Why should you focus on a good student life?
Video made by the Counselling and Study Support team at SDU
"... By focusing on what constitutes a good student life for you, you activate the heliotropic - i.e. the well-being-promoting - effects. That is, when you direct your focus to what you want more of in your life, the likelihood that it will also increase..."
Interview with Dorte Toudal Viftrup. Psychologist and Associate Professor at the Research Unit for General Practice SDU
What is student well-being all about?
"Student well-being is about having a preoccupation and a joy and a desire for things to go well in your studies. You must have an experience that what you do is meaningful. And then it is also important that you have some good relationships"
What is the purpose of this exercise?
The exercise or questions here are about helping you spot what it takes in you to create good relationships. Hopefully, you can use this knowledge to promote your current relationships or perhaps create new ones.
Question 1: Think back to a collaboration with one or more people on the programme that went well. What created the good collaboration?
Was it...
- A good talk about the collaboration you had initially?
- That there was always someone who brought cake?
- because you were good at creating a good balance between talking professionally and privately?
- etc. etc...
Question 2: What do you need to do to get more good collaborations on your studies in the future?
Make some concrete specific plans so that you have a strategy for what you can do in different situations. It could be, for example:
- I will always sit next to Frederikke in class, so I have someone to do small talks and exercises with
- I want to invite you to play a game at the library after class
- I want to ask someone from the team if they want to help prepare for the exam with me
- etc. etc...
- I have to read it all when it's in the syllabus
- I haven't chosen the study group myself, and we just can't make it work
- It doesn't make any sense at all, why we should spend time on that curriculum
- There is no connection between my subjects
- We almost never get to immerse ourselves in things before we have to take the exam
Do something about what you have influence over
We know that there may be many conditions, requirements and expectations on the programme that you cannot change. Therefore, it is important that you focus your time and energy on what you have influence on.
It could be, for example:
- Your strategic approach to reading
- When you take time off
- The way you participate in the collaboration with the study group
- Be outreach curious about how the subjects actually fit together
Sometimes it is the case that no matter how hard you try, you don't succeed...
Find the learning in the situations that feel like failure:
- Make a list of all the things you learned from the situation.
- What will you do next time you find yourself in a similar situation?
- Does it make sense to try again in the same way?
- Does it make sense to try something new?
- That you know what the heliotropic and well-being-enhancing effects are.
- How to activate these well-being-promoting effects.
- That you have spotted some of the elements of a good student life that matter to you.
- That you have tried to formulate some actions that specifically indicate to you how you can succeed in getting or maintaining these elements in the future.
- That you can see how a feeling of defeat can be turned into an experience of learning.