I’ve just been really sick and tired and overwhelmed and homesick lately. If I were still living at home, I’d have gotten over this sickness weeks ago, but lo and behold, it’s still plaguing me. I’m detoxing now…the best ways I know how…

9) READ A BOOK

Read a book, as opposed to reading a magazine or some news articles online or watching a tv show. Sometimes you need physical pages for your fingertips and an hour to go tech-free. Sometimes you need someone else’s story, someone else’s crisis to distract you from your own.

8) CLEAN YOUR ROOM

Because if you live in a mess, you are a mess. Your mind will be a mess. You don’t want to reach for a tissue and knock over half a dozen jars and bottles in the process. You don’t want an avalanche from mountain of said tissues.

7) BLOG BLOG BLOG

Again, I hate when my mind is a mess. I can’t get my priorities straight. Sure, I can get a homework assignment (barely) done, but if I have pent up feelings and thoughts building up, an explosion is impending.

Some nights, I stay up ranting to my diary, and I can nearly feel the stress leaking out of my fingertips.

Pretty much none of it makes its way onto this blog, but most of it gets read over by future Catherine in a month? a year? when I’m flipping through my past. And I smile a bit when I read back over the wonky spelling and caps-lock, reassured that even when life seems like a disaster in the moment, most things work themselves out.

6) DRINK LOTS OF WATER

Moving to a place like Evanston, where the wind is constantly drying out my skin and sucking the moisture out of my body, I’ve learned to constantly hydrate, which means that I now have to drink 4-5 Nalgene-size bottles of water (32 oz.) a day, as opposed to my regular 2-3.

It helps with everything. My skin, my diet, my overall health. Do not skip this step! It is essential and one of the easiest ways to detox.

5) GET LOTS OF SLEEP

Nothing like popping an occasional sleeping pill and conking out at midnight, only to wake up well-rested at 10 a.m. the next morning. That allows you to start the rest of your day on a better note. Like a sleepless night carries over, so too does a well-rested one.

4) SKIP CLASS

EVERY ONCE IN A WHILE WE JUST NEED TO STOP and take a break. It won’t kill you to miss a class every now and then, will it?! I advocate doing this when you’re at wit’s end and you really just need to stop and take a breather, but your schedule is telling you otherwise.

Skip class. Unless that particular day is incredibly important. The sacrifice is worth it in the long run, I promise.

3) GET OFF YOUR PHONE AND KNIT

Yeah, so I learned to knit at an early age and I’ve always enjoyed it. After about 10 minutes, my fingers fall into a rhythm and I don’t have to think about it. I can enjoy whatever I’m doing at hand, whether it be watching a TV show or listening to music or chilling with my friends. It’s also exciting to look down every 10 minutes or so and see that your masterpiece scarf has grown a half-inch or so.

2) STAY IN ON THE WEEKENDS

This is the advice that I keep giving out to others but never follow. One of these days, I promise (myself) I will…It’s tough to do it when you’re at college and everyone else seems to be out having fun, but I guarantee that there will be many others like yourself holed up in their room on Netflix. We just don’t advertise it.

(Why don’t we? We need a Netflix Club.)

1) RETREAT FROM SOCIETY

Turn off your phone. Close your computer. Walk to a cafe, turn off your phone, bring a book or a set of needles and yarn, and go MIA for an afternoon. No one will miss you too much. It will be worth it, I promise. Bring a journal to jot down any thoughts or realizations. Wear some comfy clothes. Get up to walk around and stretch every half hour or so.

As college students, FOMO (fear of missing out) has not only crept into our vocabularies, but our lives as well.

It’s tough to make time to detox when it seems like everyone’s out toxifying their bodies, but if you really care about your health and well-being in the long run, you will just take some well-deserved and well-needed time to just CHILL OUT AND DETOX!

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What’s your favorite way to detox? Share in the comments below!