Starting college is a milestone that’s worth being celebrated. It also brings about a ton of worry and anxiety, especially about the course load. Will you be able to keep up in class? Will you be too distracted by social events to study? Will you have loud roommates who make it difficult to concentrate? With enough focus, you can overcome those potential challenges.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed with worry or anxiety, it can be difficult to focus on the task at hand. That’s when people may tell you to “just breathe.” Those two words can often bring further frustration and make you feel misunderstood. However, while it seems like a very flippant and simplified way to acknowledge mental health distress, the sentiment is still relevant.

Breathing techniques are often tied to meditation. It’s a practice that can help you improve your focus by clearing your mind and being fully aware of your mental and physical well-being. With meditation as a strategy that’s incorporated into your regular routine, you can push away the allure of social distractions, complete your assignments to the best of your ability and keep your long-term goals at the front of your mind. 

Meditation can be accomplished in a variety of ways. If you’re just starting out, the basics include closing your eyes and focusing on your breathing while in a comfortable position. Common breathing techniques include mindful breathing, diaphragmatic breathing and alternate nostril breathing.

Meditation can last between five and 10 minutes for beginners, but you can increase the time frame up to 20 minutes as you become more experienced. 

If you’re starting college this year, there are several executive functions required for a successful and fulfilling experience. Organization, time management and working memory are all essential. One of the most important — and most challenging — executive functions for new college students is focus.

Meditation can help boost the concentration you need to succeed in every area of your college life, especially in the classroom. Here are the ways it can help you improve your focus:

• Reducing anxious thoughts — One of the main reasons people start practicing meditation is because they’re trying to manage their anxiety. They may also have an anxiety disorder that’s impacting their overall quality of life. As a college student, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by anxious thoughts. Those thought patterns can affect your ability to take care of your coursework. Meditation can help you to slow down your racing mind. It also encourages calming thoughts to reduce the worry that’s affecting your concentration.
• Ability to ignore distractions — When you enter a sometimes chaotic environment like college, there are distractions everywhere you look. With exciting new opportunities, social gatherings and sudden independence, it’s not always easy to stay focused. When you need to buckle down and study or complete an assignment, meditation can help your mind home in and concentrate. By meditating, you’re training your mind to avoid everything except what’s in front of you. 
• Academic benefits — When you can’t focus on the material that you’re listening to during a lecture or that you’re trying to read from a textbook, nothing is sticking in your brain. That means that you’re not retaining the information that you need to pass the class. If you’re not absorbing information being taught in a class for your career path or overall well-being (e.g., an ethics class), you’re doing yourself a disservice for the future. Meditation while studying, or before a lecture, can help you retain and process information by clearing your mind.

Your schedule can become jam-packed very quickly as you start college. It’s important that you think about what’s important in your day-to-day routines. Making time to meditate can help you boost the focus you need to succeed in the classroom while still prioritizing your mental health. However, meditation doesn’t work for everyone and experiences may vary. You can test out different relaxation techniques instead of, or in addition to, meditation, such as visualization exercises.

At Lightfully, we want to make sure that college students have the skills they need to reach their goals, such as focus. While meditation can help, it’s also important to acknowledge when you need a bit more intensive support. At Lightfully U, our virtual Intensive Outpatient Program can help you work through the mental health challenges that are interfering with your focus as well as learn coping strategies to tackle them, such as meditation.

If you have worsening mental health challenges that you’re struggling to manage on your own, our levels of care may be beneficial. We also offer Residential Treatment, an Intensive Outpatient Program and a Partial Hospitalization Program.

Change is possible. When you’re ready to take the first step, reach out to our Admissions Concierge Team. We’ll take the next steps together, toward the fullest, brightest version of you.