USYD Residences - Houses and Terraces

21/11/2022

📣NOTICE - PAYMENT SYSTEM UPGRADE📣

Please note that ICT will be doing an upgrade on the Xetta payment system TODAY, from 7am - 4pm. You will be unable to make payments during this time. Student Accommodation Services apologise for the inconvenience!

31/10/2022

Today marks the end of our 31days of self care challenge and with it comes the end of Mental Health Awareness Month. We've provided plenty of opportunity and options for you to develop some skills that can help you right now and for the future. From self-massage practices to yoga, to journaling and breathing techniques, haircuts and meditations, to learning about the food that impacts your mood, we've covered a wide variety of ways you can empower yourself with self-love and care. Remember that these practices are helpful, but don't be afraid to seek further help should you find your mental health suffering. Help is always available, both here in the University and beyond. The following link provides a number of resources you can access whenever you may need extra mental health support.

https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/.../support-contact-list.aspx

Feel free to comment below with your favorite tip that you've learned (or even started to use in your life) over the last for your chance to win a $150 voucher.

30/10/2022

As we draw to a close of our 31 Day journey, we want to remind you of a simple yet constructive way to be aware of your own mental health. Journaling can be a powerful tool and it is as simple as writing down your thoughts and feelings in a book, on a computer, on a scrape piece of paper to understand them more clearly. If you struggle with stress, depression, or anxiety, keeping a journal can be a great idea. It can help gain control of your emotions and improve your mental health. You can choose to write everyday, once a week or however often you feel the need and find the benefit of doing so. Writing down thoughts and feelings can help relieve some stress, find clarity, improve your mood by prioritizing fears, problems and concerns, help you sleep and even inspire change.
If you haven’t given journaling a go, try it today and see if it can work for you!

The below links are a great starting point to understand the benefits of a journaling practice.

https://positivepsychology.com/benefits-of-journaling/

https://www.self.com/story/how-to-start-a-journaling-practice

https://positive.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Reflection-prompts.pdf

29/10/2022

Self Care Challenge for day 29: Did you know the stomach is considered our second brain because the enteric nervous system relies on the same type of neurons and neurotransmitters that are found in the central nervous system? This “second brain” communicates with the brain in our head and plays a key role in certain diseases in our bodies and in our overall mental health. What this suggests is that food and mood are directly correlated. So that old saying “You are what you eat” applies to more than just your physical body, as food influences your mood as well. Sometimes the very food we reach for when we are feeling stressed, needing comfort or because you feel inspired to ‘treat yoself’, can be the very food that can wreak havoc on our mood and mental wellbeing. Often the physical manifestations of digesting certain foods (lethargy, headaches, bloating, upset tummy for example) also come along with an associated mood…it’s just that we are usually so out of sync with understanding how our bodies and minds truly connect that we miss it.
Check out this interesting article published in 2020 on how diet and nutrition affect mental wellbeing

https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m2382

And for those of you who want to treat yourself as a wee bit of a science experiment, try keeping a food journal for a month, not just WHAT you eat but HOW it makes you feel emotionally and physically, and you’ll gain a much deeper understanding of what foods are truly feeding you! (The picture shows one you can purchase from an etsy store… or you could make one up yourself).

28/10/2022

It's Day 28 of MHAM and it's Fitness Friday which means it's time to move your body!

Learning how to move your body in a way that works for you is important. Maybe you're not that active, but wanna be, or perhaps you've been meaning to try new sports or activities, but keep putting it off. Don't put it off anymore! Try a dance class, go for a swim, take a walk around campus with your friends... find some way to put motion into your day. Your body needs it and will love you for it!

I recommend Body Groove, which offers a selection of free Dance classes via online and it makes you feel SOOOOO good in your body and about it! Here's a simple tango you can try in the comfort of your own home!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FGOI07v5Zo

And just for a bit of amusement, because I think exercise should be fun..I present Richard Simmons... making exercise fun and a bit weird since the 80's!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGFfq7_Pqls

Looking for a quick confidence boost? Then try some Latin dance! You'll find this workout on the Spicy Latin Dance Party DVD Collection, or streaming at Body...

26/10/2022

Day 27! We’re heading into the home stretch now with only a few days left of our 31-day Challenge as part of Mental Health Awareness Month and today’s topic is a creative and therapeutic way to give yourself a little love and self-care if your head is full of a billion things. This technique is known as the Brain Dump and all you need is a writing implement and paper, or a journal if you want to get all fancy. We highly recommend using pen/pencils and paper for this technique over a computer as it’s a much more tactile and whole-body type inclusive process.

What do you write? Anything and everything. This is not a fancy, journaling your thoughts and feelings process. It’s much more spontaneous and intuitive than a regular journaling session. Literally, write, draw, scribble, every thought or feeling you can capture.

If you think it, right it down.
If you feel it, write it down.

This doesn’t have to be ordered. It doesn’t have to be pretty or legible (well somewhat legible is helpful!). You don’t have to worry about spelling or tenses or grammar- No censorship! Just the act of giving space for your internal world to be written down, written out.

