Break dance? Belly dance? Ballet? Ballroom? Doesn’t matter – the results are in and be with a pair of two left feet or otherwise, dance has been proven to improve your overall mood and your mental health. A meta-analysis of 23 international studies on the effects of...
Growing up, there was one driving expectation my parents – like all other Traditionalists and Boomers at the time - placed on me: Go to university, graduate, and become a successful, well-paid professional. There was no discussion or consideration of not going to a...
Music can have a physical affect your body; music can help decrease emotional distress and amplify a variety of moods. It’s said that music is one of the few activities that involves using the majority or entirety of the human brain. It can have the same effects...
We often talk about the importance of good diet and exercise in the maintenance of good mental health in school; however, building and maintain social connections is just as important. And that's this week's #MentalHealthMonday Tip. A Case for Social Connectedness and...
The stress that students place on themselves – and that are placed on them – is ever-growing. Exams, assignments, work, financial pressures, social pressures, and/or living away from home add an often unbearable amount of stress and anxiety to even the most...
![How Laughter Fights Anxiety & Depression in Students [video]](https://thefriendshipbench.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-17-at-8.23.20-AM-1080x675.png)
While traveling through various universities and colleges last week I noticed a few groups of students playing the bawdy card game “Cards Against Humanity” and really laughing their asses off. I’ve played the game with friends, I know where that laughter comes from;...
Depression is not new. It’s an ailment that can be traced back to Mesopotamian time when it was called “melancholia.” It’s an illness that affects a large portion of the population – all ages – in some form or another. Similar to the way someone could suffer...
Here at The Lucas Fiorella Friendship Bench, together with our partner schools, we’ve been working hard to connect students suffering from stress, anxiety, and/or depression with available on- and off-campus mental health resources. We know that too many students are...
I recently passed the one year anniversary of my 19 year old son’s death by suicide. In that time I’ve experienced the rollercoaster of emotions you would expect someone in my shoes to endure. This journey has been complicated by the creation of a mental health...
More and more studies point to the link between strong friendships and good mental health. A study from the Journal of The National Medical Association in the US, for example, discovered that those people with “insufficient perceived social support were most likely to...