Online therapist in Alabama offers 5 tips to succeed for Auburn students.
Every time we think Covid is behind us, it rares it’s ugly head again, disrupting our lives. Even though, once again college looks different this year, how can Auburn Students, not only navigate, but thrive in 2022?
Kathryn Ely, online therapist in Alabama, is here to offer 5 tips to succeed for Auburn students.
Online therapist in alabama offers 5 tips and here is Tip #1: Let go of expectations.
This is simple but not easy. As Shakespeare once said, “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so”. What Shakespeare so elegantly stated is that we get to decide what is good and what is bad. Whichever way we decide to think something is, that is the way it will be for us. A simpler and less elegant way to restate what Shakespeare meant is everything is life depends on how you look at it.
Coming out of high school, you probably had a picture in your head of exactly what college would look like for you at Auburn. Your mind was probably filled with beautiful fall days tailgating and going to football games at Jordan-Hare and rolling Toomer’s corner after the win! It might have included running to your new sorority house filled with welcoming new sisters. Your picture of college might have included concerts and date parties or studying the major of your dreams. Whatever your picture of your college experience was, I feel confident that it did not include a global pandemic.
When we hold too tightly to expectations, anything less than meeting or exceeding those expectations will leave us feeling sad and disappointed.
To ride the wave of this pandemic without it ruining your one and only college experience, let go of that tightly held picture.
Tip #2 to Succeed for Auburn students: Focus on what you can control
Focus on what you can control. Anxiety and worry take over our lives when we dwell on things we can not control. Anxiety is not always a bad thing. Anxiety can alert us to the fact that we are in a situation in which we need to take care of ourselves. Once to have paid attention to this anxiety and you have done what you can to protect yourself from the pandemic, like getting vaccinated or boosted and being safe around others, turn your focus away from the pandemic and toward the things in your life over which you have complete control.
Tip #3 : Set goals for yourself that are within your control.
We find meaning in life through the pursuit of what matters to us. While you are focusing on what you can control, take the time to figure out what you want to accomplish this semester or this year. You will find meaning and satisfaction among the chaos.
Tip #4: Determine the steps necessary to reacH your goal
Worrying about what we can control takes us out of the present moment and into the future. Spending time trying to control the future or predicting what will happen in the future keeps us in this anxiety loop. Instead, after you decide what you can control, what you want your goal or goals to be, determine what actions you must take to reach those goals.
online therapist in alabama offers 5 tips and here is Tip #5: Keep your thoughts in the present moment
Once you have determined what steps it will take to reach your goals, just take it one step at a time and one day at a time. Don’t continue to focus on the goal. Let go of the goal and just focus on what you must do today, what step is right in front of you. Taking one step at a time and one day at a time will keep your goal from becoming overwhelming.
When there is chaos and anxiety all around us, focusing in on what we can control and the actions we can take to reach our own goals, gives us power. Where there is power, there is no helplessness. Helpless leads to anxiety, feeling like life is out of control.
I hope these 5 tips from an online counselor in Alabama help you succeed as an Auburn student in 2022.
If you would like more help succeeding or thriving, reach out to Empower Counseling in Birmingham, Alabama. We specialize in helping college students move away from anxiety and depression and towards their best lives. We have male and female counselors ready for online counseling that fits your schedule. Call Empower today 205-730-6570.