Unwind Your Mind

05.21.2025

Unwind Your Mind

by Chloe Jang, Ava Samuel, and Jacinthe Tong

What started as a HOSA competition quickly became something much more meaningful to our team. We created Unwind Your Mind as part of a project, but soon realized how deeply the topic of anxiety resonated with our school, community, and even ourselves.We began to address a silent struggle that so many students face every day.

At our school, academic success is often treated as a measure of self-worth. Between demanding workloads, extracurriculars, and the pressure to constantly "be better," we saw many of our friends silently battling anxiety. They felt overwhelmed yet compelled to hide their struggles just to keep up.

Unwind Your Mind became a campaign focused on raising awareness about anxiety, especially the kind fueled by academic and social pressures. We addressed risk factors like academic competition and highlighted protective strategies such as mindfulness, essential for maintaining mental health.

To engage our peers, we launched several initiatives. One of our favorites was “How I Handle It,” a series where students shared their personal coping strategies. We also hosted a volleyball social to raise funds for anxiety research and created Mindful May, which provided daily tools for managing stress and promoting self-care.

One of the most meaningful parts of the experience was extending our outreach beyond our high school. We were privileged to visit local middle schools, where we educated younger students on anxiety, its symptoms, and mindfulness techniques to help them handle academic and social challenges early on.

Supporting ADAA was a natural next step after our campaign. Their mission to #BreakTheStigma perfectly aligns with ours, and we’re proud to contribute to a larger movement prioritizing mental health. Unwind Your Mind showed us that even in competitive environments, compassion can make a lasting difference.

Learn more at Unwind Your Mind Website and follow on social media.