September is self-care month, a reminder for everyone to spend time taking care of their health, both physical and mental.

One way people practice self-care is by allocating time to do things they enjoy. Brettany Gilliard, a freshman public relations major, said dedicating time to what she enjoys relieves stress.

“I just sit down and just do something that I genuinely like, so sometimes I’ll just watch YouTube for a while and just not think,” Gilliard said.

Grace Edwards, a freshman pre-medicine major, says she focuses on something that she knows will make her feel better when she is stressed.

“Sometimes if I feel stressed out, I’ll just sit down and listen to music or watch a video I know is funny so I feel better,” Edwards said.

Layton Steele, a sophomore graphic design major, said they would spend time with friends and practice self-care.

“I usually hang out with my friends, and I watch a lot of YouTube videos,” Steele said.

Finance major Fernando Zuniga-Morales said his form of self-care was making sure to spend time with friends.

“I hang out with my friends, first of all, just to keep my social and mental health at a pretty high point,” Zuniga-Morales said.

Body care is another way to practice self-care. Edwards said she takes time to care for her skin.

“Not every day, but every other day, I like to do face masks and just make sure my skin looks decent so I feel better about myself,” Edwards said.

Steele also uses external self-expression as a form of self-care.

“I do my hair a lot; I love doing my hair,” Steele said. “So, it’s my internal emotions, and I let that be expressed through my external how I do my hair or what clothes I wear, and stuff like that.”

Zuniga-Morales said he also spends time maintaining his appearance.

“I do have a couple of routine care things. I wear a mustache, so I have a straight razor and I like trimming it and taking my time,” Zuniga-Morales said.

Edwards said she takes time out of her day to relax as a form of self-care.

“I just make sure that I take some time every day to just lay down and relax,” she said.

Gilliard said she makes sure to use her free time for herself.

“I know on Tuesdays I have a lot of time, so I’ll take that time for myself, but sometimes it’s after school,” Gilliard said.

Zuniga-Morales said he set aside specific times of the day for his different forms of self-care.

“From 4 a.m. to 7 a.m., that’s the time that I usually work out, and after noon I start the sort of social hours, and it’s at night when I do my binge watching while I do homework,” Zuniga-Morales said.

Steele also said they made sure to take some specific time out of their day that they can use to relax.

“Usually around dinner time, I go out into the lobby, and that’s my time to chill and calm down, so I place that time aside,” Steele said. “This is the time I’m in the lobby, this is the time I’m interacting with people, this is the time I’m hanging out and I’m not doing anything else.”

Steele said they find creative outlets through music and poetry.

“I sing a lot, so I do a lot of emotional releases in song writing and poetry and stuff like that,” Steele said.

Allison Little can be reached at 581-2812 or at aclittle2@eiu.edu.