Connecting Matters. How are you feeling?

Connecting Matters

How are you feeling?

Self-care and mental wellness are a top priority, especially during challenging times. Being mindful of your mental health and those around you can help support your physical health, relationships, and overall well-being. On this website, you will learn more about connecting to yourself and connecting to your community.

Connecting Matters helps you:

STUDENT MENTAL HEALTH ON PRINCETON’S CAMPUS

Princeton can be an exciting, fun, challenging and stressful environment. To navigate these experiences, it is important to connect with yourself and others. Below are the results of our UMatter 2014 Survey, on average: 

  • 35 percent of Princeton undergraduate students reported feeling overwhelming anxiety in the last 30 days.
  • 17 percent of Princeton undergraduate students reported feeling “so depressed it was difficult to function” in the last 30 days.
  • 16 percent of Princeton respondents reported that anxiety negatively affected their academic performance in 2014 and 11 percent reported that depression did so.
American College Health Association. American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II: Princeton University Undergraduates Spring 2010-2014. Hanover, MD

Self-Care

Like all relationships, the one you have with yourself takes time to build. Your relationship with yourself needs to be cared for in a loving and patient way. The journey to connecting more deeply with yourself is going to take some time and work -- but it is certainly worth it. 

Through the practices recommended on this page, you will learn to: 

  • Release your inner critic and tune into deeper loving wisdom 
  • Practice acceptance, forgiveness and unconditional self-love 
  • Create a safe, warm and loving space within where you are supported, guided, and at peace

Overall, self connection is a state of being in which you regularly tune in to your own emotional, spiritual, and physical needs, and honor them in your daily actions. In this journey, it is important to consistently look inward and be aware of your thoughts and feelings as you are having them. Stay in the moment and see if you can describe what you are feeling in your body, what kinds of thoughts are floating in and out of your head. If you are not sure why you should start the journey of self-care, here are some more of the benefits of connecting with yourself. 

  • Your inner instincts and intuition get stronger and support decision making 
  • More comfort and ease spending time on the things that matter 
  • The way forward towards your goals and path in your life will become more clear 
  • A deeper appreciation for the little things in each daily moment 
  • A greater sense of control over your own happiness and wellbeing 
  • A deeper connection with nature, other humans and divinity

Connecting with and supporting others

Recognizing signs of distress in others and listening to them are critical to helping others. You can: 

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