As we all know, mental health is extremely important! With a strong mental health, you are able to make better decisions under stress. A lot of factors contribute into your mental health. Your family history, trauma (a scary life experience), and how your brain is wired, all are factors to your mental health.

Not having strong mental health, can have physical impacts. It is very important to notice when you are not feeling well emotionally.

Sleeping too much/too little, not having healthy eating habits, loss of motivation, having no energy are all signs that you need to focus on your mental health.

All of these signs are different for everyone. For example, when I am stressed about a health problem, my stomach hurts a lot and I don't feel like eating. I didn't know that I physically wasn't feeling well because of my emotional health until it became an obvious pattern.

Your emotional health is just as important as your physical health, the only difference it that you can't see your mental health. This can make it difficult to talk about. Talking about your mental health is NOT embarrassing or stupid. All of the feelings you are having are valid, which mean you have a right to your feelings and the right to talk about them.

There is no doubt that the pandemic has effected everyone's mental health significantly. This past year has been challenging for everyone. Not being able to control what is going to happen and the unknown is really scary, this has caused a lot of stress for people. Fast changes, such as doing online school, can be emotionally hard for a lot of students.

A lot of us have a lot of feelings in common. A lot of students are stressed because of online school because it is harder to learn. As being a high student, it has been super difficult for me too. You are not alone. I have a hard time learning in distance learning and a lot of time I don't have any motivation to do my assignments.

When we had our first shutdown, I was so confused. There were so many sad things happening and every month it seemed like it was getting worse. I had developed a very fixed mindset for a little bit, meaning I didn't see any point of doing my school work or doing the stuff I loved. It took a while, but I was able to be motivated again.

Listing all of the upsetting and sad things during this past year is easy and that made me feel hopeless. One day, I decided to look at the sky and I realized no matter where we are, even if we are in different states or countries, we are all experiencing this pandemic. Even though this is a sad fact, it made me feel like I wasn't alone.So I looked around in my house and looked at all of the things that made me happy. I get to spend more time with my family, even if we annoy each other sometimes. I get to see my dog Benny everyday. I get to have snacks anytime I want!

However, some of us have different experiences during this pandemic that we feel like no one else can understand. For me, having a brain injury and being in a pandemic has been very challenging. A lot of the times, I cover it up and try to pretend everything is ok. But, in reality is has been draining. Being on screens all the time creates a lot of pain for me, and I felt like I couldn't complain because that is how I was receiving my education. Not talking about my pain only made it worse. Talking to my mom helped me realize that you need to talk about your pain because it is a part of you. Talking about my health issues is still extremely difficult, so when I can't say if with my mouth, I say it through art, through writing, through anything I can.

Talking about your feelings to your family members can help. You can also write your feelings out. Keeping all these feelings inside just makes life a little harder. Remember, you are not alone.