Having a healthy mindset is not a hard topic to come across, especially on a college campus. There are many ways that clubs and organizations reach out to the community to encourage health and positivity.

At some point, it seems as though we hear this too much, we forget why it really is important to have a healthy mind in the first place. Society gets caught up in others and often, as individuals, we may find ourselves involuntarily pushing our needs to the backburner while we put others and their needs first.

It is not easy, by any means, to consistently put yourself first and tend to your own needs, but it is something that we must do. We must put ourselves first. As selfish as it sounds, it is not selfish at all. By taking care of ourselves first we are putting ourselves in a better position to help others. 

A way to think about it, as it has been connected to in the past, is that putting your needs first before others, can best be described as a bad situation on a plane. In this situation where oxygen masks drop down, as passengers, we are instructed to put our oxygen mask on before helping others put theirs on.

Your mental and physical health are like the oxygen masks. In order to help people to the best of your ability, you should strive to be the you that you can be.

To be the best version of you, you need to listen to your body. If you begin to feel sick, you need to take care of yourself. If you avoid taking medicine or even going to the doctor and you are sick for another week, just know that if you would have taken the time you needed to rest and get better, you could have been less miserable during class, and maybe done better academically.   

So, stop suffocating yourself with other people’s needs and put your mask on. Take care of you.

Karena Ozier is a junior elementary education major. She can be reached at 581-2812 or at kmozier@eiu.edu.