I feel that people need to understand what good sleep is to them. To me, good quality sleep feels like I am floating in space, but importantly, energized and clear-minded. It's really important for me to distinguish because I adjust my routine based on the quality of my sleep. Nowadays, we change routines to match up with our supposed "priority" (work and school), but how many people change up routines for actual priority–sleep?

I enjoy smelling the morning coffee air every morning as I get up. It improves my day, and just drinking a cup of coffee gets me ready for the day. If I don't have coffee, I'm depressed and angry, and I won't be ready for the day. My HPA axis, amygdala, and peripheral cortex were all turned on by doing this drawing. This is due to the fact that these sections of the brian calm me down. I'm not really artistic, but I enjoy painting and coffee. Coffee improves my mood and helps me relax. For example, on Sunday mornings, I enjoy listening to jazz, painting and drinking a cup of coffee. This drawing expresses my hero and my savior when stressed out. These materials came in hand when I studied for my exams and when I studied for my finals or midterms. I can't imagine what my highschool and middle school years would be like without coffee and painting.

I suffer from bad anxiety. Every time overwhelmed, I can't think, I can't act. I lose control over everything. I've tried multiple methods to reduce the anxiousness, but the only thing that has worked is assembling construction sets. As a kid, I never really had LEGOs. My anxiety made me super budget conscious from a very young age. In recent years, a friend recommended me similar dupes. It's the act of assembling that rebuilds me. Every piece that I bring together is subconsciously telling my brain that I can fix things. I would also tell myself that things are under my control. And this is amazing at helping me regain calm. By the time I finished a set, I can function pretty normally, even feeling accomplished that I built something with my hands.

Cuddling with my dog is my favorite moment. He would sporadically, at random times, seek me out for cuddles at all times of the day. I would respond by petting, then telling him I love him before smothering him in a big hug. He gets so happy, wagging his tail and sniffing in my hug. It’s fantastic and always brings me a smile.

Before, I wasted my life away because I despised myself for not looking like all the perfect models. Not realizing that they constantly had personal makeup artists, hair stylists, and a professional fashion stylist, I was always criticizing myself. This caused my self-esteem to suffer terribly as I fell more into the facade of social media. But once, a friend suggested that I try photography. He taught me step by step how to use a camera, the angles, and techniques. At first, I didn't know what to take and took random pictures. Oddly enough, trying to come up with ideas helped me to not think about social media anymore. I started to capture images of nature, so I had to physically be more involved in the outside world. I would always bring my camera everywhere with me, and I was able to encapsulate a lot of meaningful memories with this newfound hobby. In the end, my focus shifted from the internet to the small, beautiful things in the world, and it still brings me peace when I take pictures of my surroundings.

Family is really important to me. I appreciate my mom and dad because they always care for, support, and encourage me unconditionally. Being with my parents makes me feel full, comforted, and at home, regardless of wherever we are. This is a privilege I know that many others don’t have, so I cherish spending time and making memories with them. I hope that whoever reads this can find their own pillars of strength, whether it be families, friends, or mentors.

In this drawing, I'm trying to show personality disorder. This girl looks happy because she is dancing and jumping. She is trying multiple styles to see which one she likes more and what she's interested in. The reason we can't see her face in this drawing is that she still didn't find what she likes, she might look happy by her movements, but in reality, she still didn't find what she truly likes.

I had a history of not being able to control my temper whenever I’m in a heated situation. Whenever I let go it feels like I’m letting go of a monster who’s filled with bloodlust. Whenever this happens I always feel like the worst person in the world as if I’m one of those deranged psychopathic killers. I wouldn’t be able to be here today, with more control over myself if it weren’t for the friends I was surrounded with, they are the ones who showed me the value of these temporary moments in life from the worst to the best. The picture is moment I captured of my friends and I reminiscing about our trip in Cyprus and enjoying the view. I can put into words the amount of sentimental value this picture has for me.

This artistic piece portrays a person who pretends to be happy on the outside, but in reality they are struggling mentally. They put on a smile and pretend that everything is okay, but they are actually a thousand thoughts overwhelming their minds. Everyone has been a part of this at some point in their lives, yet when people experience this they feel lonely. They don't know that there are many other people that are going through the exact same thing. In order to get over this, people must stop pretending that everything is ok and start portraying their true feelings so that there is a sense of unity between people, and so that they can cope with their feelings in a healthy way instead of building it all up.

