The pandemic has brought about changes to our daily lives such as the way we work, the way we learn, and even the way we socialise. While some may enjoy remote working and learning, it has also raised concern on the way it is affecting mental health.
INTI International University’s Student Services Department recently organised a mini virtual symposium titled “The Reality of a Balanced Virtual Student Life” featuring speakers from different fields who talked about ways to maintain a balanced student life while learning from home.
Dr Amalia Madihie, senior lecturer at the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), said mental health should be given the same importance as physical health.
Student life is synonymous with grades and getting good grades is expected of students for them to secure employment upon graduation. As a result, life balance is often overlooked. Dr Amalia Madihie, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), highlighted that although grades are important, mental health should be treated the same way as physical health and a solution needed to address stress and anxiety needs to be found should there be problems of stress and anxiety.
“In the middle of a pandemic, we can check our mental health by asking ourselves “Who am I?’, which is a simple yet difficult question to answer. If you can’t answer this, please seek help from someone you trust or a counsellor because if we don’t know who we are, it shows that we may be losing ourselves in terms of direction or self-worth,” said Dr Amalia, a registered and practicing counsellor under the Malaysian Board of Counsellors, emphasising that to develop a healthy nation and maintain a healthy mind, we need to ask ourselves this from time to time and treat mental health as important.
According to Dr Amalia, students often complained about not having enough time to do revision and complete their assignments. However, is this truly the case?
Ahmed Idrees said creating a to-do list for tasks and priorities could help students manage their time better.
According to a survey about the health and living conditions of college students during the pandemic which looked at 654 college students, 26.9 per cent of students spent most of their time on entertainment, while five per cent of students only spent their time on entertainment and did not study.[1] This clearly demonstrated a lack of time management among students, which then leads to forgetting about their studies.
Ahmed Idrees, who is an electrical engineer, design technologist, teacher, and motivational speaker, advised during the online event that creating a to-do list for tasks and priorities could help remedy the situation.
“Jot down your assignments, quizzes and other deadlines so you don’t miss them. Only then will you know which needs to be a priority and it will be less likely to be forgotten,” he said during the virtual symposium.
Life during a pandemic, with its lockdowns and people being more cautious about going out, has led to reduced outdoor sports activities. For Randy Chan, an Indonesian Ultra Trail runner based in Malaysia, students should set goals to get back on track to a healthy lifestyle.
“When we are setting the goal, we must be realistic when going from zero to 100. If you set an unrealistic goal and don’t hit it, you may get down and ask yourself why do you even bother.
Speakers and participants at the virtual symposium organised by the Student Service Department titled “The Reality of a Balanced Virtual Student Life”.
“So, rather than telling yourself that you will work out every day, set a smaller but more realistic goal. Maybe exercising twice during the week and once on weekend, then you will hit the goal and you will feel better. It will also be easier to commit to exercise for a long term,” he said.
Concluding the session, he said that while it’s difficult for students to balance their virtual life, especially during these extraordinary times, it is not impossible as there resources online such as videos to assist with achieving a healthy mind and body.
[1] https://cn.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202008/24/WS5f4754b2a31008497842198e.html