our thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations as information for what we might need at any moment. In this case, this would mean specific foods, water, body movement, and so on.

Our ability to mindfully eat starts with us acknowledging all of our senses while we eat – sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch – and the emotional, traditional, and cultural ties we have with food.

This practice helps us to honor our body’s natural hunger and its satisfaction cues in order to nonjudgmentally choose foods for a variety of purposes. These purposes can include nourishment, social enrichment, and enjoyment. enhances our intuitive eating skills, overall. You can practice mindful eating here: Mindful Eating Exercise

When food is seen as a source of stress/anxiety, the natural relationship between the body and mind can be disrupted, especially in a society that emphasizes “diet culture.” This can influence disordered eating. Eating disorders are serious, potentially life-threatening conditions that are influenced by a variety of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors and can cause consequences for emotional, physical, and social health.

Eating disorders affect a diverse spectrum of individuals with approximately twenty million women and ten million men in the United States developing an eating disorder at some point in their lives. Although eating disorders are complex mental/physical illnesses, 60 percent of individuals with eating disorders make a full recovery with psychological counseling. It should be noted that the earlier a person with an eating disorder seeks treatment, the greater the likelihood of recovery.

If you or someone you know are experiencing difficulties with their eating, weight, and/or body, please consider taking the free eating disorder screener available on the Florida Tech Student Counseling Center website at: https://screening.mentalhealthscreening.org/floridatech. This eating disorder screening will consist of answering a brief questionnaire about your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors regarding food consumption, eating habits, and weight regulation. Afterwards, you will receive an explanation about your eating behaviors, as well as additional information about what you can do to help yourself and how to get professional help. For additional information on eating disorders, please visit the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness, and Eating Disorder Hope websites.

National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA): https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/

Eating Disorder Hope: http://www.eatingdisorderhope.com/

If you find yourself in need of professional help after taking the screener, please reach out for help! The Student Counseling Center is here for you! Our center provides a variety of mental health and wellness services to assist you and other students in successfully reaching personal, academic, and career goals. Please take a moment to visit our website: https://www.fit.edu/counseling-and-psychological-services/ to learn more information about our services and support, as well as resources for psychological health and well-being. Be the healthiest Florida Tech Panther you can be!

Spread Love to All (Including You)

February 6, 2021 by theCrimson 2 Comments

Natalia Velásquez, M.S., Outreach Coordinator | Student Counseling Center

As Valentine’s Day quickly approaches, many of us begin to reflect on the significant beings in our lives that we love very much. This may include a partner, close friend, family member, pet animal/plant, and even ourselves (yes, don’t forget yourself!) with whom we would like to share feelings of gratitude and love.

Many times during this holiday, we focus much of our thoughts/emotions on romantic love and lose sight of platonic, familial, and self-love; therefore, we encourage you to reflect on both those in your life with whom you would like to share a kind gesture towards, as well as yourself!

Although this holiday only comes once a year, we challenge you to practice offering yourself and others gratitude and love this Valentine’s Day (and everyday), as this is a great way to enhance your and others’ emotional well-being. Please take a moment to practice checking in with yourself and how you want to spread love to many this year!

For partners, close friends, and family members, you may feel that typical greeting cards, candy, and flowers is the move; however, we encourage you to offer significant others the gift of true connection in conjunction with fun holiday traditions. This may be something like cooking a nice meal, going on a nature adventure, or engaging in another mutual self-care activity. You may put your phone away for the day and share with others at least three things about them for which you are grateful (e.g., their calm presence, humor/laughter, energy, beautiful mind) and why it means so much to you.

For pets, set your intention to buy a gourmet dog cookie, a can of wet cat food, or a new toy. as Enjoy a meal/play break with your fur babies as you tell them how much they mean to you. For plants, set your intention to buy special plant food, new fertilizer, or an additional plant friend and enjoy tending to the beings that bring you and the world life as you thank them for everything they do (have you heard that talking to your plants keeps them strong?!).

Please don’t forget yourself! Practice offering yourself feelings of love and compassion by writing down at least five personal strengths or self-affirmations (that you believe in!) in a creative way, such as coloring in a dot journal or arranging photos in a collage. Hang them up somewhere you will readily see them.

Using one of these strengths/self-affirmations, practice giving yourself a hug while you remind yourself (out loud!) how amazing you truly are! And remember, if you start having unhelpful thoughts during this exercise (e.g., “I don’t deserve this,” “I am not good enough,” “This is lame.”), notice it, take a deep breath, watch the thought float away as if it were a stream on a river, and get back to the work! You might be pleasantly surprised by how you feel after doing this every day for a week, a month, or even a year.

Valued Resolutions for a Happy New Year! | Student Counseling Center

January 24, 2021 by theCrimson Leave a Comment

Natalia Velásquez, M.S., Outreach Coordinator || Student Counseling Center, Division of Student Life

This past year was filled with many changes, some incredibly challenging and others quite exciting. While many of us have likely experienced both of these extremes and many more in between, I think most of us can agree that we were ready for that refreshing feeling associated with the beginning of a new year.

Typically, people often take this time to reflect on the previous year and resolve to make some kind of change in the new year; however, many times resolutions are difficult to initiate and maintain throughout the year. One way to produce meaningful change in your life is to 1) clarify your values, 2) create small goals towards your values, and 3) commit to actively living by your values on a daily basis, despite unhelpful thoughts/emotions that may arise.

Values are like a compass. They can help guide you towards your own unique meaningful life. Values are a direction that you choose to go in based on what you care about most in your life; therefore, there are no “right” or “wrong” values and everyone’s values will be different. They are about action and how you want to “be” and “act” in the world, not how you want to “think” or “feel” on a daily basis. Values are not a destination you want to achieve.

Think about values as yourself wanting to travel west. West is not a place that you can reach; but, you can travel in that direction. From Florida, you can go to Texas, then California, then Hawaii, then Japan, then Spain, etc. and you will continuously be traveling west.

Hence, whether you are prioritizing self-care (e.g., exercise, study breaks, pizza nights), challenging yourself to be more assertive of your needs/wants with others (i.e., “I feel [insert feeling word] when you [insert a specific description of your needs/wants]”), or offering yourself greater compassion (e.g., “I am doing the best that I can in this moment, and that is good enough”), try your best to align your resolutions with the direction of your identified values.

If you find yourself swaying from your values from time to time (or traveling north instead of west), non-judgmentally acknowledge it and guide your intentions/actions back to your valued path.

For example, I personally value connection. However, I am also an introvert, so sometimes talking with people causes me anxiety. Although these thoughts and feelings may arise and I may want to hide out in my room alone, I still choose everyday to live by this value by checking in with friends and family, creating friendships with new people, greeting people at the grocery store, and helping clients in therapy.

For more information on Valued Resolutions, including Values, SMART Goals, and Committed Action, click here.

On behalf of the Student Counseling Center, we wish you a Happy New Year and a successful start to the new semester! If you find yourself in need of additional guidance, please reach out for help! We are your counseling center and here for you in providing a variety of mental health and wellness services to assist you and other students in successfully reaching personal, academic, and career goals. Please take a moment to visit our website to find out more about our services and resources for psychological health and well-being. Be the healthiest Florida Tech Panther you can be!