This piece is meant to show how everyone has two sides, a creative and a logical and sometimes in can be overbaring but you have to embrace it, i always find myself thinking about this and it calms be down. All of the things we do are influenced by these two sides, and we should learn to embrace either of them.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I always step back and think about something bigger than me, like the universe. The universe contains everything. We are minuscule relative to the size of the universe, let alone the problems we face, even if they may seem impossibly huge. When I think of this, every problem I have seems so insignificant in comparison to the vastness of the universe. We think we know a lot, yet we still know too little, and it is because often, we are too consumed in our own issues that we don’t notice the big things happening around us.

Organizing is a truly life-changing experience for me. I once saw someone on the internet write this “When it comes to stressful things or situations, I just sit back and, in my head, take apart the things I’m worried about or things that confuse me. I’ll put each situation in its own little box. And then I’ll imagine my big old shelf boxed up thoughts and see how small each problem is in the whole scheme of things. It’s a really serene feeling at the end of the process.” - anonymous. That says it all about how I feel about organizing.

A year ago, I was a mess. Overweight, relied on junk food and games too much. Binged watch YouTube the whole day and missed sleep. Didn’t know what to do with my life. Finished uni, and I had no ambition to work. Above all, my health issues were making me miserable. The miserableness gave me panic attacks. I felt myself slowly drifting away from everything. I didn’t do anything, didn’t care about anything. I was depressed. I often thought to myself that I am a very lucky person. I don’t live in a 3rd world country, I don’t worry about food on my table and a roof above my head. I shouldn’t be depressed because people have it worse. But this thought does nothing to help with depression. So one day, everything changed. It was the afternoon. I never unnoticed that my window had a nice view. But that day, I saw my neighbors outdoors. For some reason, I had the urge to go out. I put my sneakers on, and just went out for a walk. 15 min. 30 min, 45 min, before I knew it, 1 whole hour flew by. Sweating and tired, I was strangely calm at the end. I realized that I was able to organize the very thoughts that used to overwhelm me while walking. I went home and wrote down my thoughts, which included everything I needed to do, from chores to dreams to aspirations. One year later, I achieved 80% on that list and am still working consistently to reach my goals.

My mother was recently diagnosed with a terminal disease. Due to resentment from previous family problems, my own siblings did not bother to ask her how she was feeling. This made her really disappointed and worsened her pain. Nevertheless, we were planning to send her to her home country for her remaining days, but due to strict COVID restrictions, she was unable to. This made my mother's mood even worse, What was nice was that the person who booked her flight had the thought to follow up and asked how my mom was. My own siblings did not even care, yet a stranger did. This gesture warmed my heart and made me feel hopeful that there are good people out there in the world.

I once heard that, by wearing a safety pin, you indicate to others that they can talk to you about anything - anything they might be going through and don’t have anyone else to talk to about. Since then, I’ve had one on my backpack. It’s so important that everyone had someone they can talk to, but unfortunately a lot of people don’t. I hope I can provide a listening ear to those people. As for the paper cranes: I made most of them while listening to lectures, music, TV shows - anything where my hands are idle. Somewhere along the way I discovered that it helps me a great deal when my head feels too crowded. Once I’m familiar with any pattern, I let my hands take over so my mind can wander and gradually sort through some of the thoughts occupying my mind.

I was always insecure about everything. From how I look to how I act and how I should treat others. There was never a moment in my life when I couldn't stop fearing what others thought of me. I developed crippling anxiety and panic attacks. This changed when I realized that we overestimate how much people are interested in us. Even if we mean something to them, like friends, they will not be as obsessed as you think. Even if our behavior is slightly odd to them, they'll shrug it off, and that's that. This is because people are often too concerned with themselves to even notice anything about you. You overthink because you are obsessed with yourself. In reality, no one is noticing your minor imperfection. Your mind is magnifying everything. It's all in your head.

Suffer from depression and irritability, I often don’t find the motivation to do work. But one thing that helps me regulate my mental health is running. This past year, I made a rule for myself to run 3 miles every day. Not only do I burn calories, I also burn off stress and anxiety while running. It provides me a reason to escape from the mess I am in and take a well-deserved break from morning stress. The calm carries onto the afternoon, and over time, I do notice that my irritability is manageable. I feel I have more energy, which I devote to slowly building more confidence in life.

Cuddling with my dog is my favorite moment. He would sporadically, at random times, seek me out for cuddles at all times of the day. I would respond by petting, then telling him I love him before smothering him in a big hug. He gets so happy, wagging his tail and sniffing in my hug. It’s fantastic and always brings me a smile.