So, get yourself a pen and paper and give yourself as much or as little time as you need for this process. You can brain dump in just a few minutes or as long as you feel the need to keep dumping thoughts out of that big old brain of yours.

26/10/2022

Today is Wellness Wednesday and we wanted to share with you some of our favourite resources for doing Yoga at home. Creating a habit of doing a small routine every day can be super restorative, whether you wake up and do some yoga first thing or after a long day of work or study to stretch and move the body. For YouTube – our go-to’s are Yoga with Adrienne, Yoga with Bird (she has a lot of great quicker routines), Boho Beautiful (she has some great yoga for strength videos).

Take a look at the link below at some poses that can help you as we approach the end of the semester and the increase in study

More often than not, studying can be painfully monotonous. Can I get an amen from all of my college and grad school students out there grinding? While there are various ways to make studying a tiny bit more tolerable, it never hurts to break up your…

25/10/2022

It’s Day 25 of our 31 Days of Self-Care Challenge as part of Mental Health Awareness Month and we’re challenging you to get inspired! Even if you don’t think you have a creative bone in your body (by the way, that’s a lie- all of us have a spark of creative genius within us!) turning your energy towards a creative pursuit can be very restorative for your mental wellbeing. And the forms of creativity are endless…from the many varied styles of painting, pulling together a Halloween look, writing, dance, collage, clay, flower arrangements… endless!! You can even bring creativity into your academics….

Creativity sparks the imagination which can inspire you to have fresh ideas or new perspectives – all things which can add powerfully to your academic life.

We’ve had people show off their study spaces and create vision boards to help them meet goals. You can design your schedule using doodles and colours and even memes… (or maybe that’s just me?). Even the simple act of coloring in pictures from a mindfulness coloring book is a creative way to help you find some space and calm.

So your mission, if you choose to accept it (and ya should!) is to look at ways you can implement creativity into your life- whether it’s trying out a new recipe, playing around with your personal clothing style and creating a vibe for the day, or doing a DIY project to add your personality into your room… as you allow some creativity into your life, you might be surprised just how much it changes you and your mind and mood…for the better.

Now of course, there is also the idea that art can come out of a dark place in someone’s life. I’ll link an interesting piece on the idea of creative people being prone to poor mental health…I know for myself, I tend to write more poetry pieces when feeling low or depressed….so there are definite links for how we can use our pain and marry it in a creative way. And you can walk into any gallery, museum or bookstore to see how artists have transformed trauma into something beautiful.

There is definitely benefits to harnessing your creativity. Here's an article that delves into that a little more:

https://brightwatergroup.com/news-articles/5-big-benefits-of-creative-expression/?fbclid=IwAR3II-s8cPjx16-B_n-TtfjBXOIfGQCAqjVCCPvZwNdkQGgllLvOxD28-Ic

I’ll also add a couple of links below that show how you can use creativity to improve your sense of wellbeing

https://www.insider.com/the-link-between-creativity-and...
https://nyctherapy.com/.../creativity-is-your-secret.../
https://brightwatergroup.com/.../5-big-benefits-of.../

And for a bit of fun right now, check out this interactive doodle game! 🎭🖍✂️

https://quickdraw.withgoogle.com/...

Got a favorite way to be creative? Let us know in the comments below!

Participating in creative activities is great for your mental and social wellbeing. Read our blog to learn how.

23/10/2022

We're heading into our final week of Mental Health Awareness Month and our 31 Days of Self Care program.

We hope you've enjoyed learning a little, or a lot, about the steps you can take to keep yourself safe and mentally well, especially as we near the end of the semester. We know that juggling self-care with the workload of academia, jobs, life and relationships can be really challenging. In fact, it's often the first thing to go when we are feeling under pressure! So well done if you've managed to connect with some of the suggestions we've offered over the past 23 days.

You've still got the chance to win prizes including going into the month long draw for one of three $150 gift vouchers.

We're also got a few more prizes to giveaway before the end of the month so be sure to comment in the daily post (or message us anonymously) for your chance to take home a prize!

As always, we look forward to reading your comments and welcome you to share your own experiences, tips and advice on this weeks topics.

22/10/2022

When you are studying, it's easy to forget to read for pleasure or for personal health and wellbeing. We encourage you to hit the books in a journey of self-discovery and healing. Some of our favourites include:

- The Mountain Is You: Transforming Self-Sabotage Into Self-Mastery by Brianna West

- Don't Believe Everything You Think: Why Your Thinking Is The Beginning & End Of Suffering by Joseph Nguyen

- The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

- The Resilience Project: Finding Happiness through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness by Hugh van Cuylenburg

- Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

There are about a thousand more books we'd love to share here (but won't because of time). What's your favourite 'self-help' book that has made an impact in your life? Share below for a chance to win a copy of The Resilience Project: Finding Happiness through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness by Hugh van Cuylenburg.